Specific Gravity Weights Of Materials from READE
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Interesting info.
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New Header Pix
By Dave, February 27, 2007 11:14 am
From left to right:
Me taking the mounting hardware I have just finished off the leg vice to take pix of all the pieces.
The first 4 leaf clover (Cat found it) of the season in a 1/4 inch monkey tool.
The Champion blower on my forge.
My anvil shaped object on it’s stump.
Will try to get all the pix of the recent projects resized and up soon.
Smedjan Ramvik – Tor Holmlund
By Dave, February 25, 2007 11:00 am
Interesting Swedish blacksmith’s site. Like the bowls and cannon amoung other things….
Bits and pieces
By Dave, February 24, 2007 8:30 pm
Been a bits and pieces kind of week.
Today started with cutting a foot or so off a old desk leg (1 inch square tubing with a screw adjuster on the bottom) and using it to tighten the belt between the air compressor and motor. Checked and then changed the oil in the compressor. Also drained and refilled the oil in the forge blower. Much quieter now, both of them. Had to regrind the tip on the good but broken largest flatblade to get the screws out. And had to make a small funnel to refill the compressor. Sequentially yours…
Decided to finish the hot cut hardy as the copper wire is now done. Broke and cut the guide wings off and ground the edges down and got it ready to weld. Clamped it in the big pipe vice and cranked the welder up. Welded the tip to the pipe then put a square sleeve around the base and welded the top edge to the pipe. Went to test fit it in the hardy hole and noticed how bad the edges were.
This is a real POS Anvil Shaped Object but its my POSASO so decided to see if I could weld to it. I think it’s cast iron as it came from the foundry down on 22nd or 23rd street in anniston, al where they make them. Anyway, moved it and its stump around to the front of the barn and ground a bit on the rough edges and cut down to clean metal on all the really bad and pitted places. Ground a bit on the horn and hooked the ground electrode there, got a hand full of 6011 rods and cranked the welder up. Welded fine. Took some fiddling with the control to cut the arc down enough to keep whatever kind of metal it is made of from running/burning away from the added metal but after getting the feel of it was able to weld it fine. Got some copper pipe and flattened it then bent it to fit the hardy hole and put it in there and welded up to it. Managed to melt it a couple of times and have to tear it loose, but got a nice upper edge without having to file and grind the inside. Ground the surface down a few times and refilled low spots. Filled in a couple of other places in the surface and one bad one on the edge. Over all looks much better. Will know more when I work on it again.
Moved it back to the side of the barn and then cleaned the forge out. Sifted the small sand and chinkers out and put the bigger pieces back in.
Took a break and went to the campsite to look at things there. Decided to use the tractor and do a bit of landscaping. Spent the remander of the day cutting a ditch and dropping the level of the ground on the west side of the roundhouse to reroute the water into the creek from the lake rather than the into the crossing which is causing so much erosion. Should know tomorrow when the rain gets here whether it is sloped enough or whether I need to do more.
At dark came back to the barn and put stuff up before the rain gets here. Looked at the shinny new surface of the anvil and got a old vcr case that beat it into a cover for the top. Should keep the rain off anyway. 🙂
Spent the past couple of days clearing the woods between the old trailer and bills bus. Trying to get it clear enough to move the cars from the field to a new temp resting place while they wait to be stripped and recycled. Still got another day or so to go with the clearing but need to wait a day or two before fighting the tractor again. Am hurting but not as bad as usual. Hope this able to work spell lasts a bit longer.
The 2 days prior to that was mostly spent digging cans out of the mud and briars down in the field. Got 2 to 3 loads left and hope to get them gone first of the coming week. Cleared some of the area down there with the tractor and scrape blade already but got a lot more to go. Digging stuff out of the muck and vines that have been there for 20 years. Some of it is still usable.
The past few days have included a bit of computer/electronics work and also cut up some more wood from fallen trees for heat. Got about 4 or 5 more keep a roaring fire all day long type days worth in the wood room and another 3 to 4 weeks worth waiting to be cut up. Hope that will finish out this heating season.
Arms and hands are giving out so will close for now.
Custom car builder creates world’s fastest office
By Dave, February 21, 2007 8:44 pm
Custom car builder creates “world’s fastest office” – Engadget
Far too much time on his hands…
The Opulent Outhouse
By Dave, February 21, 2007 1:36 pm
Can we say “overkill” boys and girls? This is the most over the top waste (HA-HA) of taxpayers moneys I have seen since the upteen thousand dollar toilet seats (other than the comander and chief idiot’s war). And it can’t be used in cold weather cause its a composting toilet and they don’t work when it gets cold, so the forestry service (or whatever) locks the doors in the winter. Idiots, the whole bloody lot of them…
[Sharp edged tools]—Sanjo Industrial Cooperative
By Dave, February 21, 2007 12:59 am
[Sharp edged tools]—Sanjo Industrial Cooperative “Echigo Manufacturing Network”
Check out the video link under the pix on the right of the page. Love the guy using his feet to turn the chisel while he is filing it. I’d say he has done that a time or two before. Also like the dude putting the hard facing on the chisels with his bare hands. Not to mention the forging machine toward the end that rocks on each blow. Wonderful stuff! Just wish I could understand what they were saying… 😉
Modern Blacksmithing, 1904
By Dave, February 21, 2007 12:25 am
Interesting book. Good info for anyone playing with smithing.
