Dodge

I welded for many years and while they never really told us that it was bad (nearly all of our product was hot dipped in one of the largest zinc tanks in North America) we took every precaution to avoid breathing the stuff when we would have to re-weld some production error that was too expensive to acid strip and then re-dip. We usually shot blasted the area and set up localized exhaust fans to suck the smoke and gasses away. (We did that anyway when welding black steel) Still, I have tasted that sweet taste the late Mr. Sarver spoke jokingly of earlier. Got a headache once or twice too. I am not advocating making a practice of this but rather stressing that you gotta use some common sense. Don't do it in a close up shop (we worked in industrial sized buildings with 10s of thousands of square feet and ceilings 2 and 3 stories high. (heck, some had their own weather patterns LOL) Do it outside if you must and stay up wind. I'm not saying its absolutely safe then, but you reduce the hazards immensely. Common sense; albeit there does seem to be less of that being dispersed these days

Did you buy plans from Mr. Spencer or otherwise? After reading the other posts, I do wonder if you, in deed meant RAM instead of ARM (Typo??) I built mine w/o plans as I didn't know they were available back then, but I only made a 35 pound ram or tup as some call it. Still, compared to the weight of that, the "arms" that connect to the tup/ram really are insignificant. The rated or measured weight of a power hammer in my understanding is the ram/tup or the part that actually does the hammering. Others, please correct me if this is wrong. I know that all the moving parts do add to that weight but not certain they are considered in the rated weight of the machine. My slug i used for the ram/tup weighs 35#. Hope this helps. Scott

Wow! I had to stop watching at one point to wipe tears and blow my nose. When I sent my measly little two stainless leaves I was a little embarrassed to send them but was assured they would be appreciated. I had no idea at the time of the scale of this project and how it would affect so many people. I am honored to be a part -_-

There's a word I would use to describe this knife but I would get in trouble so I will just say that thing is WICKUD! I like it a lot ^_^

I know this is probably past tense (or have you built it yet?), but it appears in the video as the flat plates have been drilled for mounting dies. That is how I did mine. I think they were just testing the action during construction and before dies were mounted. Probably didn't want to beat them up Pretty much what I said back in March of 13. Post #6

Neat!

Frosty you are a wizard! I was thinking similar but when you mentioned the parts of the flame the bells started ringing :D Yeah I don't remember all of the flame parts either. Had to know them for final test in welding school but that was nearly 40 years ago. Its gone!

Hey Nor, I was way off in chat I squared the diameter rather than the radius but you still have a huge 1700 cubic inches. I believe you are going to need either more burners or bigger ones. Rule of thumb is one 3/4" burner to each 300 ci. 1700 / 300 = 5.67 and you cant cut a burner in half ;) Given that you already have forge built, the easiest way might be go to 1" burners but I'm not sure how much area they cover. I bet Frosty does tho :) Might be enough. Another alternative is to reduce the size of chamber. Good looking forge otherwise. Scott

The knife is cool! Only suggestion I would make on future knives is to make the bevel longer and thinner. Your bevel ends so abruptly it seems like it would have difficulty cutting anything thicker than the bevel. Example: If you tried to cut an apple, it would split open before the knife could cut very deep That make sense? I really like file knives with teeth left on so as to show what the material was though. Keep up the progress :) Scott

I got in late but I remember you describing this in the chat, Nicole. Very, very impressive so far. Looking forward to more! Scott

I believe most car frames are mild or low carbon guys cut and weld on them all the time with just regular welding rod, wire. Also, as mentioned, the body panels are mild. All the moving parts and support and suspension parts under the car (Axles, springs, stabilizer bars, tie rods, idler arms, pitman arms etc) would be mid to higher carbon and alloy.... The alloys aren't real exotic because (while you may destroy the heat treat) you can weld most of it to each other fairly successfully using typical welding procedures. Albeit I wouldn't risk my life on some of those welded combinations. (Thinly disguised disclaimer :D )

Its been over 30 years since my first welding test but I remember lots of 7018 slag being hard to remove from the sides of the first weld bead. The test plate was 3/8" with a 1/2" gap(?) A 1/4" backing plate is tacked to both pieces holding the plates at the proper gap. Here's an example: Test plate. This plate needed no pre-heat. Consequently, the first welds bonded the the backing plate to the test plates. These would be cold welds in the spectrum of welding and the slag would be typically hard to remove. The standard practice was to grind out the edges of these welds to clean metal. With subsequent beads being applied, the slag became easier and easier to remove as the steel heated up until after 3 or 4 passes, the slag would begin to fall off. Dunno if this answers any questions but it was my experience about every time I took a 7018 test on un-beveled plates. Beveled plates were a different story. The thin edge of the bevel got hot enough right off to make the first cold weld slag much easier to remove.

Again, beautiful, Darren. Do I detect a hint of brown color on the tang's belly shot? Could be the lighting but it almost looks like something that had the gun "browning" treatment :)

Those are cute li'l buggers. (pun intended :D ) But, you didn't spray paint them silver did you?? :( It would be neat to leave them "au naturale" including spark plug label and such. Just my 2¢ Scott

This is what I love about this place. After all these years, I learn something new with each visit. I forge outside and often suffer from the inherent issues with wind and atmospheric burners. After seeing it in operation, I think that stove pipe idea would be great to try in my forge area!! Scott

Thanks Frosty. Might give it a try. I just used the drilled .035s as that's what I had on hand. Guess I could drill it out more. After all, it came from the same source as the tip I use in my gun burner. I just drilled the .035" tip to .052" or #55. :)

Viewing those images was an obstacle course but looks like a cool (no pun intended) forge!

I am running a 1" T burner. My tube is 9" IIRC (could be 8") But anyway, It runs great. I don't use a flare but rather the inlet port in the forge shell is (theoretically) a 12:1 taper that is molded in the wool and refractory. I didn't use a .045" as Frosty suggests above but rather a .035" tip drilled to #59 or #60 (.041" or .040") I also cut flares in the openings of the T; 1/4" or 3/8" X 45(ish)º, but I don't know how much this adds or subtracts from performance as I usually choke the burner quite a bit closing a large amount of the opening. Bottom line is, Broomhead, all other things being equal (loose term), I believe most of your issues would be resolved by a longer burner tube. Might not even need the wind shield. I have only worked with 3/4" and 1" but these T-burners of Frosty's seem to be very forgiving as long as the basic dimension ratio is maintained.

Ditto. What they all said! :)

No. You are only getting answers to the questions you know to ask. Once you get going, there will be a multitude of questions that at this point, you don't even know you want to ask yet :D How many burners? At least one. But, are you sure a gas forge is what you want to buy or build? Don't forget solid fuel forges. Folks build their own coal and charcoal forges too :)

Beats the ol' screwdriver method :D

Don't forget the good ol freon tank.The smaller ones yield a chamber about 5 1/2" diam x about 9" deep after lining, or a little over 200 cubic inches. A 3/4" burner is more than it needs but you can turn it down, and I believe a smaller burner just wouldn't be enough...