solvarr

i don't know if it's a saw. They call it a fat 50 can.
A little wider than a normal 50mm.
I get my regulators from F & G Distributing .
Their regulators are very nicely priced.
I won an auction on ebay and found out they were local.

I was at an event yesterday and saw a guy using a 50 cal. ammo can gas forge. He gave me a website to look at plans but it does not seem to be working. A web search did not help either. Does anyone know where i can find plans? Thanks

I have let the website sit for too long. Thanks for reminding me to get the overhaul going.

thanks
Solvarr

www.forgemonkeys.com

Rich, go to Ellis Knifeworks. Darren has everything needed to build gassers.
If you want to see things hands on, take a ride 100 miles south and look at what I have here :-) I'm in the process of building a vertical gasser now. bruce

I couldn't agree more I enjoyed doing business with him.
I have used several types of refractory mortar.
None have been nearly as nice as satanite.
Goes on smoothe and easy.

A half pint of itc100
5 pounds of satanite (guess)
2 linear feet of inswool
1 and 1/3 1" Thick Hard Fire Brick:

And you can line an ammo can.

I was at an event yesterday and saw a guy using a 50 cal. ammo can gas forge. He gave me a website to look at plans but it does not seem to be working. A web search did not help either. Does anyone know where i can find plans? Thanks

Hey there.
You probably saw my friend Drogo (Chris Dietz) with one. He's up in that area and does renfaires and craft fairs.

The ammo can forge is something I came up with four years ago after being frustrated about how almost all the plans online needed a fairly intensive workshop to be made.

I boiled it down to a jigsaw and a drill. (hacksaw and snips are optional)
I remembered that arround 350 cubic inches was good for ONE ron reil burner.
5x6x11 inner volume of this forge = 330 cubic inches

You take 1 & 1/3 fire brick for the floor
Cut a small door in the back and a larger door in the front
But the bolt feet on if you want em.
wrap the kaowool all the way around one loop under the brick(this is 2 square feet of kaowool)
Add a bit more kaowool to protect the back wall.
Fill in the space under the lid.
Mount a pipe flange to the lid (I use a little kaowool as a gasket)
make a hole in the top of the kaowool inside that matches the pipe flange.
Ram it with a layer of fireclay.
Let it dry for a day or two.
Put a pipe nipple that mounts the pipe flange and cut it so your burner rests 1/4 to 1/2 inch above the edge of the kaowool.
Drop the burner in and fire it up.
I get welding heats off one burner.

Here are some pics.
Every time I do a demo we lose the photos of the final lining.

Ammo can forge construction

ammo can forge deconstruction

Please feel free to ask me questions

Sounds like a good piece for the hammer on an Appalachian power hammer.
Appalachian Power Hammers

New anvils was what I was thinking about.
The used anvil market tends to be rather random.
The ebay market seems to be going at arround 2 dollars a pound in North Carolina.

If there is a shakedown in the anvil makers I hope the best ones win.
Who knows, with the current market we may end up seeing decent anvils from china some day.

Not sure I am understanding you.

transportation and energy costs are increasing
steel and scrap steel prices are increasing
The dollar is slowly being devalued

Why would anvils decrease in price?

My dealer made me sign a paper saying "you know putting it in your car is a bad idea"

I bought a pair of tanks last week.
Secured it vertically and opened the windows.

As a FYI if you are putting off buying a set the price is going up on tanks. From when I checked 3 years ago the price for this set had gone up about 150$ due to steel costs.

I just about died laughing when he said he assigned meaning to the colors so they would sell better to Americans.

I see many variations of that technique at renfairs and pagan gatherings and it works.

-Solvarr

This is off topic for blacksmithing , but his answer to "Lastly, please tell me what it takes to be a craftsman in this day and age." really resonated with me.

PingMag MAKE - The Japan-based interview magazine about

" I'm just the village blacksmith "

It's a way of thinking. I support my local SCA group in central North Carolina and I'll have a forge at Pennsic this year.

I make whatever is needed.

"and finaly has anyone ever tried to forge weild a face grill?"

Not that I know of. Few SCA armourers forge weld any part of the armour and few indeed would want the liability---if a weld fails you may end up blinding someone or *worse*---do you have the extre couple of million dollars to pay off a claim like that handy? (Liability is worse as it's a "non-standard process" for the "industry"...)

