BeaverDamForge

We used to joke about proper torque being '1/4 turn before it breaks'. :D

At the top right of the page are some links in blue letters, one of them is 'BluePrints', click on that and find #0020.

Basically it's a raffle with many objects, some of them scrap iron, some forged pieces. I started out bringing boxes of spikes, but I noticed they got fewer and fewer tickets as the club members got all they wanted. Then I started bringing other items like an axle, a leaf or coil spring, etc. As I got some practice I started bringing things I'd made - candleholders, knives, a backscratcher, etc. along with some scrap iron. Won my first pair of tongs at the first meeting I attended, that worked out well (with a bunch of tickets in that cup). It's a nice opportunity to show off your work and win items made by others.

I'm accepted as a member of a black family, but their name isn't 'Smith'... oh, wait...

Pretty benign compared to coal dust and smoke, eh? Coal Dust (less than 5% SiO2) " Protective clothing should be worn to prevent any possibility of skin contact."

I build the oven(s) for my gasifier forge from red mud, perlite, and straw, and after a day or so fire up the gasifier. I try not to get it too hot until the mud is back to it's dry color inside the oven, but the outside may be dark (damp) for a couple sessions of forging. My smithy is a lean-to and newspaper left in it sometimes gathers enough moisture it doesn't want to burn readily, but it doesn't seem to affect the mud. I tried wood ash at first, but the perlite gives much better insulation. I've read here that coarse sawdust may work even better, haven't tried that yet. The straw holds it together and minimizes cracking.

If you keep a flame burning you shouldn't get much smoke, but you get radiant heat. If you keep the fire in a chimney the heat will be drawn away but you need access to add wood. If you built something like the "Supercharged 55" (from the blueprint section) and added a 6" pipe to the back, with an elbow at the bottom (to let charcoal fall into the firepot) and a "T" to add wood, it should be able to provide a supply of charcoal and avoid the radiant heat. If you use the heat to preheat the air to the firepot it would be a little more efficient, otherwise you're throwing away half the heat in the wood.

Nah, the tie rod will catch it... :o

Depends on the hardness of the anvil face... it wasn't a problem with a piece of rail (other than leaving a dent), but watch out if you miss on my Fisher! Good Luck!

I saw Elmer Roush at a demo, making a hardy tool blank. He hammered it into the hardy hole with a mark (centerpunch) facing him. He said the hardy tools should be made to fit one anvil in one direction, not a sloppy fit. In his experience, even "identical" new anvils had different size/shape holes and the tools would not interchange. If I sell my anvil, all the hardy tools I've made will go with it. Good Luck!

I have a book called Handy Farm Devices and How to Make Them (reprint from 1912, available from Lee Valley Tools) that depicts one of those. The text reads: A homemade anvil can be constructed from a 4-foot piece of railroad rail mounted on a trestle as shown in the sketch. This affair will stand a lot of heavy pounding, and comes in handy in many ways. The rail is just about the right shape to make an anvil. But without hardening the surface it won't have much rebound. The Complete Modern Blacksmith from Alexander G. Weygers depicts hardening and tempering a smaller rail anvil. Good Luck!

Seconded! Good Luck!

FWIW, many '60s & '70s Mopars will not handle a bigger engine without changing the torsion bars, they'll break. Coil spring cars don't usually have a problem other than maybe ride height. I'm not sure what that might mean about the steel... I have a few t-bars laying around but haven't done anything with them yet. Good Luck!

The Blacksmiths Craft http://www.countryside.gov.uk/LAR/archive/publications/manual.asp Check these out for side blast info. Good Luck!

I was introduced to gasifiers and built mine in this thread: http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f7/fuel-5001/ Not much has changed since then, a couple different ovens (volume and opening size), and the grate burned out (now I have a piece of thin firebrick laying on ashes in the bottom). Next time around I'm going to make it modular, a base with ash cleanout and a (brake rotor) grate; a center section with larger tubes (6" inner and 8" outer); and the oven, which I made a box with tapered sides to form. The air valve will be external so the air to the grate is not preheated. My present oven is from the box but I have some improvements in mind. I'm still trying to get hotter than bright orange - I can't weld (although I have seen it done at that temp) but I haven't burnt any steel. I took it to a club meeting to demo it, and the guy I got to help load it up said it looked like a big ant hill. Later I had some wood with ants in it, now I call it 'Ant Hell'. Good Luck!

http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f11/warming-anvils-8534/ Referenced in the above thread, but this post is enlightening; http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f22/anvil-heater-691/index3.html#post38385 Good Luck!

What flammable gas won't kill you? :confused: I use an updraft gasifier in my forge, it makes good use of corn instead of heating the air above it. Corn seems to have more volatiles (oil) than it does charcoal, wood is about 50/50. Good Luck!

Pass steam over red hot coke and will seperate into hydrogen and oxygen. It may reach that temp on the anvil but it would take a spark to ignite it. More likely a droplet of water is turned into steam suddenly and escapes violently from a confined space. Steam is about 135 X the volume of the water it was. Good Luck!

Corn burns well, start a small wood fire and add it on. But most of the energy in the corn is in the oil that burns off. Works real well in a gasifier, along with wood chips... There are a few pics in irnsrgn's gallery; Corn Forge - Blacksmith Photo Gallery Here's an old thread you might find interesting; http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f7/fuel-5001/ Good Luck!

How much wood do you have access to? You could just burn the wood to charcoal in your forge. I had my forge set up with a chimney where I put wood chips to convert them to charcoal. Just let plenty of air in to support the combustion, if the flame goes out it smokes a lot. Good Luck!

Have you looked at BP0078? Good Luck!

It could be done, easily enough... Good Luck!

Why would Suzuki have Isuzu parts? Did they make the motors or buy the design from Isuzu? Connecting rods are pretty complicated to forge and machine, I have worked on some raw forgings. There is as much machining involved as forging and it HAS to be right. Getting the weights right (for each end of the rod) is important, so they need to be close to stock shape (usually an "I" beam). Most rods do not have oil holes, usually only large ones (Mack, Cummins, Etc.). I'd look into installing a different engine. Good Luck!

Those look like steel motorcycle rims, might have enough mass by themselves. Here is another PDF which shows a simple blower: http://www.cd3wd.com/CD3WD_40/JF/JF_VE/SMALL/04-110.pdf Good Luck!

That's close to what I was thinking of. I'd use an impeller with sides, or at least one side (leaving one side off would prevent backflow on the outside of the impeller but makes supporting the vanes harder); it looks like the hub is blocking most of the intake. They mention leaving the sides square which would be easier, but they shouldn't be circular with little clearance as shown. I was thinking of blocking three corners to make a semi-octagon, and putting the outlet in the other corner. Leave some room for air flow around the outside of the impeller. The outlet should be close to the size of the piping, no point in leaving it large then reducing it. Of course if you leave the housing square and just drill a hole for the pipe it would work. No dimensions are given, but the diameter of the impeller will relate to the speed it needs to turn. That's why I was figuring 21-22", the housing sides could be 24 x 24" which fits conveniently on a sheet of plywood. The width of the impeller doesn't have to be much, if any, wider than the piping. Wider would flow more air but it has no place to go so it would just make cranking harder. 1/4" ply with some framework may be cheaper and work as well. I don't see where the gas powered leaf blower PDF is relevant. It's designed (the impeller in particular) for lots of RPM and way more flow than a fire needs. My $ 0.02 Good Luck!