Restoring the Great Bellows

I bought a great bellows in Sedalia, Missouri, in September 1995 at an antique store. The tool was in poor condition with a lot of the leather missing and it was filled with mud dauber wasp nests.  In May and June of 1996 I finally got around to the restoration.

Some people call these double lung bellows and they were a popular style for blacksmiths in the 1700’s and 1800’s until the ongoing industrial revolution brought the hand cranked fan blowers in the near the end of the 19th century.

I removed all the original leather and saved all tacks and nails.  One leather panel was in good enough shape to trace an outline of a roll of paper.  I took the pattern to a local shoe repair shop and and consulted with the owner.  We negotiated a plan for four pigskin replacement panels.  He obtained the skins and cut and sewed them for me.  I made new leather hinges for the flapper valves with thicker but soft and flexible cow hide.

The wood panels were coming apart at the glued seams so I had to joint them and glue them to restore the integrity of all three panels and was able to preserve all the original pieces.

The wood trim strips were rotted so I ripped new oak strips 10’ long and 3/16”” thick from an oak 1”x4”x10’ board.   These covered the leather overlaps on each rib.  I planed them with a molding plane and tacked them (predrilled holes) with the original nails.  I applied Neatsfoot oil to al the leather.

I fabrticated a square tube modular frame for the original pole and chain to support and operate the bellows.  The bellows seemed to work very well but required a lot of effort to operate compared to the hand crank and electric blowers I was using.  The bellows setup also took up a lot of precious space so it was stored away until I decided to take it to an old time demonstration at the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve over the 4th of July holiday in 2004.  It took a lot of work to transport and setup but I thought it was such a unique showpiece it was worth the effort.  However, it proved to be a spectacular failure at attracting the interest of the visitors.  On the other hand, they were much more fascinated by the lever and hand crank blowers which the older visitors recalled seeing their grandfathers use when they were children.

Lesson learned.  I hung the bellows on the shop wall and they haven’t been used since.  I should just sell them.  Still, I value the experience of working with them.  I recently came across some blog posts by people seeking information about making bellows so I decided to take some measurements from mine and make a set of plans.  There will be some guess work involved as I’m not willing to take them apart to see the interior parts again.  In those days I didn’t have a digital camera to document work so I’ll just have to rely on my memory.  I’ll get to sketching now and hope to have some plans ready to post soon.

http://www.persimmonforge.com/

Pipe Fullers

Recently I have been making several components from structural round tube which required fullering to isolate the various segments.  I hadn’t had to do this operation in quite a while so it took some time to gather a collection of tools which I recalled using for one project or another and testing them to see which would work best.  I was a bit surprised to discover I could come up with so many.

As I looked at the results I felt I was getting a fresh educational experience and was now paying more attention to the finer details than when I last used them.  Several clearly needed some improving of the blade edges with a die grinder or flap disc or polishing wheel.  Some others needed some mechanical improvement of the hinge or other parts.

I believe after a couple of days of fiddling and observation I have a better perspective of how all the variables work to achieve the desired result and decided to write down some of my ideas before they slip away.

First there is a choice of the poser source.  Will the work be done by hammer in hand or the power hammer?  The treadle hammer works well with my smithing magician but the spare tire power hammer requires less effort on my part and is much faster if it can be controlled well enough.  In the days when I did demonstrations I used a gate fuller in the anvil hardy quite a bit.  I haven’t used the fly press much for this work.  The hydraulic forging press seems too powerful to control.   Probably it would work with a  series of stops.  Perhaps if I could spin the hot pipe really fast...

Next, what style of fullering tool to use.  I use gate fullers the most and guillotine fullers a little less often. Some people don’t make a distinction but, for me, gate fullers are hinged and close on the bias and guillotine fullers close in a parallel manner whether hinged with a four bar linkage or are independent.  Spring fullers haven’t worked very well in my hands at least for the tube  jobs I usually do but I used one for making a specific size grape a few years ago.

The heat is important so I have to pay attention to which incandescent color heat works best at each successive stage.  Going slow at first works for me.  Keeping the heat localized to just the working area and getting a perfect start without any buckling takes careful attention and control.  Sometimes torch heat is just the right  thing.  Each narrowing seems a bit less tricky.

There are a number of other critical technical details to consider.  The blade throat angle is said to work best on pipe and tube between 100º and 140º and the throat opening should give “four-point” contact to squeeze the wall toward the centerline at pairs of opposing points.

