Community Forums

olcarguy · 01-27-2018, 09:37 AM

Is old age getting me or didn't you post a pic of a sign your neighbour you pranked with your bicycle the other day....could not read it on my phone as it was too small and came back to look for it on the main puter at home...did you take it down or was it moderated out......I use the twofer method a lot.....nice even twist.....

Wroughtnharv · 01-27-2018, 09:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by olcarguy

Is old age getting me or didn't you post a pic of a sign your neighbour you pranked with your bicycle the other day....could not read it on my phone as it was too small and came back to look for it on the main puter at home...did you take it down or was it moderated out......I use the twofer method a lot.....nice even twist.....

This might get moderated out but for the guys here they can appreciate the humor

Franka548 · 01-27-2018, 05:51 PM

:

Frank

olcarguy · 01-28-2018, 06:42 AM

See some people have no sense of funny.

That is funny.

You might get your wrist slapped

Harve....

Hit_the_Rhod · 01-28-2018, 06:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wroughtnharv

I recommend blacksmithing for everyone. I say it’s the great twofer.

The pictures show what I’m talking about. Neighbor wanted a knife made from a railroad spike because his dad has been a man who worked on the railroads. He had heard that blacksmiths can make a knife out of railroad spikes and it was the first thing he asked about blacksmithing when I alerted him to the likelihood of hammering noises becoming a regular sound in the neighborhood.

We twisted a spike for him and for us it was a failure because we used a Crescent wrench to grip the hot spike for the twist. It moved the twist down almost an inch because the space of the wrench jaws takes and the fact that it was a heat sink and cooled down that end instantly.

CIL pulled up a photo of a tool some blacksmith had made that gripped the head of the spike. I looked at the picture and thought it was a good start. Ten minutes later I had the first part of the twofer. I had made our own version of the tool and it works even better than we hoped.

The twofer is you not only get to make things, you get to make things to make things with......

That's a handy tool you've made there! Tools are only limited to your ingenuity (and necessity). A friend of mine and I designed a small portable mini forge that can fit into a 5 gallon bucket. See:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...rofile_created

We went through about 6 iterations of design, and then he did the kickstarter above. One last tweak and he'll be filling orders! I cut them out and he packages them up and sends them out. It's a tiny little thing, but if knife making, glass beads, or just heating up small stuff is all you need it's great. There is a removable door on the back end for working with larger pieces that need "thru put" as it were. It would fit just fine in a storage bay under the coach!

I've not done much blacksmithing myself, but I really enjoy watching someone who knows what they are doing! Kinds like watching someone working heavy machinery, dozer, back hoe, track hoe, etc. And after that "erection sign" you posted, I have to state that the last is a piece of earth moving equipment, NOT a gal at the racetrack

. . . . Geez guys, get your minds out of the gutter!

Wroughtnharv · 01-28-2018, 08:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hit_the_Rhod

That's a handy tool you've made there! Tools are only limited to your ingenuity (and necessity). A friend of mine and I designed a small portable mini forge that can fit into a 5 gallon bucket. See:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...rofile_created

We went through about 6 iterations of design, and then he did the kickstarter above. One last tweak and he'll be filling orders! I cut them out and he packages them up and sends them out. It's a tiny little thing, but if knife making, glass beads, or just heating up small stuff is all you need it's great. There is a removable door on the back end for working with larger pieces that need "thru put" as it were. It would fit just fine in a storage bay under the coach!

I've not done much blacksmithing myself, but I really enjoy watching someone who knows what they are doing! Kinds like watching someone working heavy machinery, dozer, back hoe, track hoe, etc. And after that "erection sign" you posted, I have to state that the last is a piece of earth moving equipment, NOT a gal at the racetrack

. . . . Geez guys, get your minds out of the gutter!

That's pretty neat. The hiccup as I see it is blacksmithing is a lot like RV-ing in that you can start with a tear drop trailer but you will never be truly happy until you have the 45' Prevost with driver.........

I'm at the 25 year old diesel pusher stage myself, blacksmithing and RV-ing.

