First Big Commission

[Red Shed Forge]

So yesterday the original brackets were delivered from Wisconsin. I think they are wrought iron. I did a spark test and the sparks were a very dull orange, did not travel far and did not flare out at the end. It also kind of looks like the larger holes were drifted based on how the material looks to be pushed to the sides of the holes. The ends opposite the large holes also look to be beveled by hand. Since it shows signs of forging, I assume it is either WI or mild steel, not cast. I also think they are not original to the bell as one of the longer vertical arms has 2 smaller holes below the large hole, where the other does not. Thoughts?

The owner wants me to use them on the hangers. At first I was thinking of using them as the 90* frame bordering the scrolls, but they only measure 22 1/4" long each. Thinking as I type, I should have measured the diameter of the bottom of the bell to see if 11" will be far enough from a wall to allow the bell to swing properly. Hmm. I will measure later today when I get home. If not, I will find another way to incorporate them. 

[ThomasPowers]

Wrought iron.

[Red Shed Forge]

Thank you, Thomas. I believe I have some scrap WI from the first pair of tongs that came with my first anvil. I broke them in use a couple years ago, forgot about them and then came across them the other day. I will use the pieces as practice before I tackle these brackets.  

[Red Shed Forge]

As I continue to practice with WI while also tending to other, more pressing commissions/projects/full-time job, I found some time to get back to this. The client has expressed a few times that they are in no big hurry to get it finished, but I am aiming to get it all done before Christmas. 

Today I practiced with the new Muggy Weld cast iron sticks. I had a broken cast iron swivel base on a 3 1/2" Dunlap bench vise. Although it is much smaller than the yoke, I thought it was a good opportunity to whack two birds with one stone. After some tuning, I landed on 65 amps with the 72's at 3/32". I did not preheat, although I will for the yoke considering its size. My chamfers could have been more dramatic in hindsight, but I think it filled well and held strong. I put it in the vise and gave it a good spanking with a mallet; it did not break and I don't see any cracks. Delaminations, but none that look like cracks.

The nuts and bolt that hold the yoke to the top of the bell are deadlocks, so I am going to let that soak in some liquid wrench. I fear vinegar will remove too much patina and I my oxy tank just ran out, so I can't torch it. I tried MAP gas but that wasn't cutting it. After I get it off I will build a jig to hold the pieces together, and weld it up. 

I am also kicking around hanger designs... I keep second guessing myself. I am going to have to forge a back brace to hold the two of them together and to the place it's being mounted. They want to mount it to a "T", for lack of a better description. They want it to hang below a 2nd floor deck, where its base horizontal beam meets the center vertical support leg.   

[Red Shed Forge]

I plan on making some good headway this weekend, if all goes well. I was finally able to get the deadlocked nuts loose; Liquid Wrench did not work, so I bit the bullet and swapped out my oxy tank. The torch got it done: I brought it up to a dull red heat and after letting it cool, it budged with ease. I was also able to straighten out the wrought iron brackets last night without any issues. So far I have very much enjoyed working with wrought iron, however insignificant my time spent with it may be. 

Tomorrow morning my good friend Brian is coming over; we are gonna put our heads together to build a jig that will hold the broken yoke in place so I can weld it back together. From there, I will commence with forging the two-arm hanger. The greatest challenge to my skillset, concerning the hanger build, is the back brace that will connect the two arms and allow it to be mounted to the "T" section of the house. I am hoping for some advice and/or opinions on it, but here are my thoughts:

The WI bars are 1 1/2" x 3/4" and I think I want to keep that consistent throughout the build. Of course, the rest of it (the brace and scrolls) will be mild steel. If you follow the sketch provided, the back brace is on the left and hanger on the right. I can't decide if I want to use the WI for the arms of the hanger or incorporate them into the back brace. If used on the brace, they will be the top and bottom horizontal pieces; I do not have enough length to forge the brace entirely from the WI. 

This leads to my next dilemma: I am thinking of pinning (name of the process escapes me: drifting a hole and forging in a pin) the brace together at the bottom 2 corners and leaving the top 2 corners pin-less so the owners can use the drifted holes to put a nail/bolt through to mount it to the beam. If I do this, is it worth attempting to forge weld the top horizontal to the vertical bars at the corners and then drift it? or just leave it loose knowing that they will stay together with a nail/bolt when hung?

