Javan C.R. Dempsey

Sorry good point, I'm going to start with a hand crank blower I've got sitting around. Its a champion, but not a big 400, when I played around with a trough type forge similar to the one you're describing Thomas, it delivered enough air to easily melt steel if I wasn't careful. If for some reason that doesn't deliver enough air, I'll put a Kayne and Sons forge blower on it, and if that's not enough I've got a 440cfm high pressure inline blower. ;p. I'm thinking the hand crank will work. I'm thinking of building a box below the forge body that will be the manifold, and just elbow out and back into the forge. Someone who's done a lot of work with charcoal on another forum is telling me that I'm going to need larger jets, but I am leaning toward doing some testing of the type Caleb describes. His idea of a sliding slot sounds very intersting initially, but I'm concerned that it wouldn't allow even air output, for the same reasons I need a manifold for the jets, unless I built air chambers much larger than the slot on each side? I'm going to tinker with this some today and report back.

I'm not a beginner. I hoped to make that clear. I have a firm grasp of my needs, but as I outlined, there are some variables i'd prefer not to have to tinker with too much. It may be true that our needs haven't changed much over the course of the craft, but the near death of it, and the subsequent resurgence, has had an impact on the distribution of infomation and misinformation regarding it. The use of coal as fuel in the scheme of the overall history of the craft is fairly young compared to charcoal, which makes it pretty ironic that there's so little information on the use of charcoal today. I hear a lot of repeated information, very little of it first hand, hell very little of it directly referenced from literature. Anyway, apologies for the rant. I'll figure this out on my own, but I'd prefer not to waste time replacing piping, cutting new holes, etc, 10 times before I get it right.

Hey guys. I'm finally getting around to building a new charcoal forge, I've been planning on for a while, but I'm hoping for some input on some design concerns that have manifested in my brain since I finally got the components together. I'm building a linear, rectangular forge, with a roughly 18"x6" wide firepot. Its going to be hard firebrick floor, with 2" ceramic fiber walls coated in castable refractory. The whole package will be contained in a steel frame. I'm hoping to make this a pretty versatile design, by having multiple tuyeres entering each side that can be closed off with ball or gate valves. I've only used a washtub style charcoal forge with a botton tuyere made from drilling holes in a black iron pipe. So I'm not sure what diameter I should make the side jets. I was thinking 1/2" or 3/4" should be sufficient, but I'm guessing. I'm thinking 3 jets per side, should I use more? I'm also wondering if I should fab a manifold to feed the jets, since my experience with the linear tuyere indicated that I won't see consistent air output across all jets without somethint like this? Anyway, I appreciate any input on this in general. There is a boatload of concise info available about the finer points of coal forge design, but very little other than vagueries regarding charcoal. I'm not desperate for fire or anything, I've got running forges, so I'm looking to build the ideal here, not just "get something that'll heat steel" going. I just like forging with charcoal, and would prefer to stop using gas except when I'm making damascus.

So the 25kw model is 3 phase correct? Anybody running one on a phase converter? If so, what requirements does it have?

Yeah good idea glenn. Honestly I could probably bevel the outside edges of the bottom of the drop with an angle grinder, and set it into some standard 6x6 tubing. Working it a while will pack it in, and when I'm ready to remove it, quick cut with the grinder and I'll be golden. Thanks!

Hey guys. Looks like I won a bid on a big 400ish lb drop of A-2, that I'm going to use as a post anvil for blade work. Massive overkill? Sure. However I wanted something simple, with a lot of mass that I can put a dead flat surface on for bevel work. It's roughly 6x6x36", which will land it just a bit taller than I likely want it, so my question; what's the best way to mount it? Its going to live in a dirt floor section of my shop, so I was thinking about welding some 4x4" tubing to the bottom, and then try to pound the whole thing in, or I could pour concrete around it? My only concern about that route is moving it later, since I won't likely be here for too many more years. Any obviously better options I'm missing?

I think all Thomas is arguing is that the capitalistic "value" and intrinsic "value" aren't the same things. We use the word as if it only has one meaning, but as with so many words in our meager language, it been highly subjugated. Often, especially amongst this community, we associate an item's "value" with it's continued functionality and usefulness, and even though we place economic "value" on a tool based on that intrinsic usefulness, it's not the same thing. In fact, if it weren't for our community, the value of many pieces of old machinery would be inherently equal to scrap steel "value". The idea that something's value is worth whatever someone will pay for it, is strictly economic, or capitalistic. I'd argue that a flea market chinese screw-driver that strips on the first twist isn't worth $0.05, but people will pay $2 or more for one to try and save money. Those are two completely different "values". I saw a 450lb "Australian Workhorse" (Old World Anvils) that appeared to be unused sell for less than $2 a lb in the past few months on ebay. It was poorly described, and hard to realize what it was, but that's what it was. I didn't have any money at the time so I passed up on it. That anvil, in the sense of "value"; that has us trying to save all old power hammers and other machinery from the scrapyard, is immensely higher than much of the "collection" crap we see on ebay, yet it fetched about 1/5 of it's retail price. It may have suffered from the vague listing, but does that really affect the intrinsic "value" of a tool? No, only the economic "value". All of us that are in business for ourselves have charged "what the market would bear" at one time or another, and it's easy for us to justify our profiteering, that's the american dogma, but lets not forget that "value" and "value" aren't always the same thing.

