Thursday, December 17, 2015

What is It?

Recently, I received an image from: Lonnie Baker and he asked if I knew what it might be.  It was found in a tree that was cut down he was estimating that it might have been made in the 1800’s.  He said he had one person guess it might have been a part off a turn of the century binder.


I couldn’t help in the identification and asked permission to post it and see if someone else might have a good idea.


Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Repairing the Tumbler Gear Motor


Thursday, July 16, 2015
I turned on the tumbler as I left at 1600.  About a minute later a heard a thump and the tumbler stopped turning.  I went back in and found the exhaust fan and the tumbler motor were still running.  I turned off the fan and the timer switch.  A quick inspection revealed a small ring of steel had fallen onto the chain and the shaft of the gear box broke off.  Big trouble.  I pulled the service cord to the motor and left for the night.

A neighbor friend, Tom, is an engineer retired from the army reserve.  He seems to know about everything there is to know about engineering and some other things too so I consulted him.  He agreed to help me take apart the gear motor and see what would be required to get the tumbler running again.

The next morning, Saturday, we took the gear-motor off the tumbler and disassembled the gearbox.  It is a right angle worm gear design. The damage was clearly visible.  The 1” shaft to the roller chain sprocket was broken and the brass gear had a number of sheared off teeth.  We did a lot of degreasing and put all the relevant parts in the vehicle but had to wait until Monday to consult with an industrial bearing company.

On Monday we learned that they don’t rebuild anything but would try to find parts for us but ultimately weren’t successful.  Tom did some further checking and gave me a number to call.  I called and found that a brand new synchrogear motor would cost $960 + freight.  The E435 gearbox alone would cost $480 + freight and that is what I ordered.


2 HP E435 Synchrogear motor.
Tom came over at about 1000 and we started working on the rebuild.  With one trip to a farm and ranch store we found all the additional parts we needed.  Finished at 1630.  A hard day with Tom doing most of the work. We added an idler sprocket to take up chain slack.  And we also made some changes in the guards so at the end I’m in better mechanical shape than before the break-down.
A painful experience like this should provoke some thinking about ways it might have been prevented or mitigated.  Considering that it took the two of us over six hours to complete the job I may well have been better off just buying a new motor.

It occurred to me that If I had built the tumbler in a manner similar to my hydraulic press and the reversing bar twister I may have been better off.  In those cases the motor connects to the driven component through a Lovejoy coupler.  That makes them modular so either component can be dealt with independently.

Motor-Coupler-Pump linkage.


Motor-Coupler-Reduction Gearbox linkage.



One last point.  Tom suggested a better way to control the alignment of the 2” shafts turning the cylinder - mount them with paired pillow block bearings on both ends.




Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Gorilla Tape Bumpers


On 7/28/11 I wrote a piece about vise handle bumpers.  


Since then I’ve changed my method a bit.  Now I just use Gorilla tape.  I pull off about 8” or so of the two-inch wide tape and rip it down the middle to get two 1” strips.  These easily wrap adjacent to the handle end-stop.  Over time they compress and make a very effective and durable pinch-preventing bumper.


Friday, July 31, 2015

Coal Trip 7/29/15


My friend Wayne and I exchanged email for about three months trying to work out a date to make a trip to the coal mine.  Fortunately it has been too hot to forge for a while so I haven’t been needing it to stay busy.  My bin probably didn’t have 50 pounds left in it when we set off for Oklahoma Wednesday morning.

Wayne and Dianne arrived here about 0830 with a trailer which could carry 2 1/2 tons.  I drove my Pickup which could carry a ton and picked up my friend Tom to ride along for interesting conversation and driving help.

We stopped in Coffeyville for lunch then proceeded to the mine.  Wayne had made arrangement for us to get a tour of the strip mine so we did that before loading.  When I made my first trip to the mine some years ago they were working a seam about eight miles north of the grinding/screening site where the scale house is located.  They have finished working there and it is reclaimed and back in grass. The site we got to see is a mile or so southwest of the pick-up site.

