on May 9th, 2007State of the Shop
Some people have been asking questions about how I fit all the hobbies into my extremely tiny house in our residential neighborhood.
Well, the hobbies only take up a 2 car garage, and is lot more low-tech than most people might imagine. To give you an idea of just how low tech it all is below are some pictures of my setups:
Here is a picture of the 2 car garage that houses all the woodworking stuff. You can see the bandsaw, jointer, and assorted other crap.
A closeup of my bench. You can also see the small drill press.
The tablesaw
On the backside of our garage we have a 4 feet wide concrete pad that runs the length of the garage. That’s where I do all of my blacksmithing.
The 110 pound anvil.
Here is a shot of the forge. It’s a brakedrum set in a hearth of construction grade firebrick. All of that rests on some cinderblocks I had laying about.
Air Supply (love that band) by the shop vac. Set from suck to blow (quick, name that movie).
The airflow is regulated with a 2 inch PVC ball valve. I’ve gotta replace that, too hard to make fine adjustments.
These are my most commonly used blacksmithing tools.
From left to right:
Small ball pein, wolf’s jaw tongs, 3 pound cross pein, 2 pound ball pein.
As you can see, the footprint for blacksmithing is extremely small. A small forge, a sturdy anvil, some tongs and a hammer are all you really need. In many parts of the world all the village blacksmithing is still done in a small charcoal forge. The anvils are just small blocks of steel wedged into the ground or a stump. Those smiths turn out beautiful and functional items all day long.
Remember young smiths, tools don’t make the blacksmith, the blacksmith makes the tool.