No complaints on the rant from me, glad to hear I didn't miss out. To be completely honest, I figured that if I heard about it, every dealer in the state must have also, so I can't say I'm surprised. It's probably no big surprise, but of all my equipment, the only fair or really good prices I've gotten locally (in NC) have been from other smiths, or my old dealer friend, but he part-times with a smith, so is practically in the club. Flip side is, I think I've found a great deal on a "new" 400lber, so all these monkeys can pay me $3lb for my old ones that don't have particularly great usability, and heavily off-set the cost.

Was that the auction in Hickory? I planned to attend but was broke. =

The KA-75's afaik still have a website: http://www.ka75.com/

A guy on bladeforums built a real nice H-frame, self-contained on casters, that uses a hydraulic solenoid and electronic controller for automated movement etc.. Pretty impressive build, although the pump seems pretty small. Regardless, I'd like to build one based on the basic body of his. Here's a link: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/648250-WIP-Hydraulic-Press-Build?highlight=press+build

I tell myself that very same thing every day. :P

*sigh* See what I mean? I needs help! =D Ok, maybe not a "limerick" but definitely a little "ditty". ;)

Where oh where do you guys get all of the air? That's a little limerick I just wrote. Seriously, is 3ph power and multi-thousand a month electricity bills a given for playing with the big toys? = My power bill is already pretty outrageous. Is there something I'm missing here? Should I invest in a generator?

Hey hey now Danger, don't be stingy with the Bradleys man. I really want that 200lber. :P

I'm going to give you a call Jim and see if we can't work something out. One of those should be mine, I'm pretty sure it was a sign that I found them. ;)

Aye, I love the Bradley's also, the aesthetic and overall style of them is highly alluring to me. If I could find a bigger one within 5 hours drive and a decent price, I'd be all over it.

Stuart, I can't seem to figure out how to view any of the older topics in tailgating since the last update. When I select "load more topics" it says there aren't any. So you might want to repost.

Yeah, that video pretty much cements you as my hero Grant. ;)

Yeah, when I was a kid moving back and forth to Costa Rica, we transported our entire house of possessions in large wheeled trashcans, the rubbermaid kind that are roughly the same shape as the kind that cities provide. We'd have to pay a *small* fee for oversize, but we'd put a hundred or two pounds in each, wrap the lids with duct tape and hex screws, and custom's would always just wave us through so they wouldn't have to deal with it. We also used to always sit at the back of the plane during trips to hang out with the flight attendants, which meant free booze on domestic flights, and free flow of booze (already free in price) on international flights, plus a guarantee that they'd know where to party once we landed. *sigh* flying used to be the most fun thing in the world. now it's possibly the least. =

Obviously I don't know the difference between all these Bradleys. Thanks for clarifying Lamey.

If I was closer and had any extra funds atm, I would save this for myself, but since I ain't and I don't, this is for everyone. 5 Bradleys of different configurations and running conditions, all prices seem very reasonable: http://cleveland.craigslist.org/search/sss?catAbb=sss&query=blacksmith*+power+hammer&srchType=A&sort=date Individual links in case the above doesn't work: http://cleveland.craigslist.org/tls/2665213064.html http://cleveland.craigslist.org/tls/2665202230.html http://cleveland.craigslist.org/tls/2665184212.html http://cleveland.craigslist.org/tls/2665165604.html Looks like one helve and a bunch of compacts/uprights/whatever? Man oh man I want the 200lber.

Saw this on CL when I was just searching around.. $500 for whatever it is: http://sanantonio.craigslist.org/tls/2645940130.html

I've been using a press for the last year that uses the same configuration, the 16gpm blue pump from Northern Tool with a 5hp compressor duty motor, that is great. It moves itself and metal fast, and isn't overly loud. A lot of the presses I've seen though seem to be using one of the black pumps, I assume the 11 or 13gpm models, and they seem to be obnoxiously slow and loud. I feel the properly built forging press is the most useful tool in a shop period, as much as hammers are more fun, the press seems much more versatile, but as you mention, having the correct dies are essential.

Just wanted to update here in case anybody wanted to verify that I didn't kill myself. I HT'd these dies last week and appear to have been successful. I slowly heated these with the working part of the dies suspended in the top of my vertical gas "damascus" style forge, which after taking the lid off, had just enough inside circumference to take the die but seal the top with the plate the die is welded to. I just left them in there with the blower and gas choked real low but with as much of a reducing atmosphere as I could get guesstimate. I only normalized these once, since I didn't do very heavy grinding and it took a very long time. I was able to get them over non-magnetic and hold them for a while, and the dies were showing good deep color and the plates were showing good dark reds. I quenched in 5 gallons of canola, heavily agitating up and down, and once they were cool enough not to set the top of the oil on fire, I moved them to a big 10g of water or so. My house oven would only go up to ~600, so I tempered two cycles at 600 for 4 hours each cycle. I had very light scale, and the hardness appears to be good. A heavy blow from a sharp corner of my peen will put a small dent in it, but working cold metal on the bull didn't seem to phase them. We'll see how they hold up, but hopefully, I'm good. Thanks for all the advice guys!