We followed the supervisor to the hole and walked around to spots where we could look down and watch the heavy machinery working.  The coal seam is 12”-18” thick and about 50 feet below the surface.  They use huge dozers to move away the overburden and create the sloping drive path down to the coal seam.  A thin cover is left over the seam until the actual coal removal process begins.

A mining shovel creates a high-wall and bites away at it and fills haul trucks which drive the overburden up to the surface and dump.  A high-dump coal loader scoops up the coal and fills the trucks which move the coal to the crusher site.  After the coal has been taken away the backfill process begins.

Removing the Overburden.  The coal seam is the flat area in the upper left corner.
Pushing overburden to backfill mined area.
Leveling the Top. 
Creating the high wall. 
Mining shovel loading the Haul Truck.
High Dump Coal Loader.
After the tour we drove back to the scale house and weighed in and drove to where the stoker coal was piled.  The operator of the high-dump loader was very patient and accommodating, as usual.  His bucket holds close to three tons and we only need to load a fraction of that.  He cannot see my pickup bed from the cab so it takes some guiding to get loaded without getting buried.  I take rakes, shovel and broom so I can fill every bit of the bed and clean up.  It takes the operator three lifts to complete our fill as we work to rearrange the coal between each drop.  It was hot and dry but not windy and the sprinkler trucks had been watering the roads so it was the cleanest trip I have experienced.

Filling my Tundra.

Filling Wayne's Trailer.

Tom drove us back to the scale and we weighed out at exactly 2000 pounds.  Earlier I told the scale operator that was the amount I needed.  She seemed amazed that it was precisely what I got - to the pound.  The price was $68.00. Add on about $55.00 for gas and that isn’t bad for a fuel budget. At my current forging rate that should cary me for a couple of years.

Google Earth View of the Crush Site.
Google Earth View of the Mine.

We drove back to Coffeyville and filled up with gas for the trip home and got some cold drinks.  The air-conditioning didn’t quite keep up on the home trip but otherwise it was a great day.    Home again at 1830.
Filling My Coal Bin.

I remain somewhat astonished and grateful for the friendly and patient attention we receive from every person I have encountered at the mine.  I feel sort of guilty for bothering them with our pitifully small purchases which cause them more trouble than their big customers.

This diagram does a pretty good job of illustrating the coal strip mining process. http://digital.library.okstate.edu/oas/oas_htm_files/v57/p173frames.html

Friday, July 17, 2015

No Misspent Youth

In my late teen years I became reasonably accomplished at playing pool and snooker.  One summer some of my parents friends were visiting and we got to talking about pool and Frank, who was just a little younger than my father said we ought to go to the hall and play a game.  I was looking forward to getting the best of an adult.  Didn’t happen.  Frank ran the table.  I was dumbfounded and he just said, “The joys of a misspent youth.”  It was the first time I recall hearing the expression.  He proceeded to tell me stories about mischief he got into during the depression years.




Today I was poking around the web looking for some design inspiration and came across Alec Steele’s blog.  Lots of nice blacksmithing images.  He took up the craft at age 11 and stayed with it and is now quite good.  I’ve never met him but I enjoyed visiting his website.  He has spent quite a bit of time with Brian Brazeal as his mentor.  It looks to me like he’s finding a lot of joy in the work and not misspending his youth.

I was surprised to see this dictionary gave a pool playing reference as their second example.


Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Brad Allen's Sculpture

Ten years ago I attended the CanIron V meeting in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia.  We drove to Chicago and picked up our older son and enjoyed as many sights as we could work in along our way to Portland, Maine where we took The Cat ferry to Yarmouth and then drove the rest of the way to our bed and breakfast.   We stayed at the very comfortable King George Inn.

It was a wonderful trip and meeting.  Lots of great demonstrators and local places to visit.  Unfortunately we had to watch the devastation of Hurricane Katrina on the TV news each evening.  The tail end of the storm even brought a little rain to our gathering.
What brought this back to my mind was finding the piece I got at the auction - a fine sculpture work b y Brad Allen.  It had become hidden by other things stacked in front of it in the studio.  This certainly was not the proper place for such a nice piece of blacksmith art.  I corrected that situation today and now it is displayed where I can see it every day.

