Alex Bealer Blacksmith Association

To all--

I have been asked to help a group of boy scouts get their metalworking merit badges. I don't see myself as much of a teacher, more of a learner. But I told their scoutmaster that I would host a class and provide equipment and material and as much help as I could. But I need help! There may be as many as 16 boys, but more likely 10 or so. The date is not scheduled, but I'm sure if any of you can help, we can work out a schedule for a Saturday convenient for all of us.

Here's a fireplace tool set I made for my son for Christmas. A a big deer hunter, I thought he would appreciate the elk antler incorporated into it (at 32", it gives him something to hope for!). The tools are basically the same from Jeff Mohr's "Blacksmithing for Home and Hearth", but the stand is of my own design.

antler fireplace tool set with three tools, incorporating an elk antler in the stand

See the pics here.

http://www.possumholler.net/FirstForgings/

(How do I upload pics to this site? Or am I not allowed?)

Well...I finally built a stand for my anvil. Then I got my Zoeller burner in my Balloon Time forge and got it going.

Earlier I broke every law known to man and went down to the tracks and picked up some spikes.

Now...what do I do with all these new toys?

I wanted to see what this Zoeller burner was made of so I heated the head of one of the spikes and wailed away on it till it was gone. Basically I just drew it out till it was the same shape as the shaft. Then I drew the whole thing out till it was about twice as long as a regular railroad spike.

Any interest in bending tool workshop?

It went well - See the Pictures:

Zeigler Shop Raising - Days Work Done

Zeigler Shop Raising Build Team

Hey everyone! At the meeting today at Wayne Marten's shop, Lance Zeigler one of our long-time active members announced he is having a shop-raising next Saturday. He needs extra hands to help get the trusses up this coming Saturday 9/22/2007. Starting early around 7:30 - 8:00 am. {Want to get the work done before lunch - which is a low country boil lunch)

Wednesday, 10 Jan 07

Have been having fair-good results recording the demonstrations at the meetings lately and have discussed with Tony Bevins and others the idea of ABBA having a group dedicated to accomplishing this at each demonstrations for the purposes of enriching our library and any other uses.

Tom Kovarik and I have been using my mini DVD recorder. (By the way Tom's camera work is superior to mine, but I've gotten better.)

I will be hosting a Japanese Style smelt at my shop on December the 2nd (first Saturday in Dec)

The smelt will take roughly 10 hours to complete so I will plan on having food around dinner time (hambrugers and such)

I am starting around 9 am and the most interesting parts are the first 2 hours and the last 2 hours (go figure)

If I can arrange it I will get Dr. Mike Blue (an excellent smith who has been doing this style of smelting for many years) to come down and point out all the stuff I do wrong :-)

I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in doing some simple projects after the regular meetings. I have plans for some relatively simple shop equipment that I'm a little leary of starting on my own. For example, I have plans for a bending brake from the Miller Electric site, as well as one from one of the Gingery books. It might be more fun to put them togther with others who are interested, as well as more productive with input from a group. I'll bring the plans I have to this Saturday's meeting at Ben's to see what others think. Anyone with other plans, please bring them.

I saw a thread a while back here about a Harbor Freight Russian made 110# anvil for a real good price. Never having enough tools and stuff around, I went to check it out and came home with one. Kind of rough, still plenty of tool marks as you can see.

[NOTE: all thumbnail images can be clicked for larger image...]

Here's what we started with.

Oh Great and Mighty Webmaster!!!!

Could we get a quick tutorial onhow to post pictures for inclusion in a how-to thread?

When I click on the little "add a photo" icon below, I get the alexbealer.org Image Assist window, and I can see the my images and the all images headings. When I click on the my images menu pick, it says no images to display. Which sounds right, because I haven't placed any images into the bucket. How do I get them from here to there?