FieryFurnace

This stove is going to weigh about 500 pounds.....once it's in the house, it's there to stay for a LONG LONG time! I'm not fond of moving heavy objects frequently. What's done with the stove, must be done now. I've got an idea.....we'll see what it turns out. I'm working on the stove all day tomorrow!

Mr. Gaddis, My blower routing takes the wire clear from any falling steel! I don't think I'll have any trouble there. The blower is plugged into a switch-controlled receptical that I wired specifically for this purpose. However, the air gate that I built is 100% air proof! When the handle is shut, it's shut. Mr. John, The air control handle is at an angle. I did this so that the control handle would be at a convenient height. There is a pipe guide that guides the pull handle so that the gate does not jam. There is a tension bolt that controls the amount of stiffness in the handle. Right now, the air gate and it's housing are stiff enough to keep it from vibrating shut. As time goes on, it will wear and become more loose, so I installed the tension bolt so that more tension can be applied as needed. It is easily accessable just to the left of the handle. (On the back of the forge.) Here is the clinker breaker handle. Don't ask about the zig-zag. I just kind of went with the flow, and that's what I got! LOL Weighted ash dump handle and the ash dump. Here is a bad picture of the air gate handle and tension bolt. This is the air gate! And here is a picture of the first fire as well as a picture of a piece of the damper for the stove, that I made in the forge. (See "hinges for the wood stove" thread in "Member's Projects.") There is plenty of air and the firepot is nice. It'll take a couple of weeks to find all of the downsides, but I am pleased with it overal!

I am selling my big shop forge. The reason is I did a trade for an electric blower and I wanted to build a new forge from the ground up that fit the blower. (Instead of trying to modify the current forge to fit the blower.) This new one is 26-inches x 37 inches, with a 3-inch deep, 10-inch x 12-inch firepot. It's got all the normal stuff! Clinker breaker, weighted ashe dump, forge plate, braces around the firepot, braces for the legs including triangulation and a 2-inch lip around the edge. Some modifications to the standard forged designes is that I used 1-inch square pipe around the firepot to raise the firepot level up to the level of the lip. This allows me to put steel in flat across the firepot from any angle around the forge. The pipe also serves to insulate the firepot heat from the steel forge plate, decreasing the chance of warpage and slowing the spread of heat to the edge of the forge. This was Brian Brazeal's idea and it works quite well. I traded for a Champion Forge Blower number 4. (There is also the number "2" cast into the blower housing.) I got a 1/2 HP motor in a trade. I built an airgate into the air/ash-dump system. I still need to do some touch-up work with the grinder and put some rubber pads between the motor and the motor mount. It will get painted in the spring when it warms/dries up! It will get moved in position and fired up later today. Will post pics!

Well as far as the tube goes: I am not aiming for a traditional appearence overal. I forged the hinges, simply because I wanted the experience of forging a set of hinges. I needed some sort of guide to keep the handle stiff and in position with a minimal amount of wobble. The square tube seemed like the logical solution and works like a charm. There isn't much I can do to change it now, but what would you have suggested here? I always value your opinion highly, so even if I can't follow your suggestions this time, I can file them away for future reference in simlar situations. The place that the stove is going is on an existing hearth. This stove will replace our smaller stove that we currently use. The wood is generally stacked on the left hand side of the stove. There is a wall about 4 to 5-feet away from the right hand side of the stove. Therefore it is natural for the door to swing on the right hand side of the stove, towards the wall and away from the wood stack. The door can swing a full 180 degrees so it will be completely out of the way while wood is being loaded. Well, compared to Vermont Judson, it isn't too awful cold, but we've experience as much as two weeks of well bellow freezing temperature, at a time. Plus, we are originally from 50 miles south of Atlanta Georgia. This weather here is arctic compared to there! :D

oops! Thanks for the heads-up! There it is! No progress going on right now. I'm selling my shop forge and build a new one so I'm working on both at the same time. Updates soon!

