Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Anvilfolk]

Thanks, Urist McPenguinhead! Also, the part of the internet related to penguins elude me, and this seems like as good a time as any to ask. Why does half the Bay12 community have penguins in their avatars?

Kisame: yeah, I really need to get a new monkeysuit/boilersuit/whatchamacallid. I never wear one and keep getting sunburns. Also, those automatic welding masks are the absolute shiznitz!

[Kilroy the Grand]

Oh, good grief. My gas welding classes were like bloody WW2... For some reason, if you overheat the metal, it blows up in your face, and everyone else's face. My overalls didn't have any elbows anymore on account of other people's stuff going BANG and me getting bits of hot metal going down my sleeves.

Worst was in MIG welding when a bit of hot metal flew against my neck, into my shirt, and all the way down to come to rest on my belly-button. I've never danced so much in my life...

I haven't had that much trouble. Some other people shot a huge shower of sparks in my direction, most of that shit only happened to me when I didn't cut a piece of metal the first time so I had to make another pass.

[Anvilfolk]

This happened to me mostly in T-welds with pretty thin sheet, like 1, 1.5mm (which I think is somewhere around 1/16 of an inch?). What are you gas welding?

[Kilroy the Grand]

This happened to me mostly in T-welds with pretty thin sheet, like 1, 1.5mm (which I think is somewhere around 1/16 of an inch?). What are you gas welding?

Mostly scrap metal, we don't have projects, we're just learning the basics.

It's just a 30 hour course, the first of 4.

[Anvilfolk]

Oh, we didn't do any projects in gas welding either, we just trained different types of welding! They all blew up in my face though

[kisame12794]

Thanks, Urist McPenguinhead! Also, the part of the internet related to penguins elude me, and this seems like as good a time as any to ask. Why does half the Bay12 community have penguins in their avatars?

Kisame: yeah, I really need to get a new monkeysuit/boilersuit/whatchamacallid. I never wear one and keep getting sunburns. Also, those automatic welding masks are the absolute shiznitz!

It was a fad.

[Urist McPenguinhead]

Thanks, Urist McPenguinhead! Also, the part of the internet related to penguins elude me, and this seems like as good a time as any to ask. Why does half the Bay12 community have penguins in their avatars?

Kisame: yeah, I really need to get a new monkeysuit/boilersuit/whatchamacallid. I never wear one and keep getting sunburns. Also, those automatic welding masks are the absolute shiznitz!

It was a fad.

My avatar is only a penguin because I really like penguins c:
I think I joined too late for the fad.

[Reudh]

It was a fad that harked back to an earlier fad. Everyone started taking up penguin versions of their avvies, and most still have them. I've got a penguin version of my old avvy.

[Anvilfolk]

So, after a super busy 5 week stint without forging, I went back to my "shop".

First, I finished off a hardie cut-off tool that I had started doing.

This was pretty thick stuff, 30mm square bar (about 1 1/4 inch). It's also EN8 steel, which has .45% carbon content, making it harder to forge than regular mild steel. Anyway, something being hard has never been an excuse for a blacksmith, so off to work I went (with a stupid looking sweatband to avoid burning eyes from sweat).

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

After forging out the tip, I hardened and tempered it. Finally, it went under the angle grinder. Unfortunately, the angle grinder is kinda broken, and I couldn't use it for long as I was loosing feeling in my hands. Anyway, even if it looks rough, it still works and that's all I can ask for at this point. Here's the final piece.

Spoiler: It was kinda tired after being in the forge so long. (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: But then it kinda perked up! (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: and it was all like, hey, life ain't so bad after all! (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: But that was until the owner picked it up... (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: ...and it was kinda awkward. (click to show/hide)

It looks thin, but forging it out was a bit of a nightmare. Could've used a striker for sure


I am planning a workshop for wood sculpture students at a local university, where they'll hopefully be forging their own wood gouge. Some of those can be hard to find in Portugal, so if they can forge one out for $2 to $4's worth of material, instead of $60 or whatever it costs to buy them and ship them, it'd be a big bonus. Anyway, I thought I'd offer a small set of tongs that they can use to hold the gouge. They're tiny, but surprisingly solid!

Spoiler: Here's the whole set (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: ... aaaaaaaaand again... (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Also, the mandatory dentist shot. (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Finally, the tongs holding a gouge! (click to show/hide)

And finally, I made a prototype wood gouge from mild steel to try out the techniques and process we're gonna use. The spike is kinda battered because I tried using the gouge with a hammer. Like the idiot that I am (see sweatband).

Spoiler: The whole gouge. (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: The gouge's facebook profile picture. (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Damn it, is it doing a duckface? (click to show/hide)

Anyway, as it turns out there's a bunch wrong with it, such as the blade bevel being done the wrong side, and also a few more things. They'll be improved upon for the next iteration

Oh, also, here's a video of me forging out the reins a bit. I am getting pretty tired, since that's a 2.7lb (1.2, 1.25kg) hammer and I hadn't forged in a while.

Hope you guys enjoy this

[kisame12794]

Nice shop. It's getting cold up here is the north, so it's time to stop making chainmail, and start making knives. I'll try and get a quick how-to for a neck-knife up.

[Kilroy the Grand]

Well the end of Welding 1 is coming up on wednesday, with a final test consisting of 50 multiple choice questions and a Practical. The practical is easy as shit, run a 3 inch bead, and cut a straight line in an 1/8th in steel plate. The sad thing is there are people in my group that don't know how to pierce, braze, or LANCE.
It's just painful watching people try and cut a thin piece of metal, and looking at the metal with a dumbfounded expression when it reforms.

I have no idea why they just don't ask the instructor for help, Or a few of the older guys who got sent there to be certified.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Best part of the class was learning how to braze from a guy who looked just like Gordan Freeman.

[kisame12794]

In my welding class, which cost around 3500$ Canadian, one person showed up to one class, and hasn't been seen since. What kind of job do you have to throw that kind of cash away?

[Kilroy the Grand]

In my welding class, which cost around 3500$ Canadian, one person showed up to one class, and hasn't been seen since. What kind of job do you have to throw that kind of cash away?

$3500? I paid only $375 s course for mine. But I expect a good 2/3rds of the class to fail which I'm going going to complain about since I'll have more scrap metal, and more of the instructors time.

[kisame12794]

In my welding class, which cost around 3500$ Canadian, one person showed up to one class, and hasn't been seen since. What kind of job do you have to throw that kind of cash away?

$3500? I paid only $375 s course for mine. But I expect a good 2/3rds of the class to fail which I'm going going to complain about since I'll have more scrap metal, and more of the instructors time.

That was the first semester of a college course.

[Anvilfolk]

It is with tears in my eyes that I show to you a couple of photos from the very first (and very humble) meeting of the Portuguese Blacksmiths' Association.

Spoiler: Is there a more beautiful colour? (click to show/hide)

The answer is no, of course.

Spoiler: Working together on very thick carbon steel for a chisel. (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Doing the bits of the tongs. (click to show/hide)

I *adore* the leather apron my wife got me for Christmas. I thought it would be a little too thick for comfortable movement, but I was wrong. Such matters do not concern true dwarves. My great-great grandfather Urist McBeef used an entire live cow as his apron, and was a better blacksmith than most of us!

In all seriousness though... it was marvellous. I hope it will draw more attention and that we will get more and more people.