Beaver Lake Forge

03/23/2026

Cattle Feed Relief convoy headed to the hard hit wild fire area in Western Nebraska. God Bless Nebraska Cattle Ranchers. God Bless Nebraska Farmers! Let’s Go Nebraska!

03/22/2026

Yes - works as intended!

03/21/2026

Some Sketchy stuff took place at the shop today. I picked up a HF 2000lb Gantry to help me move equipment around the shop and will eventually end up loading logs on the Sawmill over at Andy's shop. Of course - "We Modify Everything" so I had to do some work on the gantry. Its too tall to get it in and out of the garage - by abut 2.5". So I made some new caster mounts, welded it all up - shot some primer on it and today was crane assembly day. I've watched a bunch of "how to's" on YouTube University and they were all pretty sketchy when it came time to stand the thing up. Our "process" - use the winches on the SideXSides. Worked like a charm - no crazy stuff took place. Once it was standing, we installed the casters and then I had to fab some new mount tabs for the cross braces. At the end f the day, I cleared the garage door by 1.5". Now I can move these Tire Hammers, Treadle Hammers, Anvils, Fly Press, etc. in and out of the garage.

03/18/2026

Mounted the new Anvil on a stand today. Its a bit high - like 2" - but I'll make it work for now. Got a couple projects to do real quick first. I did get to do some forge work on it today. Huge step up from the old 110 lb Trenton. Still got a little "tuning" to do to the new one. But its functional as is. I'm very happy I bought the 250 lb versus the 460 lb version. I can barely drag this one across the floor.

03/16/2026

One more piece to the puzzle added. Looked for about 6 months for one to buy - had no luck - decided to bite the bullet and build my own. Started gathering material and steel and then this one popped up on FB Marketplace. It was within "striking" range and was a fair price for a complete Clay Spencer Treadle Hammer. Was great meeting Travis and his dad - wish we could have hung out longer - Thanks Travis! Now the next issue - getting it out of my truck.... Been wanting a mobile gantry crane for a while - with all this heavy equipment starting to pile up in the shop - I need an easy way to move it around plus we'll use it at Andy's sawmill. Picked up a Harbor Freight / Pittsburgh 2000 lb unit. Needs immediate customization and fab work. You know our Motto - "Modify Everything"....😁. Its "adjustable" height - at its lowest - its 2.75 inches too high to clear my garage door. So - it must be lowered to get it in and out of the garage. One project, leads to another project......

03/16/2026

Time to step up the game......

03/10/2026

Been waiting years for this.

02/17/2026

Picked up some 1" 1144 cold rolled today. Could not pass it up - 12' sticks for 8.00 each. These will make great "Iron Wood" table legs and Shelf brackets plus tooling posts for the fly press. Thinkng I should have grabbed a dozen more....😛

11/11/2025

11/10/2025

Today's project - "Rebar Deer" for Amy's Christmas Decorations.

11/06/2025

With a Full "Beaver Moon" on the rise it was time to trim out the Beaver Lake Forge Christmas Tree this evening. Needed some ornaments so I twisted up some Horseshoe Nail Icicles.

11/04/2025

Managed to finish the new pendant display tree. I'm burned out on making Horseshoe nail hooks....It turned out pretty good though. Will look good at the net Farmers market.