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i haven't tried pure copper yet, but my understanding is it can be a booger. use a charcoal cover as it will want to absorb o2, and run your furnace rich. copper phosphorous brazing rod will help degas. mark

that's a lotta bacon. mark

not to disparage any leo or dnr, but on many occasions i've received "incorrect" information from such an individual. a leo has enough to remember with criminal law without throwing game laws in the mix. i've also gotten "odd" answers to questions from dnr officers. some telling me what was legal is illegal others telling me what's illegal is legal. i had a "discussion" with a leo about my cast net a few years ago. he was very upset and adamant that i was breaking the law and was giving me a ticket. i explained that it was legal but he wouldn't have it. after ten minutes or so of trying to convince him to ask someone who knows. i finally told him " if you write this ticket you'll look a fool in court". that got his attention and he left to seek council elsewhere... he never came back. it boils down to nobody is perfect, and nobody can remember all the laws. it's best to know the particular laws regarding the activity you're involved in. mark

dallas, i'm in johnstown.straight shot up 71. thanks david. thomas, i checked both sites for the groups you mentioned. the mob hasn't posted a new schedule yet. i plan on calling them. mark

i'm pretty sure matt is right on the gph being at a certain psi. i think my nozzles are 1.5 gph at 5 psi. i thin my oil with a little diesel, then light it with a propane torch at 10 psi no preheat. it can be a little fiddly and smoky right at the start. once it gets a little heat built up i turn on the blower and turn it down to 5 psi. with the tank above the burner you may need another valve to fine tune the fuel flow (turn it down). my tank is at the same height as the forge and i have to turn down the fuel with a valve. also my burner will not run in open air unless i use straight diesel. mark

here are a few pics of my humble little anvil. according to my highly accurate bathroom scales it weighs 110# give or take. yes(hangs head in shame) that is a harbor freight aso in the back....at least the hardy hole works. as you can see it has a slight lean which requires a custom stand. the face is pretty beat up, small weird shaped hardy, and the horn drifts off to the right. i can't find any markings on it other than a fairly good sized round indent on each side. i "assume" the holes in the one side are from abuse sometime in the past. a shot from the horn really shows the lean. and a shot of the bottom. as beat up as it is it has a fair ring and good rebound. i traded a 30$ pocket knife for it, so the price was right. if anyone has an idea of the age or who made it i would greatly appreciate any info. mark

macbruce, i wouldn't use this thing in an enclosed shop without some design changes. i have an 8' sliding door on the back of the shop.it's set up so i can swing it out into the open doorway. phil, sorry i guess i left out that part. yes it's a siphon nozzle. no pressurizing the tank. although if i can figure out how to raise the tank and still be able to fill it easily i will. that will add some pressure to the fuel and allow my compressor a break more often. mark

no it uses air pressure to atomize the fuel. here is a shot of it running while it was still in the torpedo heater. i normaly run it at 5-10 psi with a blower adding air. right now the oil tank is at the same level as the forge. the other day it was warm out, and i hung the tank from an 8' ladder. i was able to turn the air pressure low enough that it wouldn't register on the guage. i have a couple of gast air pumps, and two roots type vacuum pumps i want to experiment with to provide the pressure for the nozzle. i just can't seem to keep enough flat area open on a bench to play around yet. mark

here are a few pics of my forge and burner builds. the burner started out as a torpedo heater. i messed around with a few different configurations, trying to keep the igniter. i came up with this configuration. it works, lights up with the igniter, but it's kind of big, made it out of a glass pack muffler. i still have it sitting on a shelf somewhere. someone gave me another torpedo heater so i wasted no time in reducing it to more "useful" components. here's a pic of the nozzle adapter as it comes out of the heater. and a pic after removing all the extra material and adding a "turbolator" and a shot down the bore while it was still clean. the pipe is threaded 1/4 20 and bolts hold the nozzle centered. in this pic i still have the rubber air and fuel lines running into the 2" pipe. this worked fine 'til i shut down once and forgot to pull the burner right away....melted. so i added some iron fittings to get the lines a little farther away, and here it is in it's present configuration a little larger than a beer can. and not so clean anymore. the forge started out as a pressure tank i found out in the woods. i cut one end off and added some holes, tuyere, homemade hinge. this is the insulating refractory in place. and finished off with a 2800* plastic rammable called noxram. it saved me from having to come up with a form to pour dense castable around. plus it was kind of theraputic squishing it in place. i formed a groove for a door gasket but haven't put one in yet. i mounted it on the post next to my 8' sliding back door so i can swing it out into the open doorway for ventilation. my converted propane oil tank, and the air regulator. and finally a shot of it running, and a shot inside. you can see the high temp fire brick starting to get gummy. enjoy mark

