John must be feeling better, Jason.

shorn three of our sheep (Suffix, Dorset cross)  on Saturday sheep and got a black bag of wool thet sadly will go to the dump

 

John; does your wife's yarn store offer the use of a Guillotine for local knitting groups?  It was Asbestos times, it was the Wurst of times...

This past weekend I was able to get my post vise secured to a log, and now have to work on the block under the leg.   Filled in the worn door latch by welding on the cattle trailer so it now closes tighter and doesn't rattle so much.

 

Interesting idea, Thomas. Particularly good for those who can knit like the dickens.

Check the head basket on your car?

Should we mention the Venetian ruler who painted and sculpted?   The Artful Doger of course!

Hmm. I tried knitting needles in my bottom blast forge, but they didn't meet my Grate Expectations.

Tuyere'd choice of things to make in a forge.

Made steel plate for my old Rock Island vice i have and bolted him down to the new work bench. Now i can finally use it... uh that is till i noticed i did not take into account the damage already done to the cast iron when i measured the hole placement. I did try flipping it but for some reason flipping not only made it smaller but also crooked. I can still use it some till i fix but just kind of disappointing. 

Dug out my first anvil also. Improvised. It is the arm off of a twin post rack for trucks. Pretty heavy duty i lifted more than one dump truck with it. I am thinking of maybe making some kind of bending table. Drill a bunch of hole in it and use assorted pegs to bend around kind of thing. Oh yeah it is 6" wide 2" thick and 2 1/2' long and it took a beating the first couple years when i started. I also have 4 of these so i am not worried about wishing i woud have used to for something else later. 

 

Hello again, a couple days late for the "today" aspect sorry I hope it's ok. 

I've made all sorts of hooks and whatnot but with my neck and back I am drastically limited on what I can do and how long. Trying to draw out tapers and rolling tiny scrolls is too exhausting, mentally and physically so I've been thinking of simple little projects I can do. 

So far these hooks were two heats,

1: bend in the vise

2: use set hammer to flatten/true up the flats where the screws will go and mount to the wall 

I'm not sure if I like the angles I've gone with, I'm thinking I may have to do more of a 90* at the bottom but if I was to hot rasp the sharp corners at the end of the first heat these would be quick and dirty. 

Not bad at all Trevor, I like the multiple bends. I might play with similar hook profiles. You have a set of 4 in the batch that look nicely matched so they'd look well together on a board as a set. Consistency is a skill I place in the intermediate level. A little tweaking and I bet they'd sell. That's just me though.

When you're making wall hooks you want to consider what is supposed to be hung from them. A hook with that large a radius you could hang a lawn mower or more likely 5-6 heavy coats from one. A large hook tempts folks to hang heavy loads, say a ruck with school books and a winter coat. Your shanks might be too short to hang large weights.

Those are just observations I've based my wall hook making thoughts on, not a critique.  Were I making spike wall hooks I'm turn the hook closer to the spike head and soften the head so it was smooth and not snag or tear a heavy coat. I'd make the shank pretty long with counter sunk screw holes spaced. One screw close to the top the other close to the hook. 

Hooks are levers, like the screws  to have the leverage advantage and the weight of things hung from it on the short side of the lever. Make sense?

That's a good day's work and lots of potential, well done.

Frosty The Lucky.

Finished the welding (except for the feet) on the archway project. Time for cleanup and paint.

Curving the scrolls lengthwise to fit the arched frame was a fun challenge.

9 minutes ago, Frosty said:

That's a good day's

Gotta love those days right

 

Thanks for the observations, I'm heading to the shop in a few so I'll give a couple of these a few tweaks and then try out a few new ones 

 

Dang JHCC that's wonderful! 

John, she's a beauty. Very impressive.

  That turned out nice.  How did you curve those scrolls?  

I turned the scrolls with my standard scrolling jig (designed to match the curve demonstrated in THIS VIDEO). I then hammered the lengthwise curves in cold, using the dip in my anvil as to help create the long arc.

  I was just wondering if you fitted them by tacking the bottom of the scroll and using a leverage bar to bend them into place.  That would probably put tension on the whole piece.  Nice solution.

When designing the archway, I calculated how much space they would have to fill (both length and width), divided that by 12 to get the unit size for each scroll, designed the scrolls to fit that unit space, calculated the length of each piece of stock (making sure to allow for tapering both ends), and then cut and forged all the scrolls as a batch. Each piece was then individually adjusted during assembly, to make sure that everything fit properly and looked right.

 

 

Very nice John, I love how it's shadow blend into the image to make a whole. Your post just showed up and what you describe is a proper production technique. Good description and the results speak for themselves. Using good production method does NOT diminish good hand work, it's hard to get that through to folk who think "Traditional" means doing every thing one at a time.

Sorry.

Trevor, I must've made a dozen hooks with someone kibitzing before I hit on a profile and structural balance that looked well and was as strong as it looked. You're looking good Brother, keep at it.

Frosty The Lucky.

  John, I can appreciate the planning and calculation that went into such a project.  Believe it or not, I have done it before.  Similar anyway.  I'm just not used to using finesse over force.  Thats why I asked.  I guess I can add "proper production technique" to my list of things to learn and work on.  Thanks.

Here's a photo of my scrolling jig, which made the scrolls at both ends of each unit:

(Note: after this photo was taken, I welded the jig onto a piece of angle iron, to hold it more securely in the vise and to make sure that it didn't distort in use.) 

34 minutes ago, Nodebt said:

That would probably put tension on the whole piece. 

This was actually very much on my mind. Each scroll had just enough spring to hold it in place without clamping, which made welding a lot easier. However, I couldn't have them with too much spring, as that would have distorted the overall arch and possibly thrown the mortise-and-tenon joints that connect the arc to the legs out of alignment. (It's designed to be disassembled for moving, as it will first be in a church for the customer's son's wedding and then moved to their backyard.)

Finished another project. A customer from London sent a photo of curtain rods. Before that, I made a chandelier and a frame for a mirror.

john you probably could rent that out and get profit from it i know a person who rented a wood "arch" (just 2 verticals and a horizontal) for IIRC $50 Canadian, you could do $50 US and still be cheap

again wonderful work alexandre

Yes I agree  M. J. L. There is definitely a market for rentals on those archway..... $50 bucks 50 bucks 50 bucks as wedding season starts. 

Another axe in the make, folded construction. Made from the old wagon tyre I got a few weeks ago, still not sure if it's wrought iron, didn't break or etch like it. It did forge weld rather nicely. The beard is again a piece of leaf spring. I'm testing this out so that I have the correct starting dimensions to fit commercial handles around here. I have a drift that's made to fit those handles and the eye is now just a cm to long, so I'd have to shave off a little bit more of the starting size for the eye next time.

But all in all it 's looking good!

~Jobtiel