jayco

To make more time for forging, To DO more forging, and To improve my understanding of the fine art of SELLING!

Well,.......I wouldn't want you to run short :)

Welcome to Iforgeiron, Leroy! There's a bunch of fine folks here. Enjoy!

Adam, welcome to Iforgeiron! BP0192 Gas Forge You can use the search feature at the top of the forums page and also the search in the gallery to find even more information.

You've heard that phrase:........."Don't eat the yellow snow". And I know you've got those goats.........I'll have to think about it.........

Forgot to mention adding a little milk or canned cream to the recipe.....for flavor and consistency. Obviously, I'm NOT the cook at my house!

Frosty, judging from your 'snow' pics, you've got the makings for truckloads of SNOWCREAM!! You know.......mix vanilla extract and sugar in clean white snow.... I haven't had any in years........now I'm hoping for a little snow.... (Not too much mind you........just enough for a bowl or two):)

LB0003.0001 Blacksmithing Forges Here's a link to a lot of different solid fuel forges. As you will see, there are lots of good designs. I don't know about using the gas tank, though. I don't mess with them at all. Too dangerous. While you might manage to build a forge from a car gas tank, the metal is too thin to last for very long. Hope this helps! By the way, welcome to Iforgeiron! Enjoy!

Glenn, I have to admit that the '50% by volume' was just a guess! There are no references to site. You may have helped me discover a fatal flaw in my logic. I observed that the closer the fire is to the flue.....the better the draw. I came to the conclusion that drafting had something to do with allowing or excluding room air from the flue entrance. This may.....or may not.........be true. Conclusions from observations are not always accurate. The ancients observed the sun 'going down', and concluded that the sun was moving. Oh well, back to the drawing board! :)

A good place to start: Getting Started Lessons Enjoy!

If you've already got the roof on, sounds to me like you're making good progress! 8 x 16ft. is the size of my old shop. I actually did all my forging in 1/2 of it.....the other end was full of metal,coal,coke,.......and yes, junk! You will enjoy having a place INSIDE to work and keep your tools. On days when it is too cold or wet to do anything outside, I can build a fire and work comfortably. I will be looking forward to seeing the pictures! James

Great work, Valentin.........It is beautiful!

Merry Christmas to all! James :)

It seems that hardwood charcoal produces less of the sparks, or 'fleas' than the softwoods ,like pine, produces. As to the B P's.....several of them are currently off-line and are being 'reconfigured' for the site. They will return.

Richard, welcome to Iforgeiron! There's a bunch of bladesmiths who are members here. (There's a live Friday night 'Knife Chat' at 10:00 P.M. E.S.T. There are guys here who make armor too.... Join in.....Enjoy!

I remember the time a farrier asked me to assist with some 'shaping' of a horse shoe. He needed to shoe a horse with, as he described it, a funny made foot. Anyway, he was going to do the shoeing, and I was to stay outside the stall with an improvised weed burner and a piece of RR track as an anvil. The farrier would appear and request that the shoe be bent.....here.......and here.....and there. There was lot's of loud banging, clanging, and grunting going on in the stall. All the racket was coming from the guy shoeing the horse! Glad I wasn't in there! Welcome to Iforgeiron, Big Al!!

bsiler, you mention fire danger from sparks in your log shop. yes, you do have to be careful of that........especially if you have horizontal beams/logs where sparks and hot scale can fly from the forge and start smoldering without you noticing. I have some pieces of old roofing metal nailed to the wall behind my forge as a fire proof wall covering. I always kinda 'check around' when I finish forging for the day. Large sparks can land on cotton gloves, your jacket, a cardboard kindling box, or your open bucket of charcoal sitting beside the forge and start a fire after you have left your shop. As far as sifting the charcoal is concerned, I use 1/4 in. rat wire made into a little square tray ( the edges bent up) it looks like a cake pan. The smaller stuff, 1/4 in. to 1/2 in. is burnable charcoal and I use it, but is not as clean as 1/2 in. and larger. If I'm going to forge weld, I use the larger charcoal. I will resift to a larger size )(1/2 in. is a good size) for the good stuff........or just rake the larger pieces off with my hands. Some folks use a piece of expanded metal ( the stuff with the diamond shaped holes in it) to make sifters. You can put a handle on a piece of expanded metal and make a sifting shovel.There's a B P on that somewhere. Really large pieces of charcoal, I break up into smaller pieces. 1/2 to 1 in. seems to be about the right size for me. Also, it takes much less air for charcoal....that will make it last a little longer. Hope this helps....James

Howdy rdbrnr! Welcome to Iforgeiron! I gather from your login name that you are an arc welder. Along with blacksmithing, we also talk about arc welding, A/O torches, mig, etc....most anything to do with metalworking, actually. You'll fit right in......... Enjoy!

littlewolfsmithy, welcome to Iforgeiron! Nice job on the twist, by the way. And yes, we love pictures!

Tom, I've been a member of that club for almost 3 years now. I'll be 53 in March. I knew something was up when folks who worked in stores and businesses around town started calling me "Sir".......... I'd better leave it at that.......I feel one of those "I remember the time".........stories coming on..........

Ed ,you mention spraying old engine oil and old diesel on your forge as a way to obtain higher temperatures. I must tell you that both of these are dangerous to use in your forge. The fumes from old engine oil are toxic. Also, there is danger from flash fires as well. Be careful!

The other day, we had a minor emergency come up, so I had to shut down the forge and leave quickly. Knowing that there are no cast iron parts under this forge, I just dashed a small bucket of water right on the fire. Fire effectively drowned. Well, the next morning, I started a fire in the 'drowned' forge. Lit some paper, added some kindling, a little coke, and then started cranking the blower. There didn't seem to be much happening in the way of air blast. The fire was not 'picking up' as it usually does. I check the ash dump and nothing comes out. By now I'm scratching my head. Something was definately restricting the air! But What? I poked a piece of rod into the bottom of the ash dump, and discovered that the tuyere, the 'T' and the pipe to the ash dump was full of........ice! The water I had put out the fire with the day before........had frozen........had to use the propane torch and heat the piping to get it out of there. So....that was another funny thing.......... If that wasn't enough, today I was forging a long taper on an 18 in. rod.......rolling it back and forth on the anvil as I hammered it.........and got the end I was holding in my hand hung up in my coat sleeve. A burr on the metal had gotten entangled in the fabric. Like to never got the thing loose........lost a heat in the process. One more incident like these and I think I'll ask Glenn to change the name of this thread to....you guessed it.......RED FACED DUFUS EXPLOITS:)

My guilotine dies are leaf spring. I don't do anything to cool them, and they haven't deformed from heat. You could always try water in a spray bottle.

I use both charcoal and coal, but I don't really mix the fuels. I might start out with charcoal, since it lights easily and doesn't make much smoke at startup. Depending on what I intend to forge, I might bank the charcoal fire with coal if I'm going to be heating larger pieces. Of course, when I bring the coal into the center of the fire, it's pretty much a coal fire. ( I shake the ashes from the spent charcoal into the ash dump) Near the end of a forging session, I might decide to forge just one more little piece, and not want to build up a large fire that i will just have to extinguish minutes later. So, I will toss a scoop or two of charcoal onto the fire to finish the project. I know I used the word 'might' a lot in this post. I have no hard and fast rules as to which fuel to use at any given time. I freely alternate from one fuel to another. And yes, they do get mixed a little in the forge.