Home Projects

(2/11/2001)
Now that I've got a shop, although still limited, I think I'll start a "gallery" of the projects as I complete them, and maybe even in progress.

First, my shop was still missing a very important tool. Tongs. I looked around the classifieds but couldn't find any general purpose ones. And at E-bay, I just didn't feel like spending $20 (after shipping). We haven't gotten to making tongs in class yet, so I thought this might be a good time to pick up something on my own. Blacksmiths make their own tongs, right?

I found several tong plans on the net, plus every blacksmithing book has its own set of plans. I settled on some plans found on AnvilFire. They looked simple enough - no tricky upsetting - just drawing down some 1" X 3/8" stock and a twist at the end for the jaws. And I actually had some stock the right size from the scrap yard.

Here's one half of the set of tongs. Drawing that 1" (actually more like 1 1/8)down to 3/8 square was a whole lot more work than expected. All I had was a 2lb ball pein hammer, so I was fullering with the ball and then flattening and drawing the bumps. I thought my hand was going to explode. But it still felt good - even productive.

And now here are the finished tongs. The other half was drawn out using a 2 1/2lb cross-pein, a real "blacksmith hammer". This definitely made the going easier. I rounded the 3/8" square reins using my good ol' ball-pein. I think faster, lighter hits with a lighter hammer got better results than bashing with the heavier hammer.

One thing about these tongs.  As ugly as they are, I now feel like a "real" blacksmith. From a bar of junk I made a very useful tool, something I needed to continue. And continue I will.

(05/19/2001)
Most of the time has been spent getting my forge (and shop) up to a more workable condition. I also got myself an arc welder, a Miller Thunderbolt AC/DC.  So I had to wire up 220V to the shop. But I did find the time to play around with a few projects.

This is a latch for my garage door. My garage doors are big, swing-out types. Basically, the left side of the latch is on the outside of the garage, er, shop. The center goes through a pipe through a hole in the door header. In the down position, the wooden piece on the left holds the door closed. Pretty complicated, huh? It's a two-piece assembly, put together using a cam through a slot on the right. The handle on the right allows me to lock/unlock the door from the inside.

This was made out of rebar.  One thing I found out about rebar, it's a hardenable metal.  When quenched in water it 1) becomes brittle, and 2) it hardens to the point of not being drillable.  Annealing fixes both problems.

Here's a closeup of the cam. I made it a cam to tighten up the assembly once mounted. To put it together, I tapped the cam handle into the slot, then screwed the handle to the wooden piece.

This latch is something I've been needing for about 20 years. I tried putting together all sorts of complicated spring latches, but the recently discovered blacksmith in me made it possible.  I also made a similar latch for my garbage bin.

I got a dozen railroad spikes at the flea market to play with.  So far I've only made a knife.

You can see I still need some practice on my hammer control.

Other projects (but no pics) - A coathook for my wife's office, scrolling pliers converted from a pair of cheap import pliers, and a hot-cut chisel.

That's it for now - more to come.

(07/05/2001)
Most of the projects I've been making have been tools. I've done a few more leaf keyrings for friends, but every time I get an idea for something new, I think of a tool to I "need" for it.  Whatever I hammer (or weld) on, though, it's fun and my wife knows where I am at night.

Some of these projects are going to be mostly, if not completely, fabricator's weld-up type projects, as opposed to blacksmith's forged projects. For me, anyway, this was a natural outgrowth from blacksmithing. That, and the need to weld up tools, is taking me to the welder almost as much as to the forge. I hope you blacksmith purists out there don't mind the tangent.

 

Here's my new-to-me anvil on my home-made stand. This entire contraption (minus the anvil, of course) was built out of scrap-yard stuff. Between the anvil and the I-beam is a piece of 11/2" thick plywood. This very effectively kills the clang of the I-beam. I don't know if it makes a difference, but I lag-screwed the plywood to the I-beam and the anvil to to the plywood. Basically I left no metal-to-metal contact between the anvil and I-beam. I just had this feeling that connecting the anvil directly to the I-beam would have transmitted energy acoustically through the bolts longitudinal axis into I-beam, which would thence resonate at a frequency of ...  oh, never mind. It's quiet now.

Below the plywood is the 12" X 8" X 15" long I-beam, the two legs made of 4" pipe X 6" long, and two 2" X 6" X 15" channel feet. When I first put it together, I ran into an un-anticipated problem. When a 140 lb anvil is secured to the top of a 12" I-beam (even with 1/2" thick steel), the I-beam sways. Just a hand tap on the side of the anvil caused the anvil to vibrate sideways. I felt this might be a bad thing, as my hammer control is bad enough without having to hit a moving target. Hence the 11/2" black pipe supports on the back. These fixed the sway.

