Dave Huntress

nice job 77.....

so tell us Bigred, did you sell the anvil?

so did yo buy that anvil?

an english wheel is for sheet metal shaping. I build a lot of motorcycle gas tanks for a living. Your suppose to block out the shape first with a hammer and sand bag or a power hammer then iron it out with the english wheel. It's for smoothing and shaping... the HF metal working tools are basically rated for 18 ga steel max. You could use it to help make armour... just my .02 :)

okay so yesterday I clocked out at 3:30 and started tearing down the forge for some well needed repair. I figure I'll do the right thing before firing up any coal. The coal dump had two broken ears and a huge space between the fire pit so I couldn't see it working properly. Of course the bolts broke when I tried to unbolt it, even with heat they were just too old. After pulling it all apart I found the 3" flue pipe was filled with all kinds of stuff like acorns and some sort of nesting going on... glad I pulled it apart, it was full.... I cleaned up the broken parts with a 50 grit and welded them back on. The 3 hole bolt pattern was missing one ear so I had to add so material and drill a new hole. Then when that was done I cut the broken bolts down flush with a cut off wheel and drilled out the old bolts and re-tapped them to 3/8"-16. I had to oil up and work the 3" flue gate (not sure of termonoligy yet) to working order. Then I bolted it all back in... I'm excited actually for today. I still need to build my hood but I want to try it out. It's still not cold enough for the heat to be on so I'll just open the 12' bay door and give it a whirl......anyone else on here have one of these old Buffalo forges? here's some pics of my adventure last night... the whole ordeal took me about 4 hours....

Thanks Tom, good idea..

thanks for the comments and the info guys. some good info there, do appreciate. also took care of my profile info as well. I think I will go with the side draft with the hood. The only thing I'm in a two story New England Gambrell barn style shop. I have a 2nd floor and the shop is ground floor. My vent pipe will have to go right angle thru the wall from my hood 8' from the floor with another right angle up to the cap. Don't think I can go higher than the roof peak because it's 26' high. hmmmm.. anyone else in a barn style building? I'll post pics later.... thanks guys you were a big help....

Here is a pic of the forge. Like I said it's well used. I won't be going the side draft route, I need the vent pipe up higher like at 8' from the floor. So the bigger the better on the vent pipe seems to be what I'm reading.... this particular forge came with an adjustable hood. It had like 15' of 7" stove pipe attached to a cone and that had chain hooked to the cone so you could adjust the height of the cone over the fire pit. But I won't be using that method.. I'll build a fixed hood and vent that. The blower does have a small flue like lever in front of the coal dump to adjust air flow. Right now seems to be stuck. I'm spraying that with some penetrant to loosen it up. The fire pit is pretty beat but hopefully I'm okay.. this will be a "learn as I burn" sort of thing as for anyone I guess. On the right hand side someone had hacked the side panel and bent it down...I'll restore that back to original.... okay thats it for now.... suggestions/comments etc.....thanks...

thanks for the feedback guys. I'll post pics later today

Hi folks, Dave here.....aka Tigman from the chopper forums.. I am a self employed fabricator who has just recently bought an old Buffalo forge with electric blower. This well used forge needs some work but I want to bring it back to life. My buddy found it in Sandwich, MA. at an old blacksmith shop that seemed to die off. So I have some questions about set up. My welding shop is 36 x 24. I planned on fabricating a new hood and piping it thru my barn wall using a type B style vent tube. (if that makes any sense) Like my mr heater uses that hangs from my ceiling. I don't want to burn the place down so any suggestions would be great. I have read a couple of posts and am seeing Q's like "did you clay the box?" Not sure what this means.. Is this simply extra protection for the thin wall sheet metal walls of the forge? And where do I get it? Also the coal dump I think it's called in my forge is cracked and I'll have to pull it apart and see if I can weld it, looks like it might leak air and mess with me.. anyway, hope to hear back from some of you folks for some guidance.... thanks in advance..... Dave