Jump to content
I Forge Iron

RMiles

Members
  • Posts

    7
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Converted

  • Location
    Northwest Louisiana
  • Biography
    Trying to learn as much as I can so that I will have a trade when I retire.
  • Interests
    Metal working: steam engines, cars and blacksmithing
  • Occupation
    maintenance

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

  1. The Red River Smiths meet once a month in Shreveport at LSUS. See our Facebook page. We will help with all kinds of useless information, some even helpful. We have built several good forges. One weekend this January we are building a forge for a member. Don't know what weekend yet. Contact me, you are welcome to come to my shop anytime. Some of the members are using charcoal because of the historical significance and the cleaner burn (less smoke ). It burns up faster but it's free. I can make 30 gal in 4 hours, starting with 55 gal of scrap wood.
  2. John B: I would like to have pictures of an original bellows forge. The piping is the part that interest me. I used what I had. It doesn't look that good but it works and lets me remove the hearth. The hearth sits on cross braces so I lined it to keep it from warping. A friend said that he makes side blast of fire clay castings without a metal tuyere. I thought about that but had some iron so I machined it. I can replace it if it burns out. Ramsberg: The nozzle in the tuyere is 3/4 inch dia. The piping and block in the bellows is also 3/4 NPT. I used the dimensions in the book. There is alot of resistance to air flow in the system. The upper bellows takes about 2 sec. to lower with 25 lbs. of weight. This limits my stroke time to 25 strokes a min. With that I get a good steady blast. When I was building it I guessed at 40 CFM? Grafvitnir: Thanks for the info on "Smiths' Work" I'm trying to edit the pictures from that pdf file with the dimensions that I use.
  3. Glenn: I did not make drawings of most of the parts but made notes in "Manual of Black Smithing". I did take some photos of the bellows in process. I'll get some dimensions this coming week and make some drawings.
  4. I found that charcoal does not last long enough so I use coal. I take charcoal to demos to show the difference between charcoal, coal and coke. The linkage lifts the bottom half 6 inches which causes a blast that also lifts the top half bellows about 4 inches. 25 lbs of weight causes the top half to extend the blast. The side draft nozzle is one inch off of the bottom. This is the first time that I have used a side nozzle but did not have a problem with fire control. I simply fed coal from each side if the air blast. Lindsay Publications Inc carries the book that I used. All of the dimensions and text do not agree so some dimensions must be your own. That is the blacksmith way.
  5. This forge was finished the day before a demo. The first time I fired it was at the demo. It worked great. I used it for three days without a problem. The forge is based on text and drawings from "Manual of Black Smithing 1902". The bellows is 15.5 inch dia with a 6 inch stroke. It takes about 25 lbs of weight on the top to drive the second chamber for an even blast. The fire depth is not great so welding may be a problem. Using a bellows is alot more fun than a crank. Someday I plan to build a larger bellows for a shop forge.
×
×
  • Create New...