Workbench mostly complete and post vise mounted.

  The new central workbench in my shop is mostly complete.  I've got tools piled on top of it to help the glue set.  Today I spent some time mounting the post vise to the corner.  As a reminder, a post vise is a type of vise used by blacksmiths.  It has a leg to absorb the shock of hammering into the floor rather than the axle of the vise.  I got the vise mounted and it appears to be rock solid.  This will be the first time I've ever had a post vise mounted this way.  In the past I've always had to make due with portable stands that rocked and really could not take that much twisting.

  What I have still left to do...

1. Attach a small stand at one end for the shears I got a few weeks ago.


2. Attach heavy duty power strips to the sides of the table.  Will give me 20 more outlets in the shop.


3. Mount a smaller vise but that will be quick.

The shop is coming together and it will be great to get back to smithing.

Camping gear

  Pulled out my new setup for the forge today.  First thing I did was to add the hose between the blower and the forge.  I had to take it for a test drive so I started by adding a new tong rack on the back of the new cart.  After that, I worked some on a camp set I promised someone 2 years ago now.  I wasn't able to work too long as my arm is out of shape but it was good to be swinging the hammer again.

  Tomorrow I am going to be working on a new work bench.  When complete, I will be attaching the post vise to the bench.  Looking forward to finally having the post vise setup properly.  Will make working on the clock so much nicer.

New Stand

  Spent the day putting together the new stand for forge work.  It was made from some scrap pine as well as two wheels I bought earlier in the week.  Anyway, fairly basic construction.  I removed the legs from the forge and blower and put them on the stand.  Here is a picture of how it looks at the moment.

I still need to pick up new vent work for the blower to forge connection.  I will be adding a bit more to it but the form is pretty much done.

So, I took it for a test drive and its very cool.  It is very easy to move around to where I need it.  Also, I added some height to the forge so I'm not bending over anymore.  The blower is also much more stable.  I'm very happy with the results.

My only concern is possible burn damage to certain spots that are close to the fire pot.  If it becomes an issue, I can add a bit of insulation.

Overall I am very happy with it and look forward to using it.

 

Making more steps...

My enthusiasm for getting back to working on the clock keeps building.  I'm really thinking that when I get going this time, its not stopping until its done.

Spent last weekend at the annual convention for the Florida Artists Blacksmithing.  Got to see a lot of cool things and left from the event with 600 pounds of coal and a new pair of shears for cutting stock down to a more manageable size.  The only thing I plan to use it on for the clock is when I have a piece of 10 foot steel to get it down to something that I can move around.

The piece of great news that I have is that I have signed up for a class in January at the John C. Campbell Folk School.  The class is on how to build early padlocks from the 10th - 19th century.  I am really looking forward to this.  Not only will I get to make a cool item but I will should learn some techniques that will be very helpful with making the clock.  It will be a week long and includes things like forge brazing which I've actually done but would like to know the right way to do it.  :)

This weekend I have 3 things that I want to accomplish.  The first is simple.  I want add more light to my shop so I am picking up two new fluorescent lights for the middle part of the shop.  I already have the wiring, electrical boxes, etc... that I need.   I hope to get those up tonight.

The next project is a cart for my forge and blower.  As part of my effort to make it very easy to setup to do smithing (and cut down on my excuses for not doing it) I will be building a cart that I can easily move in and out of the garage without pulling out my back.  The cart needs to be nice and sturdy but easy to move.

The final thing I would like to get to is do actually do some blacksmithing.  Haven't done any in months and I'm sure I'm out of shape for it.  This may not happen because I will be at the Buccaneers game on Sunday.  Since I have to show up at 9:30 to prepare for the pre-game show, that pretty much takes away my whole Sunday.

Bit of a pleasant surprise

Yeah I know, sick of hearing about cleaning shop...

Anyway, I made hopefully the last run to the dump for a while.  Also visited the scrap yard and got a decent amount of cash for the steel.  I was surprised to find that they deal a lot in copper and brass scrap.  I asked and they do sell it.  The reason this is important to me is that one of the last things I would like to do for the clock is to cast my own bell for it.  So I now have a local supplier of other raw material if I need it.  This was a surprise because the location used to deal with just autos and steel but it has switched over to being a true metal scrap yard.  Woot!

Its kindda sad the things blacksmiths get excited about. 

Like an archaelogical dig...

Dug out more of the garage today.  Its getting there.  I hope by the end of this weekend, it will be clean.  Then I can start on making some new workbenches and getting the post vise mounted.

