WmHorus

Yea I wasnt expecting it is all, the place i get from is usually so careful, and I did soak it in degreaser. so i dont know what happened. I havent run across this in quite some time why I usually dont worry

 See I buy it from the same company every time and they know not to give me galvanized...grrrrrrrr yea i was just playing with it again to see if I got the same results and what I got was white smoke with green blue flames......Also made my eyes burn like crazy....Also the front of my forge now has a white color all over it....

As some folks here know I only really work in Cable to make cable damascus, but I had an odd thing happen just now. Normall if I dont get all the grease out of the cable before I start heating it up to twist it it will smoke a little. Well it was doing this as normal and I thought nothing of it when I pulled it out to borax. Well it went back in the fire and a few minutes later I started noticing a yellowish tinge to the smoke coming from the cable, and I pulled it out and there was also a yellowish tinge to the borax. I stopped immediately and pulled everything out and turned off the forge and put the cable outside of the carport. I worry that the yellowish color might be Zinc Fumes, and I need someone with more experience to confirm or deny this. I am always very careful when I buy cable and I buy it from the same place and tell them it cannot be Galvanized cable that I am getting. Suggestions Guys?

about 3 Years ago I had an Elk brush up against my 100lb propane tank and knock it over sending it to the ground and my forge up into the air dangling over it, I have had racoons visit, squirrels as well as the latest a next of hornets under the wet grinder I have to still hook up. Living out in the sticks can be fun and interesting at times....

ya, i decided to set it aside till something comes up....

 I have been working on this one on and off for a bit but I finally got it to the point it needs handled. The one pictured just doesnt feel right for this blade, I am looking for suggestions.

 Frosty thanks, the 'fan' is a blower from blacksmiths depot, that puts out 112 CFM, its the medium sized blower, there is one more larger, it does 124 CFM if I remember correctly, its one of the ones Grant Sarver used to sell. The Diameter for the outlet feeding into the pipe system is 1/4 inch or so, the pipe feeding into the forge is roughly an inch diameter....I will see if I can take a couple pictures to show the setup later tonight....

 I started thinking today after watching the fire go for a couple minutes that, maybe the problem is I need a bigger fan, the flame is not really even getting past the openings. So the thought also came up that could I also possibly need a bigger orifice. .. any thoughts guys?

lol, im still an ijit eeither way :D My other thread is me trying to figure out why my burner isnt working right now....if someone had KiK I would film the problem and send it to them to get it posted here and see what answers i'd get

Thomas if you were talking to me ofc I plan on adding plenty of flux as well as some charcoal powder then covering the thing in refractory crment and letting it cook.

I just got an older cruicible and have a bunch of stainless shavings from the shop I plan on dropping into it with some high carbon scraps from previous knives and see what I come up with...

 Well I managed to get it sputtering run long enough to burn off the last of the cardboard liner that was the form....*wait for it*

    * Kneels down and opens his Gi pulls out the Hari Kiri blade and proceeds to gut himself ritualistically *

  Ok this is what I saw even after 3 weeks of drying out i noticed damp spots developing around the bottom edge of the plate the force sits down upon, this however isnt the main reason for my dispondant behavior, with the cardboard layer gone, I was able to see a hairline fracture in the refractory starting at the rear openings lower left corner and heading all the way down the length of the pour. I am not sure how deep it is yet but I have a feeling its bad, very bad. However the sputtering still continues though I checked my propane tank and there is no way its nearly empty , usually I can easily move a 100lb tank that is empty and I dang near got a hernia lugging this through the shop. Next I tried shortening the feed line for the propane, it was abnormally long because I kept the tank on the other side of the shop from the forge. I figured it couldnt hurt to try shortening it, but that didnt remedy the sputtering issue or the blow out when I reduced the pressure. Thats where I am tonight folks...fearing failure in this project....I am stepping out of the shop for the night..or 2 or 3 or week.

Windancer reminded me to stick it in a vise and start it up to see whats going on, I have it in my head for some reason that I am running low on propane.......

how it worked with the old one was I lit it off at 3-5 psi on the dial then hit the fan and dialed it back to get it running at almost 0 psi then adjust the fan opening. Now since this is a larger version of the old one, I light it at 5 psi  hit the fan and when I start dialing it back it blows itsself out, if I try raising the psi it starts sputtering.,...so not sure yet whats going on, I had it almost going for a few minutes earlier but once again when I started dialing it back after adjusting the airflow into the blower it blew itself out again...

Ive been trying to adjust the burner a bit to see if the length changed from the old forge but it still keeps blowing the flame out when I go to adjust the psi back down to normal operation

thanks frosty, my main problem atm is getting the fire started in it, I get it lit, hit the fan for the blower and it goes out...need to find someone local who can take a look and help me get it going. The design worked fine with the old forge, but I upsized it a little and now....

I went and purchased the ITC 100 yesterday ugh 73 dollars a pint, and started looking at the mixing ratio's the paper that came with it was got a gallon of mix to 1/2 gallon of water so now I actually had to do math, but thankfully I googled it and it stated 1/2 pint to the pint which seems a tad wet to me so I will have to see what happens....that is after I shape out the inlet a bit for the propane, right now its a straight shot into the chamber but it needs to have a litttle slope down into the chamber.....

 That started making me think about it as well......

  Well we will see what happens when I get it up and going, its still a couple weeks off since it was cast last week and it is sitting in the back of the truck right now so I can take it into the warmer shop at school for a few days before I start the slow process of lightbulb to start warming it up a little before I put flame to it.

The forge was cast on Wed. it took 2 1/2 bags of refractory..lol I bought 6 just in case you never know. Luckily they allowed me to return the excess, but next week I am taking off the carboard forms and then let it sit for another week in open air. then start warming it up slowly with a lightbulb first as recommended by the folks who sold the refractory to me then start some slow slow firings....will have pics when I get the carboard off, it was far to messy to to try and cast with only 2 of us and take pics at the same time.

 For training I would look for Machinists Unions or Trade schools there are alot of machinist websites out there as well you can ask on, I am in trade school to be one right now and spend much of my time doing manual work. As far as whats wrong with the lathe you do have I dont know, seized up could be many things...

I forgot to say Thank you all for the data...

Thats basically what the instructor is trying to do is get a general read on the mystery steels the students are bringing in.....he handed out the black and white which does a great job of explaining things, but a color one for display is now my task to find for him.....

Ya looking for a printable one for the students....we can only find the black and white one and it would be nice to have a color chart for them....

 I am looking for a in color spark test chart for class and I cant seem to find one, and I know there is one around...anyone have one?