| Search Results |
Total results: 10 |
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General Discussion
/ Re: Progress? How are you doing? |
on: Jul 13th, 2009, 5:18pm |
| Started by UnicornForge | Post by UnicornForge |
I have made the back plate for the firebox, and I am now looking at rebuilding the boards for the bellows. Of the parts that I have already made using the Mordecai specifications, the oak middle board by itself weighs by itself about 60 pounds, and figure that a ~200 pound bellows would be too much for a single person to install inside the bellows house, as well as too big to maintain.
To reduce the weight of the bellows I have started making parts for a bellows that will be made from pine and poplar boards and have a rubberized canvas cover. If you look on the internet you will find something called "bellows cloth" which is used in musical instruments, and is basically rubberized cotton canvas. A local smith came up with the idea of applying tool dip to canvas to rubberize it.
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General Discussion
/ Re: Progress? How are you doing? |
on: May 14th, 2009, 04:46am |
| Started by UnicornForge | Post by UnicornForge |
Last weekend I made tire bolts, and installed them in my two wheels. The difficult part was countersinking the bolts into the 1/2 inch thick tires because the drill press does not have enough horsepower.
I have started cleaning up and preparing the wheels for painting. This process includes rounding the inside edges of the fellows, and applying coats of linseed oil to seal and protect the wood as described in the original specifications.
I have invested too much time and money into these wheels to take shortcuts in protecting them from the weather.
Figuring out how to build the wheels, and making the necessary tools to build the wheels, has been a real challenge and taken a lot of time and effort. However, I learned a lot from doing it.
I don't expect to get too much done this weekend as the local blacksmith guild is having its annual "Blacksmith Days" at the Carroll County Farm Museum in Westminster Maryland.
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General Discussion
/ Re: My wheels now have tires |
on: May 5th, 2009, 05:02am |
| Started by UnicornForge | Post by UnicornForge |
Thank you for the compliment. I am still getting used to the idea that I actually was able to build the wheels.
The woodworking was the difficult part of constructing the wheels as there was almost no margin for error.
I have been documenting the process and things that I learned in making the wheels. There is a lot of stuff that I had to figure out that was not in any of the books or references that I read. For example the relationship of the size of the wooden wheel to the tire circumference as determined by whether you are putting the tires on warm or "hot"! I had to figure that out by myself.
I was making 1/2" tire bolts last night by welding shut the sockets in "socket head bolts", as there appears to be a lack of suppliers of 1/2" tire bolts. The local wheel builder uses 3/8" buggy bolts in the 57" wheels that he sells to reenactors. I destroyed one bolt in the process of setting the amperage on the welder, fortunately I purchased extra.
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General Discussion
/ Re: Progress? How are you doing? |
on: Aug 1st, 2008, 10:57am |
| Started by UnicornForge | Post by UnicornForge |
Yup. Stripping off the old paint was a chore. The instruction sheet for the paint said it was questionable what would happen if used on top of a paint made by another manufacturer. Therefor, I took no risks and used abrasive products to remove all the old paint. The new paint looks really good in person.
My plan is to hopefully finish the wiring of the sander tomorrow, install a matching 220 wall outlet, and test it. I am being as careful as I can be, as I don't want to blow-up a brand new 2 hp motor. I tend to be a bit nervous working with a part/motor that expensive.
I also need to find a place to purchase the tires for the wheels that can make the tires close to perfectly round, not oval or dimpled, so that I can build/finish the wheels to match the inside of the tires.
I also have not decided if I will turn the ends of the spokes on my lathe, or try using a AA Woods hollow auger by hand. The first method is more likely to shape the very hard wood the spokes are made of. The second method would provide the correct angle and placement of the tenon......if the tool is sharp enough and tough enough to cut the wood.
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General Woodwork
/ My experience with new Blade-guides from Carter |
on: Jun 29th, 2008, 2:46pm |
| Started by UnicornForge | Post by UnicornForge |
I followed the directions that the engineer at Carter Products provided on Thursday, and yes the blade guide did attach to their blade-guard adapter. Unfortunately, their adapter requires a person to remove their blade guide and blade-guard adapter from the band-saw in order to change band-saw blades.
I designed and fabricated a better blade-guard adapter that allows the changing of a blade without removing the DEL20C guide, or blade-guard adapter from the band-saw, which you can see in the attached photograph.
The Carter blade-guard adapter is the nickel-plated one.
You will notice from the photograph that with my adapter, the blade may be changed by simply loosening two screws, just like on the band-saw’s original Delta guide.
My version of an adapter has the same number of bends, the same number and size holes, and can be made with one punch-out just like their adapter (their adapter is included in photo). Thus my adapter eliminates Carter Product's engineer’s voiced concern about costs to make a blade-guide adapter that duplicates the function of the old mounting points for the blade-guide. This is not rocket-science folks!
And while we are on the subject, the *slot* on the adapter for mounting the bottom guide is too short and will not allow the adapter to be properly positioned for wide blades. I will either have to modify the slot or make a new adapter for attaching the bottom guide. My bet is that their team tested only using a narrow blade.
In contrast to the tone of the Thursday conversation with Carter Products engineer, I believe that my design solution demonstrates that I am not an idiot.
I am not thrilled with the quality of their engineering solutions, or the necessity of spending so much time modifying their products so that they work properly. Be forewarned!
It is things like this that slow me down in trying to make progress in constructing my Traveling Forge..... It is very annoying.
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General Discussion
/ Re: Progress? How are you doing? |
on: Apr 15th, 2008, 7:49pm |
| Started by UnicornForge | Post by UnicornForge |
I hope everyone is making wonderful progress in building their traveling forges. I have been spending a lot of time doing house stuff so that my wife can finish her Masters Degree.
Lately I have been making progress on getting a sander up and running so that I can use it to fit the spokes to the hubs. I hope to have the sander finished and working this coming weekend. Then I finish fixing the bandsaw, make a hold-down for the wheel assembly table, and then hopefully start on the wheels.
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| 9 |
Bellows
/ Re: Diagram for the bellows - colorized |
on: Apr 15th, 2008, 7:44pm |
| Started by UnicornForge | Post by UnicornForge |
I have also posted information on constructing the bellows for a traveling forge, and the iron parts for this bellows on the new blacksmithing TWiki Encyclopedia located at:
http://wiki.bgcmonline.org/bin/view/BlacksmithInfo/CWBellows
I have attempted to organize the information on constructing a Civil War era Traveling Forge in a logical manner on the blacksmithing TWiki Encyclopedia. Please let me know if anything needs to be added or changed to make the information more usable and readable.
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