Shop work continues

Nothing major except that I was able to clean more of the garage.  The truck is ready for a trip to the dump and I will probably do that early Monday before work.  Not terribly exciting but I'm posting on it just to keep myself going and honest.

After I am done cleaning, I will begin building the work tables and shelving I want.  I also had an idea about putting my forge and blower on wheels to make it easier to move them into position.  As a reminder, whenever I blacksmith, the anvil, forge and blower must all be taken into the driveway.  If I put the forge and blower on a cart it will make setup time so much easier.

I also set aside a spare anvil, post vise, blower and air compressor to take to the Florida Blacksmithing conference.  Hope someone can find a use for them.

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is spongy, and bruised

So in my effort to get back to serious work on the clock, I worked on cleaning up the blacksmithing area of my garage.  This involved a lot of heavy lifting, cleaning and painting.  By far the worst area was my scrap heap.

By the nature of the work, all blacksmiths develop some sort of scrap area.  This is where the foot or two of left over metal or a failed piece get tossed.  Well I have not cleaned that area in about 6 years and it was a shambles.

I am guessing that the amount of metal was at least 750 pounds.  After sorting it, I am guessing about 250 pounds of it is going to the scrap yard to be sold while the remaining amount has been sorted and stacked a little more neatly.  I also put a lot of old stuff out for the garbage man.  Bigger pieces of trash are in the back of the truck for a trip to the dump.  I will also be taking some excess blacksmithing supplies to the annual Florida Blacksmithing. conference to auction it off.  The money goes back into the organization.  This will include 2 anvils and a post vise.

While everything was out, I took the opportunity to clean and paint the walls.  I went for a pure white which has really brightened up the garage.  Next time I will add some lights.

I still have many weekends to go to get the garage back in shape but its getting there. 

The Augean Stables, Florida edition...

Unfortunately, I cannot divert any nearby rivers to clean out my garage so I'm gonna have to do it the hard way.

Today's main goal was to get all my blacksmithing hand tools out of the old wooden chests that I used when I did demos.  So I picked up a new tool cabinet and emptied out the old boxes.  It was a good chance for me to go through all the tools and throw out a few.  Since most of th tools are hand made, I can remake most of the ones I threw out.  The one exception is the files.  Unfortunately, the files fared the worst for the years of traveling around.  They are rusty but hopefully can be salvaged.  So as I organized the tools, everything got a good spray of WD40.  After its had a chance to work a bit, I will recoat them with oil.

The files were a bit of a disappointment.  Since I tend to buy quality files, it does represent some significant cash.  But it looks like most of them did okay.  The new tool cabinet will be nice as I can easily roll it in and out of garage to do work.

So the tools are out of the old boxes and hopefully will be better protected from the Florida weather.  I wanted to do a bit more but the afternoon storm moved in.  My next major goal in cleaning up the blacksmithing area is the scrap pile.

Pictures will follow as things begin to improve.

Allright, time for a tough decision.

Okay,

  For my few faithful followers, I haven't gotten much (almost nothing) done on the clock over the past 2 years.  A lot of reasons for this but one of them is the state of my work area.  I have not done a major cleaning/reorganizing of my shop in years and the result is that it is almost impossible for me to work.  To do smithing requires me to spend a good 45 minutes just moving things around and another 45 minutes when I'm done to do cleanup.  Hence, its hard to get motivated when you have to deal with that kind of clutter.

  One of the contributing factors to that is that I frequently do black smithing for demos, scouts, etc...  While it is fun, it is a major time commitment on my part to pack up, drive, unpack, setup, tear down, repack, drive home and unpack.  Add to that that my truck is not as reliable as I would like it to be.  The last thing I want is to be in the middle of nowhere Florida with several thousand dollars worth of tools just laying in my truck.

  So, my project over the coming months is a complete rebuild, cleanup of the shop.  This will include building cabinets, work tables, storage and the like.  But one of the more important factors will be setting up a permenant area dedicated to smithing with my tools setup and easy to get to rather than packed in a bunch of boxes.  It will mean that I permenantly mount my leg vise and make the forge and anvil easier to move into position when I want to work.  Hell, I may even put in a pull out shade for when I'm working.

  I know I haven't done a lot over the past few years and it has frustrated me.  I think cleaning and organizing the garage will help a lot.  I took down the measurements today and started putting them into my CAD program.  I anticipate this will be a winter long project (no way I'm doing this in the summer time).

  As an added bonus, I will also be getting a video camera soon.  When I resume the project, I hope to include videos in this blog.

Maybe I should start my own railroad

In preperation to getting back to smithing on a more regular basis, I noticed that my stock of steel was getting low.  I keep a pile of it my back yard.  What I had was pretty jumbled mess as well.  So I decided that before I got back to work on the clock, I really needed to restock.

I visited the steel yard about a week ago and picked up a large amount of steel.  This sat in front of the garage until yesterday when I decided I wanted to do a full inventory and reorganization of the steel.  This involved moving the old steel pile to a new location as well as hauling the new stuff to the pile.  I also did a full inventory of the steel as well as marked it with paint so it would be easier to look at the pile and get what I need.

The grand total was over 1400 feet...  In other words, about 1/4 mile of steel.  :)  A full steel pile makes me happy.  It will also let me finish a camping gear project in addition to working on the clock.

A quick update...

I've been very delinquent about keeping things up to date.  I do have some photos to share which I will try to get to this week.  Some of the update highlights.

I did make an attempt to remake the one part I mentioned in previous post.  However due to the forging process a stress crack was introduced to the tenon.  It occasionally happens but it also happened on the previous piece so I obviously need to change the process.  I decided to scrap the piece and make another attempt.  I had to also address another issue though.

A frequent techinique in blacksmithing is to have one smith hold a tool on a piece while the other smith holds the piece and hammers the tool.  In other words, a two man job.  In any real blacksmith shop of the middle ages you would have had multiple people to call on for just such a thing.  For me, that is not an option.

I decided to go ahead an make an investment and purchase a tool known as either a Smithing Magician or Guillotine depending on who you talk to.  It essentially acts a second hand to hold a tool in place.  I ordered it last week and it arrived on Wednesday.  I wasted no time and got to work with it to attempt to make the part once again.  Things went much smoother and faster using the tool.  It was a worthwhile purchase.

Anyway, I changed how I was making the piece to avoid getting another stress fracture.  I still got one though but I think I understand the issue.

What it really comes down to is if I am doing heavy forge work on a piece, there cannot be a thinner piece that is holding the weight of the piece.  Its hard to describe and will have to wait on me to upload a few photos.

Trying to keep things moving....

 

Working on clock again

 After a very long hiatus, I am finally back to working on the clock.  I've actually had several sessions just not posted here about it.  With trying to get back to the clock, I wanted to make sure I had some good momentum before I put anything here.

What I worked on yesterday and today is the armature that holds the verge and foliot.  I completed this about 2 years ago now but with going back to the clock, I am looking at what need to make better and it is an ideal candidate.  Everything about this clock stems from this part.  If this part is not correct, everything else fails.

I did not take a picture of what I'm working on tonight, but this is the part I made two years ago.



It is the part the is on top of the clock that the string is hanging off of.  So what's wrong with it?  It leans slightly to one side, the rivet on the bottom portion of it is off center (not very clean) and the long upright piece is a bit loose.  In all honesty, it could work.  However, I've discovered in the past on other projects and this project as well that the mistakes don't just add up, they multiply.  The more incorrect one piece is, the less margin for error on the next piece.  I don't want to get way to far along and discover that it won't work or that I spend hours and hours to get it to barely work.

So, I am starting over on the going train (time keeping side of the clock.).  Although this means a lot more hours, each time I do these parts it goes faster and faster so I'm not too worried.

Here's hoping I can keep it moving.

More progress on camping gear

Worked some more on the commission piece for camping gear.  Taking a little more time because of me being out of shape for extended smithing and because of the thickness of the pieces.  Since this camp set will be capable of cooking for large numbers, I had to use 3/4" stock for the legs.  The legs are now shaped except for the feet.  For the feet I am reproducing the medieval version with split spikes designed to go into the ground.

Next time I get out to forge, I will try to get some photos to post.

Quick blacksmithing update

Trying to keep things going.

  Did some more work with blacksmithing today.  It was mostly a day to fix a few tools and equipment.  Not very exciting but it needed to get done.  My weekends are pretty free for the next few months so hope to use that to build up momentum to getting back to the clock.

Too long away from forge

Today marked a bit of a milestone.  I finally dragged the forge out at home.  I've been doing demos and such but not at home.  With my job change I unfortunately got out of the habit of doing smithing.  So today I finally fired up the forge at home for the first time in a very long time.

Since I know that I am out of practice, I decided to help me get back in the groove I would focus on making some needed tools.  So I started with a pair of tongs to hold round bar vertically.  I was able in just a little over an hour get the basic shape done and get the handles welded on.  I had to stop due to the sun setting but I don't have that much left to do.

So if I can get myself back into the habit, I'd like to spend the next few weekends geting back into the habit and working on tools.  Then I need to finish up a camp set and a few other minor projects.  I would like to get back to the clock around April when it stays light long enough that I can work after I get home from work.