Trollhammer

The things I use daily and would be lost without: A multitude of angle grinders...you can never have enough, especially when they're only $20 apiece at HF Drill Press Old Lincoln Buzzbox O/A Torch Combo Benchtop Belt/Disc Sander Benchtop Grinder/Wire Wheel Heavy Duty Sabre Saw Dremel with a bunch of accessories Chop Saw 275gal Air Compressor I never needed most of that stuff until I got it. Now, if any of them go down, my day is stopped dead. I've become too reliant on power tools. Mickey

Ok, here's the link. I waste alot of time on this site without even realizing it. I had to ban myself from reading it at work because I couldn't get anything done. theworkshop.ca - Home Page Mickey

Lionel Oliver has a huge amount of information and experimentation with waste oil burners(both motor and veggy) over at backyardmetalcasting.com. He also did comparisons of propane, charcoal, and waste oil. He has spent insane amounts of time and effort on using junk for everything. I thought I was one of the cheapest guys in the world until I found his site. Glenn: You're correct, its really hard to find a decent supply of waste veggy oil because of the biodiesel thing. Restaurants used to have to pay to have it hauled off, but now there's a bunch of people buying it up as soon as its tossed. There's another fellow, can't remember his site right now, but he has started experimenting with a 2 acre sunflower patch to make his own oil. He's attempting to become completely self-reliant. I'll post the site when I find it. Its worth a read either way, lots of DIY projects. Mickey

Thanks for all the input! I've got some leg work to do! It never ceases to amaze me that there's some much info here for the taking and that everyone is truly eager and enthusiastic to help some one they've never met. Thanks again to everyone here! Mickey

Rockmount makes a cast iron welding rod that works, but it still is very limited. I'm not that great of a welder, but testing it out when my dad brought it home, I was able to run a bead with no problem. I showed him later on, and he said, "that's great, but don't ever take any business fixing cast iron based on that weld." he claims that its hit or miss and it may work for that weld, but the very next weld on the same piece will pop and crack like crazy. I believe Rockmount sells it as "Jupiter" and that its insanely expensive. Mickey

You could try Budget Casting Supply. They sell several different alloys of brass, aluminum, bronze, and zinc. Their prices look pretty competitive and I've heard that their customer service is really good. I haven't personally ordered anything from them, so I can't vouch for that. Here's the addy for ingot page: Foundry Casting Metals I can't get it to work as a hyperlink, sorry. Just copy and paste. Hope that helps. Mickey

I went to the 2 scrapyards in my area that advertised that they buy and sell all scrap metals and was told(rather rudely at both places) that neither place does that anymore; they only buy. The 3 landfills I've called absolutely refused to even consider allowing me to rummage through their stuff. I even tried going through CSX and Norfolk Southern, but they informed me that if I was caught picking anything up off of their tracks, they would prosecute me to the fullest extent of the law. So, that leaves me with the limited options of Lowe's, Home Depot, Ace's, and Tractor Supply's "weldable steel" racks. Is there anyone on here in the Augusta, GA area that might be able to point me in the right direction to find a better selection? I'd prefer not to order online if at all possible. I would much rather walk through a heap of metal scrap and wait for certain pieces to speak up and talk to me and tell me what they can be made into. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

You may want to look at a different material for a staff if you're just starting out. When you started smithing, did you go get a 12 pound sledge and start swinging it? Same thing applies with martial arts. A 20 pound metal rod has a good bit of inertia that could end up being pretty destructive to lights, ceiling fans, windows, pets, your skull, etc. If you jacked that weight to 50 pounds, the destruction will be worse...if you can even get a 50 pound staff spinning. Most martial arts philosophies do not teach 'bigger=better' or 'stronger=better'. Brute strength and weight are more often disadvantages. All that being said, the last 2 posts are correct, find a good teacher, build up a good foundation, and then look into weapons training.

John, I had an absolute blast! I've been trying to figure out a way to get back up there as soon as possible. The next time, I'll be able to devote whole days to following you around the shop and becoming more and more jealous of your shop. And yes, I have a severe case of Big Blu fever! I wonder if I could sell one of my kidneys to get one of those....;)

Wow, those cattails made a big difference! Very nice. Wish I'd been able to stay and watch/help with the cattails and the installation.

Thanks for the help! Mickey

Oh yeah, do I need to let the guys at Praxair know that it was on its side, however short a time it was, when I do end up trading it out? Mickey

This is a quick question for all you Oxy/Fuel welders out there.... I have one of those little portable bottle sets that gets moved around the shop pretty regularly. Some one in the shop(not sure who) moved it somewhere that common sense would've said, 'Don't put this here'. To make a long story short, yesterday, the bottles tipped over with the holder and laid on their side for 5-10 seconds. There's only about 25-50lbs more pressure in the acetylene tank before it needs a refill. Should I just go ahead and trade it out? Is it worth trying to use it after it sits for 24 hours? Thanks for any help. Mickey

I'm using a 'Reil' Style burner with a 0.035" mig tip for the jet. The bricks are 2-1/2" thick and made from the homemade refractory recipe on Lionel Oliver's backyardmetalcasting.com. I couldn't justify paying almost as much in shipping as the actual product cost for something that I was just gonna scrap/rebuild in the very near future. I had originally started with fire bricks from a brick kiln that collapsed at Boral Bricks here in town. I've probably got close to 2 full truck loads of those bricks, but they started cracking due to heat...guess I'll build a BBQ in the backyard with 'em. Anyways, the chamber of the brickpile is 5-3/4" wide, 4-1/2" tall, and 8" deep. I guess volume wise, that's around 207 cubic inches. I'm only using the one burner on it right now. I started running it around 5 psi. About 2 weeks ago, I jacked that up to 7-9 psi. That's why I was thinking it might just be my pressure.