I call it my Celtic cross.  I forget if Brad had titled it as such.

See some other examples of Brad’s sculptures here






Monday, July 13, 2015

Too Scary to Read

Today, I read a book review in our local paper and then went online to skim some others.  This sentence caught my attention. “Ford offers little hope that emerging technologies will eventually generate new forms of employment, in the way that blacksmiths yielded to autoworkers in the early 20th century.”  The book referred to is RISE OF THE ROBOTS, Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future by Martin Ford.

I haven’t read it, but the subject is one which has troubled me for quite a few years.  Trying to find employment for an ever growing world population with all the complicating variables like, resources, culture and infrastructure is a lot more than I can wrap my mind around.

My first thought was to see if I could find a used copy of this book to read.  Then I had to admit that I really didn’t have the time now to do more reading.   Moreover, after going over a few reviews, I’m thinking it might just be too scary.




More on Creativity


I have been in a clean-up and throw out mood for a while now and the studio is slowly gaining more work space.  One of the primary strategies is to see how much physical clutter can be digitalized.  If I can photograph or scan what I really need to real I can get rid of the book, file, model, etc.

One of the things I cam across was a small paperback book. “A Technique for Producing Ideas, by James Webb Young, 1939.  It only took a few minutes to skim it again and I recalled how much I felt the author was describing the process I have adopted for many years.

In April 2014 I posted some thoughts about the creative process. Those were more focused on specific blacksmithing projects and Young’s work is broader in scope yet simply described.

I copied the following paragraphs outlining his 5 steps from this site

Step 1: Gather Raw Materials

Gather both specific and general raw materials.  In advertising, the specific materials are related to your products and your target audience, while the general materials are about life and events.  You need to know how your products impact your audience’s day-to-day lives.
Constantly browse and gather information.  “Part of it, you will see, is a current job and part of it is a life-long job.”  Train your minds to observe, then store it away.

Step 2: Digest Materials

Start putting different pieces of information together.  Bring 2-3 facts together and see how they fit.  “What you are seeking is the relationship: a synthesis where everything will come together in a neat combination like a jig-saw puzzle.”
This is also a stage at which you get mentally exhausted and feel lost and hopeless without clear insight.  That’s OK!  Don’t give up.  This stage is overcome when you have a preliminary idea of how you fit your puzzle together.

Step 3: Internalize Materials Unconsciously

Drop everything and put the problem out of your mind as completely as you can!  Let your subconscious mind work on it.
“You remember how Sherlock Holmes used to stop right in the middle of a case, and drag Watson off to a concert?”  Yes, Sherlock is working through step 3 and is very close to solving his case.

Step 4: The Eureka Moment

Out of nowhere the Idea will appear!  I experience this all the time.  When I am thinking about the flow of a presentation, I usually struggle with the opening.  I’ve struggled for days, then, Bingo, a great opening will mysteriously pop in my mind from nowhere.
When a lady asked Sir Isaac Newton how he came to discover the law of gravitation, he is said to have replied: “By constantly thinking about it.”

Step 5: Bring Ideas to Life

“The stage might be called the cold, gray dawn of the morning after.”

More detail can be found here



I was pleased to discover that everything I needed to remember about the little book was already available online so the book can go.  I’ll probably take it to the Prairie PastTimes gallery where we have set up a book nook in a back corner.  Visitors can have a seat and browse used books for sale. https://www.facebook.com/PrairiePastTimes

Sunday, July 12, 2015

Improving Die Mating


When using closed dies it is critical to keep the two halves in proper registration to produce a consistent forged object.  There is little tolerance for side-to-side or front-to-back migration.

One way to assure this indexing is to make the blank blocks from different size masses.  Usually this means making the bottom blank mass larger than the top blank mass so the top will sink into the bottom and create a obligatory fit.  An alternative is to weld a perimeter, sort of a corral, to force the registration.