The face grill that we use in the SCA is an SCA invention.
that isnt how they did most grills in period.
Grills were various types of punched and slitted sheet metal often with fluting.

if someone were to make a grill like you are talking about in period they would either rivet the joints, rivet between the bars or use mortise and tennon.

YouTube - Blacksmith Mortise and Tennon

I know Master Eldrid from Burlington, NC does hot and cold work.

For hot work
He uses a torch rose bud
Last time I visited he was experimenting with a lidless casting furnace and placing the larger pieces across the top.

New Document

A buddy of mine reworks the large steel eye pieces from cranes ( like a huge eye bolt)

Until they are shapel like a pair of steer horns with a vertical shaft.
He uses it for getting into the dome of helmets.

Making my own charcoal

Using larger propane tanks since the price per gallon drops and they freeze up less

Using more scrap metal

Forging my custom tongs instead of buying

Focusing more energy on marketable items

Charging students for consumables.

Using my wife's spare glass torch hooked to bulk propane when i am forging small items since It burns less gas and lets me spot heat.

My shop with smithy in it was big enough
My shop with the woodworking corner and smithy was big enough.
My shop with the leather working corner, wood working corner and smithy was big emough.

Now my friends want to add some armoring equipment and put in an electric stove.

It's getting a bit tight in there.

wow.
That'll be a heck of a weekend.
2 meetings in 2 days.
I really enjoyed it when you did that with bill epps.

Unfortunately I am already committed to do a demo in fayetteville nc that sunday and I have a meeting on saturday.

Good luck with the demo.

If you want a dishing stump you know you just had to ask ;> we can work up the elm stumps in my yard if you want

You can also call some of the welding supply places and see if they will sell you their busted O2 tanks. Once they have been drained and the plug removed the bottoms make excellent dishing forms.

If you find someone let me know and I can help pick em up for you.

-Solvarr

i want to get into armouring and have been smithing for about 6 months. i have a basis 55 gallon side blast charcoal/coal forge (i burn a mixture). I have a two lb sledge and a 1 lb ball pein i was thinking about getting/making dishing forms or dishing hammers if anyone has any suggestions they would be much appreciated. THank you

Went out last night to fire up my gasser.
Not only had mud daubers clogged my hand torch.
But I had cocooned caterpillars in the tube of my forge burner.
This had all been clean and clear the night before.

Last year I had a wasp nest take up in my spare gasser and mud daubers decide that the inlet to my propane tanks make perfect nests.

Anyone else having infestation problems?

Sorry
I took video of that
I'll see if I can nab some stills.
-Solvarr

Basicly he used klyr fire and torched the underside of the perice with a blowtorch till it set.

Then if I remember right he put a base layer of clear enamel
And torched it till it melted from the underside

And then added a generous sprinkling of the colored enamel and then blow torched it from the underside till it smoothed out.

The coeficient of expansion is important

and keeping direct flame off the glass is vital.

A flat plate or a pipe with an end cap can be used for that in a forge.

Glass is really sensitive to dirty flame.

The Clay Spencer demo was great.
It answered a host of questions about enameling and flower construction.
I have included my flickr site links for the demo.
(if you load the piclens firefox add-on it is much easier to browse the photos.


Clay Spencer Demo Photos

Clay Spencer Enameling Photos

Nol Putnam

Yesteryear Sidedraft

Honeymoon Photos... My wife is such a good sport about all this

Williamsburg Blacksmith

Williamsburg Silversmith

There is a group up in new england I heard about that does a welded face anvil every couple of years as a demo.
If I can stumble across the data again I'm planning on going.

15421 Five Forks Rd. Amelia VA 23002 - Google Maps

I think Google maps is spot on though.
Hope you don't mind I fixed your address in google maps.

Saint Eligius is the patron saint of goldsmiths and other metalworkers

December first is the day
Patron Saints Index: Saint Eligius

Wikipedia's writeup is kinda fun
Saint Eligius - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


but there are others
Patron Saints Index: blacksmiths
* Brigid of Ireland feb 1st June 10th
* Dunstan may 19th
* Giles september 1st
* James the Greater e Greater" july 25th formerly august 5th
* Leonard of Noblac november 6th

you can reserve the tools for how ever many days in advance you have prepaid your membership in months.

a 12 month membership is 12 days out

But if nobody is on the tool you just have to play nice with others and not hog any one tool.

I'll post a review once it opens and I take the tour.

For some one off tool fabrications it seems like a great deal.