Dave M

I have looked all over the blueprints section but have not found a how to make a nail header. If I am missing it please link it to me. The part troubling me is the whole small square tapered hole thing. I have used them at other shops a bunch of times but always forgot to ask how do you make them. Or if some one has a trick or tip for making one , please share the details. Maybe I am over thinking this. Drill small hole and then square off and taper with file?:confused: as always thanks for the help.

I am lucky enough to have a real steel yard about an hour away. They use to deliver any oder over $150.00 but now it is $350.00. I check my local ( recycling center ) dump 2 times a week , you have to sepperate every thing out. The scrap metal pile is my favorite. Always full of broken tools;) black iron pipe, car parts heck I just got a new ceiling fan for the shop + a small blower motor from a camper furnace:). You just have to become a master scrounger and ask your self who uses metal parts or machines or fixes these things. The big thing is always ask first, you will be suprised when people find out your a blacksmith what they will give or offer you or tell you who to talk too.

If you look at the Hobart & Miller 140 amp Mig units they look all most the same. The sales man at the shop I buy my gases at said that they are made in the same factory. If you look at the miller on the wire feed and the amp control they are variable. On the Hobart unit they are preset on the controls so you can't slide in between whats on the dial. I have the miller unit and have had no problems and I use this unit all of the time because of its portability. I think if you are going to use it a lot I would go with the miller or the lincoln 140 unit. The shop that I bought my welder at sells all 3 units and I noticed the Hobart unit felt much lighter when I lifted it.

Of all of the forges I have used with cast pots I have only seen the little cast rivet forges with liners. My vulcan fire pot is unlined with no problems.

I use the coal from Aubuchon all the time. It is good blacksmith coal from the pocahontas vain # 3, I think it is called saint nicholas coal. Aubuchon stores are located all over New England including NY. Also check the sticky at the top of this forum for the coal supplier list I am trying to build with all of the help I can get from members, you may find another supplier located by you. If you find and use a new supplier not on the list please add them to the list.

You have to meet local, state or federal codes. There seems to be no standard code not even from the NFPA. So really do you research and meet with both the building code officer and the Fire Marshall. 2 years ago I did some iron restoration work on a historic home, 2 sets of window grates were included.I told them even before I started that I had to meet current fire codes. Well I built them to meet current fire codes, the Historic commity pitched a fit. They looked as close to all the others that were still on the house but the bar spacing was much closer on the new ones and they were hinged with a pull pin reachable from inside and out side. The historic commity wanted them replaced with exact copies of the originals at my exspense.:mad: The Fire Marshall stepped in and told them that current fire codes trump historic accuracy and that they either stay off or meet the codes for public safty reasons. I got paid but it turned in to a ( tinkling ) contest between the Fire Marshall and the historic commity . Whats funny is they called me to replace some missing handrails well I took a pass on that job because I new the handrails would also have to meet current building codes:o

Up here in Maine they use them as weights in lobster pots or what flat landers would call lobster traps. I like using them as tarp weights for my firewood and sand/salt pile.

Hey Keykeeper you made me feel better about my 3- 4.5" angle grinders. I do the same thing 1 has cut off wheel 1 has flap disc and the last 1 has a grinding wheel on it. It saves so much time just grabbing the grinder all set up and not always switching stuff back and forth. I will take it 1 step more, I do the same with my O/A torches. I have 3 loaded with different size cutting tips that are balanced for the torches they are on. I have 2 set up for brazing and 1 set up for rose buds and 1 loooong torch for doing steel demo work. No I am not made of money I bought all but 1 of these on E-bay when it was new and you could buy a box with 2 or 3 torches or bodies that you could then make 1 or 2 good ones out of for about $20. Those days are gone, just about every body selling stuff on e-bay now thinks it is 1 of a kind and pricless:(.

I like tools that are multi taskers and for power tools there are a couple of great ones. I have bench mounted drill press with HF. X,Y table I use it for drilling, sanding and lite milling & polishing. Next would be the hand held 4.5" right angle grinder used for grinding, sanding, cutting, wire brushing and polishing. 8" bench grinder for grinding,polishing, sharpening and wire brushing. Disc and belt sander for sanding and sharpening. Miller mig welder. Miller stick welder used for welding, Hardfacing, gouging and if need be carbon arc cutting. Now a couple of power tools I don't use all of the time but when I do they pay for them selves. Plasma cutter, 80 gal. compressor and 14" chop saw.

I have to agree that repairing cast iron is hit or miss. No matter how you do it, a good soaking pre heat is a must. Just as important is a controlled cool down, it has to cool down as slow an consistent as possible. I cover the cast I have repaired with a mixture of heated sand and wood ash. good luck

This is were I have been getting my coal lately.Aubuchon Hardware they are located throughout the north east. The coal is $7.97 for a 40# bag This is blacksmith coal and not heating coal, its good stuff. The SKU or order ID number is 101755 The link below has a store locator on it and you can type in the SKU# and get the correct price. Aubuchon Hardware

Here is a coal supplier I have used in central Maine. New Page 2 This is the link for Ring coal

HUMPHREY CHARCOAL This is a lump charcoal maker and supplier.

Glass blowing and glass fusing suppliers carry them also.

There are a couple of down sides to coal. If you have your forge inside you will now need a good drafting chimeny to vent it. Then there is the coal storage issue, you have dust and keeping the coal dry plus the start up smoke and the smell of starting the forge even with good coke. Don't get me wrong I love coal but when I built the new shop I forgot about the cost of the chimeny and placement of it. With the gasser I just throw open a door or turn on the venting fan push the button and poof fire when done turn off gas and leave. But the cost of propane has made me be in no rush to replace my propane forge that I sold:(.

I will give that mixture a try next time I have to reline a pan. Thanks

There are a couple of people who make pretty good tuyere replacement that looks like the original tuyere for that style forge for short money $15-$20.I have used them on a couple of rivet forges I have had and on that I still have and it is 4 years old and I use it a good amount. I delt with wagonwomen. Wagonwomen's is made from steel plate and some other guy makes them out of cast for like twice as much but like I said I have yet to burn out the $14.00 plate one. For the blower connector you could use a cast T fitting or a cast T/Y fitting. As for linning I think you will find a split camp here, some line them and some don't. I lined mine because stamped right in to the pans of the candy otto's it says " line before using" so I did. Now with that said the linning has always been a pain in the bum for me, it spalls, cracks, shrinks and big chunks fall out but I at some point get the mixture just right now if I would just write it down.:confused:

Boy talk about timing, I was just going to post about a small fire I had to day. I was doing some grinding in my shop when I smelled burning wood and in an all wood shop that smell makes you stop every thing. The shop started to get smokey so I killed the lights to see if I could find the fire or what was going to become a fire. Low and behold the area by my table saw is a blaze on the other side of the shop. I hit that fire with a bucket of water from my slack tub. This was all my fault for not sweeping up last week after cutting a lot of trim, one of those "I will clean it later deals". This is some thing that has worried me because I use my shop to do a lot of non-blacksmithing things. But in the words of my grandfather " a clean shop is a safe shop". When I find some more cash I will close up my walls with fire rated sheetrock, then I might not worry as much. So my welding area has a class C medium size just in case one of the units melts down and my breaker panel has a small class C mounted by it. Then I have 2 class A,B's in medium size mounted to the walls around the shop. So that gives me a total of 4 in the shop plus a garden hose. I would rather have them and not need them then need them and not have them, plus I hate when I catch fire and some one has to beat me out with a shovel or 2X4.:rolleyes:

It looks great and you kept it simple. I like simple, it shows other who are starting out that you don't have crazy money to get going. It lights a fire under my butt to finish my new gasser seeing how I sold my old one.

I would also check local building codes, in some areas wood and coal fired stoves are required to have double or some times triple walled pipe:mad:. Some code inspectors consider coal forges to fall under coal stove guide lines as they are coal fired and give off heat. In my neck of the woods I need at least double walled pipe for my wood stove, double walled pipe is $185.00 for 8" pipe by 48":(. I would also check your local HVAC shops for pipe. I am also building a chimeny system like Hofi's with 10" heavy galvanized pipe and I found that a local HVAC shop can make it for short money and that it was a heavier gauge then the home depot pipe. I did like the the galvanized culvert suggestion because I see that stuff listed on craigs list all the time becuase of construction co. over runs.

I have a pile of beer kegs lying around my house (don't ask) 2 are stainless with built in handles, these I will cut the tops out of with my plasma cutter to use as lobster and seafood steam pots and beer brewing pots:D. The others are aluminum and I cut one of those that had handles built into it into a slack tub with nice handles. Even the small one would seem to be way to big for a gasser body. I like the small party helium tanks that wally world sells, I picked up 3 empty ones at the dump on sat. They are the same as the small freon tanks but I think safer to cut. Because dosn't freon become some bad gas when torch or plasma cut?

I don't know about up in canada but down here if you check with paving companies, earth work or road work type construction companies they use 36 inch X 36 inch 3/8 -1/4 inch steel plates to cover up drain, sewer and manhole covers to pave over them to protect covers. You might be able to find one cheap. I picked up 12 of them from a little company that not going to do road work any more. All so down here the scrap yards like to sepperate out steel plate from the piles, most of the time it comes from drops when large plate is cut to a different size and they tend to sell it for a little more then scrap value. But heck my first forge was from th bottom half of a webber BBQ grill and I got 2 years out of that.

I had to get separate insurance for my shop. My home owners would not cover it because it is a business, or thats what they told me. I didnt want to take the risk ( fire, theft or weather or some one getting hurt). I made sure it would cover replacment of building,supplies and tools. I don't have the policy in front of me but they did send an inspector out to see every thing and tey told me to keep receipts for all purchases and try to make a photo or video inventory of every thing. It lets me sleep a little better knowing it is covered.

Looks like you have 1 heck of a starting point. A little soild fuel ( coal or charcoal) some type of blower a hammer and some thing to grab and hold hot stock and you are good to go. Welcome aboard.

plasma cutter or cut off wheels are the two ways I like to cut cast iron.