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I Forge Iron

Dave Huntress

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Everything posted by Dave Huntress

  1. I have not but thanks for the link. I need to buy a backup motor.. altho I did learn something about my blower motor. I tore it all down hoping maybe it was a loose connection. Well when I pulled the motor out and took the cover off I found out that it has adjustable brushes... wow! what a bonus... seems as they just sort of wore down some and all I had to do was loosen two screws and rotate the brushes block until they touched the windings and I had power again... those guys were thinking back then... so right now I'm out of the woods but I'm gonna get m e a back up because I was really discouraged when that happened...
  2. yesterday. Hi guys, where can I find another blower motor for my Buffalo Forge? Anyone have one for sale? Mine is a No. F-6145 Type E. Has a 1/2" shaft 2-3/4" long. Thanks in advance.... Dave
  3. I didn't weld it someone else did. I got it welded to a plate. I just added the stand. Believe me, it doesn't move when your working on it. My shop is a custom welding shop. I build mostly motorcycle frames and gas tanks. But I fabricate a lot of other things too. I am always moving the furniture around sort of speak depending on the projects I'm working on. So to have the vise mobile around the shop is actually a good thing. The shop is only 36' x 24' and I have a lot of equipment....
  4. Here is my vise...... has "800" in raised numerals on the side of it. Took 3 guys to get it out of the van. Came from my brother in laws house in MD. His grandfather got it from Amtrak railroad station in DC. I had this on the floor for about 2 years and finally built a stand with wheels for convenience purposes. I attached the stand with it upside down on the floor, I had a hard time flipping it over onto the wheels at first. I was a bit afraid of it throwing me actually. I had to use a 6' steel rod to roll it over. This is one heavy vise and I love it....
  5. I have noticed myself that not all coal is created equal. Not to hijack your thread but I started buying it a couple towns away from me. It's Donson coal (nut coal) and then I found out the sand and gravel place up the street from me sells coal but it's a different brand and I have a hard time lighting it and also keeping it burning.... I have wasted more time trying to light my forge than I can believe. I was using sticks and newspaper because it's cheap but have been using cedar shingles because they burn nice and hot with the blower on of course, but sometimes that doesn't even help. Last resort was using the acetylene torch but both the shingles and the torch cost money... I still don't understand the pre-made coke thing either, all I know is it's coal and it burns..... thanks for reading....
  6. Glad I could help Bill..... and I agree this is a great community....
  7. I have my own full time welding shop and use propane for my torches all the time. I dont gas weld but use it for heating and cutting on occasion. It doesn't burn as hot as acetylene but it is normally cheaper and easier to get. How much will it cost you to fill a large tank like that? And how big is your shop that you will have multiple work stations that need the propane?
  8. what kind of material is it made out of? Is it a cast or is it sheetmetal? If you can't repair it with the mig ship it to me and I'll tig it for you.... I repaired my buffalo tuyere with stick weld...6011.. it was cast..
  9. awesome/ thanks guys... really do appreciate the tips here..... yesterday morning I had a better day.... I had a nice deep fire of hot coals and got thru the job I needed to do. And yes Frosty I mean the air gate...I normally start off with green coal. So far my best method for lighting has been paper with kindling sticks from the woods but I can't be doing that in the winter months. I'm not about to go collecting sticks with deep snow fall. So coke is the whitish looking coal that hasn't been fully burned yet? Do you guys use charcoal to get started at all? I better do some more reading... okay again thanks you guys for the tips on the technique... it's huge for us greenhorns...go figure when I bought the coal I was thinking, ya big baseball size coal for big fire... but I was looking in the gallery and saw one guys pics of his forge and it's filled with the 3/4" size... but I found that out I've been breaking it up.... good thing I only bought 3 bags....... can't wait to finally be able to post pics again..... :)
  10. ahhh... a bolster plate..... thanks.... was I punching or drifting? I don't know.... guess in Blacksmith terms it's called drifting.... either way I need a bolster plate.... thanks
  11. oh man I just don't get it.... I will eventually learn but two days in a row my coals just sort of died on me... my buddy that sold me the forge stopped by and at the time about 10:00 am I had a nice pit full of hot coals. By 1:00 the coals were just dieing down. I mean I'm constantly tending to them and feeding coal in there but I just don't get it why it died on me.... too much air? burning too fast or not enough air? how far open do you guys keep your flue gate open? Also do you break up your coal pieces and just feed smaller pieces in the red hots or do you put in big baseball size pieces? Any tips for a greenhorn? thanks in advance....
  12. sometimes the obvious we just don't see.. thats a great idea.. thats why I am here! ..to learn from you guys....plus I don't have an anvil and I have no jig with a pritchet hole... I think thats what it's called... I know the square one in the anvil is the Hardy hole... but I don't have an anvil yet so I'm going to have to get to jig making for what I want to do...... still a green horn ya know.... cheers...
  13. Dave Huntress

