Celtic Cloak Pin
Comments (0) Another one. This one is a special order for a friend. Main part made from 1/4 inch electric fence post. Pin made from rest of 16 penny nail used for rivet on the ladle. Waste not want not… 😉
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Punch
By Dave, March 3, 2007 11:56 pm
Needed a punch to make the holes in the ladle bowl and handle so this is what I made to get the job done. Made from a piece of 1/2 inch steel shafting. Fairly hard stuff.
Ladle for slack tub
By Dave, March 3, 2007 11:54 pm
Made a ladle for watering the coal from the slack tub. Ladle body was a piece of thick walled exhaust pipe. Handle was a piece of 1/4 inch electric fence post. Rivets were 16 penny nails cut off about a quarter inch from the head. Rivets were set hot.
My slack tub ladle, in all it’s glory… 😉
Back of bowl showing rivets connecting handle.
And the scroll at the end of the handle. Comfortable to use and easy to control. Over all I am rather pleased with it.
New forge
By Dave, March 3, 2007 11:47 pm
Built a new forge yesterday (friday). Pix and a bit of bs follow.
This is the barrel I started with. Tis an old project of my dads from many years ago. Now a forge for me! Removed the brake rotors from each end and cut more out around the existing hole.
This is the burner assembly out of a 5 radiant gas heater. A few plumbing fittings and a air line quick connect fitting and it becomes the air blower system for the new forge. I ran this all day long today and the compressor came on 6 or 7 times total. I think this is a very effective air control system.
Air hookup. Will change the air quick connect to the other side of the forge and make the connecting line out of copper pipe to prevent hot metal hitting the plastic air line (again)…
Before legs and clay this is what it looked like.
First fire. Clay has just been packed in and fire lit.
A piece of spring heated to working temp. Note firebrick in background. Am now using several of them to contain and shape the fire. Working very well. Over all I am very pleased with this design. I am going to build another one out of strictly hardware store available plumbing parts to do a demo on how to build a compressed air aspirated coal fired 55 gallon drum forge.
Ran this one for 8 hours today and burned about 20 to 25 pounds of coal. Maybe. Need to get the scales out and weigh the coal and see what the consumption is. Compressor came on 6 or 7 times that I remember.
First Tongs
By Dave, March 3, 2007 11:28 pm
These were made out of a bar of steel 3/8 thick x 3/4 wide x 24 inches long. Each jaw is 1/2 half that bar. Hours and hours and hours and lots of beating with a hammer. But they work so nice. So I guess it was all worth it. 😉 Now to make another 6 to 8 pair. Gonna use 1/2 inch coil spring for the next few pair.
Night light candle holder
By Dave, March 1, 2007 9:22 pm
This is something I made. I think I have seen something like it before but this is my way. May add a base or make a piece to hang it on but for now here it is.
Side view
Top view
Finger holder and top twist close up.
Bottom twist close up.
Celtic Cloak Pins
By Dave, March 1, 2007 9:16 pm
Made a couple of Cloak pins the other day. Here are the pix.
Celtic Cloak Pin Small
Celtic Cloak Pin Large
And no I have no idea why I faced one one way and the other one the other way for the picture. But thats the way it is… 😉
Me at the forge
By Dave, March 1, 2007 8:57 pm
As the title says. Do rag is to keep the locks from igniting from sparks or scale either at the forge or while welding.
Leg Vise
By Dave, March 1, 2007 8:54 pm
Got some pix of some of the stuff I have been doing. The following are pix of my old leg vise and the new pieces I made for it. The strap and spring are 1/4 inch thick lawnmower blade. The slotting tool, wedge and keeper are pieces of 1/4 inch plate I have had laying around for years. Got a piece of red oak tree trunk about 4 feet long and 30 inches in diameter, dug a hole about a foot deep and put it on end in said hole. Tamped the dirt back around it and mounted the vise on it with 3 lag bolts. Will get pix of it mounted soon.
Leg Vise with new mounting hardware.
New leg vise pieces. Left to right – Slot opening tool I made. Front leg opening spring. Wedge. Slotted strap. Keeper. Mount, which I didn’t make but heated, beat out and repunched the end hole.
Prior to bending the strap the punch was used to punch holes on both ends of each slot to keep them from splitting when cut open with the chisel. Punched hot. Punch 3/4s of the way through turn over and punch back through and out. Took me 2 heats on each hole. Hope to get quicker…
Again prior to bending the strap the chisel was used to punch through the slots between the punched holes. Done hot. Punch almost through and then turn over and back through. Punched into an aluminum billet I made from some old pistons a couple of years ago.
After the slots were punched through I made this tool to open the slots and allow me to beat on the edges of the strap to open the slot. Just heated one end of the piece of metal and beat the sides in till it would fit across the corners of the hardie hole. Heated the other end and beat it to a wedge shape then ground it to about a 45 degree angle. And yes hitting it on the sides does bend it a bit but if the strap is red hot it does the job it was made to do. A couple of taps with the hammer on the other side and it’s back straight. Good enough to do the job is fine at times… 😉
Specific Gravity Weights Of Materials from READE
By Dave, February 28, 2007 10:46 am
Specific Gravity Weights Of Materials from READE
Interesting info.
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.
Themocracy