What did you do in the shop today?

[Goods]

Nice hawks Les!

Do you mind me asking you starting stock and bit material? Also, did you make the handles? (They look identical to the one I buy from Dunlap Wood Crafts.)

Keep it fun,

David

[Les L]

Goods, thanks, for the mouse hawks I use 3/16 X 1 X 7 mild steel for the wrap and insert a HC bit, most times 5160 from an old leaf spring 

On a full size hawk I use 1/4 X 1 1/2 X 11 mild for the wrap and insert a HC bit

The handles are from Dunlap 

[Goods]

Thanks Les. I thought those handles looked familiar.

[Hefty]

Les, what are the dimensions of the bit for the mouse hawk before you forge weld it in?

Cheers,

Jono.

[Shainarue]

Tonight I picked up 2 sheets of cement board for the corner walls where the forge is expected to be. Then I sorted out the finished charcoal (that I started on Sunday) into buckets. 

Was hoping to get started on the letter opener tomorrow but might be visiting a friend in the hospital instead. 

[BayardStrachan]

Started making my first pair of Dempsey twist tongs with mig welded reins. I got a Crack where I started to draw out the reins from the fuller mark that isolates the boss area, I will have to weld up. 

[Glenn]

Shainarue, put an air gap between the cement board and the wall.  

 

 

[Shainarue]

Glenn, the layers were planned to be as follows: metal shed wall - 6mil plastic moisture barrier - insulation - cement board. 

Are you advising there should be empty space between the insulation and the cement board?

[Glenn]

Yes, a empty space between the insulation and the cement board.

Seal off the insulation with something like drywall, sheet metal, corrugated tin etc to keep it from getting dirty.  Depending on the type insulation you use, pink fiberglass insulation will shed insulation dust or particles that you do not want to breathe.  Other types of insulation may be a fire hazard if it gets hot.  Then leave an air gap between the material and the cement board.  At this point we should ask what type wall construction and what type insulation you are using.

The air gap creates a natural chimney to cool the cement board and keep the wall cool.

 

 

[JHCC]

1 hour ago, Glenn said:

Then leave an air gap between the material and the cement board.

1 hour ago, Glenn said:

The air gap creates a natural chimney to cool the cement board and keep the wall cool.

Make sure that there are openings at the top and bottom of the gap for the air to flow through, otherwise you won't get the desired chimney effect.

 

 

[Shainarue]

1 hour ago, Glenn said:

what type wall construction and what type insulation you are using

Using paper faced (yellow I think) fiberglass insulation in the walls because I have a bunch leftover from the basement remodel. Using foam sheets in the roof. I also have a roll of carpet pad that I was going to add on the walls not near the forge - to help absorb sound as well as increase insulation. On those walls, the layers would be: metal shed wall - 6mil plastic - fiberglass insulation - carpet padding (hung from rod) and then whatever I've come up with for the inner wall. Was thinking I'd hang welding blankets from a rod toward the front (where there's heat) & moving blankets or denim blankets from a rod toward the back (no risk of heat back there). You messaged me about cutting 55-gal drums to create 3x6 sheets of metal - I like that idea as a wall covering but I'm not sure that the two inner metal strips would be enough to secure it with. Getting closer and closer to just scrounging up some 2x4s and building a dang frame to attach stuff to appropriately. Sometimes trying to save money and cobbling stuff together just creates more mess than it's worth!

[JHCC]

A layer of aluminum foil (shiny side out) on the wall side of the air gap will also help reflect excess heat away from the wall.

[Frosty]

Good tip John. Or you could buy one or two rolls of Foil backed fiberglass insulation and hang it foil side towards the forge. It isn't as effective as having a reflector as close to the fire as possible but it helps.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Glenn]

The idea is to stop the radiant heat with the air gap to keep things cool before it gets to the wall.

[JHCC]

Yes, indeed. The foil will reflect back any radiant heat that makes it past the air gap.

[anvil]

Personally, I feel thats a lot of over kill for a coal or charcoal forge. There just isn;t that much heat to cause a problem. Your hood should be cool enough to touch and if yer belly isn't getting too hot, neither will the wall behind it.

[Les L]

15 hours ago, Hefty said:

what are the dimensions of the bit

I'm using a 3 inch long piece of 5/16 X 2 leaf spring on the mouse hawks and a 4 inch long piece on the full size. 

[Shainarue]

2 minutes ago, anvil said:

just isn;t that much heat

I think they're just erring on the side of 'no such thing as too safe' - I agree about the heat though. I can pick up my rivet forge with bare hands within a minute of spreading the coals after a session and carry it to put it away. And if the heat radiated to the edges then my stock would be getting hot at the end as well - which doesn't happen. 

But I don't disagree to set up as safely as possible. Never know when I might change things up and introduce a propane forge to the mix and then I'd have to redesign to accommodate if I didn't already account for it.

[anvil]

Absolutely correct.  

[Jobtiel1]

Practicing axes again, i need to focus on the eye more and make a proper sized drift to make the eye less wonky, als the bit should go a bit further in the body before welding it. Wrapped eye with a piece of mild steel between the Earl to boost the weight, an old file for the bit.

Total weight is around 900 grams.

~Jobtiel

[rich_c]

I don't have a shop, yet, but I've started the building process. 

I ordered the small starter kit from Blacksmith's Depot and "The Backyard Blacksmith" by Lorelei Sims to go along with the first volume of Mark Aspery's book.  I'm still leaning towards the Mr. Volcano gas forge and I'm researching anvils.  I'm also working on where my "shop" will be set up in my back yard.

All this and I have The CFO's approval!  Hahahaha!

[gewoon ik]

Made this in a lost hour between 2 jobs. Is a practice piece for a marshmellowroasterstick (try that on scrabble). A friend get married in december, last year they bought a firepit (a steel bowl more) from me, so as a small weddinggift i would like to make a couple of these.

Only instead of a round it needs to be a heart. And it needs to be longer, i underestimate the amounth of steel needed for the eye and wrap.

The steel i used is weird. Before very hard to bend, now you can almost get it bend if you wave to fast with it. Weird.

I have no idea about a good length to make these. I wad thinking 30cm or 12". Thickness, i like thin, this is 4mm (1/8") but 6mm (1/4") is maybe better? 

Also for the heart i was thinking of making a round and than kink it in, but after some youtube it is not that simple.

[Shainarue]

5 hours ago, gewoon ik said:

marshmellowroasterstick (try that on scrabble)

Unlike in Dutch, we don't have a lot of long combined (smashed together) words in English. Here it would all be separated, "marshmallow roaster stick". 

I have said to my friends before that scrabble in the Netherlands must be exciting, lol

I would have also tried to do the heart like you mentioned. Seems logical. But I also have no experience in it, lol

As for thicknesses, I would say quarter inch. The thinner the metal, the faster the heat travels up. You can always reduce most of the fire end and just leave the original thickness closer to the hand. 

As for length, the ones I have at home for a campfire are 4 ft long total. The ones for a tabletop type "firepit" are by shorter - maybe 20-24 inches? 

[gewoon ik]

Thanks, so no extra scrabble points.

I think it will be 30 inch, after some googling  at least the number was good

I have happend to recieve 1 length of 8mm round cut in 3 pieces (roughly 2m each piece) so i think they will be 8mm

[Buzzkill]

7 hours ago, gewoon ik said:

Before very hard to bend, now you can almost get it bend if you wave to fast with it. Weird.

That may be an indication that it is a hardenable steel.  If it is and was hardened prior to your forging then you removed that by forging and returned it to an unhardened state. You can test for that easily enough by quenching a small piece to see if it will break rather than bend.