Or, really give myself a challenge by cutting and forging 45* angle scarfs at the end of each bar to forge weld them together, giving me nice 90* corners? Not sure if I would then want to drift through those welds or simply drift an inch to the inside of the corners. 

Probably over-thinking it, but I value many opinions here and discussion helps me quite a bit. 

[Red Shed Forge]

**1 1/2"×1/2"** not 3/4" lol my bad.

[Red Shed Forge]

I did make some headway, though not as much as I had hoped. I got the yoke welded up and ground flush; I am very happy with the results and I would recommend the cast iron Muggy Weld sticks to anyone that has some cast iron that needs mending. I also did some work at the forge on the WI stock; more charcoal is needed before that can continue. Brian and I did not really have to "put our heads together to build a jig" as the decision for a vise quickly became obvious: The Workmate 200, multi-tool workbench extraordinaire. 10/10 would recommend for any shop.

We got the ends of the yoke chamfered to create a deep well on all sides and went to work. We pre-heated to a red heat and let it cool to a black heat before welding. I laid 2 lines with the 72's on all 4 sections, followed by the same with the 77's (peening and brushing after every line). I then let it anneal overnight buried in a bucket of sand. I then cleaned it up with a 4 1/2" angle grinder.

The product description for the Muggy sticks maintains that you do not have to heat treat in any way, but I made the decision to do so based on the size of the piece and by recommendation from another source. Here is a link to the description of the sticks for anyone who might be interested:  

Any recommendations for darkening the iron/ matching the patina of the yoke?

Edited December 14, 2020 by Mod30
Commercial link removed.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

I use Perma Blue Cold Bluing solution to darken welded areas.

[Red Shed Forge]

Thanks! I am wondering if I should go with that or give the whole bell and yoke a coat of BLO, that is, if the owner is ok with that. I would imagine that the one spot with PBCB would still stand out next to the current color of the yoke, no?

[Frazer]

If you have a piece of rusty metal laying around, grind a clean spot and test it. I think you will probably notice a difference, but maybe you'll be able to find a way to match the two surfaces before trying it on the real thing. 

[Red Shed Forge]

I think I can find some rusty metal around here somewhere haha. Good idea, I will try that. I wonder if cast iron will show a different finish than steel. I will have to experiment! Thanks.

[Red Shed Forge]

Over this passed winter, the owner of the bell informed me that they do not plan to go back up to their WI lake house until this coming summer and not to rush on the hanger. Well, summer is right around the corner, so most of my time at the anvil lately has been forging a mockup hanger. The time and therefore anxiety relief the owner has given me has also allowed me to take a step back a decide the best way to tackle this (or so I hope!). 

I've decided that instead of 2 hangers mounted to a large connected back bracket, I am going to make one hanger that holds a larger yoke that holds the bell yoke at each end. I am struggling with my description here, but think of a bucket hanging by its handle on a hook. I think this will give the owner more options when deciding where to hang it; it seems they are having difficulty deciding whether to hang it on the side of the house, below a balcony at the aforementioned "T" section, or on a tree. 

The pictures below are of the mockup scrolls I forged this weekend and last night. On the finished piece, I plan to connect the scrolls to each other and to the mounting bracket (which will be the wrought iron piece) with collars. The stock size is 1 1/2" x 3/8" hot rolled; the collars will be 1" x 3/16". 

When forging the finished product, I want to focus on refining the fishtail ends of my scrolls. I also hope to refine the general fluidity of the scrolls with a scrolling fork. If anyone with a better eye for ornamental work has any suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it. 

[Red Shed Forge]

Hit a small checkpoint this weekend: it hangs again! But just a short test hanging. I forged the 2nd yoke (please correct me if it should be addressed with a different term), put the main arm of the hanger in the vise and hung it up. 

I struggled to achieve the correct arch on the 2nd yoke, but was able to shape it cold around a scrapped air compressor tank of the same diameter I need to meet for the bell's main yoke to fit properly. I used 1" x 3/16" flat stock. In order to orient its hooks properly, I had to twist them. I figured, if I have to twist I might as well try to make them decorative, so I went with 1.5 turns on each side.

