What did you do in the shop today?

[Chad J.]

Did my first square knot.  I can probably tighten it up a bit more but it was getting late when I jumped onto that project and I needed to get dinner in.   Made a couple hearts on  the end to make a brooch with a matching pin.

[George N. M.]

The clay "tamping" or "stemming" on top of the explosive charge is to force the energy of the explosion into the rock rather than shooting it back out of the drill hole like a gun barrel.  The copper needle described by Dave was to make use that no sparks were struck anywhere around the explosive charge.  

The tools illustrated may be steel versions which would be cheaper but a bit more unsafe.

GNM

[JHCC]

Just ask Phineas Gage. 

[ThomasPowers]

Not quite the "brains" of blasting as I recall.  Going to be taking some tools to the NMABA meeting in Feb as my wife has asked that I empty the shop rather than leave it for her to take care of.

[alexandr]

Finally sent 2 chandeliers to Kenai in Alaska.

[MacLeod]

Hope 2023 is good for you all so far. 

Nice knots Chad. Knots scare me, but am going try a bowline in some rebar I have sometime. 

Alex, these chandeliers are above average.

 Think I took all the advice given the last time I made a pair of these fire tongs. They certainly grip what passes as coal in Scotland. 
 

 

[Frosty]

I hope the new owner sends a few pics of your chandeliers installed Alex. It'd be really cool if they were going in  public building so Deb and I could take a direct look, Kenai is nice RV country and we have next summer.

Your fire tongs came out very nice MacLeod, I like them.

Frosty The Lucky.

[George N. M.]

Norman, I understand that the use of these types of tongs was to pick a live coal out of the fire to use to light your pipe.

GNM

[Daswulf]

Alexandr, I imagine it is a chore just to safely package one of those for shipment. Beautiful as always. 

MacLeod, nice work on the fire tongs. 

[MacLeod]

7 hours ago, George N. M. said:

to use to light your pipe.

Thanks gents.  George, my father says he saw that a lot, he also says that when he was young they would often go missing. Visitors would use them to take a burning peat from the fire to light their way back home on dark winter nights.  

[Gazz]

Speaking of ember tongs, here is a pair a friend and I made way back in the 80's.  He had a connection with a museum gift shop manager who ordered a hundred pair.  We got to work and cranked them out only to find that the gift shop manager had died suddenly and the new manager didn't want them.  We split them up between us and they have made great gifts over the years and I only have a few left.

[MacLeod]

7 hours ago, Gazz said:

ember tongs

These are great Gazz. You could light your neighbours pipe with these.   these are going on my ‘to try‘ list if that’s ok!? 
 

 

[Fireant]

Today I finished up some shelf brackets for my step-daughter.  Kinda small and fiddly, but satisfying. It was an exercise in soldering (the scrolls are pinned & soldered to the top bar and the top bar is mortised and soldered into the vertical bar).  The machine screws are just placeholders- when installed they will be replaced with wood screws into drywall/studs.

My biggest win on this project was reflecting on how, over the years, my skills have improved-  when I started out, there was no way I could’ve managed drilling a 1/8” hole in the center of a 1/4” round forged scroll.  Today, every one of these pins came out dead center.   Had a shot of Kentucky’s finest to celebrate.

[Goods]

I really like this brackets Fireant. Nice work!

 

[natkova]

Made myself one helper

[anvil]

Fireant, nice brackets. They have an Art Noveau look.

[Frosty]

Nice brackets, well done.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Gazz]

Mac, they are copies of somebody else's (maybe Yellin?) work in any case so go right ahead.  To rivet the pieces together so that they moved easily when done, we put pieces of paper between the limbs and rivets before peening the rivets and then burned it out.  Worked perfectly.

Natkova, stands are very handy and I have two that get used frequently but I'm thinking yours does not have enough footprint and would get knocked over easily.  Also, I would add a T to your bolt so that you do not need to find a wrench every time you need to adjust the height.

[Shainarue]

Today's progression of transformations:

Start with block with cuts

Then break a pair a tongs that someone else kindly lent to me with a warning that they needed a weld to strengthen the bit

Found something else to hold the bar while I split the cuts. It already looks a bit like an elephant!

Flatten one end a bit and punch a hole. This hole is where it will attach to the door knocker plate.

Cut and twist the ears. They'll get spread out and formed at the end.

I'll firm the face, trunk and tusks next session 

[Frosty]

Looking pretty good Shaina. Take a look at the break in tongs it looks pretty crystalized to me, it was bound to break. Ask the lender what he made them from. When you start making tongs I like coil spring, you can forge them thin and lightweight and they'll still be plenty strong and springy to keep a firm grip. Just DO NOT dip them in the slack tub if they're red hot! Make several pair so you can throw the HOT ones on the ground or a cooling rack if there's organics on the ground. (grass leaves, etc.)