I Forge Iron – VG0001Cornmeal Cookies
By Dave, February 17, 2007 9:35 pm
I Forge Iron – VG0001Cornmeal Cookies
Interesting sounding recipe. Will have to try it soon. May make some changes but the cornmeal sounds like a good idea. Bet they stay softer than straight flour sugar butter cookies.
Tongs, the burning
By Dave, February 16, 2007 8:57 pm
Modified the forge this morning to allow for longer pieces to be in the fire. Cut a 10 inch or so piece of drive shaft and then split it lengh wise, making two half round pieces 10 inches long. Used the cuting torch and cut half rounds of the approate size out of each side to the right and left of the blower. Fired up the Zena welder and after clamping them into place welded them to the sides of the brake drum.
Started a fire and loaded the coal in and started heating the tongs to add additional notches down the handle. Did two more and then heated the pivot or hinge plate and punched a hole for the rivet. That was cool! Never punched a hole in red hot steel before. Drilled a bunch but this was as fast or faster. And didn’t weaken the structure as it displaces most of the metal to the sides. Only a thin piece punches out.
Put the piece back in the fire and started heating it again. Took a minute to get a piece of metal to put around the fire so the north wind wasn’t blowing the smoke in my face. Cranked the handle again a few times and took out the rod to the second notch. Had burned it in to or is that in two? So spent an hour trying to forge weld the two pieces back together. No go. Arc welded them and then started beating it down after reheating. Still got to do some more but am gonna wait for a day that isn’t so cold with the north wind blowing right on the anvil.
Had a bunch of copper wire that needed to have the insulation stripped off so got to looking at it. Took a hammer and chisel and cut it off of one piece but that was a lot of work. So looked at the forge and decided to make a cold cut hardy with side guides to hold the wire centered on the chisel edge.
Found a piece of 3/4 inch water pipe, cut it to about 4 inches long and then cut it from one end down the middle about an inch and a half. Put it in the fire and heated it to a cherry red then flattened it on 4 sides about 2 inches from the uncut end. Heated it again and put it in the vice and opened the cut end up enough to get the edge over the fuller. Reheated it and hammered it down on the top edge of the fuller till it bottomed out in the cut on each side. Hammered the sides flat and then reheated it and shaped it to the biggest wire over the end of the anvil.
Got a piece of mild steel about 3/4 inch in diameter that had been the front roller axles on the pallet jack that I converted to three point hitch lift on the tractor. Heated it to a nice cherry and beat hell out of it. Heat and repeat about 5 times till I got a nice chisel point about an inch and a half long and wide. Took it still glowing to the grinder and ground a chisel edge on it then cooled the edge in water. Cut the end off just under where the flattening started and ground 4 sides on it. Drove it in the hole in the pipe from the previous paragraph and clamped it and arc welded it in place. Put it in the hardy hole and fitted the sides to the wire with a hammer and then split the insulation with a couple of blows of a hammer. Move an inch and a half and repeat. Got the job done in a very short time on the largest size of wire. Will reshape the sides to the next smallest size wire and repeat till it’s all stripped. Then plan to cut the sides off and weld all the way around and use as a hot cut hardy.
Insulation Cutter Hardy Edge View
Insulation Cutter Hardy Bottom View
Insulation Cutter Hardy Side View
Insulation Cutter Hardy Top View
Tongs – The begining
By Dave, February 15, 2007 9:41 pm
I made the fuller first so I could use it to make these tongs. I am making these tongs along the lines of the ones shown in the tutorial at anvilfire about the Dempsey Twist. Started with a 25 inch piece of 3/8 x 3/4 steel. Got one end turned and shaped a bit. If you look close you may note that with the 3 fuller slots and the twist and a bit of beating on the jaw that the bar has already grown length wise to 26 inches. Below are the pictures. Click on the thumbnail to view a larger version, back button on browser to return here.
Tongs full length view
Tongs inside side view – This side will be the inside of the hinge joint. Will punch a hole in the flat area just to the right of the jaws, which are on the left side of the picture. The 2 dimples in the bottom center are the shape the fuller makes. Will make more of these on toward the right and then hammer the humps out between them. It’s a lot easier to move the metal this way with the fuller than just by hammering the hot metal.
Tongs outside side view – The other side. 😉
Tongs back view – Both pieces are the same shape. Just got to remember to turn the jaws in the same direction when twisting them into shape.
