edge9001

thoug i am by no means an authority on forge welding, it seems to me the base metal being what broke then it had nothing to do with the weld being made with borax or not. it seems like the structure of the original steel was comprimised wither from grain size being too large or exsisting cracks prior to the weld being made.

if your talking about what i think you are that stuff is awsome.

what i know as water gel can be used to treat burns as well as to heat proof things. a gel that is about as thermally conductive as a vaccume(ie a void, not the machine). I've seen that stuff coated onto tinfoil then hit with a oxy/acet torch and still the tinfoil underneath was ok.

looks to me like in the fourth picture the "weld" (I'll call it that for now) that shows at the top of the picture is already starting to crack. it might just be the quality of the weld though. by that i mean it could be the weld quality or a crack...or both.

your right it does look like it used to say foster on the second picture


i agree use it as is. I would put as little effort into making that anvil usable as possible and devote the unused time and energy into finding an anvil that is in better shape, learn on what you have and then upgrade.... I am.

I agree completely. thread a rod that is long enough for your needs, in some way(depending on your needs, abilities, and resources) fashion a foot on the other end and get the ol gal back into service.

your right. from my experience, I melted down about 3 dollars when i was a kid using my moms grill and a soup can, the zinc liquifies and drips to the bottom, and the copper remains on top as slag. before i fully understood the fluidity of molen metal i tried to make a few things with wooden molds, unfortunatly, i never made the molds big or deep enough to work.

that is the exact design I was trying to describe. the top drum is an oven, the bottom drum is a fire pit. Like i said it bakes the wood into charcoal, while the fumes from the wood are used as fuel to help the process along.

as for cutting the wood, just cut it down its length, think making logs into pencils or dowels, and then toss it in. the thinner it is going in the faster it will convert to charcoal. as for breaking it up into charcoal "beans" for lack of a better term that seems to be easier after the conversion.

If cast with a wax loss process, there is another idea involving use of wax duplicats and the wax welding idea. make several (ie tons) of the keys blanks from wax. make the sprue, that little addition to the top of the key, and a large cylinder maybe 1 1/2 inch thick "weld" all of these in a circular fashion to the wax rod. layer them. when done you should have several layers of keys radiating outward from the cylinder. take this and cover in a ceramic or plaster. heat this to melt the wax, pour it out and you will be left with a mold, several more coats of this ceramic mix and you will have a mold that will allow you to pour something like 30-50 keys at a time.

btw if looking for a good source of zinc(i think it is zinc) new pennies are made from it and then electroplated in copper.

gotta love that show "hows it made".

I do not have a honey do list... she knows better than ask me... i wouldn't do it until I'm ready to. our respective lists are the same except for order or importance. lol

I do however have a honey don't like... you know those right, honey don't...beat the kids too much, burn down the house, ignore us for the forge, spend our grocery money on scrap metal, use the last of the gas in the car searching for "rusty gold"(ie anything to do with blacksmithing), ect, ect, ect. those are some of the items on the honey don't list. a few items on the list are there from experience, butmost of them are there as precautionary measures to keep me from doing something stupid. at least that's what she says.

you guys and gals know the score. in a woman's eyes "behind every man is a woman rolling her eyes"

youcan straighten the handles without destroying the twist with a wooden or rawhide hammer. just bring it back to forge temps and make adjustment with the wooden hammer and board/stump/post instead of anvil and hammer. wood will move the metal but not enough to mess up the twists... just remember your straightening it not forgeing.

I got you one. I had to cut some old iron water pipes out of the way to replace with pvc. the only tool i had onsite was my angle grinder in the truck with a cut off wheel on it. While cutting the pipe, I noticed i caught the wall on fire, or so i thought. turns out someone had stuffed a whole full of loose steel wool. the sparks gat caught it on fire. luckily the wall insulation was was not anywhere close so all i had to do was pull out the steelwool. i let it do what it wanted to until i got the pipe cut.

congrats ya lucky dog, when I did the same I had to move a 9' long piece on my own into my little chevy blazer, once I got it moving my dash and stereo stopped it with much crunching and little falling pieces! have fun with your new anvil!