The image “Improving the die mating” attempts to show how theoretically this could be accomplished.

The left image approximates the crudely assembled example shown in the Tiny Acorn Die post.  The second image shows how attaching the sacrificial connectors with an outward budge assures they will collapse without being trapped between the two die blocks.  The next figure shows that by narrowing the top block it will sink into the bottom block when collapsed and provide a secure front-to-back registration cavity.  The right figure shows that by further reducing the size of the top block the resulting indexing cavity captures the entire perimeter of the top block.



In the two right hand drawings the front edge of the top and bottom die halves are not aligned vertically.  After the pair is collapsed to form the object cavity, additional metal removal from the bottom block is required to create an in-feed channel for the billet stock.


Saturday, July 11, 2015

A Tiny Acorn Die


Shortly before the 4th of July weekend I was contacted by Fred who had visited the studio in the past.  He had a relative, Dave, from Minneapolis coming for a visit and was interested in learning a bit about blacksmithing.  We set up a date where we could spend the morning together working at the forge.

There really wasn’t time for a basic blacksmithing approach and they wanted to see how I did some things that may be somewhat different from other shops.  I spend a lot more time making and using dies that most smiths I know, so I set up this little project.

I found a tiny acorn on a porter bar which Scott had made some time back.  That would make the male [positive] form.

I picked two small mild steel scrap blocks and welded them with two more pieces of scrap flat bar to create the crude configuration seen in image 01.  To that I welded a porter bar for easy handling in the coal fire.

01 Holding two blanks in register

The plan was to get an even heat through both mild steel blocks, place them in the hydraulic forging press with the tiny acorn between them and smash the die blocks around the acorn form creating top and bottom half female die components as the sacrificial end flat bar connectors budged out and collapsed.

That worked perfectly and after cooling I cut away the sacrificial connectors to release the die halves.

02 Sacrificial connectors cut away.

I relieved the sharp edges of the cavities with a die grinder.


03 Sharp edges relieved.

         Next, I mated the  die cavities around the male positive and tack welded the blocks in register.


Tacked in register.

That allowed me to attach a simple flat bar loop spring to the dies and weld the bottom die to the saddle which fits the hydraulic press - figure 05.  The tacks are cut to release the positive form.  The opening is adjusted to receive, in this case, a 7/16” round rod.

Spring and saddle attached and tack welds released.

I tested the die and there was a slight backward translation shift of the top die so I used torch heat on the spring to move it slightly forward.

This die will be used as a preforming die to isolate the perfect mass needed to form perfect little acorn in another die made from tool steel and set up for use with the power hammer.  The multiple strikes of the power hammer planishes or coins the surface better resulting in a more detailed form.

We did a few other forging operations and Dave, who already had pretty good hammer control, was quickly able to get the hang of drawing out and using the edges of the anvil.  I think it was a useful morning for him whether he pursues it any further or not.


I’ll try to soon post some ideas about how, with more preparation time, made a somewhat better die pair.





Friday, July 10, 2015

Another Last Demo


In June 2011  I declared I wouldn’t be doing anymore demonstrations out side my shop.  I just didn’t feel up to all the loading and unloading and other work associate with off-site forging.  I parked the trailer in the wooded area north of the studio.  It went unattended until I was persuaded to do another demonstration on a weekend of celebration in the Cottonwood Falls, Kansas area where our artist cooperative gallery is located.  The River Suites event was to be on Friday night and the Symphony in the Flint Hills and the Folklife Festival on Saturday.  The Prairie PastTimes artists decided to put on and open house with some demonstrators.

The first order of business was to get the demo trailer out to pavement so I could inspect it and put everything in order.  Trees had grown up around the trailer and through the tongue so it required chainsaw work to free it.  The tires had sunk into the soil but we were able to pull it out and roll it to the street east of my shop.

