Private Entrance

John - For the old one, I had the air was coming in from the side towards me - you're looking at it from where I would be standing when I was using it. It was easier to turn on and off given the height of the forge with it in front. I will move the orientation to the side on the new model. The fire pot isn't anchored, so everything is changeable right now. Depends on how I end up doing the table, methinks. Musk-rat - That IS a soup can 'twixt the dryer and the pipe (I am rather proud of that little modification :) ). It was an easier solution than making a real fitting, and I didn't want to duct tape the dryer to the pipe. I usually take the dryer off when I'm letting the forge cool down after use, and taping would be more of a pain that it was worth, imho. As an added bonus, you could adjust the airflow some by moving the can tighter or looser against the dryer. More air blowing out past the dryer = less air in the forge, and vice versa. Not as good as a valve, but it helps. I will probably attempt to make a better fitting and put a valve of some kind in line with the air flow. I'm hoping I can find one of those valves you can completely open or close in about 1/4 turn in the right size. That would make life much easier.

ROFL! Thanks for the additional info. I didn't even think of how hard it would be physically to beat a hitch ball into the shape I want. I have a hard enough time with rr spikes. Definitely food for thought - I will try the local tool rental places for jackhammer bits that mostly dead. I'll save the trailer balls for something else - maybe a round and an oval hardy.

Thanks, Wayne and Jeddly. At least I know I'll be able to make something happen when the zombies come. :)

This is where I'm at on rebuilding my forge, which my 11 year old son calls the 'Ghetto Forge.' The original is basically a brake drum forge set into the cooking chamber of a microwave oven that died on me. Sat about 14" high, using a hair dryer as a blower, and a box I fabbed out of more microwave scrap metal to store a coal/coke reserve in. This is what it looked like: Honestly worked pretty well, all things considered. Hot enough to forge weld, even though I haven't tried my hand at forge welding yet. I also learned what 'too many irons in the fire' really means. I put one too many pieces in the fire to heat and forgot a rr spike. I found what was left of it in the bottom of the firepot at the end of the day. I thought it was a couple of clinkers until I fished the pieces out and recognized the remains of a spike head on one of the chunks. The spike had melted in half and puddled quite a bit. Also answered the 'why is the fire sparking like that' question. :) Here is v2.0 in progress. It will sit about 2' high, which will mean less stooping. I mounted the bottom draft more securely, and fit the cover over the hole in the drum flush with the main drum base. In the old one, I had problems with keeping the fire under control. Air would leak around the poorly fitted old cover and feed the fire in places I didn't really want it to burn yet. Hopefully this will fix that problem. Frame is from some angle iron a friend gave me, cut with a sabre saw and bolted together. I need to add some cross braces, figure out how to fit a table to it (the single biggest thing I've wanted to add) that I will make from a washing machine cabinet, and tool rack for tongs. Hope to have it done by the w/e of the 25th - my first free day to forge for about 3 weeks. If anyone sees any blatant errors or potential problems, or suggestions for attaching the table, I'd love to hear them.

FF, thanks for the reminder on zinc/galvi coatings. I checked both of them again. One looks to be bare (slightly rusted) steel, the other has most of a chrome coating on it. That will come off with a wire wheel before anything real fun and exciting starts. The bare one looks like it has either a crack or a cap of some kind at the top of the ball. Once I get it freed from the piece of angle iron it's rust-bolted on to, I'll take a closer look at the cap/crack and see what is what. I'll be sure to post the results of my efforts. Be next weekend before I get a chance to fire up the forge again, which I'm in the process of rebuilding. I'll post a 'before' and current progress pic of it on the solid fuel forge page.

And pisses off the badger, too.

It's got about a 3/4" shaft, and I have a 7/8" hardy hole, so I figured some upsetting and squaring up would be necessary. I hadn't thought of just beating out of round into an oval shape. That would be quicker and easier, I expect. It's already got a pretty solid shoulder on it, so once the fitting to the hole was done, I was going to shape and harden the hot cut itself. My biggest concern was if it would harden up enough, but with the suggested course of action from Phil, I think it will be ok. Worst thing that can happen is it doesn't work, and I have turn it into something else. Thank you very much for your help.

Question: Someone gave me a couple of trailer hitch balls. The shafts will take some fitting to get them into my hardy hole properly, but I was thinking of turning one of them into a hot cut hardy. Understanding that I have no idea what type of steel they are made of, is it at least likely that they will make a decent tool?

My understanding was the same. I had heard somewhere that the Afghanis had been hand building copies of the old .303 Enfield bolt action rifle during the war with the Russians. And they worked.

Almost makes it look simple. Thanks for the video!

From California as well.

Far side for me. Broke my right wrist in my 20's and the near side makes for an awkward angle, especially when drawing out. Like you, I am making tongs. Even though my first pair isn't terribly great, it is a noticeable improvement over the channel locks I had been using, and my 2nd pair has come along much faster.

Very informative. Looks like something I might want to take a crack at. I'm thinking of trying for a letter opener for a friend's upcoming birthday. I was going to try a scroll at the end of the handle. I might try this instead.

I use a spray bottle set on stream for hitting spots that are burning where I don't want them to. Doesn't quite do the job as easily as I'd like it, but it does work. I'm going to make a sprinkling can this coming week, I'm thinking.