Do you have a piece of angle iron say 1/4" x 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" a 6" or so long? If you cut one side flange off for about 6" and separate it from the rest with a 90* cut. This will fit between your vise jaws and you can put your bar for your project Oh say an elephant head between the vise jaw and the cut down angle iron and clamp it tight in the vise. 

I can NOT find the file with pics of mine, a picture explains this oh so simple but incredibly handy tool at a glance.

After you do your basic preform forging on a head you can clamp the stock between this tool and vise jaw with the head laying on the angle iron above the vise. This provides more than enough support for eye and nostril punching, lip and tooth chiseling, etc.

Does ANYBODY out there in Iforge-land have a pic of  one of these to show Shaina, please? I can NOT find my pics.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

[natkova]

2 hours ago, Gazz said:

Mac, they are copies of somebody else's (maybe Yellin?) work in any case so go right ahead.  To rivet the pieces together so that they moved easily when done, we put pieces of paper between the limbs and rivets before peening the rivets and then burned it out.  Worked perfectly.

Natkova, stands are very handy and I have two that get used frequently but I'm thinking yours does not have enough footprint and would get knocked over easily.  Also, I would add a T to your bolt so that you do not need to find a wrench every time you need to adjust the height.

Yeah it was not finished, i need somekind handle, and i made smaller foot for space saving, and so tool dont go in my way when i work or accidently kick it,  i can easaly attach some more pipes to those ends, they  are long like 4 inches on each side.

 

[JHCC]

Stock support á la Kim Thomas, Mark II. Moved the pivot point back a couple of inches,  shortened the assembly slightly, and added an old cast iron sash weight to the hold-down. Overall, much improved. 

I need to cut down the base by a couple of inches, as it’s still a bit too tall for my anvil. That should be easy enough.

 Also, finished the welding on my big scroll form. A bit of grinding, and we’ll be ready to scroll. 

Finished painting the frame of the yarn shop sign.

Made a stencil and painted the lettering, which turned out so horribly that I’m not going to post a photo. I’ll be touching that up by hand later. 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

A little background to what I did today. We woke up on Christmas morning and the house was pretty chilly. Went downstairs and our direct vent propane wall furnace was off. I tried lighting it and no such luck. Kinda upset because that furnace was installed last year on December 22nd it replaced one that was over 10 years old.

Had to wait three days to call our HVAC folks due to the holiday and I'm too frugal to pay for emergency service. I went to the garage and got the Aladdin Blue Flame Kerosene heater. It took the chill off but the weather was going to turn colder and we didn't like the kerosene smell.

Time to get the wood burning stove running. Cleaned out the chimney and flue and fired it up. Surprised me because it was at least ten years since a fire was in it. It did a good job of keeping the house comfortable and kept the electric heat upstairs from running much.

After I got in touch with the HVAC folks it took a week for a tech to get to us. He found out one of the heat exchange tubes was cracked and it would cost the Manufacture more to replace it under warranty than just send a new unit. Fortunately they agreed to cover the warranty but it would be several weeks before the new unit would arrive. I got to burn up a lot of old wood in that time period.

The new furnace was installed last Wednesday the 25th and it is running great. The same day the new furnace was installed, the motor on the blower on the wood stove flue stopped working. Too much trouble to take that flue pipe apart to fix it, so I went to the shop to get the Dayton blower that I had used with the coal forge but replaced it with a Champion Lancaster hand crank blower 20 years ago. So what did I do in the shop today?

I cut the pipe off the blower mount that I had brazed to the plate, using the porta-band saw, which left about an inch of pipe still on the plate. I fired up the forge and heated it till the brass was molten and pulled the piece of pipe off then flattened the plate so I could mount it on the back of the stove where a fan could be installed. I had to free up the blower because it hadn't been run in all that time, a little oil and it's running like new. Got it installed on the wood stove but Not sure it puts out enough air, if I remember correctly it puts out 50cfm.

Propane furnace on left and wood stove with heat exchanger on flue that quit working.

Dayton blower installed.

[arkie]

Randy, those Dayton blowers are great for a coal forge.  I have one in service on the forge and a spare on the shelf.  Got them from Hardy T.  I use an air gate/blast gate to control the fire.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

True, when I had it on the forge, I built it with a sliding air gate but most times I would forget to close it when at the anvil. So my coal usage was a lot more than with the Champion. Also the Champion's 10 in fan will put out more air for forge welding by cranking faster, where the Dayton is constant, will still weld but took longer to get the steel up to temperature for welding.