What did you do in the shop today?

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

1 hour ago, bluerooster said:

It's a Champion. 140 (I think).

I think you are right, could be a #40 that looks just like the 140. The #40 blowers usually are marked on the top of the gear cover, though I've seen some without any markings there. So many old blowers have had parts swapped about making ID a challenge. Here is a link to a thread about the #140 some good info. I'm pretty sure the picture of the one I put in that thread is a 140.

https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/60037-identification-of-champion-blower/

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s.
Semper Paratus

 

[Nobody Special]

Keep going, they look great cleaned up. I pulled the gears on mine, but something had been living in it and there were acorns and insect parts and all other kinds of weirdness. Runs like a dream now. I completely second the ATF/acetone combo.

 

 

[JHCC]

Any session where you come out knowing more than you went in, is a good session. 

[Nobody Special]

Irondragon, Carroll County - that's up on the Buffalo somewhere, or near Eureka Springs? Used to live in Arkadelphia about a hundred thousand years ago.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

The White River & Beaver Lake runs through it. Our place is 2 miles north of Eureka Springs a place where miss fits fit in.

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s.
Semper Paratus

 

[Frosty]

Jason: You aren't alone having limitations on your abilities at the anvil and otherwhere. I don't spend much time at the anvil anymore, arthritis in my thumbs really limits how long I can work before pain takes over. The TBI damaged the optic and audio nerves on my left side which alters depth perception and differentiating tones. I tell what the steel is doing and needs by sound then feel more than sight. 

I'm not looking for sympathy or trying to hijack your post, it's not about me. I'm only trying to illustrate that while I can't live with nor "understand" your issues, I understand living with and working around issues of my own.

One of the things that really helped my skills at the anvil was when I stopped trying HARD to get things right. I used to file and sand a "story" mark on my hammer handles, not much just a flat strip where my fingers needed to be to grip the hammer so the face or pein struck the anvil face parallel. Even if the anvil I'm using isn't at MY correct working height it's pretty easy to compensate if I don't have to think about my hammer striking like it should.

The hammer always being where it should be, "indexed in my hand" I don't have to try hard for hammer control, I can relax and get on with moving the metal how I wish. Make sense?

Then a friend gave me a hammer as a get well gift while I was in extended care after the TBI. Mark's a farrier / blacksmith so his hammer handles are whippy slab handles. While I'm not a particular fan of whippy handles  can use one to good effect but the slab handle really made things better and I've been slowly replacing all my regular smithing handless with my version. I modified Uri Hoffi's slab handle to suit me. One modification turned out to be completely unnecessary but sort of became my mark and I've added it to all of them.

Anyway, my bit of friendly advice to you Jason is learn to relax at the anvil. Keep your eye on the mark and the center of your hammer face will hit it. Provided you do NOT try hard to hit it. Being relaxed at the anvil takes much of the stress off your body.

A heavy hammer only moves metal better IF you can control it without straining. I have a couple 3lb. hammers but only use them for special occasions like driving my guillotine tool or punching holes and similar. When I'm punching holes that require a heavy hammer I use my swage block laying flat to reduce the height so the struck face of the punch is close to my normal anvil face height.

Unless I'm doing one of the special processes I favor 2-2.5lbs leaning more to the lighter weight. With the tapered slab handles I favor I can snap the hammer accurately to good effect.

I'm not trying to convert you to my grip or method I'm just suggesting you learn to relax at the anvil, perhaps make things more ergonomic, whatever. The effort will be rewarded.

Frosty The Lucky. 

[BillyBones]

Made this here spatula. 

Ever have that time in the shop where you have nothing that you "have" to work on? No honey do list, no orders, just me and time to do what i want. So i had never done a 1 piece spatula, usually i do the plate and rivet the handle on. A piece of 1" x 1/4" flat bar. Folded over and welded about 3" or so to get more mass. Then flattened him out. A bit narrow but i am happy with the results for a first effort. 

Also took a broom and discovered that i do indeed still have a floor in the shop. 

Maybe today i will see if there is still a top on my bench, been a while since i have seen it. 

[Jason L]

Thanks for the advice Frosty. My hammer is probably lighter than what most people use, 800 grams. But it fits my hand and doesn't fatigue me as much and moves metal as well as a 3lb hammer that I have but rarely use. I've found that I can use it by feel pretty well so I know what you're talking about there. 

My body has been used in ways that it wasn't designed for many times over the years so wear and tear is pretty much my biggest obstacle. Looking down causes great discomfort so quickly that even something as simple as cutting up an onion in the kitchen has to be done in stages. Once I throw on some music and get into the groove at the anvil, I seem to not notice it till I stop to wait on a heat or something. I overdo it sometimes. 

I also really need to update my glasses. I have a hard time telling where I hit sometimes and often enough I have to pick up whatever I'm working on to get a better look. I hate being examined though and it causes me to procrastinate when I really shouldn't. I value my personal space more than eye doctors do so there's a bit of anxiety there. It's so bad that I put up with blood pressure in the 200's for many years before I finally had it looked at. The highest I've still got a record of is 236/143, a personal best! I didn't get it checked out till it was higher than that but by the time I got to the hospital it had dropped to 221/125. The doctors still say I'm healthy as a horse. 

