ThomasPowers

Why stone, why not dirt/clay? Did the 700 hits you get when you do a search with your browser on: JABOD site:iforgeiron.com not give you enough information?

I've suggested using a magnet with a center piece instead of making a divot in the workpiece several times over the years here, Some speaker magnets have a central hole in the keeper plate already.

I'd call if you have the number. Note that I wouldn't warrantee anything that the user had messed with the heat treat on...

Most of us are not Machinists! Being able to arc weld can help; but I've run forges for decades with no power to the shop and only forge welding. Design it for the tools and skills you have; you can always change it later as you gain experience! Over planning when you don't have any smithing experience often goes awry.

A common bathroom scale can be used to weigh so light an anvil. Anvils are cheaper in the UK than Australia, where in the world are you at? (We have people from over 100 different countries participating in these forums on the World Wide Web!) Also condition makes a big difference---just like a used car, it may be worth US$200 as scrap metal or thousands as a usable car. Please be aware that people welding or grinding on the face of an anvil to "pretty it up" can shift the price from US$6 a pound to US$2 a pound or even scrap price!

I've chiseled grooves in hand forged items, thoroughly cleaned them out, fluxed with borax and melted copper and brass into them and dressed the surface with a file. As for finishes---will this be outside in the elements; or in a nice dry house?

John; now you can get a haircut! I went to the NMABA meeting today; met some new smiths and directed them to this site. I volunteered to help set up for the NMABA demo trailer at the State Fair in Sept and will be doing a couple of days there too. I'd do it all except it's about a 75 mile drive each way...

Copy machines, house vent fans, car heater or AC blowers---12 volt, or my favorite: High efficiency furnaces use an exhaust assist blower to push the exhaust out the chimney; when such a unit is replaces it's not usually because that assist blower is bad; a good HVAC place may have several on their bone pile and if asked nicely might give you one or sell it for low $$$. Others?

I once worked with a fellow who's Aunt had broken her neck sneezing---made it into "Believe it or Not"!

My brake drum forge used a small "Handy-Vac", US$3 at the flea market as it was missing the bag for it. All aluminum hosing and a universal motor so it could be controlled with a simple rheostat. Is the bouncy blower a universal motor? If not you will probably have to waste air rather than dial it down.

We already told the kids that we plan to do something special for our 40th and spend their inheritance! All my forge minions seem to go through the Thor Minion phase... Got back just in time to load stuff to try to sell at the NMABA meeting tomorrow, couple of chunks of RR rail and a large broken base screw jack for a large postvise screw/screwbox repair. I figured that having the money to hand would be better than the extra weight on the trip out to Q-S! Gas is coming down; may it continue to mid October.

Going to Albuquerque to a favorite restaurant; bye!

Today is our 38th wedding anniversary and so no time in the shop.

Funny, I have a headache ball mounted as a ball stake, also 99# dock weights; being a smith in the SCA for 44 years tends to make one accumulate such things...

Last heavy trash pickup in the local town I spotted a dozen gas grills being thrown out; what is this about buying stuff for stand?

So how fast are you going through gas and what does your gas forge and burner(s) look like? Often excessive gas use is because the forge and burners are built incorrectly.

At least the iron casting process is above the prion destruction temp.

What a lucky guy; some of the scrapyarfds I have visited I would expect that a thief with one of the crew's grandfathers cemetary stuff with his name on it would never see a cop. Just the inside of a trunk and an obnoxious whine of hydraulics leading to a free international trip...

You may want to look up planishing and how to make a dishing hammer that doesn't leave gouges in your work. Dome headed RR bolts work nicely for dishing hammers or you can grind garage sale ballpeens to a smooth curved surface opposite the peen end, (peens are too "sharp" and leave dents.) Every once in a while I find an old hitch that is spherical and doesn't have the flat; they all seem to be un-chromed too! I try to snag them for SCA armouring if they are cheap. (An old SCA armourer's trick is to cut the flat topped balls off their stem, leaving a bit of stem on the ball, flip them upside down and weld the flat to the stem and then grind the new top nice and spherical.)

Back when I lived in Ohio I told folks that I paid US$50K for a rivet forge and they threw in a 5 bedroom brick house on a double lot for free. Nice find!

You may note that the USA still has a coast; so they have done their job well!

The closer a piece of scrap is to the desired finished size the cheaper it is! Scrap that is way oversized costs in work, wear and tear on the smith and energy costs to heat it up multiple times.

Most of the reviews sound like they were made by folks with little forging experience; I wonder what reviews by people who actually have good blacksmithing experience would be like? I've built a starter set of forge, blower, improvised anvil and basic tools for under US$25 before---and the fanciest tool I used was a 1/4" electric drill; this is only 10 times as much. (Used it to weld billets for several years.)

Jobtiel1, are you going for San Mai? If so you did need a fatter file, or several layers of it stacked in the middle. That old rusted rasp I found yesterday at the scrapyard would work great, it wound be about 3/8" thick after grinding clean---why I picked it up. Also the WI will be way softer under the hammer and so will tend to move a lot more than the file, might help to thin down the thickness if you can keep the file centered. Today I went out and trued up a piece of scrap for my 25# LG motor mount project and started drilling the holes to clamp it on the cast iron frame. (Also while the forge was hot and I was not, I started another cooking tripod.) Made the mistake of going in to the house for a break and fluids and when I got back I couldn't find the clamp bar I was working on; grrr. Finally I broke down and started to make another and found a bar that was thicker and predrilled, 3/4" holes that aligned with the other side! Of course as I was doing a trial fit I found the "lost one"---threw it out on the scrap pile. Now to take it down and clean it up and paint it safety red as it will be holding a 1.5 HP TEFC motor and should be avoided in use. I also found that sometime in the unpowered decade my drill press had thrown it's key on the motor pulley. Went to my odds and ends collection and found a key and installed it---drills 3/4" holes in 3/8" steel a lot better now. Getting all my power equipment powered up is a task both tedious and fun.

Back around 1990 when I started working for Bell Labs; you could tell the engineers from the management as the engineers didn't wear ties! I have only a few ties left for special occasions; one is illuminated scenes from an early edition of the Canterbury Tales and two are Looney Tunes. If I have to go to court, I'll buy one! Back in the 1970's when they had the energy crisis I remember my father, in management, talking about having to take his suit coat and tie off at work as they had turned the AC warmer to save energy and told everyone to "dress comfortably"; but *no one* would if the Boss still dressed up!