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Well, her goes LOL, I guess my grandfather, my father, my uncles and all the old blacksmiths I grew up going to meetings at their shops were wrong. They all used wet coal to bank their fires with and a sprinkler can to control the size of the fire while using it. You NEVER pour water into a firepot, you sprinkle water on the sides of the fire to keep the fire from spreading and only sprinkle the coal when the fire is working and has an air blast coming in the bottom, what little water that seeps thru the coal (it should be packed well) to keep the air from going right thru it will turn to steam and escape up and away from the cast iron pot before it ever makes contact with the pot due to the heat of the fire. remember water boils or makes steam at 212 degrees and your fire is close to or exceeding 2000 degrees. I use wet coal to bank my fires with and use a sprinkler can to confine the fire when working if I need a small fire, the coal seems to coke better and I use a lot less coal than letting my fire be uncontrolled. On some bigger old Cast Iron forges there is a tank built into one end, this was for storing wet coal not as a mini quench tank. I have watched some modern day smiths who do not control their fires and I use about a 4th of the coal they use to do the same amount of work by controlling my fire. Coal is expensive and I try to use only what I need to get the job done. And as for a socalled clinker breaker, the thing in the bottom of the forge is actually an airgate to control the air coming into the bottom and also to direct the air into a certain part of the firepot. If you look closely at the thing in the bottom you will understand how this works. It works very poorly as a clinker breaker and why would you want to break up a big clinker to start with when you can pull it out in one piece with a fire poker and get rid of it, and not disturbe your fire much either. Most forges use a fire pot except the socalled small round rivet or horseshoe forges. And all they have is a grate to let the air in and keep the coals from falling thru. A tuyere is actually the long tapered water cooled nozzle that sticks into the fire in a side blown forge. As to lining your firepot, I have lined a few iron ones I have made with a product called SAIRSET, its a refractory cement for cementing the bricks in a forge or fireplace to seal them. A 1/4 inch thick coat will protect the iron and also act as an insulator. but constant use does errode it over time and it needs to be redone occasionally. That's my 2

The lady Doctor here is having a Halloween party tommorrow night, I strapped my big air pig to the top of her SUV and put a regulator between it and the big truck air horn, it has two red lights on top, several antennaes and sign on the side "Ghostmobile". all proceeds to benefit the local Humane Society for a new shelter. I made this Real Bird dog to be auctioned off . main body is 3/4 hot rolled.

ED, seems to me like you are going about this the hard way. No offense intended. Lets take the problem apart and assess some known facts and then figure out how to encounter any problems. Facts - 1. Most plate steel will not be perfectly flat. It will either have a bow (warp) to it long ways or a bow cross ways. This comes about from the rack it was cooled on or the way the air circulated around it to cool it. 2. If the plate was sheared to length, the ends will have a pronounced bending at the ends from distortion of shearing. One of the main reasons for this is the clearance between the shear blades was not kept in tolerance and also from the plate being hot and in a semi plastic state when sheared. This will also occur along one edge if the sheet was sheared to width from a production sheet. 3. If it was flame cut to size there will be a prounounced warping due to the heat from the cut along the edges. 4. How the sheet was stacked at the supplier will also affect its flatness. 5. Its rusty so was it laying on the ground out in the open and maybe run over several times by something, was something heavy stored on top of it for any length of time causing it to bow from stress. 6. Heavy rust is going to leave pits and an uneven surface, sections with heavy mill scale will not rust as fast as clean areas. Now to the solutions (engineering part). 1. Sandblasting would be my first option to follow to get rid of the heavy rust and reveal what I was actually working with and to prevent all the hazards of the airborne rust particles resulting from wire brushing or grinding the rust away. Also getting rid of the rust will have a benificial effect on the weld contamation when welding rusty material. 2. After sandblasting set the sheet up on some sawhorses or such and using a known straight edge, determine the amount of ward or bow to the sheet, carefully marking any deficiencys. 3. Remove any major distortion along the edges by flame cutting using a straiht edge as a guide. (NOTE) If the sheet has a bow to the center put the bow up when cutting as the flame cutting will have a tendency to bow the plate up. 4. Build a rectangular frame out of at least 4 inch heavy channel iron, flange out, using a good level to get it level both ways. Put the same size channel iron cross pieces inside the frame the short way at least every 2 feet. The frame should be approxiamely narrower than the sheet all the way around to facilitate clamping on the edges. 5. Position the plate with the convex side of the plate up on the system you used to fabricate the frame. Position the frame on top of this and centered. Take the frame in the center where it touches the plate and then proceed to pull the edges up to the frame with clamps starting at one end and working toward the other end. Use STITCH welds along the inside stiff edge of the channel one inch of weld then two to three inches of space between the next weld. Tack the outside flange to the plate 1 inch every 6 to 8 inches. REMEMBER LARGE LONG WELDS WILL DISTORT THE PLATE TOWARD THE WELDED SIDE. 6. Attach the legs to the frame now it would be best to have 6 legs to give the center support over the length. Now attach another light angle iron mid way between the frame and the bottom of the legs for added sideways support to the legs and for use as a storage shelf. 7. Now set in the desired place and level the table with a level. 8. Now check the top with a straight edge and grind or otherwise remove any high spots you don't want. Hope this helps you and its the way I would go about doing the job.

