edge9001

Some how I knew you would be the first to reply...lol

just curious who is in my area. I'm in the dalton, GA area. Is anyone near me, perhaps in calhoun, dalton, chatsworth, jasper, ellijay, ringgold, summerville, trion, or maybe eastridge TN chattanooga TN, or Cleveland TN. Is there anyone in any of these areas or close by. I would like to find time to meet some of you guys(or gals) if any of you are in my area.

now that you mention mice and their nests, I've had a mouse build a nest, get this, inside the tuyere of my solid fuel forge. I went to crank up the heat the other day and I noticed my fan wouldn't turn. i reached in an turned it by mand a time or two and it started right up. then I saw there was still not very much air flow. I took the fan off and saw the pipe was full of little mouse nesting fluff. I've made sure I fire up that thing once a week now that I now it;s prime realestate for critters

whre can I find one of those drill bits?

the only critter I've seen inmy shop are my two dogs. they have found a way into my shop, and I have yet to figure out how. of course with as many small holes as my shop has it doesn't supise me much.

let me repeat what has already been stated, please be careful. used improperly this forge could be very dangerous. infact mine, working properly, has a tendancy to be a flame thrower for a few seconds whan i first light it that square hole in the back of your forge is a pass through so you can heat longer pieces. it looks like the blower that was once used on your forge was a quirrel cage blower that had the air flow controlled by a gate across the intake. as for using the hair dryer, try moving it out of the hole and ust blow it towards to hole. the further it is from the pipe the less air gets into the pipe. you might be able to play with that combo a little bit and see if you can atlest get a look at what the forge is supposed to do. however you really do need a airflow gate of some kind. I recommecnd the sheetmetal in the slit design previously mentioned. keep in mind air and fuel both need to be adjusted to get a proper fire. here are some pictures of mine. the blower in mine can be controls with either an airgate on the blower of in the manifold pipe. I have it in the pipe next to the blower.

How well does that forge design work for you I had the thought to make one with that exact design a few months ago then my forge came up for sale at a price I almost passed out over. needless to say I bought the thing instead of making one of those.

based on the photo, notice the web like material around the bottom of the 2 inch pipe, that resembles duct tape. I would summize the previous owner had some flexible pipe similar to a dryer hose attached there and then the other end if it attached to an air source. and both ends taped to provide a solid seal. My solid fuel forge has a 2 inch pipe and ametal tape used for A/C duct to seal the fan to the pipe. it works well. with the length of the pipe it shouldn't get hot enough to care damage to a fan. you could make a small stand for a fan, or use a block, get creative. since I see no evidence of a air gate to control air flow yes a rheostat of some sort to control the airflow if using a blower. a hair dryer shouldn't need much adjustment.

my forge is similar to yours. same basic design. it needs a blower, a hair dryer has been said to work, but mine came with a industrial looking squirrel cage blower. I'm not sure if it has a high enough output but my solid fuel forge runs off a bathroom fan. for less than $2o it has a great air output. I would suggest if you have a hard time finding a good blower, attempt to use one. they are available at any hardware store such as home depot or lowes.

lead make a good counter weight, so if you have a smithed little something that needs balanced lead does a good job. I have several chucks "o" soft grey stuff and a ladle I got with my last good haul. I;m just waiting to find the right use for it before my kids start trying to chew on it. well my 3 year old any way.

what's with all of the red paint? I;m jealous, nice collection

haha don't worry I got the joke.

I wold suggest parafin wax and battery acid might do the trick, as for how long to leave it on the blade thay would be trial and error, experiment on some scrap with a simple design like a few lines and time each one to seem how dep of an impression you make. Safety, I would suggest safety glasses a fAce shield gloves sleeves and pants a respirator and good exhaust fans. or atleast be as safe as you can because acids can be nasty things. I recommentd battery acid specifically because when youbuy it it comes with the safety info you will need to know. As an alternative, depending on how deeply you want the design etched on, sand blasting might work, but I'm not familiar with that process enough to say for sure.

I used a bathroom fan on my solid fuel brake drum forge. they are wisper quiet and can be controlled reasonably well with a dimmer switch, and reletively cheap. this is the fan I used only I left the cover off and I originally enclosed it to be more weather resistance as my forge was out in the open for a few weeks. so far it works great.

Nice collection of anvils.

the channel piece might work well, but IMHO the rotor and drum you have there, with the hub being part of the rotor and drum, are not so good. I would suggest a brake drum from a car, or just start with plate steel and weld together a firepot and table.

very nice work.

My first spike knife looked similar to that one, except my blade was more curved. my cousin wanted it before it got finished so I gave it to him.

looks like a good place to start. I would draw more out for the blade. the remaining grip area will look too short, thin and draw it out just enough to get a handle area the right length. then twist the handle. work on evening out the thickness as best you can at the forge, as well as flatten it. as for finishing, I see you sanded or ground the blade, keep working down the through the grit sizes, finer and finer to get a good finish on it. as help with the processes, check out youtube. there are plenty of videos of guys doing the same thing. A wire brush or wheel will help with the forge scale espeially on the handle after it is twisted. keep in mind take your time and do as much work at the forge as you can, the closer to finished it is done with a hammer, the less correcting you need to do on grinder or sander. there is some controversy, especially on iforgeiron, as to the quality of a RR spike knife. I;m not going to get into that right now, but know you can make a descent blade from a HC spike and as nice looking as you are willing to make it, by that ' I mean how much time are you willing to put into it. just keep in mind it may or may not hold a good edge. like i said be patient with the materials, the forging and your learning curve, but looking good so far.

I'm sure that I'm missing something. but the last picture, what is that setup?

I see i'm not the only one who names their tools, hehe twister, nice. I have draco the dragon's breath spewing propane forge

http://atlanta.craigslist.org/nat/tls/1899226221.html a foot operated legvise, with hardy hole. Price seems a bit high, but who knows.

I was hopeing someone "wood" say that. I have both charcoal and propane forges, and Woodgas has looked interesting for a while.

This you tube video has been removed by the user. look around 3:40 this is what got me thinking would a similar setup be able to produce a workable forge? perhaps a homemade one instead of this expensive industrial grade monstrosity. it looks as is this gas might be plausible for a gas type forge fuel. it seems the same process used to make charcoal would produce this gas and then you could use the same wood to make fuel for a solid fuel forge and a gasser at the same time.

I always prefered the saying "if you can't be smart, atleast be smarter than the tools your using" to which I answer anvils and hammers aren't that smart, they get the crud beat out of them on a daily basis and still stay for more, knowing more is coming tomarrow....kindda like that dog that still comes begging for food at the back door no matter how many times you beat him(not that I beat animals {unless out of metal})