Buzzkill

TP, I'd love to see those. What's the phrase I've seen on here? Oh yeah, pics or it didn't happen. Seriously though, I'll guarantee you that I'm not the only one who would want to see something launching RR spikes at a high velocity or a flaming blade - provided the business end of either didn't have us on the receiving end of the contraptions.

Well, you can make weapons that shoot railroad spikes or use old lawnmower blades and motorcycle parts to create flaming blades, so it's *kinda* like something we might work with at the forge.

I haven't worked with that particular burner, but if it came to you assembled I would hope that the manufacturer got the alignment correct. Thomas gave you the failsafe advice. If there's anyone in your area who runs propane forges they should be able to sort you out in short order. If you want to give it another shot on your own then bring the pressure up within the first 10 seconds or so of lighting it. You just need to get the flame down to the end of the tube before the tube has a chance to heat up. Otherwise you'll have to wait for it to cool down again or it will continue to burn inside the tube. If you don't have a flare on the burner it will not stay lit outside the forge either, so you have to do this with the burner in place.

That's pretty normal at low pressures. The propane pulls the air in behind it/with it, so you've got to have enough pressure for it to work. Mine does that until I hit about 3 psi according to my gauge, then the flame will stay in the forge at the end of the tube like it's supposed to. I don't know what kind of tuning options/choke plates, etc you have, but you may have to make some adjustments to the burner as well. Have you tried slowly increasing the pressure to see if it will stay lit in the forge with the flame at the end of the tube or have you just shut it down when that happens?

Got any firefighter friends? If you could convince them to hit the anvil with the firehose for a few minutes that would probably give you a better combination of pressure and volume than a high pressure washer.

Well, you currently have about the worst case scenario for ringing, so just about anything you try is likely to be an improvement. One of my dad's favorite sayings is "Try the easy things first." What's easiest and least expensive for you to try? If it doesn't require much time or money then that's where I'd start. Cutting the vertical portion of the beam with a 4 inch grinder and cutoff wheels is doable, but it will probably take several wheels and then you'll still have to grind it flat because you won't be able to get right up against the horizontal plate while cutting. In your situation I probably would try putting some tight fitting lumber against the web between the horizontal plates and strapping it in tight and then testing to see if I could live with it, but I wouldn't be too optimistic about it.

My thanks to Frosty and Spanky. The detailed descriptions, pictures, and illustrations helped clarify a few things I was unsure of, so hats off to you two.

I'm not so sure about the weak muscles idea. FWIW I grew up on a farm and was used to a lot of physical labor. In the winter we cut tons and tons of firewood which we split with a 20 pound maul that had a metal handle. The muscles that got sore for me were never the fingers. Believe it or not the stomach muscles would ache and of course arms and shoulders would share some of the pain. When it was finger pain it usually had to do with a bad strike which resulted in vibration in the handle or the handle twisting. If the muscles in your fingers are sore, to me that would indicate that you're squeezing the handle way too tight or that you're getting some serious vibrations or twisting through the handle. There were times when after using chainsaws all day long my fingers ached and I almost had to pry them open from the position they were in while using the saws, but I believe that was due to the vibration and not weak muscles. When I learned to milk a cow my hands would cramp up a bit while actually milking until I got used to it, but the aches didn't continue for any significant time once done. I'm no doctor and I don't know what you're feeling, but just from my experience if the aches are remaining very long after the activity is done I doubt it's weak muscles - unless you are gripping the handle too tight.

I asked Frosty a very similar question in a private message recently. I built a new propane forge and a 3/4 inch Frosty T burner to use in it. Mine burns well down to about 2 psi and then starts sputtering as the flame burns in the tube. Frosty said some of his start sputtering around 5 psi. If it burns smoothly at 5 psi or more just keep at those pressures. The propane has to be moving fast enough to pull the air in with it, and there are a lot of factors that can affect the burn from one geographical location to another. Elevation, humidity, barometric pressure, etc. all come into play according to what Frosty told me. You shouldn't need a flare of any kind with the burner in the forge, but I don't think it hurts anything either.

Personally I found that the wide belts didn't suit me well for knife grinding. They are ok for making sure the stock is flat and true after forging, but when working on curved portions the width works against what I'm trying to do. Before I built a 2x72 grinder I was working on a 4x36 sander/grinder and its construction also made it difficult to grind plunge lines or any other work where you need a relatively sharp transition in material thickness. If the grinder you're looking at has a flat platen where you can access the edges of the belt without your stock hitting anything else then it might work well for you. You may want to check out the No Weld Grinder plans. You can build the whole thing yourself for about a quarter to a third of what it costs to purchase one new and without a lot of technical expertise. You need a center punch, scribe, square, drill press (can get by with a hand drill) and some wrenches. You'll also need a way to make square cuts (or square up cuts afterwards) on square tubing or you can have the steel supplier makes the cuts for a bit extra - and I recommend that unless you have a good bandsaw or cut off saw with a metal cutting blade. If you already have a 1 to 3 hp electric motor that you can use - or a functional treadmill with a good motor and speed control that you can repurpose then you've already eliminated a big portion of the cost. Good luck with whatever you choose.

Cool stuff. Thanks for enlightening me on that. For some reason I had in mind that the impression was struck into the surface while hot. Now that idea just seems silly.

Not trying to be too nit-picky here, but if the impression was made with that stamp then it would be the mirror image of what is shown on the anvil unless that's a 2 sided stamp with the mirror image on the other side.

I believe what TP is telling you is that temper would be good for a knife blade, but you probably want to take more hardness out and gain more toughness for a hot cut. So, higher temperature when tempering. If you're cutting anything other than small pieces the temper may change in use anyway. I'm not sure you even need to harden it if you're cutting exclusively hot metal, but someone with more knowledge than me will probably chime in.

Charles, You seem to have used a lot of materials I have access to - related to trucking. Have you used S cams for any tool making and/or do you have an idea of the typical steel used in those? I've poked around on the net, but haven't found what steel is used to make them yet. I haven't contacted the manufacturers by phone, but I guess that's the next step after this.. FWIW the coiled springs in air brake chambers we talked about a while ago appear to be 5 feet long when uncoiled.

An alternative to kaowool is Superwool. Check out Axner's site. They have it for $3 per square foot for 1" thickness (so $6 for the size you were referring to) and it's supposed to be good for 2300 F continual use. It's under kiln building and repair. They also have both soft and hard firebricks at an ok price in the same spot. I have not ordered anything from them yet, but am planning to soon.

Are you marking the center of the cutting edge and your target grind height on the bevels for reference points? You said you just got the grinder so I assume that means you don't have a lot of experience grinding yet. Most of us are dominant in one hand or the other. For me at least that means grinding one side feels more natural and comfortable to me than the other, which results in a better grind on one side. If I don't scribe or otherwise mark my targets for my grinds then even the same number of swipes on each side will still result in uneven grinds. As simple as grinding seems, it still takes practice to get it right and consistent. My main suggestion is to mark your blades where you want your grinds to end up and then practice, practice, practice. It will get better. I'm assuming in all of this that you are correct and your forged bevels are centered on the blade and have pretty much the same angle and height on the blade to begin with. If not, then that's your starting point.

The face on mine is 4.75 x 20 inches. Overall length is 31 inches. The holes are 6.5 inches center to center (using the welded in bolts as a guide). The height from the top of the face to the "break" or bottom is 5.25 inches. There are also 3 visible "dimples" along the bottom of the stamped side which are about a half inch in diameter and a bout a quarter inch deep, but I see nothing like that on the other side.

Yes it is an HB. Don't know the weight. The markings on it are very faint and the unfortunate welding on it have obscured some things. If I remember I'll take a tape measure to it to get the dimensions. That should get you close enough for a rough comparison.

I have one. However, when I got it someone had welded bolts through the holes and angle iron to the bolts to make a stand. There is a pic in the Show Me Your Anvil thread. I have no idea why they were made like that though.

If it's stainless it probably is not magnetic, but Jim is right.

I haven't used that particular homebrew refractory mix, but from my experience I would recommend spending the money to buy a few square feet of ceramic fiber blanket of the appropriate rating. The forge I built is a little larger than the one in the video, but it is very heavy. I originally built it for burning waste oil, but it seemed like I was spending more time keeping the temperature consistent than I did forging, so I switched to propane. The forge does work ok - I can have it running for about an hour before the outer skin is too warm to comfortably rest my hand on it - but once it's heated up it takes literally hours to cool down enough to handle. From what you're describing you'll want something portable, lightweight, and fairly quick to heat up and cool down. For those reasons I'd strongly suggest going with as small of a forge as you can get by with and don't skimp on the quality of the insulating liner. That will keep all of those factors I just mentioned in a reasonable window and significantly decrease the cost of the lining and fuel used. Like a lot of other people, I wanted to go bigger than I needed at first. Resist that urge. A small, well built forge will do more than you think, and you can (and almost certainly will) build another forge if you are addicted to banging on hot metal. If you go small at first you'll only need a few square feet of kaowool or comparable blanket and the cost won't be much more than the home brew refractory shown in the video. The experience you gain from building the small forge will serve you well in your next build and keep you from making a lot of expensive decisions. In either case you'll need a burner, hose, and regulator. Frosty's T burner is the least expensive decent option I have seen and I know he's in the process of tweaking some of the design features, so it might be cheaper or better soon. Good luck with whichever route you decide to travel.

Let's ruminate on this for a minute. I cud go on for hours about how ewe guys took a shank to this thread, but I really don't know what the flock ewe are bleating about most of the time. It's like a Mutton Jeff comic.

I think this thread has degenerated into shear folly.

Don't know how much effort you want to put into it, but I make a few things from the panels off of washers, dryers, stoves, etc. The sheets are normally pretty good sized, thin enough to work with, yet strong enough for things like you are talking about.