The blade throat shape can be curved or straight - an ellipse or a “V”.  I can’t speak to the “V” shape but I may try it in the future.  The symmetry between the two blades should be close but rotating the workpiece tends to eliminate most of the error.

Blade width needs to be considered.  If too narrow the tool works like a severing tool, not being able to pull enough mass into the elongating zone.  If too wide the blades will have more tendency to crush and buckle the tube - similar to working too cold.  I’d guess that for most of my work the blade width is about .25 x the tube outside diameter.  Probably some experimentation would determine what is best for thin wall tube versus schedule 40 and 80 pipe.

It seems like the blade edge radius should be about a half circle or a bit more acutely ellipsoid, symmetrical and well polished.

The blade depth needs to be .5 x the tube outside diameter or a slight bit less if the fullering groove isn’t going to be very deep.

Straight blades aren’t generally used for hollow stock but if they are used some type of stop needs to be installed if each groove is to be the same depth.  Using dies with an ellipse or “V” opening allows the die pair itself to be the stop mechanism.

The spring 2010 Hammer’s Blow is a reference worth reviewing.

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Four Bar Linkage Parallel Fuller

I drew this fuller tool plan as a place holder in my “Tools to Make” file.  From time to time I actually pick an idea out and build the tool.  This one will be pretty far down on the priority list as I already have a variety of fullering devices which work quite well.  But you never know when this type might seem like just the thing to use.  The measurements are just guesses and there may be better choices.  Also, I didn’t take the time to draw the dressed radius lines on the top and bottom blades.  Probably I would start with just grinding slight front and back edge radii and creating a slight concave gap between the blades so the work piece tends to seek the same centering position.  Then I’d modify the edges after observing the results.

Mostly I use gate, swing arm, type fullers (which some call guillotine fullers even though the blades don’t move in the same vertical plane) in the power hammer.  Occasionally I use the Smithing Magician, which seems to me to be a true guillotine fuller, or similar constructions in the fly press or hydraulic forging press.  Only as a last resort do I use a hand hammer with a anvil hardy fuller tool.

Small Piece Tongs

I have a pair of old tongs I acquired from some flea market quite a few years ago.  I probably paid a dollar - I really don’t recall.  They were made from approximately 3/8” stock.  The jaw was flat and the reins were drawn down to about 5/16” and they were very pitted.  They looked so fragile I anticipated they would break after a short period of service.

Well, I was wrong.  It is ten, or so, years later and they still work as well and when I acquired them.  They are only appropriate for light duty work so the mechanical strain on them is small.  I am about to move into a phase of work where I will be handling a large number of very small pieces and these tongs are ideal for the task. 

In the usual daily work plan we run a hot coal fire and Ken and I move pieces through as fast as we can. We alternate pieces. To me this is an highly coordinated activity.  It has evolved organically, without a real dialog, strategy or mission statement.  We have just worked together for a long time.  Most of the time the work space is noisy and we wear ear plugs so very few words are exchanged while forging.

Although I can’t imagine working any more intuitively and congenially than we do sometimes we seem to manage to test each other with our differences in fire management strategy.  Ken has a way of working very effectively with a growing clinker.  The fire grows hollow and the work pieces migrate lower and lower into the very hot but oxidizing zone.  I try to hustle along and get more and more pieces into the fire.  It is really pushing it to manage a lot of small pieces in a risky hot fire.  His tendency would be to work fewer pieces in exactly the right location while my inclination is to get the clinker out and make the fire deeper.  Some how we make it work.

One of the things which makes it work is having enough of the right tools.  I can see that this single pair of old tongs is not going to be enough with the jobs coming up.  At the least we each need a pair and realistically we each need two pair because sometimes one gets misplaced.  Fortunately this is a problem that can be quickly solved.  I cut six pieces of 3/8” round 5” long and we went to work.

In one heat using the power hammer with a combination die, I flattened a two inch flat blade using a 1/8” stop and a top hand-held flatter.  On the second heat I rotated the stock 90º and flattened a 1.5” segment on the drawing die to make the box area.  On the third heat with a 5/16” stop I drew down the takeoff region of the reins for a couple of inches and did  the offsets of the blade and reins from the box.  On the fourth heat I punched the rivet hole.

In actual practice I made one piece.  Ken watched each step and I laid the finished example by the anvil and Ken finished the other five. They went into the tumbler when we left last night.  