does the existing building have a floor in it?

got curious did a search for laser interferometer, I don't see any reason for me to measure that close LOL

Cory, beings as I am old fashioned, I use my Dad's solution to old dirty, swayback stones. First thing I do is to flatten to almost true by hand on the side of a concrete block. This gets rid of a lot of the crud along with trueing the stone. Then wash real well with a stiff brush in kerosene, and work a little more by hand on the concrete block, scrubbing occasionally in the kerosene. Let dry thorougly in the sun and then one last finish trueing on the other side of the concrete block.

Some people use sheet lead and others I have seen use thick leather. for what its worth.

http://www.iforgeiron.com/Blueprints/BP0051Good_Coal/BP0051Good_Coal.htm http://www.iforgeiron.com/Blueprints01/BP0131coal/BP0131coal.shtml

bruce you didn't say where it came from, 9,000 btu's isn't much and it sounds like it is from a RR derailment, that stuff is junk to start with. the power plants, grind it into dust and mix with propane and air to get it to burn enough to generate steam for their purposes.

LOL Leah, was moving a daughter to Texas, pulled into a truck stop in OK City, to catch a few zzz's, a reefer pulled up on each side of us, with the reefers running, Time to hit the road. Darn 2 hour nap alarm clocks.

I have seen them called shoeing Vices, the tapered swage blocks were for forge welding the toe caulks on horse shoes. Here is what is commonly called a Bolt Makers Vice used by Alice James in her shop. They are similar but different.

Wire EDM

This is the boneyard outside Sid Suedemiers Little Giant shop in Nebraska City, Ne, some of the hammers are for sale some aren't. To contact them about a rebuilt or used hammer, lgiant@alltel.net

Portable take down hydraulic press Parts and pieces. They do fit together after all. Portable folding saw horses, light but strong OOPs, one leg folded the other unfolded. close up of the hinge. Bionic C clamp LOL You need 10 ton of pressure WHERE?

This is a solution to the pesky problem when welding with aluminum wire of the tip wanting to weld itself to the end of the tip, This will virtually eliminate that problem. Cut away half of the tip approxiametly 1/8 inch back from the end as shown. This picture is of my spoolmate tip.

here is sams picture from the gallery;

ttp://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/adastd94.pdf pages around page 523

ADA Americans with Disabilities Act, requires a 34 inch top rail height,and steps have to be 34 inches from the toe of the step to the top, steps and ramps are required to extend past the top and bottom step at least 12 inches and have to be returned to the post at the middle rail. At least one intermediat rail long ways and posts no farther apart than 8 foot centers. Also it must be able to take a swinging load of 200 lbs from 6 foot away and remain stable. Osha specs are a whole different ball game and railing must be at least 42 inches to the top and have a kick rail at the bottom.

What it is will be revealed tommorow night at the blueprint reading at 9 PM central time, http://iforgeiron.org/chat/chat.htm

What is this Handy Tool Helper, I couldn't find my old one when I needed it, so I thru this one together from scraps and it works better than the one I can't find.

quench, that one has me baffled, never seen that happen before, could be the climate change from texas to tenn, and setting idle. Could be a case of elves or leprauchans at work when you are not around. LOL

friend of mine uses the glass insulators for candle cups and drip pan all in one in his ironwork, just need a circle to set them in. They are quite attractive and old Rail Roaders will buy them when they won't one made of all iron.

arkmay, here is a blueprint on what you are trying to do. http://www.iforgeiron.com/Blueprints/BP0060Rebuilding_a_vise/BP0060Rebuilding_a_vise.htm just click on it and it will take you to the print with pictures and text.

Bryan, you your family and brothers family are in our prayers and thoughts. Jr and Cookie Strasil

Meco first time I have seen one exactly like that, nice line shaft powered blower tho,, I'm assuming the inside resevoir is for a packing to try and keep the oil from draining to the inside and getting all over the fan and then collecting dust and dirt which cuts down the efficiency of the blower. but then thats just my observation on the pics. most of those old open oil cups collected dust and dirt and the valve on the bottom is for flushing every once in awhile, most of the similar ones I have seen had a cork or wooden plug in the top to keep foriegn material out of the cup, to prevent excess wear on the shaft.