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.

I have found that everybody has Grandgrandfather, or grandfather that was a blacksmith. The question I get ,,, "Is that hot" :?:
Cheers Barney

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:

we don't have wagons up here let alone wheels for them (too many trees and mountains to make them practical at the time I guess. It was train or pack horse. Sounds like you got a good soure for teh WI then. Good to hear.

Also, keep in mind that spring steels often do not like to be overheated and should generally be kept below a bright-yellow heat.

you must have quite a stash if you can make it your primary material.

you may be thinking of Anvilfire and their Iforge demos.

Cast iron firepots can break. that is why I made mine out of steel. No cracking no matter how much water I pour on it. Usually most people do have cast iron pots and for this reason don't pour water directly on them. Instead, scoop out the coals onto the forge table and sprinkle with water.

Perfect practice makes perfect. It'll all come together eventually.

While true that wood ash can stay warm for a long time, there are two things to consider.

1. If you clean out your firebox in absence of hot coals, there will usually not be enough residual heat in the warm ash to cause a building code material (like wood or vinyl siding for example) to combust through heat exposure (keeping in mind that the pile of ash is not on the consumable, but is contained in the metal bucket which acts like a heat sink to disperse hot spots that might ignite something.

2. Lets say somebody accidently shoved a dry piece of wood into the middle of this warm ash bucket, although the wood might char and even turn to charcoal if hot enough, it will not readily combust as the ash will not allow sufficient oxygen exposure to the consumable.

Hypothetically, if you had hot ash (not warm but hot) and in a bucket or box with holes in it and some paper or dry wood mixed in with the ash and there was sufficient breeze blowing into the whole mix (not to much air mind you), something could light, but it would probably smoulder for quite a while first and more likely than not, just turn to char.

However, REMEMBER that you are your own warranty station. You must do what you feel is sufficient as you answer to yourself at the end of the day. Things don't always go as planned and having a second line of defence is never a bad idea. Myself, I empty the woodstove ash (once cool) into a metal bucket and let it set on the wood deck until someone is heading out into the back 40. If I were emptying the ash into a cardboard box I would be much more concerned.

Now, for the forge, that is a bit of a different sack of snakes. Keep in mind the flue draft can fan the flames as mentioned above. I would not be able to sleep knowing that the fire was left unattended overnight and I do not recommend it unless your roof is non consumable, your building is made entirely of non-consumables and there is nothing flammable within 20 feet of your forge. I often leave the fire unattended throughout the day. But, the blower is turned off (usually :roll: )and I am always not far from the smithy, usually in the shop which is 100 yards away. If a wind picks up I get back over to the smithy. Still, that has its risks. I have seen a piece of coal pop (gas pocket in it I guess?) and it shot some embers 14 feet where they bounced off of the wooden walls. I got after it with water, but I'm not sure that there would not have been a fire if I wasn't there to soak with water.

Here's the way I (and my guess is many others as well) see it . Thousands to rebuild, plus about 3-4 months of my labour. That's a big time investment. It takes me 2 minutes and 40 seconds to have a hot fire going. (yes, I have timed it). Here's how I do it:

I used to forge with charcoal long ago. Switched to coal for obvious reasons, but I still make a bit of charcoal now and then and use it to start my fires. The fire has been scooped out from the previous night where I sprinkle water to cool most of the coke (I leave enough heat in the coke so that it will dry out throughout the night).

Ok, so the fire is scooped out from the night before, throw in a couple pieces of coke to cover the clinker breaker. Then, a small handfull of charcoal and light. Add a bit of air, add your coke loose on top and air as needed. In about a minute and a half you will have a plenty good fire no ifn's and buts.

For what it is worth, each night after shutting down the forge I turn of all the lights and take a slow walk around the forge area checking walls and structure for glowing bits. Keep in mind that my smithy is a dry wood structure and I'd rather not rebuild.

Happy smithing,
Stephan

Carcoal: a wonderful animal which runs on 3 and a half legs. Usually found resting in the warm ashes of a recent fire, the Carcoal has a ferocious appetite and can easily devour a gallon of charcoal in a single kill. Carcoals have been all but extinct ever sinse Hominus Eructus discovered that lighting the Carcoal's tail will produce a long-burning lamp-like light, and with many Carcoals put on a stick, a primative human could read about blacksmithing well into the wee hours of twilight.


BTW, I used to use the pit method to make charcoal, worked pretty good but the coal wasn't quite as clean as out of the firebox / barrel, but the method was easier. Light the pit, let it burn, cover it up and walk away, come back in to morning and repeat.

Drawing propane from the tank will cool it, as well.

You bet it will, that's why the farriers put them on the forges. When the air is cool and your in a shoeing competition, every little bit helps. Just don't leave the tank up there too long. :shock:

.... and then are the farriers around here who set the bottle on top of the forge (I kid you not).

I found some similar stuff here at the local home depot, has powdered graphite and says it can resist high temperatures. We'll see how it does in the spray format. Think it might be called something like Loobit.