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Shop Studies, the joy of creation

Skittlebisquit

Skittlebisquit

Just keep trying, victory brings glory
V.I.P Member
This thread is to post pics and have discourse on making and repairing things. Any material, any process, any time for whatever legal purpose.

I am, in terms of my interests, a welder, mechanic, and shop wright who wants to be a blacksmith someday.

Has anyone tried to build any of the various forges from youtube? I am tempted but up against time constraints, i have a narrow window for what we called "hot work" when i was a working millwright. Thats cutting grinding and welding. See i work in a small space thats out in the wilderness and fire danger being what it is here in the summer, i have to wrap up all the metal werk by mid june and wait till halloween to take it all back out.

I am learning wood work, but not very good at it.

I think i am going to try to make my first ever concrete footing to hold up a new post for the shop
 
We had a forge when I was growing up on the farm. It was homemade and at least 50 years old at the time, made of concrete with a hood and fan, and nearby buckets of water and coal. Various tools hung from the rafters and there were two anvils. I always kind of liked the smell and the hammering noise from a distance. My father used it to repair equipment, tools, etc.
 
Finder said:
Why not look into forges farriers use? They are very compact.
Click to expand...
Thats what i will likely build, thw main body will be an old compressor tank, lined with home made fire bricks and powered by propane. I tried to self study a coal rivet forge but it was epic fail. It was like 2 feet square with a hand crank blower
 
I like working with gathered wood from the forest. The inspiration is things of old, its soothing to me. I use a drawknife, rasps, files,
20201231_235115.jpg
rocks(sometimes) and eventually sand paper. I do the finish with ink i make as a stain and then paste wax i make from beeswax, coconut oil and herbs
 
Skittlebisquit said:
I like working with gathered wood from the forest. The inspiration is things of old, its soothing to me. I use a drawknife, rasps, files,View attachment 67182 rocks(sometimes) and eventually sand paper. I do the finish with ink i make as a stain and then paste wax i make from beeswax, coconut oil and herbs
Click to expand...
Dang, that is awesome. Can you do a video on how you do this? I want to do it. I live by woods.
 
I could i guess. This forum is open to minors and im not sure if its ok to teach about things like this in detail. I am on data restriction now, i just have a phone for the internet.

A vise is helpful but not neccessary, but something like that is. A mechanics vise is made to hold bolts and metal and stuff, but if you wrap the work in leather or cardboard, it works ok.

Draw knives are kinda dangerous as they have a handle on both ends and you pull the knife towards you. Good ones are hard to find, mine is basically worn out. There has been a revival in american craftsmanship lately so maybe sone one eben more awesome than me is making them again. Thier main advantage is speed. Holding the work steady is a challenge

I have a couple of those really big hunting knives that you used to see people wear in the west. But my go to tool? A fixed blade utility knife.

Always wear gloves. You will get cut up from doing wood carving, it happens. A serious cut can end your career, so be careful, work away from yourself. Stop when you get tired. I have awesome safety glasses and wear them too, they cost less than fast food lunch and eye injuries are ...unpleasant, my vision is compromised from injury. I always wear an old barn coat too

A rasp looks alot like a file, but the teeth are bigger. A 4 in 1 is popular and easy to find, also i use round and half round rasps.

There is a rythm to it and a subtle instict too. Knife to rasp to sanding and back again.knowing when to put down the knife and use less aggressive means is important.

The trick to making them come out straight is to cut planes down the length to remove the bark, then you get a lopsided polygon profile the rounding is the last step.
 
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When i lived in the forrest, we would use wire tied around the workpiece then tie it onto a tree. It doesnt work very well. In general its better to leave the work long until last, its easier to hold on to. Sometimes its better to leave waste on a good piece at the end so it doesnt taper

Maybe you could tell me a bit about your background with tools and how you are set up? I have a pretty good vise setup i can post, thats ez to make......
 
This is the first vise i ever had its pretty small, 4 inch jaws. Its mounted to s piece of 2x8 thats about 30 inches long. I used to nail it onto a log to hold it, now its mostly just a dusy collector.

This setup is ok at best, kinda shaky. I wouldnt use it for drawknife work, not now. I out grew it i guess
20210424_133024.jpg
 
Skittlebisquit said:
This thread is to post pics and have discourse on making and repairing things. Any material, any process, any time for whatever legal purpose.

I am, in terms of my interests, a welder, mechanic, and shop wright who wants to be a blacksmith someday.

Has anyone tried to build any of the various forges from youtube? I am tempted but up against time constraints, i have a narrow window for what we called "hot work" when i was a working millwright. Thats cutting grinding and welding. See i work in a small space thats out in the wilderness and fire danger being what it is here in the summer, i have to wrap up all the metal werk by mid june and wait till halloween to take it all back out.

I am learning wood work, but not very good at it.

I think i am going to try to make my first ever concrete footing to hold up a new post for the shop
Click to expand...
I think your head would explode if you ever came to my home :p
https://www.autismforums.com/media/albums/the-machine-shop-area.501/
 
My master bedroom is now a woodshop.
A drill press, a bench belt sander, a tablesaw, a bandsaw, a jointer and two router tables are the power equipment in it
 
Nitro said:
My master bedroom is now a woodshop.
A drill press, a bench belt sander, a tablesaw, a bandsaw, a jointer and two router tables are the power equipment in it
Click to expand...

A man after my own heart! I have been trying to shoehorn all my shop atudies into a two car garage, i never thought to take some into the house, now the mind is going.....
 
Thank you for sharing about your life Nitro, i have not learned to do much machining..... but there is still time
 
Skittlebisquit said:
Thank you for sharing about your life Nitro, i have not learned to do much machining..... but there is still time
Click to expand...

I hope you someday do.
I was raised in our family machineshop where I ran my first production job on a 9 inch swing South Bend metal lathe while standing on a 5 gallon oil pail when I was only 5 :p
Later in life, I became our CEO of the same place my soon to be 80 year old father still works today. My disability after my horrific accident sent me home at age 50, so now I'm retired.
I'm about the 4th or 5th generation of machinists in my family, so basically it's in my blood.
 
I live alone, everyone is either dead or living so far away i can never see them.
Cherish what you have

I have a drill press with standard tooling and a few extras. Have you ever built a v block vise jaw for a drill press vise? Its a simple build, just a vice jaw with a piece of angle welded vertically at the centre...

That one and the shop built disk sander were some of my earliest innovations.

I tried to teach myself to weld with an old smith lifetime oxy ace rig 26 years ago. I got to where i could do it ok, since then i have purchased an antique welder for stick and a modern wirefeed its a lincoln
 
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