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I Forge Iron

Jeff Seelye

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Everything posted by Jeff Seelye

  1. I have seen both nuts and bolts drilled and a wire attached as well as bolts drilled and Castle Nuts used.
  2. Wow, I had to Google "Xeriscaping" Never had that problem before! It's either Snowing or green here.
  3. Jim, best thing I can think of is to put 2 pieces of coal in your pocket and by the time you land in Fla. they should be warm enough to light. "Flying out on Monday" Sheesh, Come back and watch us thaw out in the spring!
  4. check the avatar, we made these from the MABA Nov Dec 2012 magazine
  5. Thank you Frank T. for the tong idea. I have some offset ones but I like that idea!
  6. Hi Enoch, Welcome! Jim Coke (above) has good advise here, MABA is very helpful and well worth joining,also the Woldumar Nature Center has a blacksmith group. If you need info on either of these, PM me. I'm not on here every day, but I try and keep up. Again welcome!
  7. I like the design on the Chef's Knife
  8. Does anything here help? I have a Victor 100C that uses the same tips and I use the same pressures. Make sure you turn your acetylene up far enough to clear the smoke off the tip before adding the oxygen
  9. OK besides the PPE issue... Do this in a well ventilated area because when I did this, all the stuff in the immediate area got rusty quicker, if this is not an issue, just ignore. Just be warned, you are putting acid in the air and it will land on something. I use acids for color and I have learned over time to watch what is around me when I am doing this.
  10. Very nice work on the scroll ends!
  11. Welcome Brian! We are in a great state to hammer in! Their is a state group here (MABA) and and at least 1 local group here. PM me if I can help more. Jeff
  12. Thanks Timothy, Besides my anvil, I would also know why my knees were warn out. All I could think about was being in that crouched up position. How would you work that long in that position? Also noticed no shoes on the smith, makes me feel real fortunate!
  13. Hi Rberry1911, I spent about 6 months gathering, asking a lot of questions (Like you are) and about a week assembling. Most of my parts were cut ahead of time just waiting for some good assembly time without interruptions. I have about $275.00 into it, $125.00 was in getting someone with a 17" lathe to cut the groove for a D belt because I use the flywheel as the pulley also. The rest was from a scrapyard or TSC for the shaft. Today I was working on an end table that is getting a log top (someone else is doing that) and I made 4 short legs from 2 1/2" pipe put into my forge and used my "Rusty" to distress the legs. Saved me a lot of hand hammering. Here is a video I took drawing a 1" bar down to 3/16" that I made a wine bottle holder with. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150409426958059&set=vb.115645565141895&type=3&theater I have used more powerful hammers, but if you have the time, the price is right! I might eventually upgrade but this works well for me now.
  14. I built a "Rusty", changed a few parts, asked a lot of questions, here and to friends. I love it. It has about a 50 lb hammer and 1 1/4" is about all I want to do in it. Had I gone bigger overall I could do more. I just wanted to build something to get me started. I moved the motor up to shorten the shaft, made changeable dies, and used a 117 lb flywheel (in a cage) to make it run smoother. If you are on Facebook you can see pictures of it. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=152819868091131&set=pb.115645565141895.-2207520000.1359090303&type=3&theater Don't try anything without first looking at the original plans. Jerry Allen and the Appalachian group put a lot of work tweaking this. Jerry will answer almost any question you have about it. If you aren't an accomplished welder/ fabricator, I would suggest you get help there also.
  15. I used to wonder the same question. I also wondered why Dr. J could hang so long in the air. (still wonder about that one). I tried turning stock and found that (like 781 "keeps it hotter as you are working the material more") that when my stock is not always touching the anvil, that I keep more heat in the stock and I can forge longer. When you push a piece of steel into an anvil with a hammer and don't turn it, all the heat is being sucked away each time. So if I hit 4 times on one side and turn it, then hit 4 times and turn, more heat is sucked out than if I turned each time (less contact with cold anvil) I have a gas forge so it is easier to get the same heat, on each time at the anvil, I seem to get further with each heat. Last year I did 3 things different. 1. Put my thumb on the side (lets not hash this one out, it's personal) 2. When drawing out stock, I started using the horn more. And 3. Did the 90⁰ twist. I think my overall technique has improved.
  16. I have several rules of thumb when brazing or welding. 1. If it takes a lot of torque (low speed), I braze it. If it is high speed (usually low torque), I weld it. In other words, if I was doing a tooth on a bull gear, the brazing takes less stress that a weld would. 2. If it stays the same temperature (relatively) I braze, if goes through cycles of hot and cold, I weld it. What you are doing, I would braze. If I was doing a manifold on a tractor, I weld. The coefficient of expansion and contraction between CI and bronze during heating and cooling will cause another crack. 3.If it is your grandmother's antique whatever, I usually weld because I can't seem to get paint to stick as well to bronze as it does to a nickel weld. A high nickel content rod is what you would be looking for, usually you can ask for a CI rod, but they do make machinable and non-machinable rods. Also, Brass is a combination of Copper and Zinc, and Bronze is a combination of Copper and Tin (several different combinations here). Brass is great for casting, bronze is great for brazing. As far as prep, I try to add steps or texture to a bronze job simply to give the Bronze more surface to adhere to, rather than just grind a "V". If my groove in the CI is large, I have "buttered" the entire surface with good nickel rod and used 7018 to fill it. The 7018 and nickel work well together and you can save some cash here. There will always be exceptions to these rules of thumb, but for the most part, they work well.
  17. Very cool, Seen it done before, but that was the quickest I have seen!
  18. Mason's bag comes to mind. They are heavy canvas with leather handles, very durable.
  19. With this discussion in mind, the question , how deep is to deep? So the real question is depth of the coals as much as the depth of the fire pot. I currently use a gasser, and would like to build a coal forge. I was thinking of building a table with a brake drum in the table. I have access to all sizes from compact cars to bus brake drums. Considering the depth you are talking about, would I be better off using the bus brake drum? What is the best depth for a fire pot? I could even plasma cut the cast brake drum to the optimum height but I don't know what that is.
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