FYORRG

Wow, Thanks a bunch!  With Hephaiston, plus the Ypres event, there is not much time to look around. Rouen sounds like the spot! 

I am planning a trip to Europe to coincide with the Ypres 2016 event. Has anybody any suggestions places of interest for wrought ironwork? I'm thinking a stroll through Prague will yield many sights. Any suggestions will help. between France and the Baltics all the way down to Milan. 

Thanks in advance!

Right now I've got clinker-rich bituminous(I think?) coal. It comes mostly in fines than in chunks. It clinkers up bad in just a few heats of 1" thick bar. I've been attracted to the idea of a side-blast forge. Is this practical with my fines? I would think that it would coke up just fine and I'd just keep feeding in the green coal.

I think the sideblast concept will help me work longer before having to clean out clinker. But it seems to me that cleaning out clinker would be more difficult than in my bottom blast setup.

Thank you all for your time! Yes. Of course the budget at hand prohibits the hot-dip. The zinc complicates the equation quite a bit so I reckon simpler is better. Powder coating seems a sound way to go.

Copper + Zink = battery... your riveting should be either copper or s/s.
Get some 12mm soft/malleable plastic strips that you rivet to your m/s frame and

....and countersink those rivets. Then rivet the copper to the plastic. This will prevent the problem.

What may be worth considering is to slightly "offset" the plastic strip in order to achieve a toggle action when copper expands and contracts thermally .
Dependent on the sheet ie hard drawn or soft drawn it will either elongate the holes or shear the rivets. Good luck

Ian

I can see this working a whole lot. But the copper rivet in the mild steel hole is still in contact... Perhaps some powder coating of the rivets will help to some degree? I'm wondering how well that will hold up when setting the rivet.

Thanks for all your input. Very helpful to a guy who's only done interior work. 

Having read about galvanic action in Peter Parkinson's Architectural Forgework, has caused me to think closely about how I will be doing an awning for a client. The awning is basically a copper sheet riveted to mild steel bars. I'm wondering if the nobler "copper" will concentrate the corrosion to the mild steel rivets causing them to rust out in no time. So now... I'm thinking copper rivets to fasten the copper to the steel. Now, I theorize that the galvanic action will spread out over the bars in a similar fashion to a copper rivet spreading the rust over the area of sheet steel. Now another question comes to mind, will the combined mass of the copper rivets and sheet make for a harsher life for the steel brackets? So now I'm thinking it needs galvanizing to insulate it from the copper, and then i can rivet it cold, being careful not to tarnish the zinc coating. 

This takes me to another point. The client wants the copper awning to patina naturally. Will the zinc affect this? Is there any preparation necessary to facilitate a natural greenish patina? Or will it potentially be quite different than what he expects?

Any thoughts would meet great welcome from here at Pike Lake Forge :)

Nowadays things are different but in the past a blacksmith was more what's described under "a drift in thoughts", second paragraph.

http://islandblacksmith.ca/2011/05/a-call-for-submissions/

I know components of forges can be CSA approved, but what I'm wondering is: are any forges out there csa approved as a unit?

,K

The fire official came to consult with us about the space. He recalls there being forge in his elementary school when he was in grade five! He seems to have a positive attitude about the project. So they want me to have a ULC/CSA approved forge installed. I called N.C. tools about this and they said the components used are approved but the unit as a whole is not. Anyone know of any forges that are approved?

@BobL: The power-failure safety feature is a bonus. Thanks for the idea!

Flash back arrestors are for acetylene that can exothermically dissassociate even without the presence of Oxygen!  

 

They also may serve a purpose when combining a lower pressure fuel gas with high pressure O2 that under perverse circumstances could backfill the fuel line.  Oxy-Propane or Oxy-NG

 

On a typical aspirated forge set up they are as useful as having one on a water hose!

What sort of perverse conditions are these?

Propane Forge Safety

http://njba.abana-chapter.com/pfs/pfs.htm

This one made me shudder...

9. Propane is denser than air and can settle in basins or run along the ground to a source of ignition, then flash-back. It could also drain into a sewer and cause an underground explosion hazard. It can fill up a basement, ignite from a furnace or other appliance, and demolish a house.

I'd expect similar up here in Canada. Theres little to no possibilty of having a tank outside the building. Perhaps I can tap into a city gas line. Flashback arrestors fitted into my fuel system may score extra brownie points!

Hello there. I've recently opened a gallery with my girlfriend and a leatherworker. We've all agreed that we must have a forge in the back. It'll just be a gas forge, anvil, postvice and a grinding station. Been brainstorming and I've contacted the local fire prevention officer to come see the space and figure out what needs to happen.

Here are my ducks so far:

- A small room will be built with fire retardant walls and windows to protect spectators from sparks and slag

- Will install a restaurant-style vent as well as an intake.

- Will have CO/explosive gas detector in the room

- The floor is solid ceramic tile

- Emergency exit is right next to this proposed room

- There are are 2 other businesses in the same structure

Perhaps my homemade gas forge doesn't look as professional as the fire inspector might like? I expect that this will be my biggest hurdle. Its the refractory-lined propane cylinder atmospheric type of forge. I've used it for almost one year, so I am pretty confident of its level of safety.  I haven't looked into tapping any gas lines but I imagine this is a real possibility.

Anyone have experience with this scenario? I'd love to hear your suggestions.

,K