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I'm lucky in that my wife supports most of my hobbies. Heck, it's actually her "fault" that I have a 911. I think as long as she gets the occasional twisty hook, etc out of the forge, she'll be happy. She's even spent some time on the one at my folks house and made a hook on her own. After the last trip to my parents' house, she now wants a wood lathe. Yes, I married very well!
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Josh 85 M491 Coupe - "Fat Bastard" |
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05-06-2010, 07:37 PM
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Join Date: May 2007
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Sounds like a plan Joe...
I guess I failed to document me putting my workshop together, I will try to get out there this weekend and take some pics... I will show the knife grinder I made, and I will show the forge that I am almost done with.. after that, I have to start on a natural gas forge that I will have inside the shop. I will use the coal forge that I am building outside during the summer, and I will use the gas forge indoors during the winter... I am constructing my coal forge to where I can take it down and travel with it if I choose to do so... I still have a few tool arms that I need to make as well for my grinder...
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He was a helluva plumber and his outfit was self explanatory |
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05-06-2010, 07:40 PM
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Quote:
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05-06-2010, 07:42 PM
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Would love to see shots of your shop and any tools/tooling that you've made. Also would like to hear more about the gas forge you're building. My dad built his, but I see tons of room for improvement. I'd also go with at least 2 burners and a trap door out the back. His is square (easier to lay in fire brick), but the round seem to have better heat distribution.
My thought is to go oversized square, lined with fire brick, then a layer of marwool (sp?) to make the chamber rounded, then finish with a coating of the "marwool plaster" (not sure what it's called). Then set two burners in the top, just off from 90* to create a slight vortex in the chamber and hopefully get a more even heat. I haven't looked in years, but I'm sure there are some nice plans available on-line now-a-days.
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Josh 85 M491 Coupe - "Fat Bastard" |
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05-07-2010, 09:08 AM
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I'll get out there tomorrow and take some pics... The wife and I pulled everything out of our storage room today, went in and built shelves and carried everything back in and organized it. So needless to say I am a little pooped right now... Basically Josh, I'll tell you what I have got planned with the gas forge... I was given a large propane bottle about 5-6ft tall, approximately 16-18" in diameter, and I cut a 24" piece out of the center. I plan on welding on 4 legs to it and I will close off the back. (I figure that it will be more than large enough for doing any size knife I need, anything larger such as a sword, I will just do outside on the conventional forge) I am planning on using 2" Kaowool blankets inside and then coating the blankets (I have narrowed my coatings down to two but can't remember their names at the moment) I will install light weight fire bricks to line the bottom of the forge to give me a surface to lay my items on. I will utilize two burners like you have mentioned, but the only difference is my forge will be natural gas (since I have a natural gas line next to my shop) so I will have to have forced air attached to the burners in order to get up to temperature. I have came up with a pretty good idea that will be portable and will attach to which ever forge that I am using. My friend gave me a gas leaf blower that is no longer working and I took it a apart and salvaged the squirrel cage out of it along with the shaft. I will build a frame and mount a 1hp electric motor to the squirrel cage (Not really a squirrel cage, but I hate to call it the air maker lol) I will attach it to which ever forge I am using with some type of flexible tubing (maybe some hose off of a large shop vac etc..) I will have a trap door built into each of the forges that I can open to decrease the static pressure on the line and decrease the amount of airflow through the forge without having to have a motor controller to reduce motor rpms... To be honest, I would think that you could find a bad large propane cylinder such as I have and you would not need the fire brick. The 2' Kaowool would easily line the interior and you would not loose any heat. I think the hardest part of the whole plan is going to be grinding down the 1 1/2" square tubing in such a way to where they fit snug on the round cylinder for the legs..
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05-07-2010, 06:24 PM
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My conventional forge, I wanted to make portable... so what I am sorta doing is making 1/2 conventional forge 1/2 brake drum forge... it is almost complete, all I have left to do is finish cutting the plate that will bolt to the brake drum and attach my 2" piping to it... my greatest achievement so far has been my knife grinder.... it is really the first time I ever attempted to build something like this, and I am really happy in how it turned out.... I took some of the best design aspects that I could find in the market place and then made some additional changes to it that I think make it probably one of the best grinders around... One thing that I did that I have not seen on any other grinder either commercial or homemade, is that in addition to the tool arms being able to be taken off and installed with lightening speed, I also made my tool rest to be like my tool arms... I can take it on and off with ease and I can adjust the distance away from the belt with ease. This allows me to make myself several different sizes/shapes of tool rests, and I can take them on and off just like I would a tool arm. I made my own platen and I even built a tool arm tree for storing my tool arms... now all I need to do is fill it up with some goodies... I am currently building a small radius tool arm that I designed, Norm Coote, that manufactures the Coote grinder fabricated the items that I needed for the project, and once my bearings that I ordered come in I should be able to finish putting it together...
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05-07-2010, 06:49 PM
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Well, went ahead and went outside and took some pics... excuse the poor quality, I plan on starting a new thread soon on a new digital camera...
The outside of the shop, what you can see of it anyways....  The inside of the shop (excuse the mess)  A couple pics of my grinder... as you can see the tool rest has a receiver tube just like the tool arms. Yes this will be my claim to fame as far as grinders go  you can see the tool arm tree I built in the back ground...  
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05-07-2010, 07:24 PM
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Here's the wood/coal forge that I am working on....
