Shabumi Posted April 4, 2018 Share Posted April 4, 2018 Hello everyone, I've been reading this forum for a few weeks now and I'm so amazed at how some of you can manipulate metal so easily. I've dabbled a bit with the blower and anvil I inherited from my good friends and neighbors. But so far all I can claim as a success are a leaf shaped object and a 'functional' bottle opener. Lol. I know it'll take some time and patience before I can make the metal move like I want it to, but I think I found the right place to steer me in the right direction. Though i will need to remember to keep it simple while I work and not try to make the pineapple twist animal head chess set right away Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted April 4, 2018 Share Posted April 4, 2018 READ THIS FIRST Anything you can do with modeling clay, you can do with metal. You have to practice to get good and practice even more to get better. That is not just for blacksmithing, but for anything you do. That fellow that has been blacksmithing for 20 years, well you can be that good in 20 years. Sooner with today's information and folks who want you to succeed and are willing to help you. Make 25 bottle openers, each better than the last one or 25 leaves, each better than the last one, and you will be able to see the improvement. Watch how the metal moves with each hammer blow, and how different hammer blows move metal differently. The bottle openers and leaves are just an excuse to learn. Welcome to the forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 4, 2018 Share Posted April 4, 2018 Welcome aboard, glad to have you. I hope you didn't start out forging leaf spring, it's not a good material to start with. Just buy a stick of 3/8" sq. or 1/2" rnd. hot rolled. a full 20' stick will cost less than a couple 36"ers at Home Depot etc. My folks used to live on the hill overlooking Lake Davis and Portola the other direction. You could see the big Lodgepole growing by the house from Portola. Pretty country, expensive but nice. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shabumi Posted April 5, 2018 Author Share Posted April 5, 2018 20 hours ago, Frosty said: ...Pretty country, expensive but nice... Haha, yeah it is pretty and expensive in that area, even more so than when your parents lived there. I'm about an hour and a half north of there, outside of Nevada City. A little less expense by CA standards but still more than most of the rest of the country. I've been using some 1/2 in round scraps that I found in the woods to practice with, maybe 6 feet if added all together. I'm lucky enough to live in a "town" that was close to 1000 people strong up to the 1930s but now has a population of 8, so I can just go exploring at old house sites to find enough mild steel to learn on. It's also smack dab in the middle of the motherload of gold country so there is lots of old mining equipment just sitting at the old abandoned mine sites that is available if you are able to haul it a mile or two out of the woods. Does anyone have an idea what narrow gauge railroad rails might be repurposed for? I have a few tons in my back yard from the last resident Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGGUNDOCTOR Posted April 5, 2018 Share Posted April 5, 2018 Watch out for the Antiquities Act of I believe 1905 . Basically anything over 100 years old is off limits for collecting. Also many mines are very dangerous to explore due to gases, rotted beams. etc.. Check local regs first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 5, 2018 Share Posted April 5, 2018 Ditto Gun's advice, check regs Feds especially. RR rail makes very nice and irons with plenty of mass to bend up and forge into whatever you can. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted April 5, 2018 Share Posted April 5, 2018 Might look at Weygers' use of trolley rail to make specialty dies for a powerhammer, should be in "The Complete Modern Blacksmith" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shabumi Posted April 5, 2018 Author Share Posted April 5, 2018 Thank you, BGD. That is sound advice for anyone spelunking. Luckily they instill mine safety into any kid who went to school here from 1st grade all the way through highschool. I didn't know about the antiquities act, but I do know that all abandoned registered mines in the area have been collapsed by the authorities. All the others that are left have no records, so dating them is impossible, though a safe assumption is that they were abandoned in the 30s which is when the state passed laws that made the taxes on mines to large to justify mining on a smaller scale. The authorities have given a green light on "looters" to clean up anything usable at those sites to help clean up the forest. I'll have to look into making the dies, though it will be a while before I will be able to get or make a power hammer. They are too small to be much use as an anvil, except for jewelery work... 6in base that comes to a 3-4in round top, 4-5in tall... Don't have a tape or ruler on me so these are rough estimates Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted April 5, 2018 Share Posted April 5, 2018 In AZ they experimented with expanding foam. Some how I doubt the clams as to safety and attribute it to the ease of disposing of undisirible relitives... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted April 5, 2018 Share Posted April 5, 2018 Really really hard to seal up stuff if folks are really wanting in. I've seen welded RR rail grills messed with. I know of folks who would jack up 5 ton concrete caps and others who just wander around till they find an airshaft or other "unofficial" opening. (Old time locals may know the "back doors".) Local paper reported the police having to use experts in drysuits to collect a hermit whose remains turned up in a wet shaft and not found in time. Besides the usual dangers I know folks who ran into OLD deteriorated---sweating!---nitroglycerin dynamite in abandoned mines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shabumi Posted April 5, 2018 Author Share Posted April 5, 2018 I know of a few airshafts myself, and have done quite a bit of exploring in some of the mines. I even found some of the OLD dynamite sweating into the sawdust it was packed in. I know enough to not even look at it hard cuz that stuff is seriously unstable, but when I went back a week later to explore further, someone had been there and grabbed it. Our little town had a scare a few years back when someone found a secret room in their basement with glass jars full of old dynamite soaking in the nitro glycerin that seeped out of it. The bomb squad had to come in to remove it cuz there was enough to level the whole town down there. I'm just glad the house hadn't had a fire or there was a big enough earthquake before they found it. Though with a big enough earthquake, the whole town would sink 15-20ft from the amount of tunnels under there collapsing. As for disposal of undesirable relatives, I raise pigs so I can just put them in with our dry sow heard and they will be gone in a day, no need to haul em all the way to an air shaft Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted April 5, 2018 Share Posted April 5, 2018 There is a group in NM that is trying to document, explore and "clean" all the mines. I salute their efforts! The Kelly mine is supposed to have over 23 miles of tunnels in a local mountain; the local university was originally "The New Mexico School of Mines" and well know for their explosives research. As a geology student in my 20's I used to be a bit cavalier in my explorations; but always left notification of where I was going with a friend and when they should call it in if I didn't show up. Same with caving in NW Arkansas. There are levels of "dumb"! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shabumi Posted April 5, 2018 Author Share Posted April 5, 2018 We would always keep one person outside while the rest would go into the mine, cave, hole... That way if anything happened, they could call out to emergency services and lead them directly to the entrance we used. There always seemed to be plenty outside of the mine to keep that person interested until it was time to switch. As long as they stay within 20ft of the entrance to hear if anything goes wrong. Old workshops/bunkhouses, debris piles, small stamp mills and minecarts still on the track could keep me occupied for hours just looking at them. We would light fireworks about 20ft in (one that goes boom for lower frequencies, and one that whistles for higher frequencies) and wait a half hour before entering to minimize the risk of cave ins while we explored. Only once did we have a cave collapse before we entered, about 5 min after the fireworks. My friends and I were all of the mind set that we had enough fun looking at everything that we didn't need to take anything so we would just explore and not loot. Though others in the area tend to get gold fever and take anything not bolted down Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGGUNDOCTOR Posted April 6, 2018 Share Posted April 6, 2018 I did a 50 mile hike through Desolation Wilderness, and we ran across some BIG flywheels, boilers, etc.. We were thinking , Man that would be a pain getting that stuff back into here. Then our Scoutmaster just said, Not hard at all. Sled it in during winter, as the snow got really deep in that area and would smooth out all of the rough stuff we were hiking through. I grew up in Fairfield, and we had summer camps by Cisco Grove (Glacial Trails Scout Ranch), and Bear River Reservoir (Camp Winton). My oldest nephew has a store in Truckee. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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