But instead I give to you this lovely hammer......
Ouch. I'm out for the count this weekend. No source o' fire. So no foundry stuff. No smithing. How did this nefarious state of affairs happen you ask?
My gas regulator broke. For those of you who don't know, a gas regulator controls the pressure coming from the source (in this case my propane bottle) and prevents changes in pressure from doing nasty things like causing explosions. It stuck way way wide open, so until I can get one, say Tuesday.......
I have been thinking about switching to coal or coke. (which I also couldn't get 'til Tuesday) I enjoy the propane, and I really enjoy the lack of smoke and ash, but with the setup I have now, it only gets up to about 1900 F, just enough to start melting brass, but not quite enough to work with it. (I'd tried charcoal before, which works, but you need a better grade than those briquettes, usually homemade which is a pain in the ass to do.)
It's also not quite enough for steel. I either need to modify the furnace I have now, or finish building my new one. I'm also considering changing the design of my burner, and adding a choke, which will let me control oxygen flow into the chamber.
In the meantime, I'm playing. Oh yeah, baby. I'd recently melted down some more aluminum pistons, and just for fun, I did a quick cast of the head of a plain, old, carpenter's claw hammer for the ingots. Then when I broke down, they started to look too good to melt. So.....I've been filing on one and drilling out the hole for the handle.
I wish I'd known I was going to play with this, I'd have put a sandblock in the middle for a handle hole and saved an hour or so of shaping. Still fun though. I had my doubts as to whether aluminum would drive steel nails okay, but sheesh, I've been hammering at this thing with a hammer and chisel, and it's plenty tough, plus nails are usually fairly mild steel.
My first handcrafted tool, I plan to make the handle out of oak firewood, pictures to follow when I finish.