What did you do in the shop today?

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Turkey forks look awesome billy! 

    sadly I’ll be on my lonesome tomorrow on turkey day, my wife and toddler are out in California visiting relatives this week so I’ll prolly eat a frozen pizza for thanksgiving lol, 

anyways since they’ve been gone I got a wild hair and decided to do something festive, I never do any Christmas decorations, and I thought it would be a nice treat for them to see when they come home, 

so I drove a 3.5’ piece of sucker rod out in my field and then found a 10’ piece of galvanized steel conduit, and a steel floor flange, I drilled holes all around it an stuck it over the end of the conduit, 

I forged eight crappy looking hooks, and then I went to a pawnshop in town an found a 4000w surge 2000w continuous inverter pretty cheap, from there I headed to Wally World an picked up eight 100 light led light strands, 

I dragged a ladder out in the field and climbed up there and halved the 20+ foot strands and hung them on the hooks I made, then I staked them in the ground using odds and ends and practice projects from around the smithy, 

I have a bunch of refurbished truck batteries around the shop that I get from my battery supplier to use for jump packs on machines around the shop, and I have a junky ol postal jeep setting out in the field so I setup the inverter inside the cab to keep it dry and have been rotating batteries out every morning to the charger so the Christmas lights stay running out in the middle of the field, 

sorry I didn’t think to take pictures of every step by step but if anyone wants close ups of everything I used I can get some during daylight, 

 

 

 

 

 

[Gandalfgreen]

thanks

sorry your alone for thanksgiving I'll eat for you if you were closer I'd send yeah a meal. and I bet they love the lights nice work

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

I always worked Thanksgiving, to let the younger officers with kids have it off. I was invited by all the churches in town to share a meal with them. Always had a nice time with them. When all the family close to us moved away or passed on, they invited my wife also, even though we were not church members.

Your light tree looks good and I bet when they see it they will love it. You may have started a trend, to top it next year.

[Gandalfgreen]

I worked every holiday for 20 years when at my one restaraunt job we never closed for any day. Headed back to that next week at new job but couldnt pass up the offer. It keeps the family going.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Gandalfgreen,  I’ll be alright, I got plenty of frozen food, firewood, and backlogged customers repairs lol,

   I thought I’d just work like it’s a normal day, I might actually get more done tomorrow since I doubt I’ll have any customers stop by lol, 

  on the other hand I thought I might take the day off and play in my smithy or take the four wheeler out for a ride down the backroads, 

Randy, that’s a good idea too,  I also have thought about hoping in my ol truck tomorrow an driving into town to see what all might be going on there, 

I would love to see someone build/forge a fancier tree than mine, I just kinda threw mine together using junk lol,

  I’ll start the standard at 10’ tall and 800 lights with some of the components hand forged, 

next person might come along an forge the whole tree and then decorate it! That would be awesome! 

 

 

[ThomasPowers]

Picked up a piece of my basket case champion from Pep Gomez---he will be demonstrating soon for the Salt Fork folks in OK; TRY TO GO!!!!!!!! 

Also picked up my Mother for Thanksgiving with my Wife, Eldest Daughter, ED's boyfriend, my Youngest Daughter, her husband and their 4 sons.  Memo to self---bring hearing protectors!

[BillyBones]

Cool tree thingy. 

I spent many a Christmas and Thanksgivings alone when i was in the Army. That is generally my preferred state of being anyway so it did not bother me any. But here soon the grand kids will be showing up and the kids. I am also lucky enough to have my parents to still be able to come over also. 

My granddaughter and her husband will be coming home for Christmas so i will get to see that great-grandbaby for the first time. That i am kind of excited about. 

 

[Jobtiel1]

I have made a hot cut from 4140 a while back, but it dulls quickly and I was wanting for an upgrade with a bit of a harder edge. However, I don't have any higher carbon steel in that big of a size. So, I went the traditional way to practice my forge welding, and welded a bit of spring steel in a mild steels body for the hot cut! It's nice to see I'm getting better with forge welding. I like making my tools this way a lot, and saves me some money on buying new steel by using what I have lying around.

Close up of the worst weld line, the ones one the faces and the other side are nearly invisible.