That’s all for now. Will try to get some pix of the forge, anvil and other stuff in the near future. Tis all real high tech stuff… 😉
Fuller
By Dave, February 15, 2007 9:20 pm
Found the camera so here are some pix of the bottom fuller. Or that’s it’s primary purpose. Will also be used to form different shapes in metal so guess it has another name too but no idea what it would be right now. Started life as a piece cut off a rail road rail. This is the top rail portion. The curved side was the really worn inside part of the rail. Took up to a yellow heat quite a few times to get it beat into this shape. Pix taken on a piece of pegboard. Holes are 1/4 inch in diameter and spaced on a 1 inch grid to give a feel of the size. Click on the thumbnails to see larger versions of the pictures and use your back button to return here.
Fuller side view 1
Fuller side view 2
Fuller top view – Took quite a few heatings and beatings to get it this narrow on top. Ground it smooth on the bench grinder and then used the belt sander to finish it off.
Fuller Bottom View – My hardy hole is 7/8 inch square. Had to upset (heat and hammer back into it’s self) the hardy end of this a bit to get it to fit the hole. It started out about 3/4 inch square. I think the hardy fitting is about 3/8s of an inch shorter now than before I started beating on it.
Another day that was
By Dave, February 15, 2007 9:01 pm
Well the problems that I thought I was having with PCLOS 2007 TR2 was actually a combonation of motherboard and cdrom drive in the computer I was using as a test machine. Still not sure what the motherboard or processor problem is but tis trash now. Not that I broke it but it’s in pieces to be recycled. Not worth the time or trouble to try to fix it so got another even slower machine and moved the hard drive into it and had boot problems. So put the cdrom drive in it and it wouldn’t boot from the livecd. Put another cdrom drive in it and booted fine so reinstalled to the hard drive and everything is fine. Guess the cold was too much for it/them. Took several hours to determine just what was going on as everything was working (kinda) last night but wouldn’t boot this morning. Hate it when that happens!
Even with the cold I got out this afternoon and did a bit of work at the forge. Finished grinding and polishing the bottom fuller so tongs are next. Got the jaw on one half twisted over and the next fuller indention done, part of the hinge shaped and the next indention down the handle made before it got too dark to see what I was doing. Got to find the camera and I wll take pix of the pieces. Know it’s around here somewhere… 🙁
PCLOS 2007 testing release 2 is now out!
By Dave, February 14, 2007 7:28 pm
Index of /pub/metalab/distributions/texstar/pclinuxos/live-cd/english/preview
PCLOS 2007 testing release 2 is now out!!! Downloading it now from the above link. 18 minutes to go… 😉
Made a fuller today
By Dave, February 14, 2007 1:09 am
This afternoon actually. Had been fighting a computer all day trying to get XP reinstalled without having to wipe and reformat and by about 4:30 pm decided I had had more than enough.
Since the rain had stopped quite a while earlier decided to walk to the barn and try to do a bit on making a fuller. Found the cut off piece of the railroad rail I planned to use, started a fire in the forge, and started heating it. Upset and squared the bottom end on the first and second heats to fit the hardy hole then went to work on the top edge. The piece was about 7/8s of an inch thick and I wanted a 3/8 to 1/2 max outside rim, so started beating it down to size.
Really needed to have the leg vice on a stand but got most of the reshaping done on the anvil (shaped object). Bill came up from a walk and cranked the blower for me while I heated and beat the piece. Guess it took about 35 to 40 minutes to get it to where I could no longer see well enough to call it a night.
Took it into the barn and used the grinder and then the belt sander and cleaned it up and sanded it down. Not bad looking and I think it will do the job as well as being a shaped piece that I can use to form on.
Planning on using it to make a pair of tongs tomorrow. Will see how well it works and try to get some pix of it and the tongs. Did heat the ends of the steel bar I am gonna use and cut the threaded ends off using my hot cut for the first time. Neat stuff, cutting red hot iron. Almost as much fun as reforming it into something else… 😉
Appalachian Blacksmiths Association
By Dave, February 14, 2007 12:01 am
Appalachian Blacksmiths Association
Lot of good info on powerhammers and blacksmithing. Several different designs that lead to new ideas of doing it on the cheap… 😉
The Artful Bodger’s Home Foundry – Home
By Dave, February 13, 2007 11:57 pm
The Artful Bodger’s Home Foundry – Home
If he can do it so can I. Would like to have the book but I think I have figured out how he injects the oil into the airstream and am gonna try it out soon.
melt metal, home metalcasting, backyard metalcasting
By Dave, February 13, 2007 11:54 pm
melt metal, home metalcasting, backyard metalcasting
Bunch of interesting and dangerous stuff here. Wish he had more detailed writeups but there is a lot of info nonetheless… Good Stuff!
Themocracy