NateDJ

You do have a burner flare at the end don't you? it is required for the burner to work. also make sure there is no outside wind blowing around it when you try it or it will keep it from burning right. }===<~ should do it This flare will create a low presser area just outside of the burner tube and keep the flame at the far end. a pipe 8-12 inches long should be about right and a flare with about a 15* angle about 2 inches long should be about right. The gas nozzle should be placed where it will cause the most air to be sucked into the pipe as it blows down the tube. If it is burning inside the tube then the tube is either too long, too big around (+1'') the gas nozzle is in the wrong position or your flare on the end of the nozzle isn't right. You should even be able to get it to burn right with out the bell end but you would have to hold the nozzle with pliers and that would defeat the purpose.

LOL around here they would likely be too drunk to hit the center but that would sure not stop them from trying!

Think I'm already replacing my blood stream with coal dust, soon there will too much blood in my coal stream. I do have a problem though... too much work to do getting in the way of my addiction!

Now hold on a bit, I think if you look around you will find several girls on here. No reason in the world you have to/need to be a guy to be a blacksmith. I recently had the opportunity to watch a 2 day demo given by Allison Finn of Freedom Metals. She did an EXCELLENT job and was an excellent teacher! You are most welcome to this site please jump right on in. Remember blacksmithing is as much about creativity and imagination as it is anything else. If you don't think you can hit as hard as some men, get a power hammer (they likely use one themselves) ;)

Size your forge to only heat what you can forge in the time it takes the metal to cool enough to need to go back in the fire, unless you are setting up for a special type of forging. A 7'' square firepot for me is large enough, I used a much larger one this weekend and found I couldn't hardly stand near enough to it to place / retrieve my work piece, I had to go get some much longer tongs. A fire that is too large will cause you to use WAY more fuel and accomplish very little more unless you are heating a very large piece. The pot on my forge is about 3'' deep and is just great for keeping enough fire for small things and I can heap up 2-3'' more on top if I need a large fire. Charcoal works great for forging fuel and has been discussed to death hear and elsewhere, the main draw back for me is the sparks it puts off and the rate of fuel consumption. If you was to use a firepot even 1/4 the size of that tub you would need a truckload of fuel per day and It would likely require a leaf blower to get enough air to it. Once you got it burning it would put off enough sparks to light the neighborhoods houses and be hot enough you would need 6-8' tongs to place your work. Once placed your work must be retrieved before it begins to melt, if the fire pot is too large it becomes very hard to find your work epically if it falls below the top layer of coal which is usually where you actually want it. The lower in the fire the hotter it gets and the faster your steel will melt, at a certain point you have trouble getting your metal out between the hot enough stage and the too hot stage. I do understand the concept of wanting to use what you have on hand however, the side draft hood of my coal forge is a hot water tank with the bottom and the inside tube cut out and made into a hammer stand. Perhaps you could take the tub to a scrap iron place and sell/buy or exchange it for the right parts. Do you have a welder? If not try the wash tub forge which is shown on here and is very easy to build and configure for a large or small fire and should cost only a few $ for parts. Please don't think I am talking down to you or any thing like that, when I ask questions I like to get straight answers, and so I try to return the same.

LOL When I was taking the pictures off my digital I seen that and JUST HAD to post it! I uploaded a bunch more to my gallery but that was by far the funniest!

Here is a picture of how to hold your tongue while hitting something Also featured "How to use both hands while forging!"

What I don't want...???,,,!!~`1 ... Nope noting there that needs to go :cool:

Sounds like you are allergic or have a high sensitivity to it, I would just tell everyone she slapped me! ;)

YEP, I have been given only a few more days to get it moved and stowed away properly or she is calling the scrappers! :o :o

We will be there, leaving the 2 toddlers with aunt/uncle and loading the rest up. should be there bright and early Saturday. I'm hoping to buy at least one anvil for the kids and traveling, maybe even a bit of coal if it is available, a hammer or 2, drifts for hammers, etc. Can't wait!

Well a friend of mine (87yo machinist) just purchased this lathe for $1,000.00 cost him $500 just to have it moved into his shop from across town. The bed is 20 feet long. I have no other details than what is seen in the pictures because I got him off on the subject of welding cast iron. (Hard to derail a train of thought like his ;)

I had this same question about 4 days ago and stopped in to see an old friend. He is a machinist by trade and is still running his shop at 87 years old. He has been welding cast iron for ''as long as can be remembered'' and basically described the same process as the rest of these guys, he suggested using an air chisel to peen with and not peen just the weld but the sides as well. For the jobs that you can't control the cool down cycle such as in a large engine he suggest to pre-heat the area around where you will weld and then only weld about 1/2inch and do it on the lowest setting you can strike and hold an arc. This is done so you never raise the temp of the surrounding metal enough to cause it to expand enough to be more than you can peen the welding rod material back into as it shrinks. I understood him to mean that you would lay down a short bead then peen the bead into the shrinking cast iron. He states that the welded area should be at the ~500f you pre-heated the area to before starting on the next 1/2 inch. His experience is mostly on large industrial engines that cant be buried or otherwise insulated and usually the customer wanted to start and run the thing when he was finished welding it anyway. He states he hasn't had a weld fail doing it this way since he was shown how when he was a teenager, (did they have welders back that far;) Hmm this reminds me, he just bought a lathe I need to get a picture of on here.

Dealing with mosquitoes: For some reason when I am running my gas forge I NEVER have any problem with mosquitoes, if i turn it off I start getting bit with in 10-15 min and if I don't turn it on at all i get eat up by them. Perhaps they are attracted to the CO the forge puts out and are getting eaten by the dragon! I notice MANY other bugs flying into the forge and every time I start it up I have to dust the dead bugs out that flew in after I turned it off each time I start it up. Do coal forges eat bugs as well? Welcome to IFI, here is the best way to read your web page for those of us who need it: Translation