Problem Solving

Hi,I know you've all seen this question a million times before,but I happened to get 5 bags of fire clay cheap and I have a piece of 16"O.D. pipe.I was gonna weild in some 1/8" round with some V's bent In them.Can anyone tell me the best mixture for the pack ,can it be poured into a mold,and how thick should it be? TIA Jason

I have been building a railing for my parents place and it was coming along quite well til my mig hiccuped, a LOT. It is a '78 Miller with leads you switch between jacks like some old Forney stick welders I've seen. Can't seem to get the wire to feed. This was given to me with a spool of wire in it. It sat for quite a while before I got it and the wire was very dusty on the outside of it. It was almost full, though. I have used up the spool tonight. It has put down the entire roll till now without a hitch. I had replaced the liner when I got it and the tip seemed to be fairly new so I left it on. I have had this thing cranked up laying down a lot of bead for a coupl…

when all you do just grind you a knife out of stainless steel , do you still have to heat treat and temper and the oil bath too? just a little help please vern (brand new at everything)

I was making a nail header and was using 3/16 inch steel. I wanted to make it strong, so I bent it over, so that it was 6/16 inch, and I heated bright yellow, forge weld temperature, sparking and everything, tried to forge weld it, but it wouldn't weld. Don't know what I was doing wrong.

Its my under standing that carburetors are not made from aluminium i have allways knowen the metal aloy as Die Cast ---- dos it have another name ----it has zinc in it i would like to know what melting temp it melts at and what metals is the alloy made from Please & Thank you:)

If you would like help with your puter problem e me and I will give you a contact. Your request has been sent to Ten Hammers

Afternoon Gents- My forge has not been as productive as usual, and I believed it to be the weather change. Its cooled down to only about mid 50s, and my tank is freezing up VERY rapidly. I thought it may have been the tank sitting on the concrete floor so I elevated it with wood- same problem. Then I kept it in a basin with warm water- same problem. The only way I can get it to produce enough heat is to shake the gas and it will run heat for about 5 mins and then back down.Any problem solvers have any answers for me?

What is the suggested bottom pressure for safe operation of the oxygen and acetylene tanks pressure wise? Is it foolish to try to get the last drop of gas? What might the results be if you tried?

ok im completly new to blacksmithing so new in fact i dont have a forge. which leads to my question. would a hair dryer be able to get enough air into a fire to heat the iron? if not could someone give me a cheap alternative thank you and im sorry for my naivity

I really do think that i am retarted because i do not know how to make a fire. But i think the real reason why this is is because i do not have the proper set up i have the cylinder to put the fire i just need an air system does anyone have a hand cranked air thingy that i could buy plz i really need it. Or if someone could buy me one in a junkyard i would be very happy if you mailed it to me and i would be happy to pay you for it because i have no junkyards near by so if some one would do that that would be nice.

Beg pardon if I'm jumpin in out of line, I'm as new at this BBS stuff as I am to smithing. I've already decided on my fuel. I'm gonna use coal, but I can't seem to keep it burning, let alone turn iron colors. My forge is fairly standard with a cast fire pot in the middle of a 2' X 3' fire brick topped table. I'm using a real old Champion 400 blower, that i rebuilt. I started an anthricite coal fire with charcoal. I cranked my arm off and it burned OK until the charcoal was gone. What am I doing wrong? I'll send pictues if it will help BIG

Today there is little said about the quality of the water in the slack tub (where the blacksmith quenches hot metal), other than it is not fit to drink. Several folks have suggested that you just fill the slack tub with tap water and let it sit for a while. But the old blacksmithing books call for "soft rain water" as a quench. Does it matter? Which is better?

I've started using hardwood charcoal. I don't like the fleas, but I'll get used to them. Also, I can't get my metal any hotter than orange. With the briquettes that I was using before, I got it to forge weld temperature, and i even melted some projects with briquettes(on accident). What can I do to fix this,...what do all of master smiths suggest?

