Stephan P

Good to see you Neil. OK I'll edit my location.

I know it's been a while, about a decade now? Anyways, did any Junkyard members end up hanging their hats here? People like Paw Paw W.(R.I.P.), Roger Smith, John Fee and his ability to side track the entire group with a single sentence that would leave us laughing our butts off, Quenchcrack, John Larson and his family of power hammers, Thomas Powers, Lonesome Pine, and so many more. Actually, looking back on it, I think those years might have something to do with my now somewhat 'tweaked' adulthood. Merry Christmas to any other old Junkyard dogs still kicking around.

You should see the premiums for a portable welding business, specially when doing things like fuel cell customization work. Between insurance prices and fuel prices its enough to force a person into a different line of work.

Frosty, maybe a bit of radiant heating over your work area is the answer.

Thanks for sharing the link, that was a new one for me.

Looking good mark, is that on anvil sitting on a piston??? As for fire protection, keep in mind that the more wood is heat cycled the lower its kindling temperature gets. I work in a wood structure and at the end of a forging session will turn off the lights and take a quick scan for any small glowing bits of debris. On the wall nearest my forge I put in rock wool insulation, think its Roxul brand, its very fire resistant. Put a torch to it and it will melt a bit but not catch. Then on top of that I put a strip of that aluminized honey-comb type of insulation that comes in a roll, sometimes seen placed around water heaters, etc. It's worked for me.

I also have a PW vise, nicely made IMHO.

If a smoke shelf makes you sleep better put it in, but as far as being necessary, its not with the design you are going with having the adjacent smoke chamber. My coal forge uses a 12" chimney, but it is only about 15' or so tall in total chimney length, if I had a 20 foot long chimney I might go with 10" to keep the stack velocity up. There is a balance there between volume and velocity which will give you optimum flow. Don't worry about making a mistake along the way, nobody said it had to be perfect the first time around. I did many changes to my forge and chimney in the first year of operation.

Glenn, that is great information, thank you. I use one of his anvils. It is very lively and it feels like it does the work of an anvil with 50% more mass. I wish he made a 250lber, that would be a very nice tool to use.

Dan, I have heard a couple of complaints about Kohlswas quality. I personally would put more faith in a Peddinghas, or Nimba as they seem to be consistently great performers and well received if you like their pattern.

I'm using a decent sized Tarzan type of 110V AC fan, something like this one. Standard Fans Tarzan - Lytron It is on a variable speed control and feeds my coal forge. The only thing I need to find is a better motor control for it, the current cheap unit I am using is a little touchy for my liking.

IMO, if you are going to go 3/4 of the way with hobart, and are serious about high quality welds, go with miller. I think hobart fills the hobby requirement of welders just fine, but lacks that axtra 20% of performance found in miller.

That's when you reply. "No, it's not hot, it is just painted to look that way, and the sweat on my forehead is fake too"

.............let's not forget those extra-long under-rated extension cords :wink: