hillbillyblacksmith

I enjoyed that, just wish it was longer. Thanks for posting it.

I still say RR companies should get a fine for leaving junk laying everywhere to begin with, we would be so its only fair.

Welcome to the side show, what part of the blue ridge are you from ?

I was thinking brazing as well but if you want to stick with arc then I'd go with 7018's not as much penetration but smoother solid weld. maybe anyway, I haven't used an arc in about 6 years so the memory maybe foggy. :lol:

In my opinion the rail road should be fined for leave junk laying around. I know if I was to leave 8 foot high stack of logs laying in my yard for years as well at large hunks of steel thousands on nails and sheet metal I would get a fine even though I own my land so they should too. whats fair is fair. just my two cents. B)

It could be a problem maybe, maybe not but best not to risk it, what could be a bigger problem is the rocks you have inside the fire pot depending on what kind they are they could explode on you if they get to hot I know sandstone is bad about that. when I was little for fun we would place them in the camp fire and watch them pop. I would suggest fire brick, furnace cement, or refractory clay.

just remember its always better to be safe then sorry even if it means spending a little extra time or money

Looks like a old mining bit for automatic miners, guessing that its carbide tipped. I could be wrong but it looks like one I found at an old mine site that's diamond tipped.

looks to me to be a stiletto dagger the three sides where for armor piercing. pretty sure that's what it is goggled a few before I replied too bad its not complete they seem to be worth a bit when they are old some date back to 17th century or more. either way nice find :)

How do you crush an anvil?

Bob

Hopefully you told them that the next time they get any anvils in to give you a call.

Mark<><

congratulations that is a killer find. Now for a sad story of my own to bring the mood back down. Went to the scrap yard, and i asked if the had any anvils? Guy replies back; we had 3 of them but we just crushed them. man that sucked, What a world.

Hey Hillbilly,

I was given an identical brake drum by a friend. I thought about using it but also had a drum off of a pickup. The larger drum still sits next to my shed because it is really deep and I thought I would have a hard time getting iron into the sweet spot. Also if you need to heat the center of a particularly long piece it may not reach deep enough into the fire to heat it.

I solved the problem of not having as much room as I wanted with the pickup drum alone by making a 55 forge with the pickup brake drum. It gave me a really wide work area and kept the sweet (hot) spot of the fire relativly close to the tray made with the 55. This allows me to put longer stock into the fire. The larger brake drum would only allow me to stand up the stock into the pot.

The 55 forge works great for me. Your needs may be different though.

Good luck,
Mark<><

• McDowell County has produced more coal than any other county in West Virginia.

Here in WV since they started mountain top removal on a large scale as they are now there has been 3 times as many floods as normal as well as they are larger floods due to blocked streams backing up many of my friends lost their homes because of this but in reality it wouldn't be as bad if it was Americans doings all of this here. But the big "strip mines" as well call them here, has been bought out by Russians which as done more damage in two year then the American company did since they started the doing it i think back in 99 Anyway I'm just a hillbilly who loves his mountains and the people of this state more then money. The truth is they can get the same coal by underground mining that would also employ at lest twice more people cause it takes more to run underground then striping the mountain. all and all its just another way for big business to save money at the cost of the little man. I'm not trying to start a debate or a I'm right your wrong I was just say how i feel personally on the matter just giving my opinion on the matter. seeing as that I live right in the middle of the area this most concerns.

p.s. every male member of my family has been a coal miner since they started mining coal in WV i even spent sometime in there myself. anyway that's all I'm gonna say on this subject politics and religion you should never talk about with strangers no ones gonna agree 100% And for you who don't know what is looks like google map where i live then look for a large gray and brown spot that's a strip mine bigger then any town or city around.

Cut slots down opposing sides, or build up the interior with dirt/clay/wood ashes until you get the tuyere at a decent depth to use it without having to bend your stock double to get it to the hot spot.

Diameter of air piping---what is doing the blowing? High pressure---doesn't matter so much. Low pressure the bigger the better.

I usually go with what I can scrounge cheap. The Re-Store has been "berry berry good to me!"

I agree with southshoresmith I live in southern WV and there is a lot of mountain top removal here kinda makes me sad really, a mine i don't mind much but destroying a whole mountain is just wrong. About 3/4 of the population in this area still use coal heat, I do and I wouldn't want any other kind plus i get great coal by the ton so have plenty for forging lol the last coal i bought was $172 for 4400lb it burns great leaves little ash and hits welding temp easily.

Fair enough But you may be better off building a larger one from some plate and making it the size you need rather than living with the sizes imposed by the big brake drum.

Why don't you use that as a base for a forge/table made from a car brake drum? I reckon you will get a LOT more satisfaction from a smaller forge in the beginning.

Hillbillyblacksmith, do you have any pictures of the brake drum? I started out with an idea to do something that sounds similar and I was advised to get a brake rotor to use as the fire pot instead. See my thread on the Brake Rotor forge kit in this section to see what I've come up with. I've seen other forges made of small brake drums and at least one made similar to what I was going to do with the large brake drum, but they have a point about getting the iron into the heat with a deep pot.

Let these guys help you with your ideas and you will have a product you can be proud of.

looks good but you might Want to change at lest that top pipe looks galvanized and if so it getting to hot can be toxic to you to breath the fumes just a suggestion

Hey guys, I recently got my hands on the brake drum from a tandem coal truck, the inside area measures about 17" wide X 8" deep. Now my question is how big of a air inlet would I need for something this size the hole now is about 10" so I'm gonna have to put in a piece of plate steel and then cut a hole for the pipe fitting so what would be good? I'm guessing 2" would be to small? maybe 3"? I'm also thinking of building a 30"x30" steel table to place this in leaving about a inch above the table surface. any help would be appreciated. as would any other ideas you think i should try on the over all build. thanks

it will work but it takes a lot of heating a bending to get it close enough to forge weld it together in to solid form, and yes i know exactly what you're saying about the metal and friends lol

The same thing happen to me a few months back made some nice forge welded blades out of the springs and used the wood for handles. got to keep an open mind when it comes to what you can use

Just HAD to make me look it up didn't ya. You're going to fit in here just fine.

Go to the IFI home page, scroll to darned near the bottom and open the section about Blacksmith organizations, clubs, etc. That should hook you up. Of course you could start hanging on the general blacksmithing section, lots of folk in your part of the planet like to play with fire and hit things. If you ever make it to Alaska, look me up.

Frosty the Lucky.