Problem Solving

Ok, I just welded a decent sized coal forge to use at my parents house. My problem is the coal will coat black soot on the house and to make matters worse the wind blows toward the house. My set up is in their garage with the anvil near the garage door, I have a propane forge that I've used for the last three years. I needed to get the steel hotter so i could practice forge-welding. Any suggestions? I guess I could switch to charcoal, but I just bought a tub of coal and would like to use it.

Any ideas as to what this is and how it is used ?

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I needed to make a batch of courting candles for next weekend and I decided to try BP326 by Gerald Franklin. I usually just make one at a time but this looks to be a better way. I cut my stock and wrapped the 2 pieces around my jig, and yes by golly it does wrap better and easier Geralds way.now comes the problem. My jig is a piece of 3/4 pipe welded to a piece of 2" angle so it can easily be clamped in a vice and won't move around. I can't get the wraps off the pipe with out deforming them. I have tried light oil and wd40 and a small punch. Is there something I'm missing here? OH and yes about now I feel stupid. Any suggestions short of removing my head from my rear(I do…

hello every one. at this time i have not for me a smal problem.. since i have never done annything like this i must aks befor.If i have a gate 1.5meters long *2 ( a dubbel gate) and wannt to attach the fence post ( right word??) in the ground?? anny proposal?? Kindest regards// Sweden. Swe_karl

Hello Friends, Trying to get ready for the holiday season and looking for ideas for hand made gifts.:confused: Any suggestions? Also, where do you find projects, tooling ideas, and how to's, other than this great place? Please remeber to pray for and support our troop! Kevin

Hey all, I'm having turkey with my buddy Jim today and he showed me his real nice old Trenton anvil that was on the family farm in Washington. We're kind of wondering if anyone can tell us it's age by the markings. On the heel end of the base/feet it's marked Z111 on the left side and A15830 on the right side. It appears to be approximately 100lbs so maybe the Z111 is the weight??? Any idea from the other number what it's age might be? Thanks in Advance and happy thanksgiving all, McL

How do we increase attendance to the blacksmithing conferences? Usually you can count on the same hard core blacksmiths at a conference, but with big names doing demos and the hard work of the organizers, how is the best way to increase attendance? Saturday all day: Get up 4 am, attend the conference, leave at say 5 pm and arrive home 9 pm. 8 hours drive time and 3 meals. Saturday all day, Sunday am to afternoon: Get up 4 am, attend the conference, overnight, leave at say 4 pm and arrive home 8-9 pm Sumday. 8 hours drive time and 6 meals and one motel bill. Friday Saturday Sunday: Get up 4 am, attend the conference, 2 overnights, leave at say 4 pm and arrive…

Today I was trying to bend a leaf spring into a U-ish shape to secure a leg vise to a fence post I sunk in my shop's floor. I had gotten the first 90 degree bend and had put the piece back into the fire to make the second bend. I had to run up to the house so I turned off the blower and started to pull the piece out of the fire to set aside and it slipped from my grip. I immediately jumped 6 feet backwards before it had hit the ground, and when it hit it broke clean in half at the bend! I'm not sure if this is usual for leaf springs since this is the first one I've ever worked with, but what did I do wrong to make it crack like that? I may have quenced it after the first …

Hey does anyone know a good place that ships carbon steels like 1086 for a good price?It will be for knife making.I have searched the net but a lot of the places were not clear on how much it cost.

Two questions. First off, im trying to remove a rivet from an old pair of nippers to forge into tongs. How exactly do i go about doing this? I haven't got really any power tools to work with so a way to go about this with hand tools would be most desirable. Second off, everytime I rivet something together, I get as far as having a nub of metal sticking out one side ready to be turned into a head, and after that it always ends up just a bent piece of steel. Which never seems to work. So any tips or hints would be appreciated.

