urnesBeast

Hofi,

Thank you!

That is exactly what I did, only I have two metal sleeves inside the tunnel, and two different layers of kaowool.

I will be adding the sheetmetal or concrete board to put against the wall.

Thank you,
doug

Status update:

I just filed for the building permit. It looked good, the guy was about to issue it (he said), he went into a side room to call the fire safety officer. A manager came back about ten minutes later and said it was denied because it was not "normal and customary"

He asked if I wish to appeal, I said yes.

He started paperwork for that, and it should be ready in a week. The appeal is to the State Board of Mass.

-Doug

Could you all do me a favor and if you have constructed a side draft like this, please give dimensions of:

Distance to wall from firepot
Wall material
Fire shield in place?

Description of horizontal piece (single wall, double wall)
Stack height.

This kind of documentation of existing builds will be helpful.

Thank you,
Doug

I have taken a majority of the classes available at the teaching forge you speak of. As soon as they develop a next set of courses, I will be taking them. (They need to build up enough students to fill that class)

The lead instructor is excellent. I was once into wood carving, took a week intensive class with a world-class (literally) instructor. By the end of the week, my excitement and desire for woodcarving had been crushed and I never carved again.

The lead instructor at this teaching forge has invigorated me, I find myself spending a significant portion of my time blacksmithing or preparing to blacksmith.

I think the classes are pricey, but the value is high! I keep coming back. I assure you the gentlemen running the forge are not getting rich off of us. I hope they can stay in business long enough to teach me everything they know- so about 30 more years!

-Doug

I am located in Boston. The forge is in a dedicated out building.

The building is drywalled over wood studs. Concrete floor.

Doug

Everyone,

My building inspector wants the safety and manufacturing specs on my 1901 champion coal forge and the Uri Hofi side draft forge that I installed.

Side Draft

I have modified the Uri Hofi side draft forge to be triple walled, double insulated going through the side wall touching a 2x4 studed frame. In use, I have a candle sitting on the outer shell on the inside of the building and the outside of the building. They have yet to even melt a little.

The distance from the firepot to the nearest combustables is something he is interested in. The firepot is in the middle of the table 14" from the side near the wall. Documentation that this is an appropriate setback for this design would be helpful. Something from a similar forge would be great if scanned in. Any historians?

I believe the building inspector wants something he can file away as documentation. He said if I found something on the internet that has these setbacks, that would be fine.

If anyone has something that fits this description, that would be great. Point me to something, or if you feel qualified, you could send something like this or post it to another thread about the "Safety setbacks for a forge and side draft chimney."

I am hoping I can get something from Uri himself, and will be pointing him to this post.

-Thanks
Doug

Mine all come out with different character, curious how much variation there is out there.

After four bottle openers, five abandoned efforts (always mess up the nose) and one as a finiale, I am down to about 55 minutes forging and about 20 heats.

I just made one of these. It is my first welding project, but I think I did well.

How does one test this machine. I expect that failure would be at the nut connection, the bolt would shear. I was thinking I could text this by putting a packing blanket over it, wearing lots of safety gear and standing around the corner and let run to full pressure with nothing in there to smoosh.

Would this break the jack if the press did not fly apart? Has anyone had this thing fail?

I am also thinking of making my bolts out of tool steel. I suspect I would rather just normalize them so if they sheared, they would shear in a gooey way instead of a sharp sudden failure.

Ideas?

Doug

PS. I have some temporary pins in there right now and have crushed some copper tubing the long way. That works wonderfully

metalworking air power hammer

It is the "super deluxe package" from here:
https://www.tinmantech.com/html/pwrhmr_tm-straight_post.php

hardly used.

Way too small for blacksmithing (I think) but someone might be interested for other reasons.

My grandpa told me about all the dangers that came from the illegal production and sale of alcohol when he lived through prohibition. Funny, ever since alcohol was re-legalized, all those dangers went away (gangsters fighting over turf, blinding from drinking wood alcohol, disregard for the prohibition law, corruption of law enforcement because of the huge financial incentives...)

What lessons have we learned from Prohibition that makes us think that the Drug War is a good idea?

Why is Frosty using the new AKFrosty57?

My theories...

Second of nine lives, deserves new username
Got banged on head, forgot password
Thankfully getting older and forgot password
Hit maximum allowable number of posts, needed new account.

Glad to have him back under any name.

It is pretty near me. How loud are these things? I am in a residential area. That is the most likely concern I have.

I have to call him to find out if it has a motor that should work, etc...

Any help or things I should ask are appreciated.

Thanks,
Doug

Use a hair dryer. Higher volume and lower pressure.

Since I pointed to him, I feel the need to stand up for his buisness.


He never claims better. He claims cheaper. Look how many people come on here as newbies unable to draw a taper (yet) and look at his sales numbers.


A year ago, as a new smith, I did the math and thought them worth the money. A year later, I find that polar bear blanks are a better deal. A year from now???

- doug

I have CRS [can't remember xxxx] I would have no toes left with this safety rule.

This is in addition to steel toes... (which I do not wear in the shower)

If you drop something, lift your toes.

Flat toes get crushed, lifted toes get smacked.

I knew I had internalized this when I was showering off, dropped the can of shaving cream and my toes were up in the air before the can had hit the tub.

I did and i figured it was worth the price!

Actually, it is worth significantly *more* than the price.

Extremely high quality photos
Clear instructions and pitfall warnings (that I have ignored at my peril!)
Quality binding, paper and construction

I hope these are profitable enough to encourage Parts III through X. Then on to the Advanced series.



-Doug

Straight from the man himself. Thank you.

I just made my first couple of chisels. It was cool to read parts that say "Don't do it this way, it will break." and then do it that way anyways, and break it! (Scrolling wrench)

Thanks,
Doug

I would not call that an ASO, that term is usually reserved for HF cast 'anvils'.

You want as much mass under the hammer as possible. Could you find a way to turn the RR anvil up on end?

I think this will work.

I bought five cow magnets on eBay, $3 each, free shipping. I had already siliconed the anvil to the base. The silicon knocked most of it out. I am not sure the magnets are doing much other than catching scale.

Siliconing should be more than enough. My instructor siliconed his to a tree stump some 20 years ago, and it is still stuck such that he does not have any other fixturing. I think it does double duty.

-Doug

I found these tongs to be worth the money:

eBay Store - Poor Boy Blacksmith Tools: Category 1

He sells other things, what I found is that if it is welded and you hit it with a hammer, it will break (fullers, guilotine tool) but I do not hit my tongs with a hammer, so they work fine.

Doug

while stirring his coffee

I have a 325 pound Euroanvil. It still has that 'new anvil smell', so I think I will be making a tool to make the tool that I will use to make tools...

Thanks,
Doug

I am reading Chapter 16 of Mark Aspery's excellent book (volume 1).

In the chapter about making bottom tools, we are advised to make a heading plate for the creation of these tools.

Why make this instead of just using the hardy hole that they will eventually be used in?

My guess is to avoid stress on the anvil in case the tool gets cold during the construction, but the reasoning is never spelled out in the book.

Doug

Oh, you are going to see that the firepan fits really loosely into the forge table. I was told this is purposeful because of expansion while in use. I will just stick some kaowool or something in the hole because coal will fall through the hole.