Things were a little slower than I expected last night at the fair so my helper Craig and I decided to try our hand at forge welding. The ring shown in the photo is 1/2" round stock that we scarfed the ends on to make a lap joint, got it hot, fluxed the surfaces to be welded, got it and hit it. Simple as that - a forge weld. You can see a little crack in the one edge that didn't quite fuse and I got it just a little too hot but not too bad for my first time. Craig made a couple welds on a piece of square stock that he folded the ends over back onto itself, a faggot weld if you will. The other pieces in the photo are a shovel and brush for a set of fireplace tools. I'll finish the poker today.
The tractor parade went off without a hitch as well. Lots of old iron for a small county fair. My older brother used to have one of those John Deere Model G's, I think. We had a couple of Case and Allis-Chalmers at one time or another as well. Lots of fun learning to run all that stuff when you're young. Of course, lots of opportunities to get hurt as well. No roll over protection or slow moving vehicle signs and most everyone knew someone that had lost a body part to a cornpicker or PTO shaft. The good old days, indeed.
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