Quenchcrack

I was just thinking that a cheap chinese copy of an old Buffalo rivet forge blower would be extremely popular if it could be had for $25. Fat chance.

M. Demetrius, run a gasser and you learn to love the smell of burning arm hair....

I have not yet cranked up my Diamondback 2-burner forge to weld in but it is supposed to be able to reach welding heat. The manufacturer said it would take 15-25 psi which sound way too high to me. The dragons breath would make it un-useable at 25 psi. It gets pretty hot at 15 psi but I have not let it run long enough to see if it will get hotter. The ability to reach welding heat is summed up in the basic equation: Heat in minus heat losses = retained heat. If you are blowing all your heat out the doors, you will have to wait a while to get really hot because only the radiant heat from the burner is heating the refractories. If your doors have to be wide open to accommodate the gas influx, you are radiating heat to the cold area outside your forge through the doors. To get maximum heat, you need to maintain a stoichiometric (Gawd I love that word!) ratio between the propane and the oxygen. I have no idea how you can measure the gas ratios in an aspirated forge in your garage. To heck with it, just crank it up.

This is why God invented JB Weld. Put it on the outside so you don't have to worry about a red hot iron messing it up.

One of the scariest things I have seen is someone who doesn't know how much they don't know. Whether in smithing, management (Oh, don't get me started on that) or anything else, knowlege is power. When someone knows they know nothing, they have already made progress. It is easier to fill an empty vessal than a fountain of ignorance. Welcome aboard, dvinesco, ask away!

Yep, very handy. Paw Paw Wilson made one of those years ago and posted it on the Anvilfire iForge page. I made one, too and they work pretty good if you get them adjusted right.

Monel is also what is generally called "German Silver".

With all due respect to long held beliefs, steel is not porous. The only place anything can penetrate is at the grain boundaries and if you do that, the steel will fall apart. Hot shortness is sulfur at the grain boundaries and that is one reason Manganese is added to steel: it combines with the sulfur to prevent it from getting to the grain boundaries. Any oil treatments are limited to the surface unless you manage to totally burn the oil and some of the carbon penetrates the crystal lattice a couple of thousandths of an inch. And that is not likely. Cast iron, on the other hand, has a lot of graphite flakes or nodules throughout the iron matrix. Graphite may be slightly porous and absorb a small amount of oil. However, most of the conditioning for cast iron is still a surface treatment. If it were penetrating the surface, why would you need to ever re-condition it?

Frosty, I have it mounted to the edge of a rivet forge, of course. I stand nearby as an accessory to this vision of loveliness.

I have an old Champion that was full of rust and grease. I cleaned it up, wire brushed to rust off of it and wiped it down with Boiled Linseed oil. It left a "Plum Brown" patina that reeks of antiquity. It goes with my wrinkles and grey hair.....

New Guy, if your hardy hole is 1", you can buy square, heavy wall tubing. Cut it to 3-4" long and weld the tool to the tubing (overlap the tool and the tube). The tool will sit on the anvil and the tubing goes through the hardy hole. Now you're gonna tell me you don't have a welder, right?

Old Welder, try your local farrier supply. Some carry coal and some don't. If they don't chances are they can tell you who does.

Well said, Glenn.

A kelly bar would make a dandy anvil but it is a bit soft for heavy work. Typically, they are heat treated to about 285-341 Brinnel which is about 28-32 Rc. Drill Collars are made of the same material and heat treated to about the same hardness.

Speaking of old rocks, how old do you think that meteor fragment might be? I would not be surprised if estimates came back in the BILLIONS of years old. Of course, the iron in the earth was formed in exploding stars just like the meteors were so who knows. As Carl Sagen said: "we are all made of star stuff".

Geez, Steve, it was just a joke, ok? I started college as a geology student and that was the first "insider" joke we heard.

"Got me a 6 million year old rock here", I said to the geologist. "How do you know it is 6 million years old?", he said. "Found it in a 6 million year old bed of rock", I said. "How do you know the rock bed is 6 million years old?", he said. "It had a 6 million year old rock in it", I said.

Good price! Remember if you grind the edges, you will lose the patina that has developed on the anvil over the years. It will look like you gave it a "bowl haircut". I like to see the patina as it is a badge of survivorship on an old tool. Yeah, make a saddle if you need smooth corners.

Grant, now you know why the old west brands were usually very simple.

BlazerBud....uh....yeah.....I used to know all that stuff............ :-)

New Guy, I would start with W1 because in thin sections it has adequate hardenability and enough carbon to get plenty hard. It will hold a good edge, too. Because it is a simple high carbon tool steel, you can quench it it water. Be careful though because a thin blade can crack in water if it cools too fast. If you crack W1 in water, try using oil.

It would make a dandy work surface.

Welders alignment magnets from Horrible Fright work very well and you need not worry about attracting those pesky cows. As Thomas said, good time with Dad but it is likely to be a horizontal bell.

I see by the oil spot on the floor this old lady has a leaky gear box. Is this common? I hung a coffee can under the blower to catch the oil. Crude but effective.

Well, after cleaning up and fixing an old Champion rivet forge, I got my first chance to fire it up today. Found some excellent coal in Conroe,TX at C&M farrier supply and built my first fire in it. Plenty hot, coked real well, very little clinker. Made a coal rake and made my first forge weld in the loop handle. All in all, very satisfying day. Still like my Diamondback gas forge for clean fast heat, though. However, you really can't get yellow smoke and black boogers from a gas forge.