Mine is shown below. I admit I'm probably as much (if not more) of a noob as you are, but I was about 4 months ago where you are now, so maybe being closer to the beginning I can help at least a little bit. Take a look at the 55 forge plans. That will probably be my next forge. I just need to find a 55 gal drum for cheap. I pretty much have everything already in parts from my current one. Be creative. You need something to put fire in, something for it to sit on, a way for air to get into the fire, something to provide some air. I used a brake drum from Pic a Part for the fire pot, the cooking compartment from a microwave for the stand, some pipe from Ace Hardware, and a blow dryer from the Goodwill. Total expenditure: about $35. It isn't pretty (my 11 yr old son calls it the ghetto forge), but it works well enough for where I'm at right now. The one thing I want to change is take the box off the right end that I'm using to park my coal reserve and replace it with a rimmed table top sort of set up. I've got a lid from a dead washing machine a friend gave me that I'm going to turn into the table top part. Hope this helps.

http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/23441-throw-away-bottle-cap-fun/ Here you go. For mine, I didn't weld them to the rod. I flattened the rod a bit above and below where I stacked the caps to hold them while I put them together, then put a drop of canopy glue from the hobby shop in the flower and then on the base of it. Worked pretty good and dries completely clear. I also burned the paint and seals off of them with a torch, then wire wheeled them to bare metal before cutting the petal breaks in them. I found out that it saves a lot of time just throwing a handful (or more) of caps into the forge while I'm letting the fire die down and moving the rest of my gear back into the garage after a session. You can do a clean bunch of them in less time than it takes to do one with a torch, then go straight to wire wheeling with less steps in between. I cut the petals on mine in 5, 4, and 3 cuts instead of 4, 3, and 2 like in the demos. Makes for a more bud like appearance rather than a mature flower.

What part of SoCal? 'near LA' covers a pretty broad area. I'm about 70 miles away from downtown, and my relatives from out of state think I live 'near LA.'

Welcome! What part of California are you from?

The only thing I had ever been religious about eye protection with is bench and angle grinder because of the volume of garbage they spew out. I've always had one response to the safety guys that have bugged me about eye protection: The safety glasses you provide me are so scratched up because they'd get thrown in a drawer with files and screwdrivers, that I can't see what I'm doing. I'm afraid I'll lose a hand in the stone grinder/sander/edger I'm using. Since most companies I've worked for have been too cheap to fork out $10 for a set of glasses for the shop manager to keep as his own, I've always learned to live without them. That all changed when I worked for a company that gave me a brand new set of glasses that were 'mine.' Amazing what a difference it makes to wear glasses you can actually see through! Since I treated them with care, they were never jacked up, so I didn't mind wearing them. I wear them all the time when I'm doing stuff in the shop with power tools or 'smithing. Lessons to be learned from this: 1) I'm one lucky son of a gun to have not lost an eye at some point; B] If you have to, buy a new set of glasses and take care of them, so you can see what you are doing and not take them off because you're afraid of losing body parts and/or can't tell what it is you are working on, and III} Wear the XXXX things. They won't do you any good hanging on a hook, or laying on the bench, or tucked in a pocket of your apron. They need to be on to be effective.

Very sweet. Looks a heck of a lot prettier than mine. And that's quite a manly vice you have there. I am truly envious.

My first pair of 'real' tongs. I'm planning on rounding and drawing the reins a bit more. I am also going to either tweak the jaws or the reins a bit angle-wise, as when the jaws are fully closed, the handles pass each other completely, which even I know is Other Than Good. I'll use these to make more tongs, and I'm sure each one will be more gooder than the last. Next goal is to get a pair done in one session (about 2 hours). I watched Brian Brazeal's tongs video a couple of times, and the quick and easy tongs video that I found either here or on Anvilfire. I can't turn them out near as quick as the Brian or the guy in the other video, but the explanations were pretty straightforward and really helped me grasp the concepts for when I got to the forge. Made from 3/8" x 3/4" bar stock if anyone is curious. Each side of the tongs started as a 6" long chunk of bar and are now just under 10" long overall.

Welcome! Where are you from?

J, thanks for the reply. I didn't see the coupling on the pipe until you said there was one there. Doh! The hairdryer you're using looks almost exactly like mine now that I look at everything closer. I want to get my forge built onto a real frame at some point. One with wheels. The forge ain't real heavy (maybe 20# or so) but I wouldn't mind NOT carrying it into the garage when I'm done. Rolling is so much more pleasant.

IronWolf, he lives down near me, about 70 miles of Lost Angeles. Narco, there's a guy in Yucca Valley that gives classes about once a month. They get announced on the Calsmith site. I think they are about $20 for the noob classes. I've also gotten in touch with a guy named Klaus in Yucaipa. Last I heard from him, he was going to do a beginners class pretty soon and let me know. When he does, I'll pass the info on. In fact, I should email him again from work tomorrow...

I like the length of it. I'm using a brake drum forge and it works best on shorter stuff. I wouldn't mind being able to heat longer pieces of stock. Yours is pretty sweet. Do you have any issues with the duct tape holding the hair dryer on getting hot? I considered doing that for mine, but need to be able to take the hair dryer off fairly readily. It makes getting the forge back into the garage easier when I'm done.