Make sure you have a heavy solidly built stand, bolt or stake the stand down very firmly. (If staked in a semi perminant shop situation, use at least 4-foot 1/2-inch rebar stakes.) The fasten the anvil to the stand securely. Don't weld it to the stand but use some sort of bolted or wedged bracket. Then forge on it! Brian Brazeal (a well noted member and an excellent smithing teacher,) uses around an 80-90 pound Henry Wright anvil, and frequently forges 1.25-inch material with a 5-pound hand hammer and occasionally a 12-pound sledge with a striker. The key is to make sure your anvil can't go anywhere. That little 80 pounder of Brian's was more solid than my 290 pound shop anvil on a 50 pound stand, before I staked/bolted the anvil down. You have a very clean anvil nice little anvil, now do it justice with a good sturdy stand, and some good bolts.

Very nice!

The anvil is hard steel as well as the punch. A punch plate is soft steel. If you contact the anvil with your hole punch you will probably damage either the hole punch or the prichel hole. If you contact the punch plate with the hole punch, you might ding the plate but not the punch. The plate is sacrificial mild steel and saves your holes. I would revise the video to have a steep ground pointed end, instead of flat. The steep ground point, punches much better.

Well here are some stove updates. I'd originally planned on this just being some pics of the hinges, but due to the response, I figured I'd see it through to the end. I'm taking the pictures anyway, might was well post 'em! Here is the handle/door latch. It will get cleaned up before painting. I used this piece of pipe as the guide for the handle, and then forged the 5/8-inch square material down to round to where it just fit inside the pipe. Here is the interior frame that will hold the firebrick in place. The lower line of frames are welded in, while the upper line are removable so that broken fire-brick can be removed if/when needed. That's all for now. I buggered up the damper on the door yesterday, pretty badly. I've got to try to fix that today, but more on that later!

Ohhh let's make one! :D Now THAT would take some striking!~ I have not run across any hollow car axles at the JY.

Hi there! Making a Brian Brazeal rounding hammer for forging would be a wise choice! However, there are a number of tools you need to do so. Hammer eye punch for punching out the hole Two drifts for drifting the eye Top and bottom fuller sized appropriately cupping tool There are a number of tools required to make those tools. Taking a class from Brian or spending some time with one of his students is definately the way to go. Post your location....you could be 15 minutes down the road from one of Brian's apprentices, who has the tools and is able/willing to help. Having said that, there is nothing like getting it "from the horses mouth," and eventually I would HIGHLY reccomend taking a class directly from Brian, but one of his students might be able to help you get started. For a four pound hammer you need about 5-inches of 2-inch 4140. Here is an online metals calculator. http://www.onlinemetals.com/calculator.cfm If you need a piece of stock, hit me up in the PM box. I just bought a 41-inch piece of 4140, and can sell pieces. I have easy access to the material at a good price in sizes from 1-inch to 2-inch round. I'll be happy to cut you a couple exact size pieces so that way you aren't paying for extra. A good source of steel for the tools you need, is junk yard car axles. I buy axles from my junk yard for $5.00 each and they yield a half dozen tools each. Sometime you have to bug the hound out of your junk-yard guy, but once you get them to start setting the stuff asside it will always be available when you need it.

Well no shotguns yet. Current track record with the ladies is: Had a lady friend, she seemed to like me, said she did in many letters, then found out she had a boyfriend! "Now that ain't gonna fly!" Second lady, got a definate "no go" from the dad! Never made it past him! :D

Sounds like they'd make neat vines on forge welded trees!

LOL That's funny! I've had a bit of experience with a couple young ladies (or rather young lady's dad's) and I wouldn't count on it any time soon! LOL Phil! Nope I didn't! Just going for the head first dive approach this time. :D

Last picture, lower right hand corner......50, 2-inch firebrick! Yes the bottom and sides will be bricked.

I'm building a new wood stove for our house. It a 24-inch box made from 1/4-inch plate material. I forged some hinges for the door. Here is an overview of the stove before the front door plate was welded on. The hinges were made from 1/4x3/4 flat bar. Their primary fastening is rivets, although their is a tack weld that was more a temporary holder. The pintels are welded on. The entire thing is primarily cut-n-fab work so I wasn't concerned with traditional fastening. I just wanted to forge the hinges. They were forged entirely by hand and they took about an hour for both of the straps. I made 14 pintels before I got two that I was happy with. I forged a couple of the dutch hearts as practice pieces first as well. Those are the 4th and 5th dutch hearts I've ever forged.

