What did you do in the shop today?

[Frosty]

9 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Frosty, please sit down: 

I usually sit to check my computer but thanks for thinking about me. Power in the shop sounds good, REALLY good. 

I'm putting the outdoor light on the corner, maybe two. This way the light shines full length down two sides rather than one. It will also shine on the door from the side so I can see the lock more easily. The long side will also shine right in the door of the wood shed. 

I'm excited for you Brother. Let there be light!

Frosty The Lucky.

[Nathan Kraft]

In the shop: nothing. I’ve been busy with my new job and school and being sick. Ive tried to get myself out to the shop over the past few weeks and it just hasn’t worked out.

Using my 3# hammer as an anvil while laying on the couch too sick to walk: I’ve done some work on a ring. It started as a quarter, and I gently upset the edges over a couple hours and then drilled and am now filing the inside out. Of course there was grinding on the edges too.

Chimaera, I know you had mentioned awhile back that you use quite concentrated liver of sulfur for your patinas on your mokume. I was wondering if you know about what concentration you use? Also you don’t warm it right? I love the colours you get on your patina and I would like to try and recreate it with this ring, if that’s ok. 

[Chad J.]

Built a new door for the shop.  Getting My tools secured is a big priority and no one is getting through that door easily.   It's 2x, 6' 8" tall and 48 inches wide.   Not light.  The handle I have some grinding to do and the hinges fit on the old pins 

[Chimaera]

First, you're going to want to put on gloves and wipe the ring with acetone or rubbing alcohol, all around. Next, tie fishing line on it to hang it from. Don't touch it by the metal anymore. So, for a gold and black patina, find a disposable cup. Wear gloves, probably don't do it inside. It stains and smells like rotten eggs. Put in maybe three drops of liver of sulfur (just search "amazon liver of sulfur gel" and select what size bottle you want), then fill it 1/3 of the way with cold water and give it a stir (plastic spoon). Quantities don't need to be exact. Take another cup, put cold water and baking soda in it, stir it up (with a different spoon). Hold the ring by the fishing line and dip it in the liver of sulfur for five seconds. Pull it out and look at it. Repeat until you get the colors you want. Then, swirl it in the baking soda. Rinse it in cold tap water. Finally, after it's dry, hang it up by the fishing line and give it a spray clear coat. (The LOS can look weird at first, when you clear coat it that should be fixed.) Hope it works for you!

[BillyBones]

A couple years ago we got a transmission in a wooden crate at work. Huge heavy crate that i looked at and said that would make a nice cabinet in the barn. I got it all hung with the door swinging down. 2 legs and i can use it as a work space also. I had hinges i repurposed off something else but no hasp. So i made one. Also my first double barrel hinge. A lot of mistakes, like the set of hole next to the hinge, need it to over hang an inch. A few steps of the process i would do different also. The pic, still needs filing (a lot of filing, it is done now so it was a lot of filing on the rectangle hole) the hook needs tweaked for the staple location. I was going to make a plate with the staple riveted to it for the hoop but it got late and i got lazy so i just did a quick staple. Definitely need to work on my hacksaw skills. 

[JHCC]

Tweak on the air curtain: trying a bit of angled angle iron to direct the air flow out a bit. I’ve been having trouble with the forge not coming to full heat, and I suspect the air curtain may have been blowing into the forge itself and cooling things off. 

[Chimaera]

15 hours ago, Nathan Kraft said:

Chimaera, I know you had mentioned awhile back that you use quite concentrated liver of sulfur for your patinas on your mokume.

I gave some directions this morning, but I should warn you that I don't know how it will do with only three layers. Just thought I should give the disclaimer. I really hope it works for you and that you feel better. Think it's spring allergies or something else? Once you can get back out to the shop, I'd really suggest trying some mokume. I haven't done it, but you can use annealed steel wire instead of going through the whole hassle of making the clamps. Maybe just try a dozen quarters, I think you'd like it.

[alexandr]

Enhanced the front door to the workshop. It will be warm, I will plant flowers.

[Nathan Kraft]

2 hours ago, Chimaera said:

Think it's spring allergies or something else? 

It was some random stomach bug, just really bad fatigue and nausea.

I don't see why the lower layer count would affect the chemical reaction, unless you just meant the pattern wouldn't have the same affect per se. If that's the case, I know and I'm specifically going for a set of three parallel bars as the pattern for the ring. Thanks so much for the instructions! 

If i were to use the steel wire, would it not make gouges on the places where it was? And if i were to not use the wire what would the alternative be? I've looked but I am confused as to how people hold their mokume billets together.

[Chad J.]

Wow, how wide was the piece you started with for your hinges?  And for the door handle that cross, did you do those as 4 individual pieces that you welded together or one piece that you split?

[JHCC]

Finished the forging of a set of custom hooks to go along a fence. The top curls of the big hooks are for bird feeders, and the little ones (and the bottom curls of the big hooks) are to loop a string of LEDs along the fence.

The curls are 1/4” x 1/2”, forged down from 1/4” x 1”, the dimension of the verticals where the screws will be. Did most of the drawing out on The Pressciousss, but then the control lever started to get really, really stiff. Rather than risk some hydraulic-powered disaster, I finished up the drawn-out sections with a flatter and a kiss block under the nodding donkey. 

Scrolling forms are wonderful things. 

[Goods]

Not in my shop, it’s still not done and everything is still packed away. But, I demonstrated at my local IBA chapter’s forge during a festival. Two long days of swinging the hammer, and I’m worn out. (Gotta get back in shape.) Here are pictures of some of the items made. Didn’t get pictures of everything. I hand no inventory and almost everything made by request or sold as soon as it hit the table. It was good to be back at it. I absolutely love demoing! (Maybe I just haven’t had a bad crowd yet...)