I have a question concerning upsetting blocks. I work in a machine shop so I have access to odd hunks of metal which I think might work well for an upsetting block. We have a lot of drops and bar ends of 4130 steel 5" in diameter. I plan to use one of these in my anvil stand which is a stump. I thought of inletting one on end into the wood alongside the anvil between the feet. I could go with one 8" and bore a hole for it to sit in say about 4" deep. OR I could go through a lot more work to sink in a 14 incher. Should I bother with the bigger one or would the 8 incher prove sufficient for general use? Dan:)

I found this on ebay and I'm going to do knife smithing. eBay: Small Blacksmith Railroad Track Anvil & Hardie Jewelry (item 170046228441 end time Nov-13-06 18:47:48 PST)

I was asked to make a chart of my life the other day and after much thought and careful consideration. This is what I came up with.

I just purchased a portable forge a fairly big one made by the Canadian blower manufacturing company. Question is are these forges suppose to have a hood on them for the smoke. I want to install this in shop and if I can waht is the best material tu use to build a hood.

Hi All, Does anyone know anything about this stuff? How to make it and where to get the waxes..I got this recipe from a museum website : 100g of microcrystalline wax 25g of polyethylene wax 230g of white spirits But there are many types( eg. hardness + colour) of these waxes and I can't find which ones to use. Seems like it's a really good finishing wax so would like to give it a try. Regardez Brian:confused:

i have some experience in fire welding and obviously some welding situations r easier than others. What i like doing is to laminate cutting tools of all sorts. just makes sense to me to have the edge steel only where it's needed, even if we can afford now anything in our blessed, wasteful times. Now to my problem. Usually i weld the steel to one side of the blade. I put the tool into the fire ,so that the steel bit lies on top and will get less heat than the low carbon tool body.so in a way, an ideal arangement. But when I sandwich the bit in between, as with an axe head, i find it difficult to get the top layer hot enough without burning the other layers. Is it a matt…

I have a natural gas forge that I need to convert to propane. Hw do you do that? What's involved? What parts do I need to add?

I've been scrounging the material to build an 18 foot tandem axle trailer most of the year this year. Last spring I bought 6 mobile home axles complete with springs and 2 also had brakes for $50. I kept 0ne pair and sold the others. I came acroos some 2"x2"x1/4" square tubing in August. there were 10 pieces 7'4" long and quite abit of short pieces 4' and less. Two weeks ago I also got quite alot of 4"x4"x1/4" square tubing from a factory that was tearing out some old eqipment. Any gussets or crossmembers were bolted on. No welds to cut and clean up. Just to throw this out there here is my plan. I am going to use the 4x4 for the frame and the 2x2 for crossmembers.I wi…

Just finished my fist reil style LP burner. I was having a problem with it only staying lit at a low pressure (1 or 2 lbs), so I ordered a pro made flare for it (from Ellis). Got it mounted, and it's still blowing itself out if I crank it up past 2 lbs. Any ideas? I'm using a mig tip for the orafice. Thanks! Jeff

Hello. As my user name suggests, i am not a blacksmith.....but i know one. And he has a problem. Well, he has lots of problems.....but don't tell him i said that. He is trying to recreate a small 18th Century iron item (a toaster) that has no documentation, and is put together in a way that has so far remained a mystery to him. He - Terry Connor - is the resident Blacksmith at Kings Landing Historical Settlement, located at Prince William, N.B., which is about 35 kilometers from Fredericton, where i live. He does not have a computer or internet access. I do. I also have several photos of the item in question, showing the "problem area" in detail. Neither he nor i ha…

hello...looking for info on how to make tapered flat bar bands that hold a water cistern together. i will need to use 2" x 3/16".

Looking for MICA material a transluant material used on outdoor lights? I'am using mild steel and copper for the light fixtures. Any sources for this plastic material, I beleive they come in sheets. Thanks Mike

I see references to them, but I can't figure out what they're for!

whos got the best deal on shipping anvils, i need to get 200 pounder from conn. to south fl,thanks clark:cool: