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I Forge Iron

Belgradearmourer

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Everything posted by Belgradearmourer

  1. We get a lot of Russian tools around here, so we have rules for buying them: 1. Do not buy anything that you can not inspect in person prior to the purchase. - Forget internet, get it on flea-market! 2. ...because... Looks can be deceiving. It goes both ways. 3. If you buy 10 identically looking items from 10 different sellers over a period of time, you will probably end up with 1 professional tool, 2 relatively good tools, and 7 useless chunks of plastic/metal. 4. If your total price is significantly lower than the price of a brand name professional tool at 10 pieces, or the tool looks really good and promising, works and still is significantly cheaper than a brand name tool it is worth the risk. 5. Look at the wear marks on the used tools, as they can tell you a lot about the quality of the tool and if it had successesfuly survived years of use, abuse and neglect. Derailing the thread now, to give an example. Russian and Soviet tools can be rugged, with no obvious way of telling if they have passed quality control (which can be quite strict, depending on application), and with unknown brand names. I have a Russian/USSR military issue 1kg cross-pien hammer, and even though it was drop forged it is one of the hardest and most reliable hammers that I have ever had. Almost every wrench or drill bit that I have bought over the years, has worn out or broke within minutes of use. OTOH Dad has several INDESTRUCTIBLE Russian drill bits. All that stuff looks pretty much the same. Can you see the (lack of) pattern here?
  2. Thanks Marksnagel for at least posting something here. After 90+ views and no answers I think I'll have to take a stab in the dark and see if the design will work out OK and than report back. If not, I guess I'll have to forge outside until I make necessary changes to the chimney. I'll be buying sheet steel tomorrow.
  3. Thanks for the warm welcome guys. Thomas, do you post on the Armour Archive? I think I've seen you there. Marksangel, thanks for bumping the Smokestack topic. I'll post some pics of my new shop on the appropriate topic after the weekend. OTOH, I've just scored a ~16" ~35bs piece of rail for some 6$ to become a neat little armouring anvil. Was going to get sheet steel for shop chimney, but they didn't have any cold rolled steel for the hood, so I didn't bother to get galvy for the top part and ended up going to the junkyard and buying the rail.
  4. And one more question: Is there any significant difference between these two top draft hood designs? I am inclined to build the variant A, due to the ease of construction, installation and the reduced amount of scrap that would allow me to put two side panels against the wall.
  5. As I've been lurking here for a while, I think I have exhausted the search function regarding smokestack construction, so it is time for some questions. I plan to use a solid fuel forge, for armouring, due to availability of free hardwood in the near proximity of my new shop. I plan to use design similar to this one: http://twinoaksforge.com/BLADSMITHING/MAKING%20CHARCOAL.htm cutting and using an old ~80-100 liter boiler instead of the 55gal. drum. Now, the forge. As I understand, a 10-12" square or round smokestack, rising about 4' above the rooftop should do the trick. It will have a total height (hood included) of about 13-14'. As I will be heating sheet metal up to 2' across I can not use a side draft forge hood. The stack is planned to be braced to the wall of the building and to go straight up through the roof. I will probably make the smokestack 12"x12" due to the ease of construction. For the hood and lower segments of the stack I plan to use .5mm (~25ga or .209'') mild steel, and for the upper sections (near and above the roof) galvanized steel of similar thickness. I thought that the hood should be about 20"-24" above the firepot, so large breastplates could be heated with no problems, but this page http://www.beautifuliron.com/chimneys.htm says that 18" is optimal. Is 24" too high? Would pop-rivets be strong enough to connect stack sections to each other securely enough and to make the joints sufficiently airtight or should they be brazed as well? What would be the appropriate rivet spacing? If braced to the wall and made in 3'4'' sections would the intended sheet be strong enough? How steep the side panels of the hood should be? Should I avoid at all costs making below-the-roof sections out of zinc-galvanized steel and go for mild, or is top 2-3' OK? I have not used such thin steel so far, so that is why I am asking these questions. Oh, and I have not yet decided on which style of chimney cap to use. The conical one, or the pipe-over-pipe design,
  6. I am Miloš (Milosh), from Belgrade, Serbia. I've started armouring way back, when I was still a kid, and now I've finally moved my shop from a 30'sq utility room in my apartment block to a friends 130ish sq feet shed in cheep suburban neighborhood. I had been lurking on this forum for a while, searching for forge designs, ventilation solutions and some genreal blacksmithing info, as I hope to build some tools the old way in the future. I plan to expand my volume of work in the new shop, to generate sufficient income in order to acquire more tools and pay some scholarship fees. That is it for now. I will post some pics of my work and shop soon.
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