I'm currently using a 'brickpile' forge with propane...it's not the most effecient thing I've seen. Enough to get me started. I'll give it a go this afternoon with a little bit higher psi. Out of curiosity, how do any of you guys get anything done? I've only been at this for a little bit, and I'm already planning/envisioning more projects, bigger/newer forge, etc. With the rate of my mind planning projects and me actually completing them, this hobby is begining to turn into a full-time job! Mickey

Thanks everyone! I had read a bunch of the threads on here about using muriatic for cleaning off galvanizing, I just didn't recall it mentioning a greenish sludge that looked like something from a crappy horror movie. I'm going to attempt making a bit of 'cable damascus'. I probably won't actually mess with trying that for another couple of weeks; I'm still trying to forge weld to solid pieces together. I saw the cable at Lowe's, and it had a very strange braid pattern to it, and I thought it might make an interesting pattern for a damascus billet. I need to find someone in the area to show me in person how to forge weld. I've read a bunch of stuff on here, anvilfire, and in the few books I have, but I'm still not getting it. I'm starting to think that the brickpile isn't getting hot enough. Mickey

I just cleaned the coating of off a bit of wire rope. The ends had an aluminum(I think) clip to hold the ends in a loop. I put the wire in a bucket and added about 0.5 gallon of muriatic acid(31.45%). Everything went fine for about 10-15 minutes. It bubbled and fizzed and such. I went to check on it after it was in for roughly 20 minutes, and the bucket was fizzing over with white suds that turned a greenish-yellow. I dumped a box of baking soda all over the stuff that overflowed and into the bucket itself. I took the wire out and rinsed everything really well. The little aluminum clips were almost completely dissolved and the remaining mud puddle from the rinse has a film of whitish-yellow scum on top. What is this and is it a potential hazard? How do I get rid of it, or do I even need to? Thanks in advance, Mickey

I saw one of those and debated long and hard on whether or not to get one....how's the quality?

triw, anvilfire has a demo from Bill Epps that has a template that you can save on your desktop. You will have to resize it a bit to suit your needs. Also, Kayne and Son/Blacksmith Depot has the blanks for sale. Under their description of the blanks, they have a picture of the template. Save the pic and resize it in paint. I used the blanks cuz they were only $10, and I couldn't justify sitting with a set of tin snips and cutting it all out for under $10. I'm gonna give it a go at a later date, but figured since I'm still really new to this, all that time would be better better spent at the forge than attempting to cut something out myself by hand. I had also heard something about getting fake flowers from the dollar store and taking them apart and using the petals from that as a template. Does anyone know a quicker way than tin snips to cut out templates, rather than buying them pre-cut?

The vinegar worked great! Thanks again! Mickey

I haven't even attempted forge welding yet! As far as I could tell, the only forge welding I would've need to do was on the leaves. Instead of forge welding them, I did them with a different shape at the base, wrapped them around the stem, and then arc welded them to the stem with some 1/16" 6013. It worked out ok, but I'm thinking that forge welding them on would've looked better. Oh yeah, I used the rose blanks from Kayne & Son, and I used the demo on anvilfire from Bill Epps.

Really? Wow, just so happens that I have lots and lots of vinegar at the shop. I'll give that a try. Thanks a million! Mickey

I made my first rose this afternoon, and it turned out way better than expected. My only real issue with it is all the scale. I brushed each piece while still hot and think I knocked all the scale off before I put the petals on the stem, but more scale popped up during the heats for scrolling the petals for the finished rose bud. I don't have a sand blaster to get down inside, and the wire brush only does so much at this point. Is there something I missed during the making of the whole piece to avoid this scale? Is there a less time consuming/more thorough way of cleaning the hard to reach places? Thanks! Mickey

Thanks for the welcome! I will attempt to post some pics, but after only a few weeks of pounding, I don't really have much to show for my efforts other than a pile of mangled flattish, squarish, and roundish (emphasis on the 'ish') metal of various origins. I'm still trying to figure out how metal moves and such. My mom and girlfriend think my work is amazing, but they're required to! I'm assuming its the same thing mom did with my finger paintings in kindergarten. Anyways, I'll post some pics as soon as I figure out how.

Hey guys! My name is Mickey, and I've been lurking about this site since November and finally registered. I was directed to I Forge Iron by John Bennett, whom I met in Bridgeton, IN while visiting my father and step-mother. I'm a bit of a tinkerer and have been attempting to build a forge (amongst other projects) since I was 17. I'm now 28 and have finally built a brickpile forge and am working on another. Its on The List. Anyways, I just wanted to introduce myself and say thanks for providing such a great site. I'm blown away by the amount of information that you have collected. Thanks again! Mickey