Also forged some J-hooks for the first time, I plan on forging these whenever I'm working on something else, saving me fuel and hopefully making a bit of extra money by selling them.

~Jobtiel

[Glenn]

J hook is just a S hook with a twist.

[JHCC]

I can C that. 

[Samael]

My first ever knife, a kukri-ish lookin thing i made from an old rifle barrel and it is totally xxxx I am sure but I love this so much already I cannot stop hammering someone help

I need a real forge because I've been using my casting furnace as a makeshift forge to heat it and it ain't cutting it

E: lol my hands are covered in blisters and my forearms are so xxxx sore but I just put gloves on and kept going 

 

[M.J.Lampert]

21 hours ago, BillyBones said:

MJ, square up the band saw. There should be an adjustment somewhere.

sorry i should have worded it different what I meant was that the blade dives we have new ones coming  (the one on is dull and we believe that is the main cause of the problem

[alexandr]

Completed 2 new works.

[Samael]

That is stunning work man, I hope someday I can be this skilled

[jlpservicesinc]

Nice job.. 

 

[JHCC]

I like that bench. 

[Frosty]

MJ: Dull blades wander, it's the first sign.

Samael: Not bad for an early blade. It takes time to learn when to stop so  newcomers tend to make really thin long things. You should see my first tongs, I could straighten the bits and use them to fish pickles out of the jar.

Spectacular work as always Alex. I REALLY like the bench.

Frosty The Lucky. 

[Samael]

2 hours ago, Frosty said:

MJ: Dull blades wander, it's the first sign.

Samael: Not bad for an early blade.

Haha, this is dead on, at first I was like "dang this is taking forever to pound out" then I kinda just got lost in a hammertrance and all of a sudden I was like "dang how did this get this thin that fast"

 

[Frosty]

It's just part of the learning curve, we've all been there and I visit now and then.

Frosty The Lucky.

[George N. M.]

Alexandr, my wife, Madelynn, wants to know how many folk you have working in your shop or if you are turning out this great work all by yourself.

And Happy Thanksgiving, an American holiday where we give thanks for all the blessings and good things that have happened to us and, often, eat ourselves stupid at a family gathering.

GNM

[Gandalfgreen]

if I  may ask what is the diameter on those circles if wood and how much do thise weigh when done? the bench is very attractive. Hope to grind it file my hammer tomorrow and attempt a leaf I believe. I am thankful to be happy.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

alexandr: I love both the bench and chandelier.

[Vinito]

I took a break from the vacation today, so I worked on getting all prepped for my 6th consecutive "Forge Friday".

I'm really new to this so anything I do that comes out functional is goodness. I am old and have done tons of various handwork for decades and I'm a machinist by trade, but inexplicably I never got into blacksmithing until now.

Anyway, I got a rounding hammer the other day to try out and found that the flat side bounced off at angles extremely easily. Investigation showed that the face was actually slightly concave, which was weird. So I re-dressed it to be slightly convex, so hopefully that helps. We'll see tomorrow.

Also, the other day I picked up a hammer off a yard sale which was rusted and loose on the handle, so dressed that head up, wiped on some cold bluing for cosmetics, dressed the back end to be a bit of a chisel, and re-fitted the handle nice & tight. I dunno if either will end up working well, but I'm hoping my three hammers complement each other somewhat. The square one from the yard sale I figger can be a kind of small finishing thing and maybe the square-ish corners will be useful now & then?

The chisel I forged last week so I did some finish work on that today and will try it out tomorrow too.

So... short on forge work other than the janky chisel, but it was fun finishing these up. I stumbled on the burned handle finish look kinda by accident and liked it, so that's what they all have now.

[jlpservicesinc]

welcome aboard and congrats on forging.. Nice thing is it can be done at nearly any age.. 

It looks to be like the hammer head of your larger german style cross peen is not square to the handle.. 

Having the head square to the handle  (T) us pretty important as it will set the stage for the rest of your training.. If you get used to it being it that way it will be different each time you switch to a hammer that is not. 

If it is sq then no biggy as photos can be trouble. 

[lary]

Nice to see all this activity. Worked on a wood stove/fire place tool hanger yesterday. The intent is to wind up with something that looks like a viking long ship. Its got a ways to go, probably to many times in the oxidizing? fire. Lot a scale on the surface.