Today I put in the rivets and used torch heat to do the final adjustments.  I also welded a punch drop to the end of each rein.   It took about an hour to finish all three.  If I could have just looked in a catalog and found exactly what I wanted I might not have bothered to make them but I’ve never seen this light weight style offered commercially.  So the bottom line is, I have what I need at probably about a third of what it would cost to buy if they could be found and it didn’t cost me enough time to really interfere with the work in progress.  I’ll call it time well spent.

http://www.persimmonforge.com/

Spare Tire Hammer Toggle Lock

When I needed to replace a set screw on one of the Hammer head toggle link pins I wanted to make the job as quick and easy as possible.  I placed a block under the hammer head to keep it in position and slid a piece of 1” threaded rod through the opening in the cross head just above the toggle link pins.  A washer and hex nut was placed on each end and tightened to take all the force off the hammer head pins.  I took off the spring guard and the pin was  easily removed after loosening the two set screws.  After reworking the pocket for the set screw it was easy to slip the pin back in and tighten the set screws.  

After removing the thread rod gadget and the hammer head support I was back in business in about 15 minutes.

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Fly Press Handle Modification

My press came with a single handle.  I have found that three handles work better for me.  I fabricated the additional two handles from a short piece of 1” thread rod welded to about a foot of 1” pipe.

I still didn’t like the tendency of the handles to work loose in the threaded sockets of the fly wheel so I welded a bolt extension to the top which allowed me to attach a jam nut with lock washer.

I also found that adding a 2” ball to the handle bottom end made operation much easier on the hands.

These are all small things but everything that makes the day go easier I appreciate.

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Introduction to Blacksmithing Dies

In the type of work I do I use dies quite a bit.  Mostly they are to aid production of pieces which require self-similarity and increase speed of production.  I still remember the first time I studied the dies in Don Streeter’s book, “Professional Smithing”.

Broadly the topic divides into die making and die using so there are two products involved, the die itself and the objects the die will form.

Most of my opinions have been formed from practice and personal experience.  I haven’t had tool and die training but I have looked for references in blacksmithing books and didn’t find a lot.   Most of what I found on the internet related to industrial dies.  So, I thought it might be useful to report some of what I have found works for me after a lot of experimentation.  I’ll cut to the chase and describe my current practices and perhaps, later, retrace some things which were tried and discarded and maybe some plans for future experiments.

Dies can generally be divided into open or closed types.  Open dies have one swage block with a forming cavity into which a billet is driven to form “half-a-thing”. Half and acorn, half a ball, half a whatever.  The formed object has an interesting face side and a plain flat back side.

Closed dies have two swage cavities which act together to capture a billet and form an object interesting all around.  Closed dies can be further subdivided into those which form highly symmetrical objects such as a ball, an acorn or even a single peanut seed which can rotate uniformly on their longitudinal axis.  But, when in the hull, the peanut has bilateral symmetry or is asymmetric but it does not have longitudinal rotational symmetry. Mostly, I make and use closed dies. There is not much to making an open die after learning how to make closed ones so I’ll concentrate on making close dies.

The thought process begins at the end of the forming process - the formed object.  The simplest example is a ball of a specific dimension.  First, forge that object - the master positive.  If the die use is short-run both the master and even the dies can be made of mild steel, particularly if water quenched.  For long-run use working toward tool steel dies is preferable.  Ordinarily, I forge the first positive out of mild steel, as it is easier to clean up and polish. 

However, when making the first negatives, I usually pick a tool steel for the die blocks.  I have a lot of 5160 and other high carbon scrap and that is my first choice.  To a lesser extend I use S7 or H13.  I cut the die block stock and forge it to a thickness which will accommodate a bit more than half the depth of the master object and perhaps a 1/4” wider and longer and wider than the master.

I make a hairpin spring from about 20” of 3/16” x 1.5” or 2” hot rolled mild steel.  The two blocks are welded so that there is enough space to slip in the positive form.  The block end of the assembly is then heated in the coal forge so that bot are at an even and high heat.  My assistant positions the block end on the hydraulic forging press and I insert the positive and press the blocks together.  For small objects a single heat will do but for larger objects multiple heats will be needed.

After the die is cool I insert a wedge tool I made to open the spring enough to work on the die faces.  Mostly this involves relieving the sharp edges of the form perimeter with a die grinder.  When that work is finished the die is mounted on a saddle for either the press or the power hammer.