David

[Chimaera]

4 hours ago, Nathan Kraft said:

If i were to use the steel wire, would it not make gouges on the places where it was?

Yes it would. However, you forge it out flat, so the gouges would be gone. Here is my alternative. Take 5/8x2 bar and cut it about 5” long. Then put in half inch bolts and nuts like the picture, one on either side. 

Throw that whole thing in until the coins start to look wet. The gently tap to set the weld. Forge it out until it’s about three times the final thickness. Then pattern it. Raindrop shown. Then forge it to the thickness you want. Then cut and shape if desired, finish and patina. There are quite a few videos online. The wire is nice because you don’t have to make a clamp. I’ve attached a picture of some of my pieces. All the shaped ones were cut with a dremel. The orange ones were finished by sanding at 120 on a random orbital, then gently kissed with a propane torch. The gold and black one was polished, cleaned with alcohol, and dipped in liver of sulfur. The rainbow ones got a matte finish from a dremel wire brush, then we’re dipped in liver of sulfur. I don’t think I cleaned them well, and that’s why we got the silly colors.

 

Finally resurfaced my hammer and RR anvil. Rounded out one face of the hammer somewhat. Torched the handle. Made some aluminum vise jaws that actually work pretty well. Tried to make a touch mark with no success. Dremel just wasn’t up to the task. Here is the design, though. 
It has all my initials, AKM, and it’s got fractals, which are cool. Also cool- all straight lines, can be used in many orientations. And, if you want, it can mean I’m in the Illuminati. Finally, it is Bluetooth enabled.

[BsnNFrnt]

All the hooks and deftly bent hardware inspired me to make some scrolling jigs. One is a multiple round with 4 diameter1&3/4” to 3&3/4”) base and 8 different diameter scroll. The other is 5&1/2” base and around 20 different scroll.  Thanks to the members that have the interchangeable idea. 

[ThomasPowers]

Not in the shop this weekend as I made my first trip down to see my mother in over a year; yeah shots!!!!

Got to repair a Pella sliding door where instead of tightening two screws on the handle, the two adult kids and their kids and POSSLQ's just used it till it damaged the wood, wallered out the holes and finally fell off.  I did a fast and dirty fix going less than 2 miles to HD and buying two packs of screws with hex heads that could be tightened with a 1/4" box end wrench I found in their garage---the handle is designed so that the screws are "hidden" by the handle grab and hard to tighten with a screw driver; BAD design in my opinion.  Such esoteric tasks are evidently beyond my adopted siblings in their 30's still living at home...

[Donal Harris]

Sounds like my BIL. He has had my MIL’s cell phone for a month. We bought her a new phone and just had it placed on our account yesterday. 

[Frosty]

On 4/25/2021 at 12:32 PM, Nathan Kraft said:

I've looked but I am confused as to how people hold their mokume billets together.

With a clamp. Mine is 1/4" plate with 3 holes drilled in a triangle with just enough room for a stack of quarters will fit between. I used 3/8" bolts because the 5/16" ones didn't hold well enough. Stack quarters in the clamp place the top plate and screw the nuts on. Then torque the stuffings out of them. The trick is keeping a reasonably even pressure on all three or it goes all wonky. 

Once you have it as tight as possible, I stop when I'm afraid the bolts to snap and put it in the forge. Once it hits medium red I remove it and tighten the bolts again and put it back.

With experience you'll learn to spot the shimmery color when it's at a good temperature. Pull it out, tighten the bolts more and then I start hammering the billet. You have to have something for the clamp to rest on so you aren't hammering on the bolts. 

Teenylittlemetalguy is the real mokume gane guy in our group, maybe he'll speak up.

Frosty The Lucky.

[pnut]

15 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

POSSLQ's

Haha I had to look that one up.  I thought the first three letters were going to mean something totally different

Pnut

[Chimaera]

Yep. Teenylittlemetalguy is by far the best mokume maker I’ve seen on here. I hope to one day get half as good as he.

[teenylittlemetalguy]

On 4/25/2021 at 12:32 PM, Nathan Kraft said:

I've looked but I am confused as to how people hold their mokume billets together.

The main point of holding all your pieces together is just to keep it organized while you weld so do that however works for you. The second and really important point is you need to be able to impart some force to the billet while in the process of welding.  You can use wire, and yes it will cut the edges a little bit, but you will have a lot of clean up to do anyway and wires will be the least of your concerns (as long as you don't forge them into your billet). Do be aware that making a stronger clamp is advantageous though as most metals you would use expand more than mild steel so the mokume will press itself a little bit as it expands. 

Personally I like the two plates held together with bolts idea. I make mine large enough that I can get a tool (hammer or vice or press) in between the bolts so the initial weld is done while in the plates. You could also tighten the bolts as per Frosty's comment. I highly recommend using the vice for the initial weld (easy, even pressure and consistent results). After the first weld everything should be stuck together well enough to get it out of the clamp for the remaining weld heats. 

PM me if you need any more help. 

Thank you guys for the kind remarks! Made my day! 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

14 hours ago, pnut said:

I had to look that one up

Don't feel bad, I did too.

[M.J.Lampert]

5 minutes ago, Irondragon ForgeClay Works said:

Don't feel bad, I did too.

that makes at least 3

M.J.Lampert

[Frosty]

6 minutes ago, M.J.Lampert said:

that makes at least 3

4

[SLAG]

five.

SLAG.

[M.J.Lampert]

so whos gonna be sixth?

M.J.Lampert