I pulled off he rotting tarp and found a wood rat had made a huge nest under the forge pan and has stashed a good supply of Kentucky Coffee Tree seeds in it’s pantry.  Friends helped me pull everything out and sweep before treating the wood plank floor with water seal.  The tires were in bad shape and the wiring to the tail lights didn’t work.  Two new tires were mounted and the wiring was replaced.
I still knew I needed help on the day of the demonstration so I called on a friend, the amazing Scott Miller, who has helped me with so many things over recent years and along the way has become a very talented blacksmith although he has little time to devote to it.  He agreed to help and on the big day did most of the forging work so I mostly just stool around and talked with visitors.

I wanted to work on “light-duty” items as it could have been a very hot day and we did’t have shade over the work area.  Additionally, rain was forecast so we had to be prepared to do something indoors in that case.  I decided we would work on forging various animal heads.  I could show the steps with modeling clay while Scott did the forging.  In case of rain I could do the same thing indoors and there would be no forging.  Also, I packed  some Show and Tell items.


After a week of dodging rain, organizing, repairing and packing, the  demo day arrived.  I was up at 0330 and it was raining heavily.  Scott came at 0630 and the rain stopped.  We did the final loading and drove to the gallery.  It took about a hour to setup and we were ready to forge at 0900 as promised.  Then we learned that the weather forecast had been so unfavorable that some of the Folklife Festival demonstrators had backed out so it had been cancelled.  They were supposed to have a blacksmith working also.

During the morning hours there were fewer visitors than we had expected but the weather continued to improve.  In the afternoon it was clear and there were lots of visitors strolling up and down the two-block long brick-paved Main Street.  The symphony worked out well too.

Optimistically, that was actually my last demo, but, I suppose I should never say never.  


One of our artist members, Eric Dyck, is a talented photographer among other things.  He took a lot of photos during the activities and posted some of our blacksmithing on the web here. Scroll down to June 14th to see the images. https://www.facebook.com/PrairiePastTimes  

Saturday, April 11, 2015

Converting to Demountable Dies


I’ve made many die designs over quite a few years.  Now, I’m pretty “set in my ways” about a favorite design.  Everyone’s shop setup is different so the information I post about what works for me will need modification to suit other situations.

The subject of die making and die using is a bit complicated and I’m not sure there is a really good beginning point so I’ll just jump in somewhere and see where it goes.

Mostly, I use dies to create special billets which will be worked further by hand to create a product.  These are closed dies with top and bottom faces or cavities.  The die serves to insure the results are self-similar and that the work progresses quickly.  For production work I use my dies mostly with the power hammer.  

The die making process, I find to be really interesting and enjoyable.  The learning extended over about 15 years and a lot of things I tried didn’t work out.  Gradually, I have converted almost all the early die designs to the demountable type I make today.

I think, rather loosely, about the die system as having these parts:

1. The object-forming components.  Rather flat face dies are for texturing surfaces and negative space faces form 3-dimensional objects.

2. The spring mechanism.  This carries the top die too meet the bottom die in a proper position then returns the top die to the starting position.  I make this connection demountable.  In building the die this convenience aids adjusting the top die to the correct registration with the bottom die.  Thereafter, it allows redressing of the die faces as needed.

3. The platform.  The frame to which the forming components and the spring mechanism are attached.

4. The die carriage.  The platform seats here when being used. It assures the degree of constraint of position required yet is quickly released for change of dies.

I described the dual-tang carriage I use with my power hammer previously.


In the next installment I’ll show how I usually build a demountable closed die today.  Later, I’ll go more into how I use the hydraulic forging press to make the object-forming components.

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Easy on the …


I suppose almost  everyone is familiar with the phrase “easy on the eyes.”   This is considered a compliment meaning someone or something is  pleasing to look at it.

I think I got the extension of that concept from listening to a Roy Underhill woodworking broadcast in which he said something like “easy on the hands is easy on the eye.”  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Underhill

He was stressing how attention to sanding and other surface preparation which resulted in a pleasant tactile sensation also translated to an appealing visual appreciation.

I tucked that tip away somewhere and some years later I attended a blacksmith demonstration where the demonstrator described how the same rule was brought  home to him.  As I recall he was displaying at a craft show and had some items for sale done using traditional blacksmith techniques.  He observed as a woman picked up a piece and examined it and remarked, “Oh, that feels nasty.”  Immediately he could see he would not make that sale.  He was a smart fellow and already a competent smith.  He then investigated how he could create a finished surface which would feel sensuous and match the visual appeal he was already able to produce.

This “feel of the surface” was a concept I had never considered.  When I returned to my shop I started exploring my work using this as a criterion of evaluation.  It was quickly apparent that he had discovered something important.  Probably being blind would be really helpful here.  I began feeling nominal stock.  It’s obvious that cold rolled feels a lot different from hot rolled or pickled and oiled.  Hot work with fire scale feels a lot different before it goes into the tumbler than when it comes out.  So on and so forth.

I often spray Minwax polyurethane on work fresh out of the tumbler to prevent rust formation. However, that leaves a peculiar tacky feel which never seems appealing.  It  took some time to figure out what to apply as the finish coat which feels right to me.  There are probably quite a few products which will fill that bill.  The fun is in discovering what works for each artist.  I’m convinced now that how a piece of ironwork feels when carefully examined is as important as how it looks.

Lately, I’ve been really busy and lamenting that I never seem to accomplish everything I set out to do each day.  In a consolation seeking effort I recalled a footnote of history from a more serious time.  I’ll take the liberty of posting this excerpt from the wikipedia article “Account Of The Battle of Shiloh"


Curtained by rain and lit by artillery shells arching above them through the night sky, the fresh troops of Major General Don Carlos Buell's Army of the Ohio bobbed across the Tennessee River on wooden steamboats during the evening of April 6, 1862. On the western bank of the river, at Pittsburg Landing, an angry, confused and terrified mob of Union skulkers sought shelter alongside the bluffs that overlooked the river. That morning, many of these same troops had been routed from their campgrounds near the primitive Methodist meeting house called Shiloh, 2 1/2 miles southwest of the landing, by onrushing Confederate troops led by General Albert Sidney Johnston's onrushing Confederate troops, who were seeking to drive the Union invaders from their stronghold in southwestern Tennessee.

The ensuing battle, the bloodiest single day of fighting yet experienced on the North American continent, had settled by nightfall into an exhausted stalemate, with troops on both sides hunkering down for the night in the vine-choked gullies and brambles that gutted the battlefield. By then, Johnston himself was dead, having bled to death from a bullet wound to the knee, and the badly rattled Confederate high command was unsure what to do next. Some argued for an immediate retreat before the enemy could be reinforced; others wanted to renew the battle at dawn.

The Union commander, however, had no such doubts. Major General Ulysses S. Grant, although admittedly caught by surprise by the Rebels' morning attack, did not envision retreating. With his back against the winding Tennessee River, such a retreat was not an option. Nor was Grant the sort of commander who spooked easily. When one of his staff members, Colonel James B. McPherson, suggested that they consider withdrawing, Grant immediately snapped, 'No, sir, I propose to attack at daylight and whip them.' Already, reinforcements were on the way. Meanwhile, all they could do was wait. Grant tried to catch a few hours' sleep in the shelter of a large oak tree near the landing. But the incessant rain, coupled with the steady throb of pain from his ankle, which had been injured shortly before the battle when his horse fell on it, made sleep an impossibility. The Union commander then relocated to a log cabin on the bluff above the river. But Union surgeons had taken over the cabin for battlefield operations, which consisted mainly of sawing off shattered arms and legs. The screams of the wounded were too much for Grant. 'The sight was more unendurable than encountering the enemy's fire,' Grant recalled in his Personal Memoirs, 'and I returned to my tree in the rain.' It was there that his second-in-command, Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, found him later that night, chewing on an ever-present cigar. 'Well, Grant,' said Sherman, 'we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?' 'Yes,' Grant replied, 'lick 'em tomorrow, though.’


I think I’ll adopt that as my mantra - “I’ll lick ‘em tomorrow.”