It hasn't foloowed me home yet, but a little more coaxing and I'll have a smithy 3 in 1 lathe/drill press/ mill combo. I have a lady holding it for me I will have it in have by the end of october.

I wish I could weld like that. Very nice hawks, mine are limited to ballpeen hawks and the like.

just start with round bar and experiment. Although the cast perwter will give a more reproducable design. casting is not too complicated, watch you tube and ask around here you can find several ideas..

well I'mright in the middle. I have a healthy respect for the not so electronic and digital way of doing things. I learn as much about the original ways of doing things as i can before i progress to a newer way.. for example my forge has an anvil and a hammer, but no power hammer. I've have not earner the right to get a power hammer. well that an I can't afford one yet. lol

at the same time I love my electronics and gadgets. I can live without them if required, but the way I see it.

know how to operate without a gps and radio, learn the compass and maps but keep a spare set of batteries for the gps. just like using a watch or a simple stick to find a basic direction in a survival situation. these kinds of thing escape most people my age or younger.

5/8 diameter, 8 pitch, 16 inch LOA, the plastic gear is threaded too, one end has a nut (1/4-20 I think), the other a square drive. There is a matching 5/8 steel square nut with it. This is from the old trash compactor I was talking about.

PM me your address if you want it. I'll wrap it up and USPS it.

Phil

I';m not sure iof this will work but has anyone considerd using the linseed oil/beeswax mixture that has been used for iron work coating. my thoughts are use that on the anvil body and then just set an oil dampend rag on the face of the anvil when not in used. then cover that with a towel to help guard against condesation.

like i said not sure if that will work ort not but I figure its worth mentioning

Tim,

I agree with kcrucible.. I think your exhaust openings are too small. If I read your post correctly, the only opening you have is the one shown in the photo. I believe the rule of thumb is the exhaust opening is at least or not less than seven times the area of the burner. The schematic was for a 2" burner or 3.14 square inches. Per the rule of thumb you will need at least 22 square inches to properly ventilate the forge.

I just completed a Freon tank forge build and fabricated 2 half inch Porter style burners for a total area of .40 square inches. I have a rear opening, 1" x 2.5", and a front opening, 2.875" x 2.5" (kinda horseshoe shaped). I reckon the openings are about 8+ square inches total. Of course, my burners are aspirated vs. blown, but I have no back pressure problems nor getting it hot. At 5 psi, the dragon will reach out and lick your hand.

Randy

the door is bolted on, I'm considering removing it alltogether, or possibly opening up the back to give me some pass through capabilities. if your right than one of those should solve my problem

I have a worse situation. i used 6x48 belts and 9 inch discs.only 2 stores in town carry belts and then they only carry 60 grit. in packs of one. gotta love that antique craftsman belt/disc sander. i can't find the disc anyway in town

truegrit carries several

just be careful as some one already stated it will burn and you need the proper extinguisher to put out that fire. just in case. and of course let us know how it turns out

ok I have my gasser I got a few month ago. its doing something I find possibly bad. sorry for the blurred picture


if you look at this picture the area around the door and the weld where the burner tube connects to the forger body were both glowing a nice pretty red.

also last night when I had it going good i started seeing sparks come out of the hole, similar to what is deswcribed as steel being at welding heat. the problem is I had nothing in the forge at the time.

today i went out and pulled my burner and there was scale trying to clog my burner as well as the out side of my forge as a nice coat red of surface rust, today, that wasn't there before I lit the forge last night.

my forge has the koawool(or some ceramic wool) and no hard coat yet. to help with visualizations ive included a picture of my forge plans.

thes designs can also be good for anyone who is looking to build there own.

the builder of my forge added the doors and closed in the back. the back has what looks like terracotta tile on the back wall, and no insulation on the door and
only 1 inch of kaolwool.

any advice guys?

Ric
I re-read what i wrote earlier, and realized it might have come across as snippy. If you think so to I appologize, that was not my intention. sorry

Edge9001
My appolgy for not considering that you may not have been able to assist.
Sincerely. Jerry