 The piece of the propane tank that will become my gas forge....  and the parts I salvaged from the leaf blower... 
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05-07-2010, 07:28 PM
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What you can't see in the photos is my dura coat/paint station that I built (still need to make a canopy to catch over spray) and my metal working area for cutting and welding... also my bandsaw and sanding stations... if you look closely, I still have alot of work to do around the shop... I am running my grinder and buffers off of 120v right now, and I still need to run 240v to them and hook up some switches to them. My to do list is a mile long, but I just scratch them off as I get'em done...
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05-07-2010, 07:34 PM
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That wood/coal forge, I need to drill holes where the legs go into the table, and I will have pins that hold them in place. I will be able to unpin them and pull the legs off... the brake drum and piping will pull out the top and will totally disassemble.
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05-07-2010, 07:41 PM
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WOW! You're definitely not invited over to my house if you think your shop is messy. Looks pretty good from what I can see. I also like you plan. Sounds like a nice layout with just about every tool you'll need w/ it's own dedicated station.
If you haven't already gotten a copy of "The Hammer," be on the lookout for any volume you can find. It's a paper back book that is a culmination of some great articles from various black smithing publications. There's a ton of how to and quick tip type info that'll save you a lot of time in the end. Also, since you obviously like making your own tools (very nice grinder by the way!), you have to check out Lindsay Books. Lindsay's Technical Books You can find plans to build dang near anything, including a few cool blacksmith tools. You've really gotten me excited about trying to get back into bladesmithing. My big issue now, is that we're hoping to move (better school for the kids) and will most likely "suffer' a substantial down size in lot size. Tell me again about trading futures....
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Josh 85 M491 Coupe - "Fat Bastard" |
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05-08-2010, 10:41 PM
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You can do it Josh!, it's good that you are in the position you are in... this way, when you are looking at new homes, you already have an idea of what you need... I live in town on 2 lots... my house on one, and the shop on the other. Originally, I had built this building as a car port / party area... Luckily I built it stout enough to where all I needed to do was enclose it and run electrical to it... about the only thing I don't have room for is a air/hydraulic hammer... I will have to do a 6x12' addition to the building in a year or so to get that to fit without being in the way of anything. I still haven't decided which way I will go of either air/hydraulic... I am sort of leaning hydraulic as this would be less noisy and give alot more pressure and control over working the steel... btw, thanks for the recommendations on the books...
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05-09-2010, 12:56 PM
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Ahhh, if only that were the case. Where I am now, would be perfect. Unfortunately, the school system is far from perfect, so we're moving (hopefully) to one of those cookie cutterish type neighborhoods. Not so good for us, but great for the kids. The checkbook is also a limiting factor, hence the "learn me about futures" comment.
Although after a weekend like this one (70* and sunny), we're realizing it may be a lot harder than we thought to leave behind a big lot. If you can find one of the old trip hammers (electric), they are the way to go. Scariest thing you'll ever touch and live to tell about (hopefully). Damn near shat myself a brick the first time I used one. Not too intimidating watching from the side lines - whole different story when it's your fingers on the line. Glad you like the Lindsay Books site. I've spent countless hours dreaming about all of the cool, stupid and useless things that I need to make. Already had the foundry planned out along with the casting stations, so I could start making my own lathe, shaper, bandsaw, etc... ISBN for Best of the Hammer is 0943228050. Not sure if it's still in print or not, but well worth the search. Their articles run the gambit from building samurai armor to damascus tips.
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Josh 85 M491 Coupe - "Fat Bastard" |
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05-09-2010, 08:36 PM
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Hey Josh,
sorry I've been outta the loop for a while, Hey man, if you need to get to a cookie cutter neighborhood it's cool... I had a friend that set up a portable building in his back yard in one of those communities and just painted it to match his house.. ran power to it, insulated it and put in an a/c (geez I need a/c about 110 degrees in the shop today) I think his was about 12x24 and he had plenty of room fwiw... I just got a couple more completed and thought I would pass some photos along...  
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05-25-2010, 04:10 PM
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Bill,
Love the upper one! Any chance these might be for sale?  Joe
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05-25-2010, 04:31 PM
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Sorry Joe, these two got shipped out yesterday.... I am currently working on 4 knives which will probably carry me over to the middle of next week. I know that you are not a fan of stainless steel, so let me just say that I almost have my forge completed... I have some 5160 on hand and can begin working it probably once I get these orders completed.. Just shoot me a PM and I will give you a heads up when I am ready to go...
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05-25-2010, 04:41 PM
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05-25-2010, 05:56 PM
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Bill - you're making me jealous and bringing great shame to my forge (or lack of)
 Great looking knives. That bottom one reminds me of one of the old knifes my parents have in their kitchen. One of the most useful and used knives and has been a part of their daily life as long as far back as I can remember. Snipe - welcome back! Which blade, 1 or 2? It'll be a while before I'll have a working shop again. House just went on the market today. Good news is the wife is now anti-HOA, which means we can look for houses with more property and privacy. Time to start looking for a trip hammer
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Josh 85 M491 Coupe - "Fat Bastard" |
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05-25-2010, 06:26 PM
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Thanks for the warm welcome!
Anything Damascus and double edged would be perfect. The bigger the better.
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05-25-2010, 06:29 PM
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I should've figured. How 'bout something that is good for slaying nightmarish dragons
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Josh 85 M491 Coupe - "Fat Bastard" |
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05-25-2010, 06:40 PM
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Fat Bastard