We just bought a house on "rue Principale" in the village of Dunham Qu

Last time I visited the scrap yard I picked up a few large circular saw blades. They were about 2 foot in diameter. The hole in the center is probably 8 inches across. Does anyone know what metal these might be made out of? I looked in the junkyard metals BP but didn't see any mention. I picked them up because I thought they might work OK for layers in a damascus billet. I've been thinking that I would like to try making some damascus soon. Is there anything anyone would suggest for easy material to use? I don't want to do anything fancy, but would like to have pronounced layers visible. I've heard band saw blade and strapping before, but I don't have either …

So i've got a nice big 30 gallon drum which i want ot use for a large water tub, but about 5 inches from the bottom there's a 3/4" long dent which is punctured through. I covered it over with a blob of hot glue for now and it's holding the water for the time being with a little bit of a drip-drip-drip leak from behind the glue plug, but I need something more permanant / better than a hot glue glob. Anyone have any good solutions to a long term water-tight solution to the puncture in my slacktub... one that wont melt away if I accidentally get hot metal too close to it >_

These pics are items I got from an auction. One may be some kind of homemade wrench, the others? Any ideas? Thanx

Hi, Been trying to make Renaissance Wax but can't find a source of polythene A wax in Australia. Does anyone know where I can find it here? Is there another name for the wax? It's probably in the hardware shops but may go by a different name in the land of Oz.

I have made a couple attempts at forging an s-hook with a basket twist in the middle, but I have run into problems. My basic design is 4 rods bundled up and welded at the ends, formed into an S-hook, and twisted around to leave a nice basket in the middle. I've tried doing all four on the face at once, but the nature of round stock is that it acts like a wedge against other round stock, which is clearly counter-productive, and I got nowhere. I've tried doing two rods at a time, which worked for the first join at one end, but then the other end didn't stick, and if I can only hit that weld right 50% of the time, I am gonna be wasting a lot of stock and time. I got close …

Which one is better? I prefer coal/charcoal as it is more authentic. Gas is more dangerous and a little more efficient. what do you think?

How do you store your corded and other hand tools? One grinder is not bad, but you get 2,3 grinders, a drill, sander, and on and on and well you get the idea. We need some ideas on how to store the hand tools so the one you want is not always on the bottom of the pile.

Hi everyone! This is my first post here! I'm sorry to use an old topic, but it's better to recycle than create a new one on the same topic, right? So I took a one-year blacksmithing course at Herefordshire's College of Technology in, you've guessed it, Herefordshire in the UK. It was excellent! Then I came back to Portugal, and I've been in university ever since, so I've had no time for forging... These holidays, however, I finally got everything together and managed to hit some hot metal! It was great! I did ended up burning my piece (it was going to be a fire rake), turning it into... well, two pieces. Heheh. I think I've found the reason, but I need your help ma…

does any one live in wisconsin that i could take classes from, or know of a place, i couldn't ind anywhere

I'm looking to use a piece of metal from a computer casing for a heat sheild for my tuyere.The casing is most likely from the pentium 2 days. I was wondering how could I tell if the metal is galvanized? IT doesn't appear to have the powdery white looking coating on the inside and the outside is the beige looking kind of painted look. My dad says paint wouldn't stick to galvanized parts but I'm just trying to be cautious.

Well, I'm making a tire forge and am pretty close to finishing it. I used black 1 inch piping for the tuyere with a T adaptor to allow for air blasting and ash resevoir w/ plug for easy clean out. an air matress fan is my air source and would connect nicely to the inch diameter. Inside the Tire Rim is a mixture of clay and kitty litter the fire pot is an old brake rotor. I'm thinking I would like to place the set up on top of cyderblocks in a squared U shape while digging out a pit underneath where my tuyere would protrude and pileling dirt around the cyderblocks. The set up would look like this... Ooo = Dirt N= cyderblocks I was wondering would the cyderblock blow from t…