Hit_the_Rhod · 01-29-2018, 07:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wroughtnharv

That's pretty neat. The hiccup as I see it is blacksmithing is a lot like RV-ing in that you can start with a tear drop trailer but you will never be truly happy until you have the 45' Prevost with driver.........

I'm at the 25 year old diesel pusher stage myself, blacksmithing and RV-ing.

Yup, ours is 18 years old, and it's getting older every day! We'll catch up with you soon! . . . wait, yours will be getting older too . . . darn it . . . . The COOL thing is that both of us have TITLES! and NO MORTGAGE on them!

I couldn't say that about the 45' Prevost. Although a 25 year old DRIVER, if of the correct persuasion might be a plus . . .

Wroughtnharv · 02-01-2018, 08:39 PM

We have had a lot of things happening but just nothing worth posting about. We've got a ton of small stuff done and some neat projects started but not at the point of sharing with photographs.

The interior of the shed is about 90% done. I still have to install the brackets for hanging the shovels etc. And detailing the arrangement of stuff on the pegboard is above my pay scale.

My work area around the forge and anvil is working out good. Hot metal time has been limited but we've got some cool projects coming up. The project this afternoon involves making a rack for food in the "bout an hour" cooker We have a model of what we need and we're making our version of it. Cuz has two of the cookers but only one rack. So we're making a rack for the Yuma cooker.

A month from now we'll be pulling out headed back to Texas.

Franka548 · 02-04-2018, 05:58 PM

Shed looks good Harvey.and of course projects are always good, even if they are only partial.
Frank

Wroughtnharv · 02-05-2018, 09:04 AM

Here it is, another day in paradise, Yuma foothills. We're settled into a routine and it feels pretty good

I'll make breakfast for everyone, best thing about me, dad, cousin, and cousin in law. This morning it will be pancakes, eggs with jalopenas, and thick sliced apple flavored bacon.

Then Glenda will walk dad down a block and back, 91, be 92 next month, and he loves the walk. Then Glenda takes me out for a walk, usually about two miles. There are literally miles of streets just like ours here in the foothills to walk and or ride bicycle. What we won't have back home north east of Dallas is the laid back traffic. Back home walking and riding a bike even in the neighborhood is not near as much fun because there is so much traffic and they are not aware as much of riders and walkers.

After the walk I will work on stuff, it's what I do. Then about five o clock we will load up the dogs into the carrier hooked up behind my bike and the four adults will get after it for at least three miles on the bicycles.

Today I start going over Jane fixing things. We have less than four full weeks left and then it will be back to Texas. The have to be there date is Tuesday the sixth of March, got to vote.

We've got a lot of stuff to do at the home, just maintenance etc. Then hopefully June will find us heading back to Arizona but to 7,000' to avoid the high temperatures here and in Texas. There it will living off grid in the national forests. Back to Texas in September and then Yuma late October. Tough life, someone has to do it.

Our doves are parenting now, and a bigger bully humming bird has taken over the feeders at the Octillo. Love the birds.

We got the knives done for the neighbor, consider it my gift to old people. His dad was a railroad man and he got all excited when he found out I did blacksmithing. Shiny one is finished, dirty one just came out of the acid and is ready for the wire brush, and the old one is what we started with.

olcarguy · 02-05-2018, 11:22 AM

Is there enough carbon in those old spikes to get a good edge on the blades? Just wondering.

mkohler30 · 02-05-2018, 11:53 AM

Spikes are a lot higher carbon they will hold an edge if properly heat treated

olcarguy · 02-05-2018, 07:55 PM

Thanks, good to know.

Wroughtnharv · 02-05-2018, 09:01 PM

One of the baby birds died today. I checked the nest this afternoon when the parents were out getting some me time. One dead baby and the egg she had already moved out of the nest were removed.

As for the RR spike knives, go to Pinterest and a search will show you there are some serious artists out there that do some amazing work. It also seems to be the first thing newbies to blacksmithing want to make. The spikes do have good hc content and can carry an edge. I annealed these knives because an eighty year old on coumadin don't need a sharp knife to show off. I'm not into knives or guns, been that way for almost fifty years.