For the hooks to end up facing the same way, I had to twist each end in opposite directions; one twisting out and one in. This left each twist looking like it is out of line with the arch. Am I doing something wrong here, or do I just need to make more adjustments with my scrolling fork to make them line up with the arch? 

[ThomasPowers]

Perhaps a bit of adjustment with a wooden mallet?   One of the issues is that the twist makes a 3D shape where the flat strap is 2 d and so it needs a different diameter form to be bent around---or some freehanded adjustment after using the same one.

[Red Shed Forge]

I have a few things of smaller diameter that should be helpful. I like the wooden mallet idea too... been meaning to make one of those! I'm sure a small wieldable log will work for now. Thanks, Thomas!

[Red Shed Forge]

Most of the week has been spent forging the wrought iron back bracket and assembling the hanger. My youngest brother has been in town visiting from out of state and has been my "minion" at the forge for a few sessions. He is currently climbing up from a personal rock bottom, so it is a blessing to be able to spend so much time with him. He said he had a great time at the forge, especially when I gave him some time to himself at the anvil forging a pallet knife from some rebar.  I've missed him. 

The hot collars took a good wrastlin' but we got three and a half on before it was time to call it quits due to fuel shortage. The last three will be 1/2"x3/8" as they will be wrapped on close to one another. After that its just down to more refining and finishing. I am leaving it up to the customer to decide whether it should be painted or BLO/turp/waxed; no response yet. 

Whitaker suggests that outdoor items should be painted. That might be the best route here as I imagine it will be quite the chore for the owner to touch it up in a few years if I go with BLO. We will see what they decide. 

 

[JHCC]

My first teacher Fred Crist (the last Master Blacksmith at the old Yellin shop) recommends Rustoleum Hammered paint for outdoor pieces.

[Red Shed Forge]

Thanks John, I will consider using that if they choose paint. 

[ThomasPowers]

When you get more such commissions; as I expect you will after people see that one, I'd suggest beveling the edges of the collars so they are not quite so "brutal".

[Red Shed Forge]

Very nice of you to say, Thomas. I hope you're right! I will certainly bevel the edges of the collars next time. I had wondered if I should have done that with the bracket after my brother commented on how sharp the edges look. 

[ThomasPowers]

Easiest to bevel the stock you will make the collars from before you make the collars from it.

[George N. M.]

Red, I have found that one of the problems with collars, particularly when they are adjacent to tight curls, is that they can make the piece "busy" and detract from the flow of the design.  For example, the collars attaching the curls to the horizontal and vertical portions of your bracket look OK.  However, not so much for the collar in the center near the 3 curls.

The problem might be reduced if you used thinner stock for the collars.

Glad to hear your brother is making some progress.  Creating something tangible is, IMO, very good therapy for a lot of problems.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Red Shed Forge]

George, thank you for saying so. I couldn't agree more, being able to hold and use something of your own creation can be a wonderful feeling. He likes to make oil and acrylic paintings and so wanted a pallet knife to use that is truly his own. I hope he wants to forge more next time he visits. 

Shoot, I meant 3/16" not 3/8"  lol. I am concerned about the busyness of the inner collars too, thanks for mentioning it. I did consider a thinner stock, but my thought was that it would stray from the uniformity of the collars. But thinking about it now, the width of the collars is more noticeable than the thickness. Do you think 1/8" would look nicer? 

[ThomasPowers]

Sounds like time to make a sample example:  take a piece and do a few curls and try different widths and thicknesses of collars and decide what looks best to *you*.  Mount on a board and hang on the shop wall. 

I was just showing my electrician my sample twist examples: currently 4 pieces of 1/2" sq stock about 30" long  with two twist examples per piece: simple, simple with broken edges;  2 sided incised twist, 4 sided incised; reverse twist, reversed incised twist; stair step twist and dice twist: without and with pips.  He was blown away by the stairstep and dice twists.

Nice to have something *you* made to show to "customers" as examples of what they could ask for.  Next one I'm working on will be dragon scale twist and perhaps alligator twist.   (I also did a bottle opener on one of the pieces just because...)

[Red Shed Forge]

And I've got plenty of Red Shed wall space to cover! Another great tip; I'll be doing that for sure. And thanks for the twist list, I'll have to be attempting those as well.