Just a bit of advice to the younger folks who might come across this, never try to prove how strong or tough you are, only how smart you are. The things you do today will have to be paid for in the future. Try to make that bill as small as possible or your catchphrase will become "ustacould"

 

[bluerooster]

Got a little forge time in today.  Started a basket twist.  Got 4 rods cut and one end welded. The other end I got set, and put it back in the forge for another heat. as I was waiting, I noticed a spark fly out from under the table. "That's not good" sez I. I looked and saw a crack where the tuyer meets the firepot. So, I pulled the steel from the fire, and went to open the ash dump, the whole tuyer came off in my hand.  I guess exhaust pipe is only good for about two or three years as a tuyer.  I need to find some cheep sch 40 pipe. 

 

 

 

 

 

[JD V]

My first knife. Parent material was leaf out of a horse drawn buggy spring pack. Quenched in oil, tempered holding the spine on a pre heated piece of grader blade, quenched in water when the edge got a light blue.

The example I followed said 3 inches for the handle and 3 for the blade, next one I  will try 2 1/2 for the blade and 3/12 for the handle. I want to forge the blade smaller from spine to edge but same total length. Handle is a little short to balance the blade weight as well. But I'm happy with it for a first. I'll see how it holds up in the kitchen of a bachelor cowboy.
 

[Paul TIKI]

Nicely done!

[JHCC]

Made a few more texturing tools for my chasing and repoussé kit.

 

[Frosty]

I hear you Jason, I wore out parts that punish me unforgivingly for abusing now. The sucky part is just using them like I used to at all is abuse. <sigh>

Oh well, living with the wear and tear beats the alternative.

Bluerooster: The fire is supposed to be on TOP of the grate not down in the tuyere. I make them from exhaust tubing too but I make the vertical section from IIRC 3.5" and the horizontal from the blower from 2". I never burned it out, I don't think it even got hot below the air grate. My grate was a piece of 3/8" plate with a pattern of 5/16" holes drilled through it then drifted from the bottom slightly so and debris that fit in a hole fell through. Scraping across the top knocked everything else in and through. 

Anyway, having burning coals fall into the tuyere is what burned yours out. Perhaps a tighter air grate will do it I don't know of a heat shielding coating that'd be even close to cost effective. ITC makes a couple designed to protect metal from the fire but $$$$! 

Ahhh, JD. Don't you know how wide your hand is? A knife handle should be at least that wide, a bit wider is better. 4" is sort of a default hand size but it varies. Balancing a knife that small isn't important if you aren't going to throw it at targets. It looks good though, one or two more and you'll get them just right. 

Well done, keep at it.

Frosty The Lucky. 

 

[JHCC]

Since I have another business trip coming up this week, I made another “Repoussé on the Road” alternative to a pitch bowl. This one is made of strips of bicycle inner tube wound into a puck, cinched together with wire, glued down to a backing of 1/4” plywood, and sanded flat(ish). 

It’s got an interesting combination of sponginess and resiliency, and I’m hoping it will serve. 

[GhostTownForge]

You'll have to let me know. That might be something I can do for road trips.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

4 hours ago, Frosty said:

Oh well, living with the wear and tear beats the alternative.

My Grandfather always told me "it's better to wear out than rust out".

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s.
Semper Paratus

 

[Frosty]

Like the song said, "It's better to burn out than fade away."

Frosty The Lucky. 

[bluerooster]

Frosty,  I'm pretty sure that It's gotten hotter than I wanted from time to time.  Using the same cast iron grate that I've been using since the start of my forging "career". And this is the first time I had the tuyre  burn off.  I did have burning coke get caught in the air inlet once, because I'd installed it level, and it had a bit of weld inside on the bottom. once one piece got caught, it just backed up from there. That's why all my air inlets are angled down from then on. On my two previous firepots, the tuyre never even got warm enough to discolor, except the time the air inlet filled up with burning coke.

[Rojo Pedro]

That's a cool inner tube puck John. I could see being useful in several sizes and even shaping or rounding the top. 

I am interested to hear how you like it. 

[Frosty]

The only way your tuyere could get hot is by having burning coals falling in. Or possible fire flowing downwards through the grate though I have trouble envisioning how that could happen. With your ash dump ash and stuff shouldn't fill high enough to put burning coals in the air blast. 

My only thought is to reduce the gap size in your air grate. Perhaps your old cast iron one is starting to burn out?

My old coal forge has an exhaust tubing tuyere with an exhaust flap cap ash dump. The flap cap has an extension so I can reach it with a fire tool, tongs, hammer, etc. without having to bend over or reach. It's similar to yours. When I built it I made it way too heavy, the counter weight on the cap is more than enough to keep it closed so I changed it for a piece of 1/2" x 1/4" strap stock maybe 10" long. I wouldn't mid making it lighter but don't want to make it more complicated. 

With just the flap cap counter weight the ash trap under the air supply self dumped before it was half full or if gasses popped. If I find a good source of coal and start using it again I'll make the ash dump extension from 1/4" round or maybe aluminum if what I have is suitable.

Frosty The Lucky. 

[M3F]

Finished a commission and made a couple stops. 

[bluerooster]

Frosty, I may well have to change out the fire grate, I did notice it was getting a bit raggedy.

Another thought came to me, and that is clinker. The last several sessions prior to replacing the barrel hood, I was getting massive amounts of clinker due to the barrel dropping rust flakes in the fire. 

  M3F, that is a nice bouquet of roses.  I take the lumber in the 2nd pic is the base?

[Rojo Pedro]

Super nice roses. I like the greenery. 

 

[M3F]

Thanks!  No blue i had a typo. The wood and leather is just a couple leather STROPS (not stops). I picked the worst pic to share haha.

[Tzelik Hammar]

Amazing flowers! The closest I have been to my shop in a while is using the worktable to clean up and repaint a mailbox, sadly. Got a new (to me) anvil from my brother that needs mounting, then maybe I'll get something more done.