Borntoolate

I remain clean shaven since it is a requirement of that thing which sustains me and mine. That pesky day job. Weekends I rarely shave. On vacation I usually end up with a stash / Goatee whatever that is.

I have looked at induction heat and have thought that it would be awesome. Clean, focused, fast, etc. But have always thought that the cost would be fairly high for someone who is just a hobbyist. Does that sound right? Others have mentioned tools such as: Mig Welder - yeah, I agree. Everyone should have a welding machine. They pay for themselves. Mig is easiest. Point and shoot. But u do need to understand welding basics, controlling the puddle, tieing in to the base metal... Various sanders - Burr King - Yeah I love mine. But you got to learn about belts and be ready to spend some change on them. And with all the metal dust you need a respirator (P100). As for my meager post I was trying to keep it old school. However, I do believe that if the blacksmith of old had access to modern tool he would have used them. In other words he would have used whatever is available. If that were a rock and a stone... then there it is. If it were a power hammer and a welding machine then so be it.

This one... Or one similar. Similar to a Guilotine I guess.

The most difficult is when I get frustrated. Basically as stated above. Things not working the way I thought. Taking a heat (or three) and basically not getting much accomplished. Or accomplishing screwing up. Once I get frustrated I have learned to stop and walk away. Gives me time to think and learn.

Ok, uncle... and LOL. :rolleyes: Learnings: I should have put this in the feedback area. I had an earlier post that you guys moved. I put it in the wrong place. It was about my smoke stack. I failed to look more thoroughly at where I should have posted my question. And it looks like I have failed again to look where I should have posted my feedback. So apparently I am a poster child for how not to post properly to the pertinent sections that are already set up and are easily found, if you just look... So the lesson I am hearing is be more thoughtful about where you/we place our posts! I typically go to the general discussion section because that is where the action is. So I guess we all need to police ourselves and others about using this site more thoughtfully. Instead of relying on the admins to move things about. Or just posting to the general section. :) BTW ... I know where the scroll down buttons are and so forth... I use them every time I scroll past all the pinned items... But thanks for the advice. :blink: I will try to do better from now on!

Just my opinion but it seems like the number of pinned items has gotten just a bit too large. Anyone think so too? I will defer to the others or the admins on this... Just seems I have to scroll down a bit too far to get to the content I want. I realize that this may be more for the new folks but I think it may be at a point where it needs some level of consolidation. Certainly if it continues to grow more this will be disruptive to clear access to the content. BTW I have no intent here to chastise our VERY active admins who "in my opinion" do an absolutely awesome job of keeping this site "clean".

Life is too long to go through it without all your parts Prof. Stevens University of Iowa. Stay safe and keep your parts in good order

You had me hooked from this point!

I have made a few cabriole legs, which are similar to these... Mostly using a spoke shave which I find a pleasure to use. But I can see where the file could have been very helpful in certain areas of the leg. Well mostly using a spoke shave after cutting them to rough shape with the band saw that is! Looks like he did the same. They really are not too hard but sure look great!

Mine is working great! 24' by 12" spiral culvert with about a 10"x9" side draft.

latest info and pics. This used to swirl around me and at me. Now no more. Sweet!

I am good with putting out the fire. I think??? I pull most all the coke / coal out of the fire pot towards me. I have a good sized area on my forge to pull most all of the contents out and away from this new "low pressure area"... trying to leave mostly clinker and ash in the pot. BUt I will go check how this shutdown procedure worked now that you have brought it up Frosty. Thanks!

Grrr. I replied to this comment and it did not take. Seems there is something different going on with the replies. Often before I post I copy everything but I did not this time. Is there something up Glenn? What is this Javascript stuff?

also a question... ??? Been forging for several years with no stack. Now it seems my fire is different. First since the hood continues to draw even when I am away from the hand crank blower my fire seems different. Even with my crappy test side draft I burned up a piece. I think the draft was keeping things hotter than normal... and when I went to crank it got hotter way faster and burnt my piece... :unsure: Second it seems my fire just plain burns different.. Maybe it burns more up high as the draft pulls air in from the side when I am away. Prior to this all air came from my hand crank. At least forced air anyway. Now I have draft air on top and maybe I have to meet the draft air in the middle with my hand crank. But I am just postulating. I put my hand over the champ 400 blower opening while not cranking to see if it was drawing through the blower and duct. It did not seem to make much dif. Was just trying to see if the draw was coming at all from below vs just all the side. Any advice or observations here are welcome. ;)

wind will cause side drafts too. But baby steps. Better than breathing all that stuff like I was... Black buggers etc

Done. Certainly draws way better than the nothing I had before. Side draw is roughly 9x10. Welded up from ~0.130" plate... I forget what gauge that was...

IF you work somewhere where they build a lot of scaffolds you can find them (duplex nails) laying all over the place. I work at an oil refinery and we build many many scaffolds. These things are everywhere. Could probably go pick up a handful in 10 minutes.

Fleas. Tons of Fleas. They creep up on you fast. First thing you just have a random itch. Normal itch, scratch.... Then maybe next day or so another random itch or two.... Then suddenly they are everywhere, not random, and not one or two! Mine is also a wood shop and I think my old dog used to seed the shop with fleas and if it so happened that it was a bit messy with plenty sawdust... as a wood shop can often have..... Seems the fleas love that! Easy solution! Flea Powder. But when it gets a good flea infestation it is literally uninhabitable. I don't get a lot of time in my shop every day or sometimes not even every week. So maybe I have a longer accumulation time than some.

So what set up are we talking about here Digital?

oh You should be safe for the most part if you wear some good safety glasses along with the other tips above. Dont get in a hurry. IF you get irritated, stop, and come back the next day,,,

If you are 90% of the way there then finish what you got. Light it off and see for yourself. See how much heat you can get and so on... Test your forge and try not to be disappointed if it is not what you wanted. Rather. Use it as best you can, experiment, learn, forge something... Maybe not a knife... Find it's limitations and strengths.... Move forward from there. Keep moving forward... Turn any frustration or disappointment into learning and moving forward. You can get there. It may take some time but you can get there.

My guy wires are actually galvy 1/2" pipe. I only had two decent places to guy wire to and from assuming ideal would be 120 degrees apart around the whole diameter. Unless I stick a third wire in the yard in front of the pic which I do not desire. So instead of wires I wanted rigid poles that could push back as well as pull. And yes I am in a high wind area in Southern Louisiana, to say the least. When the hurricanes come. In Baton Rouge we don't see the full force but in 22 years here I have probably lost 15+ trees, been out of electricity for a total of 22+ days during three different hurricane events. It is a real mess. AND the prime time for the worst hurricanes is now and the next 30-60 days. This stack has the two poles shown, plus cemented at the bottom plus secured at the roof line shown though this is relatively low to the ground. I am not making any guarantees about hurricane resistance... But during a hurricane there will be no one nearby and the likelyhood of a my stack falling and causing peripheral damage to people is pretty much zero. More than likely if it got blown over it would just wreak havok on the back of my shop. And if we have a hurricane head our way, we fortunately get good warning. I figure I'll do some sort of rope type 3rd or 4th guy wire support to the ground. Other than that I am surrounded by tall trees that block most of the lower level winds. Tho at 24 feet I expect the stack to see some action.

Dang... I may have overdone it... Haven't cut the hole and installed the side draft yet. Gonna get there. Too much work, too many hobbies, house too old... Is there a limit where the stack can be too high I wonder?

Selfie was pure accident. But nicely placed. In the window...

I just erected 24' tall 12" diameter stack for my forge. I am tired of all the smoke swirling randomly about. 24 Feet is possibly overly tall... I hope not. It all came together from thinking to hard for too dang long then finally deciding and moving forward. So the stack is up, and it is of spiral construction. I think you can see how it is secured and where my forge is. The forge is off center from the stack. I wanted that so longer items could go through the center of the forge and not hit the stack. My question is... Do you have any thoughts on how to tie into this stack? I am thinking sort of side draft forge stack, but the spirals complicate a bit for a good seal... Plus what size hole to make? Normally I would like to have a good plan before getting this carried away. But I got tired of decision constipation and a 24' spiral galvy stack came available and the labor and help to erect it came available and there it is. any comments or experience would be welcome. I have more pics if that is helpful.