Thank you, Nippulini, that's quite a compliment coming from you.

I do what I can- no forge, no anvil, and no room for either. Still want to tweak the larger collar curves a bit. But hey, it's a learning experience. I'm sad I'll have to use pop-rivets and JB-Weld to attach the hinges to the legs, but I can easily envision what would happen if I tried to hot-set rivets (insufficiently heated with a MAPP gas torch) using a ball-peen hammer on my garage floor. My wife would kill me if I burnt the house down.

Maybe later I'll drill out the pop-rivets, and take it to a blacksmith to have it finished authentically.

Contact a welder, the may be able to make it work for you. Otherwise, check out http://anvilfire.com/gurusden to find a competent smith near you.

Finished it, mostly. Posted pictures in the "All Tied Up" forum here: http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......um=18&15

I still have to cut down the 5/8" rod so it's a bit shorter, and I may put a spacer bar between the legs, and pick up some marine shackle clamps to bolt the bar in place.

Drilling the holes for the shackles on the bottom was a major pain, even with a drill press. I think I overheated my unibit step drill at the 3/4" step, despite copious use of lubricating oil; the press wouldn't go any slower than 500 RPM, and that last step probably should have been done at around 300 RPM and with a higher torque press. So the holes got downsized to 5/8" which let me use a solid rod instead of a hollow tube, making it heavier (and more authentic.)

I still don't "get" JB-Weld. I used it to epoxy the hinges on both "legs", cleaning and clamping them identically. On one leg, the epoxy held tightly. On the other leg, the hinge popped off as soon as I removed the clamps. Fortunately, the steel pop-rivets are quite strong; I probably didn't need the JB-Weld in the first place.

I wonder if I can convince my wife to let me display this in the stairwell? Probably not, not even if I offer to put up a little plaque explaining the historical significance...