thanks everyone, frosty, the burner is a siphon nozzle out of a torpedo heater. still playing with fine tuning, getting the oil to the right consistency. i thinned my oil a little too much on the last batch and it gave me fits 'til i figured it out. then it got hotter than i'd had it yet. the fire brick in the bottom got shiny and oozy on the surface, and the flame was hard to look at. really gave me a warm snuggly feeling. i'll post some build pics. ridgewayforge, i'm just a little northeast of columbus, i've always had a love for blade making, but would describe myself as an artist. i'm glad you like the fork it was my first try. they were both made from a piece of rebar. mark

i have a kmg. still happy with it after 8 or 9 years. mark

i discovered this site a while ago and tried to join.....that's when i found out i had discovered previously, already joined and forgotten about it...lol( a.d.d. it's not just for kids) so after lurking anew, i figure it's time for a hello and a few pics. i've always had an interest in smithing, and tinkered with it in the past, but never had time or space to get serious about it. i finally finished an addition to the shop that alows me to do more hot work without worrying about fire hazard as much i built a coal forge out of a brake drum, but i used a drum from a dump truck so it was really too deep to be of any use for forging. i came across a post somewhere that suggested using bricks to raise the grate, but that was after i finished my oil forge. the coal forge is resting out in the snow now in the pile of mifit toys waiting for me to use it again or for rudolf to rescue it. the oil forge is set up on a swivel so i can swing it out into the open doorway or shove it against the wall for storage. my first project was a knife for dad for christmas. i've done a few stock removal knives in the past but never forged one so... i didn't have much time to finish it so there were a few imperfections i wasn't happy with. i made a pair of tongs out of rebar...more out of necessity than anything else. they are ugly as sin, but work much better on round or square stock than my flat tongs did. plus i no longer have to practice my ninja skills by dodging hot flying metal when it squirts out of my grip. a few more. hope i didn't bore everyone to death. mark

most of the flowerpot furnaces crack on the first firing or two. oven bake clays(that i'm familiar with) are polymer clays, and may burn out at those temps. you don't want your crucible pouring out the bottom especially if you're pulling it out of your forge and have it lifted higher than your belly button. if your doing aluminum, steel is a safer way to go. weld a bottom on a piece of pipe, then heat it in the fire to red and cool before use. the oxide layer will help prevent the molten aluminum from disolving the steel. it will still contaminate the melt with iron a little. some are having success with dense castable in a form for making crucibles capable of bronze temps. i've made a crucible out of ramable refractory (noxram) after a friend of mine mentioned his success with it. i've fired it and it rings but i haven't tried it yet. just be aware of the risks....a pocket full of molten metal makes for a bad day. mark

the syphon nozzles i have came from junk torpedo heaters. i'm not sure if you have anything like that there, but it's something to keep an eye out for. everything i know about burners i learned here http://www.alloyaven...om/vb/forum.php if you look through the burner engineering section there are several guys making their own syphon nozzles from scratch. hope that helps mark

i agree with matt. not enough fuel and too much constriction on your blower. i haven't done any serious checks on my fuel usage(waste motor oil), but i think it's about a gallon an hour depending on the psi( i usually run between 5 and 10 on a syphon nozzle) i also would really like to see your nozzle setup. some oil burners require a pretty good preheat to start working right mark