Finally, I experiment with billet stock to find what best works to fully fill the die cavity without leaving a lot of excess extruded flash which require cleanup.  I make sure I keep a good tool steel positive in case I need to make another die in the future.

When doing the initial production runs I find that working the objects “to black” and carefully removing scale helps planish and polish the die faces improving the detail of the formed object.  It’s one thing that does seem to improve with use - worked slick.

I’ll get into more details in further posts.

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Added Value in Drops

I used to think of drops as waste, a nuisance. But after I found a way to sort and store them for my advantage my opinion of their value changed.

Now I think of them as precut parts.   I have a few bench top boxes which store flat and square bar, round bar, pipe and tube, and angle and channel drops from very short up to about 12” in length.  It is interesting to me how stable that inventory seems to remain.  Drops are added and removed at approximated a balanced rate.

Mostly these pieces are used to make jigs and other shop aids where exact dimension isn’t always critical.  More often than not I can got to a box and quickly sort through and find a suitable piece ready to use, already cut and tumbled clean of burs, scale and rust.

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Making Work Stands

I have made a number of work stands and the most satisfactory design, for me,  is made with a base of 16” to 20” wide plow disc, a vertical section of pipe or tube 16” to 20” tall with a hole drilled near the top where I weld a nut/bolt/T-Handle assembly as a locking devise.  The top vertical section is made from a pipe or tube which will fit comfortable inside the base tube.  The transverse top is made from 1” square tube or round tube 8” or more wide with a couple of end vertical stubs.  The easiest way to make those is to cut three walls of the tube and bend the stubs up and reinforce the remaining wall with a weld bead as shown in the image.

The top width depends on how the stand will be used.  Stability results from keeping most of the mass concentrated toward the floor and keeping the transverse top width to a minimum so the work is centered over the vertical shaft reducing the moment arm.

Most were made in the early days and almost all the components were easily attainable scrap.  Each band saw has two, each drill press has one, the forge has two so that makes eight.  When I was cutting a lot of longer structural steel to build equipment for the shop I made a couple of stands with 2” rollers, scrap from a food processing line.  They were OK for that specific purpose but I no longer use any.   The rolling feature is now mostly annoying.

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Tools Drive the Work ...

I’m pretty sure when I was starting to learn blacksmithing I was thinking “work drives the tools”.  This is a version of the “chicken or the egg” conundrum.  I wanted to heat and move iron to make creative things I was imagining so I needed to make and acquire the necessary tools.

It wasn’t long before I began to see it the other way around.  Since I had such and such tools, I could do so and so with them.  Tools were driving the work possibilities.  Each new major tool seemed to greatly change the prospects for work.  Treadle hammer led to the Little Giant which lead to the Hydraulic forging press.  There were many smaller intermediate steps but those three brought the greatest transformations.

Of course it is an equilibrium equation where the back and forth is inseparable.  Maybe it is actually more like the rock-paper-scissors game.  Experience/Skill allows creation of a Tool Inventory.  The Tool Inventory facilitates the production of Creative Work.  Creative Work grows the Experience/Skill.  One never really gains an advantage over the other and the creative cycle is unbounded.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_or_the_egg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock-paper-scissors

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Tactile Dimensions of Iron

I recently heard a commercial where the person said, “Don’t you just love the feel of gold?”  Besides giving me an uncomfortable recollection of the King Midas legend it reminded me of a few comments about the tactile esthetics iron work which I have tucked away.

I can’t recall the person who said, “Easy on the hands means easy on the eyes.”   But, I’ve seen that demonstrated by several blacksmiths.  Finishing the surface by sanding with 60 grit abrasive before applying a finish sealer coat gives the surface a very appealing feel as well as appearance.  I like for the surface to feel very smooth and silky.  I heard one client use the term velvety.

Another remark came from Jeff Mohr at the June 2001 Ironfest in Grapevine, Texas.  He told a story about a potential buyer being turned off by the feel of an item she was examining saying it felt sticky or dirty.  He decided to pay more attention to how a finish felt to touch as well as how it looked.

I’ve heard people say the like the coolness of ironwork and they like the heft of ironwork.  That led me to enquire more about the vocabulary for describing touch experience and I found this interesting three dimension graphic contrasting some tactile surface judgements -  soft/hard, smooth/rough and slippery/sticky.  I suppose sharp/dull is, technically, a characteristic of an edge and not a surface.  I added my fourth dimension of cool/warm. 

http://krieger.jhu.edu/mbi/hsiaolab/directory/currentProject_tactileTexture_perception

Don’t you just love the feel of iron?