The whole stand weighs in at about 80 lbs, bringing the entire assembly to 220 lbs. It's still light enough to drag around the shop, but should be heavy enough for my purposes (for now). I should teach it to walk, as it looks a little like one of those Star Wars robot extras :-)

I needed something to help me hold long pieces in the forge. When I put together my forge cart, I made it a more convenient height, but that put it out of reach of the stand I had. So I made a new one. As you can see, it's made out of rebar, except for the piece that holds the stock. I even forged the brackets that hold it in place.

And it all tucks in close to the cart, out of the way when not in use.


My next project will involve twisting. Previously I had been using an adjustable crescent wrench, but I had an idea for an "invention". Suppose I weld (I can do that, now) a bar onto an old, right-angle, adjustable wrench? The wrench came from the flea market (about $1 if I remember correctly) and I made the handle from scrap stock. I thought I was pretty clever until I ran across the same idea on some web site a week ago. Well, maybe it's still clever, just not original.

(09/23/01)

I made this candle stand for my brother-in-law's housewarming. This involved making a basket twist, collars, and candle pans; none of which I've tried before. It's also bigger in three dimensions than what can fit in the forge. To work the pieces that didn't fit in the forge, for example getting the legs to stand straight, I bought a used carbon-arc torch. This will easily melt steel if you're not careful, but is a lot cheaper than an oxy-gas setup.
For the pans, I carved a dish depression out of a piece of 1" thick oak and used this as a swage and worked the pans hot. The first two pans caused a lot of smoke and flames, but the "swage" carbon'ed up pretty well, so the third one wasn't so bad. If I get into doing more of this type work, I might have to get a real swage.


Some more projects.


The world's ugliest Smithin' Magician, with hot cutters in place. I basically made this with some junkyard stock I had on hand, hence all the welds. To keep the guides for the dies in line while welding, I used a piece of die stock (3/4" X 2" mild steel) that was the full height and shimmed it with some sheet metal. It was a real tight fit and took some hammering to remove the die stock after welding, but without the shims it slides very nicely. This piece was then cut at a 45 deg angle, heated then super-quenched, to become the hotcut dies.
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This is a coat-hook to hang on my cubicle at work. Those not familiar with what a cubicle is should read "Dilbert" more often. Those who are will understand why I love my shop.

(07/26/2002) I've actually been spending some decent time in the shop. Too many little projects to detail here, but here's one that I really liked.



My sister likes irises and I looked at some and felt this was something I could do. This one is made of 16g sheet metal. I figured the best way to make this is to texture and curve the petals first, attach to the stem, then bend in place. The smaller petals are attached beneath the large ones and bent between the large petals to bring them out front. This is actually how the natural ones in my yard were formed.


(10/18/02)
A fireplace set. Not done the "traditional" way, as in the traditional way that 19th century smiths would have forge-welded the hooks and handles. I used my "20th century traditional" method of arc-welding those pieces. But I'm getting better at that and the braided handles came out ok, too.




And now an achievement. This is my first sale!!! A co-worker wanted a set of skewers for a present for her Dad and I was more than happy to comply. The tough part on these was figuring out how to attach the scrolled handles to the stem. Brazing left that bronze color that I couldn't get rid of. I ended up getting a TIG torch for my arc welder. I've got to scratch-start, and there's no remote control, but TIG'ing was fun and it came out fairly well. She (the *customer*) loved it and has ordered another set.




A ram's head letter opener. I like the way the head came out, but the handle is too long. A fun project, though.




An earlier project, before I figured out how to widen leaves. Still came out decent. Makes a good housewarming gift.

(05/15/03)



A couple Christmas presents.




A present for a friend. This one is notable (to me) because it's my first pure sculpture (titled "Gethsemane"); "pure" meaning that it doesn't have any other function, such as a candle stand. Also, the base was forge-welded in my gas forge and it came out about as good as any weld I've seen. I think the trick is to not worry about it.

(01/01/2004) HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I've completed quite a few more projects since the last time, but I've been remiss in taking pictures. Maybe a New Years Resolution? Anyway, here are a couple roses I made for my wife. I call them Rail Roses. They're based on the "Russian Rose", but with a railroad spike. It sure would help to have a power hammer, as flattening that 5/8" spike to make the petals can be tiring.