SSSSHHHHHHH!!!!! :ph34r: Don't tell anyone! LOL Yeah that's one of those "duh" type "trade secrets" where the first thought after hearing about it is "that was a great idea," and the second thought is "ok beat my head against a wall because I should have thought of that!" Try it out sometime....it works great. I just need to weld up a handle out of 1/4-inch round. Maybe I'll put five fingers on it and make it look like a hand! LOL

Pst! Use an old heat resistant kevlar glove for your oil application. It's heat resistant, and holds together GREAT as an oil applicator. Don't tell anyone! It's a secret!

Heating and air supply company will have heating and air duct work, not culvert pipe. Heating and air duct pipe does work but succumbs to heat and rot rather quickly in a humid inviroment. Mine lasted about 9-months with a rain cap on it, and with the pipe itself 3-feet away from the firepot, via a hofi style side draught hood. 15-eett of the stuff cost me like $65 though, so it's cheap. Try a hardware store or a building supply warehouse for culvert pipe. Culvert pipe is technically called "road tile." It is much, MUCH heavier than heating and air duct. I am currently using culvert pipe and it is showing no signs of wear at all after over a year of use. I paid nearly $200, delivered for a 20 foot section so in order for it to be the same price as the heating and air duct it needs to last me about 3.5 years. I think it probably will last that and probably more than that.

2.1875-inch (3/16) round about 2 feet long. It's not a scrap yard. It's a wholesale steel yard that gets shipments from who knows where, of what is considered "scrap." Mostly scrap just means that they don't know the grade of steel. I've bought 8-foot pieces of 2x4 channel, and 12-foot pieces of square and round stock, in perfectly good shape from their "scrap" section. What they classify as scrap currently runs 25 cents per pound. They have a very small section of known steel that they still classify as scrap, because it is in small pieces. It usually runs 40 cents per pound. They may have as much as 10 feet of 4150, 2.1875-inch round stock right now. I've also bought 5-foot bars of 2-inch square 4140 for $25.00 a stick. The carbon steel supply there is very limited, and very splotchy, but you can get a good deal if you keep an eye out.

njanvilman: All tools are certainly an investment! Agreed! I'd even consider the price of the anvil as a tool being worth more than as a collector's piece. It would certainly be very high to have one custom made. I definately believe it's worth more than your average PW, because of it's condition. However, I still contend that you can only charge what the market will pay. Are there any PW collectors out there that have the cash to pay for something like this, plus shipping or travel expenses to get it to wherever they are? LOL Yes Wayne! Feeling much better. My voice is still not 100% back but it is getting stronger ever day. I've been active and in the shop. Sorry I missed you the other day.

By inflation perhaps, but you can't charge double what the current market brings for a tool. Same here Timothy! If I was crazy rich and stupid with money, I might buy it just for bragging rights. :D I wouldn't have any problem paying $4-5 a pound for that anvil in that condition. If I had the spare change!

This beats all I've seen! Granted, this is a VERY VERY VERY nice anvil! There isn't a smith in the entire country who wouldn't be proud to own an anvil in this condition, but almost $10.00 on the pound is a little pricey, even for an antique anvil in this condition. By comparison, a 400 pound TFS single horn, is currently running almost $2000. Brand new! This guy wants $5000 for a 500-pound Peter Wright. Like I said, it's in great condition, but c'mon! It's just not worth that. http://knoxville.craigslist.org/atq/3460539451.html

I run a DIY air hammer, that I bought off of someone else. It's a 60 pound Kinyon style and is similar to yours. Mine runs off of a 2-inch by 13-inch cylinder at an average of 120 PSI. I am running a 7.5 HP, single phase compressor, with an 80 gallon tank. It pumps around 19 CFM. Downsizing you cylinder will help. I would also recommend increasing the weight of your anvil post by quite a bit. Go for about 5-or 6-inches solid. You can sandwhich material onto what you already have in position. Increased mass equals more resistance to the hammer blows. Making sure your hammer is mounted solidly is important too. If you have concrete, bolt that sucker down really good.