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Taking Small Bites

When working new projects that involve multiple steps or processes I like to spread the work out over several forging sessions.  I set up work so that one or two steps are done each day.  That gives me time to study the progress and make any needed plan changes.

When a project has been well worked out and the routine established it’s a different story and I work start to finish at one session.

I organize a queue of work so that if I run into a problem with one job I can lay it aside an move up another and keep up a steady pace of work.  I don’t have to stop and solve the problem until later.

Lately this strategy has been particularly noticeable as I have been doing a lot of die making.  Forging the positive form in one session.  Sinking the positive into negative blanks in the next session.  Cleaning up and relieving edges in the negatives and refining details.  Then working back to forging a more refined and detailed positive.

That back and forth work can run over several days but only take a few minutes of each day.  The small bites eventually produce the desired result - incremental progress through patient and persistent fiddling.

There are a number of other examples in blacksmith work where it is important to proceed slowly and carefully so as to not stray too far in one direction and find it difficult or impossible to recover control.  I can faintly hear the teacher saying, “Haste makes waste.”

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The Scale Blowpipe

Lately, I’ve been using the hydraulic forging press and various dies I’ve made to form some small botanical and animal elements.  Usually I do these in runs of 20 to 30 so I have an inventory which will carry a while.  In the process of stamping one hot billet after another scale accumulates in the die cavity and could cause loss of detail if not removed.

I found that using a brush was awkward in the tight space and I didn’t have enough wind power to lean in and blow it out so I made a small blow pipe which works well.  It was formed from 3/8” tube and is 13” in total length.  One end is flared to form a trumpet-like mouthpiece and the other  end tapered to bring the outlet hole down to about 1/8” diameter.  Thanks to Bernoulli's principle a small puff of air into the mouthpiece pushes out a powerful jet of air removing the scale.

For many years the DuPont company used the advertising slogan, "Better Things for Better Living...Through Chemistry."  I suppose this is an example of better living through physics.

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Making Power Hammer Stops

Maintaining the full thickness of stops for the power hammers is more of a challenge that with the hydraulic forging press.  The repeated striking of the stop over time by the power hammer ram die tends to diminish the thickness through cold forging even when they are made from tool steel.

I have made a number of the stops from railroad clips.  They are plenty tough but apparently not as hard as the 4140 dies in the hammers.  I found this source which suggests they are about 1050. http://forums.dfoggknives.com/index.php?showtopic=16220

To make stops I heat the clips and straighten them out.  The hydraulic press works well for that.  Next, I forge a tang approximately 2” long to fit the die socket or smaller if I plan to fit a piece of 1” square tube over it to finish the tang shape.  Then I forge about a half inch of the tip to the desired thickness and let it get as wide as it naturally gets so there is as much flat surface area as possible without going to extra work.

Under normal working conditions the working end of the die should not take a lot of abuse but, over time, the tips do get a little thinner and 5/8” eventually becomes 5/8”-weak and then 9/16”-strong.

My original idea was to reforge the stop when it became thin, pulling more mass out from the body area into the working area. I’ve done that about four times but, in practice, it has been handier to keep the strong/weak dies and just make a new nominal dimension one when a critical thickness is needed.

The current collection contains about 25 stops from about 16 gauge up to about 1.5”.  I have them arranged on a carousel rack near the hammers.  There is a secondary rack for about a half dozed stops very close to the primary hammer to hold the ones to be used in the current forging cycle.

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The Humble Quench Can

Sometimes I am amazed at what I cannot find on the internet.  Perhaps not as often as being amazed at what I can find.  My old slack tub dipper, which I’ve always called a quench can, was dilapidated and heavier that it needed to be so I decided to make a better one.  I did an image search to see what clever designs other smiths may have posted.  After considerable searching using several possible titles I found only one decent image.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://fredlyfx.com/coal%2520pics/Forge-%26-slack-tub.jpg&imgrefurl=http://fredlyfx.com/coal.htm&h=456&w=572&sz=115&tbnid=h2_hoaBVImHl-M:&tbnh=92&tbnw=116&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dslack%2Btub%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=slack+tub&usg=__2taje4skwMCKmWtwP1_X2UKd2XQ=&docid=-6BovT-9ZBnJuM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=MssdUNbnEaGq2QXt7YHoCw&ved=0CHQQ9QEwBw&dur=6093

It is just the s run of the mill variety like I made and was now planning to replace.  This is such a common blacksmithing tool I thought, surely, it would be better documented.  When I searched my memory I couldn’t come up with much either.  I did recall seeing examples using a spring ring to capture the can instead of riveting or welding and that seemed like a good idea as it allows the can to be easily replaced.

