Good looking tab thingies, folks will be admiring them as they pass through the gate.

Those are links from a potato chain, they link together into a conveyor type chain,belt the potato harvester pokes the front end under the raised potato row The potatoes ride the chain up and the soil drops through. They're typically medium carbon steel in the 1045- 1060 range. They're intended to be springy tough but CAN be hardened enough to hold an edge for a while. I like them for making tools, punches, pry bars, nail pullers, etc. 

One of the guys in our club is surrounded by potato fields and they drop the things at his place to the point he is the one making runs to the scrapper. I must have 7-8 I haven't used yet, it prolongs time between scrap runs for Pat you know. 

I'll bet if you ask around the local farms you MIGHT get away without the springs bottomed out on your ride. 

Frosty The Lucky.

I love the apron, but no one's curious about the yarn shop behind it? Some of us yahoos also knit.

Oh yeah, I spent as much time checking the shop out as John but couldn't think of anything to say. Deb spins and knits, half the people I know knit and mother used to sound like a zipper being pulled slowly when she knit. There is so much yarn and wool around me looking at more doesn't inspire words.

Frosty The Lucky.

On 11/10/2024 at 12:10 PM, Frosty said:

Do you ONLY work one side of your anvil Lary? Maybe make a shelf that can be installed or removed quickly and easily?

 

I guess I mostly work one side. I try to keep things simple, but my explanations/texts should probably have more detail. The shelf sticks out about 8 inches from the feet of the anvil, for me it's not too much in the way. And I did make it so it could be removed like a hardy tool. 

My attempt at an Abana level 1 gate latch, the tenon was pretty fiddly, the weld didn't want to stick.

Thank you frosty.

 

Potato Chain, makes sense, in addition to corn and hay fields, Sugar Beets, Potatoes and Onion fields are abundant. 

I plan to see how these work out and then I can seek out some from the farmers around here. 

8-)

 

ARMY

18 hours ago, Frosty said:

There is so much yarn and wool around me looking at more doesn't inspire words.

As Thomas Powers would say there are a lot of steel wool couples here.

JHCC very fancy.. Love the doodad pockets. 

Billy, some very neat and artist work..  Looking forwards to your finished piece. 

I finished up the chisels and bick iron to send down to CMA Johnstown for class spring 2025

1", 1.5" framing chisels and 2" slick

1 hour ago, Irondragon Forge ClayWorks said:

As Thomas Powers would say there are a lot of steel wool couples here.

 We be crafty folk on IFI. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Alas!  I'm following up amazing projects from Jennifer.   All I was doing tonight was playing with split crosses.   I did another hummingbird with glass slumped in the middle and started on a dragon that the gf has been bugging me to try.   I was most worried about how to do the wings so I naturally started in the tail, stalling until I figured it out.  The starting block was 6 inches of 3/4 inch.   3 3/4 inch cut on the wrong side 2 3/8 inch for body and tail.   Only got halfway done before I hit my self imposed forge out time of 830 so I don't annoy my neighbors. 

Chad that is neat. 

The trade item for this month's FSBC meeting is "a Christmas Themed Item" so I decided to try making a base that looked like ribbon. The plates were supposed to look like unfolded wrapping paper but it didn't work out so I painted them black. 

This was my first time making candle holders and when I was getting this staged with real candles for the picture, I made some notes for next time. 

I really like this design and I'll definitely be making another.

 

Nice! Check out Elizabeth Brim’s sculpture “Dancing Shoes” for some great forged ribbons. 

I was supposed to strike for Willow Zeitman’s hammer making class at Prospect Hill Forge in Waltham, MA, but because of a scheduling glitch, only one student showed up. Instead, Willow and I experimented with creating a quick-and-dirty twist-tong version of my cam-lock punch tongs. Here’s the original:

 And here’s the q&d version, made from 1/2” x 1/4” flat bar:

 And here’s the outer jaw, showing how we created the loop by bending the bar the hard way. This was fastened with the same rivet that’s also the pivot for the tongs:

For a proof-of-concept, they worked really, really well. Lots of potential.

That is interesting. Good job.

2 hours ago, JHCC said:

Elizabeth Brim’s sculpture “Dancing Shoes”

I have a pic of her shoes and her pillows in my inspiration folder. I totally forgot about it though so thank you for the reminder. 

Those are interesting tongs. I'm sure you've posted about the original pair before because they look familiar. The original looks like the bottom jaw has more contact with the punch than the q&d version. Does the q&s hold just as well?

Pretty nice candleholder Shaina, a few more and you'll have a very marketable product. From here the ribbon needs a bit more of a theme but that's just me. 

Those are such slick tongs however you make them today. It's good to see twist tongs work as well. I hereby award you an Attaboy John!

Frosty The Lucky.

 

Thanks Jennifer. 

Shainaru, i love making candle holders. My wife has threatened to leave me if i make her any more i make so many. Really though you can do so much with them. And size can be anything from a tea light to big giant multi candle stands. 

9 hours ago, Shainarue said:

I'm sure you've posted about the original pair before because they look familiar.

Here’s the original post:

 

9 hours ago, Shainarue said:

The original looks like the bottom jaw has more contact with the punch than the q&d version. Does the q&s hold just as well?

Basically, yes. In both versions, the punch contacts the outer V-jaw at four points and the inner cam jaw at one point. That can take a little bit of fiddling to get the alignment off those points just right, but once you have, it’s pretty rock solid. 

 

7 hours ago, Frosty said:

It's good to see twist tongs work as well. I hereby award you an Attaboy John!

The Attaboy is a shared award with the Attagirl for Willow. It was her idea to do a twist tong version, and then I had the idea to rivet the loop. She did all of the actual forging. 

I guess I could have just checked my 'Content I Follow' list because I had already selected to follow it, lol

I have had a tab open on my browser for ages for your pipe style punch holder as well - and it just now occurred to me to follow it so I could easily find it in case that tab gets closed on my browser. Yes, I'm one of those people with 10+ tabs open (and some grouped) at all times. This in addition to bookmarks. It's ridiculous but the tabs are for stuff I want to be reminded to take care of regularly. I know eventually I'll either do the thing (read the article, watch the video, create the item, etc) or I'll decide I'm not going to do it and remove the tab.  Is it any wonder I forgot I had Elizabeth Brim's work saved? 
Anyway, now I think I'll make both variations of tong holders because the pipe version looks like it would work well for the < 1/2" tools and the tongs look like they'll work well for the 1/2-5/8"-ish size range.

Oh - to anyone wondering about the pipe version - here's that post:

 

Will ow kay John I Frosty in my official capacity as ATTAGIRL awarder dost officially award Willow an ATTAGIRL. 

Have you tried a V for the receiver half? A V should be able to hold a bunch of size punches though the ones made from hex stock might be an issue.

Frosty The Lucky.

If by “receiver half”, you mean the outer jaw, then Yes, it’s already V-shaped. The problem isn’t fitting a range of sizes into the outer jaw, but that thicker sizes keep the reins from closing enough to hold comfortably. 

Outer jaw, okay. I was thinking it wasn't that V shaped but that's what I get looking at a monitor. I wonder how much more eccentric the cam jaw would still be comfortable to use. Hmmm.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

Put together a 1/2” Frosty T-burner, intended for the construction of a small NARB. 

With the shop lights off:

Mad emyself some tooling and tied my hugong stick welding machine 

It don’t have to be pretty to work!

How phone make my english even dumber the I know it and use it .

 

To be exact autocorecter 

 

Yeah they work , lasti time i counted have 7 hardy tools , one bought , 6 made, I use them really rare.

Only for curing, but have V shaped one fabricated, have 2 with bending forks that goes in hardy hole, have spring fullwr, another hardy for cuting and guillotine tool.

Will make guillotine tool longer at ends  because this part which hit hotnmetal while bouncing tend to jump out .