    DSC02518

    I like it, I have a handful of those spikes...... thanks for the idea
  14. so today I took a quick break from my regular fab work and decided to try out one of my punches I have. This friend of mine gave me a bucket of tools he had lying around his shop. Now he had worked for Vulcan Tool in Weymouth, MA. for about 25 years or so, they are a modern day blacksmith shop and make tools. So I have this 1/2" square punch I decide to try out. Pretty neat I'm thinking, I pre-drilled a 5/16" hole in the drill press thru a piece of 1" x 1/4" flatbar. I stick it in the forge for a heat and when it's ready I try punching it thru...came out really good... ya I know, no big deal but it was my first, I mean I used to run cnc punch presses at the sheetmetal shop and hadn't run a single station punch in a while so this was like way back in time so to speak I was traveling..... anyway, just sayin..... the tooling I have from my buddy are all heat treated so it's really a blessing I happened onto this stuff... I have an idea for making motorcycle shifter pedals for a future project..... cheers and thanks for reading.....
  15. I am in search of maybe 100 pounder. My dad used to have one but was stolen from me years ago.... I'm still missing that anvil... so every morning I have been firing up my coal forge. Now I'm a full time welder/fab guy and the blacksmith stuff is new to me. It's getting quicker getting it lit and today I had the best looking hot pit of coals all week. It got up to about 65* in the shop by noon so that was a good thing. I would do some work and tend to the fire back and forth ya know. But I had to leave at 2:30 to get the kids at school and gas the car, then go pick up my wifes car at the shop. Took about an hour and when I got back I expected a hot pit of coal but it went out on me.... I was so bummed out because it was a full pit of nice hot coals... it was awesome.... till I got back... I had the blower going too.... oh well, tomorrow is another day... I'm just basically burning coal just to get good at that and play here and there... I'll post pics soon of a project. Hey how much you guys paying for coal? I just paid 17 cents per pound...... thanks for reading....
  16. thanks big red, hey did you sell that anvil? HW I am still learning and you are right I don't regret spending time on the repairs. This will make me some money for one thing and has to be in good working order.. Nick HW has answered your question. I would post pics but the site is fighting me on that, can't post pics up quite yet...???? But that higher lip on the front and back is for the fire brick and the sides where the bolts hold it down is for sliding your work piece into the hot coals... I've just been testing mine out the last two days learning how to get the thing lit quickly and without smoking up the shop....
  17. well over the weekend I finished my hood and piped in the vent. Had to use a stainless steel ceramic insulated vent pipe thru the wood wall. Around here it's code and it's safe but a 2' section was $140.... with that said I was only able to use 6" vent pipe but it seems to work pretty good. With the electric blower I never had the speed past 2-1/2 with the flue open just a tad in the tuyere... I tested it out on twisting some 3/4" steel and some 1/2". nice and hot so I'm happy with results. I already have a paying job to do with the forge that I have to modify a springer front end (motorcycle parts) and change them over to twisted legs from the factory tubular legs. The twist isn't a continuous same direction like a railing would use but it goes clockwise and counter clockwise to achieve a certain look the customer is going for...anyway, check out the pics.... and thanks for looking.. oops....pics not loading.....try again later
  18. oh and almost forgot, you need a constant voltage machine to mig weld aluminum properly....
  19. I have been tig welding for 35 years plus... it's a great trade.. www.tanksbytigman.com this is my website... why not re-think the design process? I have a press brake as well and you will need some tonnage to bend anything in length. Maybe a steel angle iron frame and bolt the aluminum to the frame work then seal all the seams to keep the weather out. Just a suggestion.. I worked sheetmetal fabrication for 25 years before going out on my own and it would be worth it to find a local welder who is already set up to weld your aluminum parts.. probably cost a couple or few hundred bucks opposed to all the set up building a brake for bending and failing when it doesn't work, shopping and spending money on a welder to find out you have to add a bigger circuit breaker or hardwire the welder etc.... just my .02
  20. mild steel still comes in 1018 or 1020 series doesn't it? But thats cold rolled steel or CRS. At least thats what online metals list it as. Hot rolled is softer isn't it? There is such a thing as work hardening as you hammer and stretch sheet metal when working it cold. Probably doesn't happen as much when heating bar stock but my opinion is it does harden the material to some point. As already stated natural cooling is probably best if you have more tasks at hand. If it's a finished piece then why not quench it... just my .02
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