My original can was fabricated from 14 gauge sheet and MIG welded.  It holds about a cup or cup and a half of water and has held up well.  I punched three holes in the side so a small stream of water could be be accurately dribbled on a small area as when cooling a twist or one side of an off-center punch hole.  I was told that punching control holes like that allowed the tool to be called a Tennessee valve.  Probably a term not favored by those from Tennessee.

The old can was battered and looked like it had been stepped on or run over and straightened several times.  It that condition it isn’t exactly photogenic.

I didn’t bother forging a new handle grip but found an old twist crook piece and welded it to a piece of 1/8” x 1/2” flat bar.  The I formed a ring which would capture the can.  I used a 14 oz Alaskan pink salmon can.  It is seamless, aluminum and has a nice taper to push into the spring ring.

I forgot to record the final length but it is somewhere between 16” and 24”.  If I was to take the time to make a better grip I would think about handrail code dimensions for easy grip and control. I think this will work well for me.  It is quite a bit lighter than the old one.  I didn’t put any holes in the side yet.  Time will tell if I feel like I need that modification.

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Triangle Dinner Bells

A triangle bell that actually works is not as simple as it might seem. The triangle itself is best made from solid steel round bar at least 5/8” in diameter. Triangles made from smaller stock will not ring loudly enough for outdoor use. A bell made from 3/4 " solid round sounds better than one made from 5/8" but at some point increasing the mass brings diminishing return.

The triangle needs to have a large enough internal diameter so that there is room to swing the striker vigorously with a circular motion. 16” sides work pretty well.

The triangle must be left open and the two bends have a critical radius to produce the harmonic sound. If the bend is too sharp or choked it will diminish the ring - see illustration. Bending over a 5/8” radius works pretty well. Leave the triangle clean and simple and put any ornamentation on the bracket.

The triangle must hang with leather or other material that doesn’t conduct sound well. I like to make a special swing arm bracket so the bell can be moved out of the way when not being used.

Assuming the bell will be used by an adult, the height of the top of the bracket should be about 75". With a 3” leather hanger the triangle is a good height to strike.

Most of the examples I see are so small they must be intended for “in house” use or just decoration.  The dinner bell was a frontier tradition and fitted well with our old time demonstrations at the National Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.

http://www.nps.gov/tapr/index.htm

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Sonotube Containers

In 2007 I decided to try showing some work at a couple of summer art/craft shows.  One of the issues was making a display system and also there was the problem of transporting the heavy pieces without getting them banged up.

This idea isn’t original with me.  I adapted my system from some of the blacksmith meeting gallery displays I had seen.  I purchased 16” sonotube cylinders at a local hardware store and cut them into 2’ sections.  I got some 2” thick blueboard and cut out circles which would fit inside.  The bottom one was glued in place.  I learned a bit about proper adhesives for the job after trying one which dissolved the plastic.

The top circles were about 20” diameter and cut from hardiboard.  One of the blueboard circles was centered and glued to the hardiboard to help it fit securely in place.  All exterior surfaces were painted white.

The containers were sturdy and I thought the concrete tops might be good insurance against a sudden summer shower.  For transporting, I put the cylinder inside a heavy-duty contractors trash bag, put the ironwork inside the cylinder, added protective packing material, then pulled up the bag and tied it so there was complete weather protection.  The lids were all placed in a couple of other trash bags.

When we set up at a show it was relatively easy to move each cylinder on a hand cart, untie, unpack the ironwork, put the bag and packing back inside the cylinder where it was out of sight, put on a lid and arrange the ironwork on the display pedestal.

I’d say it all worked pretty well.  I’ve thought about using pieces of sonotube with blueboard ends as shipping containers but haven’t actually tired it.

I don’t do shows anymore so the containers just serve to store finished items and keep them protected. I enjoyed the show experiences except for the effort involved in getting there and back and the setup and take down.  It seems like an activity suited for the young or for crafts that don’t involve a medium as heavy as iron.

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