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I Forge Iron

Frostfly

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Posts posted by Frostfly

  1. so, I have a project I've become involved in and I have a problem.  I've been assigned the task of taking some steel from a specific source, and find a way to render it down into sheet metal in the 18-ish gauge range.   The problem i'm not really working with enough material to deal with a large rolling mill, and I'm hoping the great folks that inhabit the world of hammers and forges might be able to steer me in the right direction.  And i'm not really totally sure of the quantities yet...Pounds at least,  100's of pounds possibly.  If it works out it could be an ongoing project. 

     

    Any help you guys can give me would be fantastic, thank you.

  2. I'm kinda surprised you can't find a stump out in eastern washington acutally. I managed to find several in downtown portland. They cost me 10 bucks each, but 10 bucks for a 4 foot log 16 inches across is a pretty good deal imo.

    I contacted a place that deals in firewood. They were very nice and intrigued by what I had planned. They were a big help.

  3. as I was just learning how to work everything I spent a lot of time burning propane and not acutally doing anything except figuring stuff out. I've unfortunatly parked my forge for the summer and moved on to making products I can sell that don't require fuel to produce(other then me eating).

    Hopefully I'll be able to get back at it in the winter, when my summer markets close up.

  4. I keep seeing people bring up the idea of drinking milk as a way to of set metal fume fever. And while I'm convinved you all have pointed out that it doesn't work. I'd like to point out (among other reasons) why.

    Milk, when drunk goes in your stomach. Zinc fumes, when inhaled, go in your lungs. Seems to me even the logic of trying it is bad. The two are in diffrent places unless you like inhaling your milk or breathing through your stomach, both which seem to me to be a triffle uncomfortable.

  5. I work with a group of artists that i use to keep my store stocked and they have been telling me steel prices are up something between 25 to 60 percent depending. Happily when buying steel art steel is still really cheep compared to the labor, but these things are gonna effect the economy in major ways.

    The shocking fall of the doller is the biggest cause, The export of Iron Ore from the US to other countries to make steel doesn't help. Energy prices are hurting it too. Almost 30 years of Supply side economic theory running Washington DC is coming home to roost.

  6. You could build a roller. I'll bet if you put anything close to 3/8ths by 2 inch steel in that ebay roller the thing would choke and die. For the price of that one you could build this one i'll bet. Then you'll know exactly what you have. It's a neat design, I want to make one myself. It's only flaw is the top roller doesn't come loose. I'm sure the design could be modified to fix that.

    metalartistforum ring roller

  7. I think you'll find there aren't generally blacksmith supply stores in anyone neck of the woods. Borax is fairly easy. Look around the laundry detergents in the local grocery store.

    Coal I don't know anything about, but if you don't have your forge built/found/purchased already you might consider going with propane. It's cleaner, usually easier to find and if your just learning takes less time to learn how to tend the fire.

  8. Frostfly..It's a permutation of sorts. When I got started on the Net (back when AOL was by the hour) I was using the name Xavier Frost...which was a left over from a video game (ultima 5 acutally) As time went on I found Xavier Frost had been stolen and a lot of other people were using it so I used Lurker for a bit. After a particularly nasty relationship I started the Yahoo Name Lost_in_the_Frost(still my email) but that's a bit long for most things, and rather a mouthful so I combined it with another game name, Firefly and ended up with frostfly. I've been on the Internet for 15 years now and i have used a lot of names: Xavier Frost(often called Frosty), Lurker, Frostfly, Audit YerTaxes(game name, he was an assassin) Exyle, Uaine, Astray, Dythien, Bronze, Ereide HasWorms. Most come from the various online games I play. I have real life friends that still call me Audit, I played him for almost 6 years online.

    Ramble,ramble,ramble.

  9. I have an odd question. Big laser cut rigs that are used for cutting plate etc. I'm wondering if there is a way to set the "depth" of the cut. For instance..can you cut one side out of a chunk of pipe. or(as is my intrest) cut one side of a coil of wire to get very clean cut rings.

    I suppose I could ask the same question about water jet cutters.

  10. I'm gonna guess that your not all that old shaun. I'm pretty new to the metalworking world too, but let me pass out a bit of advice to make it easier on you to get started.

    READ EVERYTHING: if you read a lot (and you can find gobs of info on the net) you won't have to ask a question of someone everytime you have an idea. I spent almost a year reading before I started acutally forging anything that looked decent.

    Don't Rush into it. This isn't a fly by night hobbby, take your time and spend your limited resources on the right items. I still regret the 200+ dollars I dumped into the first forge I made. It was badly thought out and badly designed. Take your time, You don't need the best, but you do need something that works properly.

    If you want to forge knives/swords first learn how to forge the basics. I'm doing tapers and scrolls and simple things like that. I'm working my way up to doing leaves. Good knives are a lot more difficult then you'd think(and take a LOT more in tools)

    I hope you get interested and stick with it. It's a great hobby(or profession). it will keep you outta all kinda of trouble and give you lots of scars to talk about. and stories about things you've set on fire...and....

  11. Building anything interesting right now?


    We've talked a ton about anvils, and scrap prices and a gob of other topics, but there has been a lack of stuff people have made.

    Insipired by the picture that Glenn posted on the front page and in hopes of being able to give something cool to a girl I was gonna on a date with I made up this little flower.

    P4030120.JPG

    5929.attach

  12. Can you explain the ridiculous rise in fuel, wether it be gasoline, propane, or desiel? To me that is more of a head scratcher than the high prices of an anvil! :(


    I can explain this, but it requires a economics lecture and a politics lecture which I'm sure you don't want to hear.

    Short. Bad economics policy over the last 8 (or 28 depending on how you look) has produced a situation where the US doller is at a record low level. Because OPEC has decided that the US doller is the basis for the price of oil and we use a LOT of oil prices for oil products in the US have skyrocketted. Oh and invading an unstable region where most oil comes from and making it MORE unstable doesn't help any either.

    The American doller is crashing. The next 10-20 years are gonna be very lean times I fear.
  13. hey guys,
    I know that most of you are Americans, and so this will probably be shock to you, in Belgium we are not allowed guns! unless you're a licensed hunter or a licensed sport shooter (to witch there are pretty high demands). And what may even shock you more, I HATE guns, guns give cowards and weaklings power they can not handle, althow I know very well how to use them, and have practiced with some different types, my dad is a licensed hunter and sports shooter, but I still hate em, if every gun in the world would disappear that would be a great thing, they only cause more violence and allot of grief.
    Actually I'm against violence al together, but for that reason I have goatherd certain skills that if left with now athor options i can end with violence in a swift and clean as possible way. (i have trained in choy-lay-fut for several years)
    So for shop security, a good heavy blacksmithed lock, with a padlock in.. and if thats not enough, well guys we're blacksmids right, our shoulder pack a mean punch (ok maybe the guys who own a power hammer don't anymore :-p) and every one of us have a couple of fore hammers lying around... that should be enough to scare most thieves right!?
    And a good dog.. but my loyal companion died last year... she had severe and wide spread cancer, had to be put down to save here from suffering... my next dog again will be a German shepherd, such nice, smart and friendly dogs.


    Sorry about your dog. Losing a pet can be just like losing a family member.

    I agree with the rest of your post. I live in the US. I grew up around some guns, but my Father is a Vietnam vet and his opinions on guns is very negative and I've adopted a lot of that feeling. People in the US are too worried about Protecting themselves vs protecting society. Honestly if your man enough to kill someone be man enough to do it up close and personal.

    If you want to stop crime you can't look at your house and ask" how can i make myself safer". You have to look at society in general. People do not rob people when they can find safe, good paying, local jobs. I'm speaking locally about the US now, as Europe (and most of the rest of the world) has figured this out already. Terrifs are GOOD, certain taxes are good. GIANT corperations are not good. Free trade is a lie. I don't care how well people in mexico are doing, or in China. I care that my neighbors are getting payed enough to not have to steal my TV to feed their kids.

    Also, the guy who said "runaway=liberl battle cry" I find that shockingly offensive. If I'm gonna get mad enough to kill someone I'll use a knife, and I'm a far left liberal by my own admission. Killing someone is an evil thing even in the defence of your home and person. It's a failer of everything society should be about. Fix socity(and the economy) and we will fix most crime problems.

    I applogize for the political rant, I know this isn't the forum for it. but I felt certain things needed replies.
  14. If your gonna build a propane forge you need to make sure you have the basics, Usually for a propane forge you have 3 main parts. The body, the LIning and the burner.

    Sounds like you have the body already. so you need to worry about the lining. There are a gob of diffrent refractories out there you can use. Kaowool(or any of the soft ceramic battings) is very populer for round shapes as you can form it in easily. You could also use a cast refractory. My first forge was Kaowool. It worked fairly well.

    next you have to think about the burner. 2 main choices, Blown or venturi. A lot of people seem to be very enamored with the venturi style. It doesn't require electicity to run, but, from what I've read, uses propane a bit faster then a blown burner. I run a blown burner. It's goofy, silly easy to build one, you just need a decent blower (I scraped mine out of a HVAC company dumpster)

    As someone that has built a propane forge the hard way. let me give you a bit of advise. DO NOT RUSH. my first forge I prolly only used for 15 hours. It got plenty hot, but it was too big, too fragile and the wrong shape. I started with a big fat round forge, 2 inches kaowool, ITC coating etc. I had all the parts right but I didn't acutally assemble them well. My new forge is much smaller, and rectangular. MUCH better at holding heat, much more effecient. Take your time, ask a lot of questions. once you get the answers ask more questions. Then maybe you'll know enough to ask the right questions.

    Building a propane forge isn't hard, but you need to take your time and do it right. first question should be to yourself. What do you plan on making?

    Hope this helps.

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