arkie

You'd be surprised at how fast you can burn up coal! I would love to get a ton at a time...saves handling the bag stuff. Glenn pretty well summed it up as to volume. If you had a way to pool the cost with some friends, the buy-it-by-the-ton would be the way to go. At $130/ton, that comes out to the equivalent of about $3.25 per 50 lb. bag. Much better than $35 per 50 lb. bag!!

You can easily remove galvanizing by soaking overnight in vinegar, or more quickly in dilute muriatic/hydrochloric acid. I like vinegar...much more friendly to use :)

Looking good! The threaded rod gives the handle a distinctive appearance. I'll try that out. Thanks for posting the photo

You only need a nuclear electrical degree... :unsure: :D

(A.) second on what jm said, (B.) forging metal too cold. I often develop cracks in A36 if I get carried away and stretch my hammering past red. Quit doing that and no more cracks. Haven't run into much crappy A36, but will sooner or later.

Not being well versed in the bloom composition, how did you go from bloom iron to bloom steel? Added carbon how?

I wonder if you would have the capacity for both? Your shop stove pipe probably was built to handle the volume of smoke from the stove. Adding more from the forge might or might not give you the necessary draw. Then again, the stove's pipe upward draw might pull your forge better...dunno...food for thought. Stove experts out there???

Spanky, you're gonna love that. :) I forged out in the open when I could, then put up a 10'x12' tarp over the forge area (forge OUTSIDE of the tarp) for a couple of years. Good for shade, poor for rain, sucks with snow. Then....I put up a 12'x21' metal carport, no sides, with a 8' eaves and 10' roof. Been out in hot sun, rain, hail and yesterday snow...forging and welding both; works like a charm.

Check out posts by DSW. He built his firepot and forge. His firepot was also made of thick metal like yours. His build was interesting and informative.

Slip a two-wheel dolly under your base and you can move it around a lot easier than rolling it. Easier on the back too! :)

Joey, like all your other videos....job well done. Enjoyed watching it (and the others as well). I always learn something new in them. :)

Put up an additional sign that reads..."Made in America"...that'll get their attention too. :D

If you don't have the necessary shears or torches to cut your 0.10" thick metal, consider a 4 1/2" angle grinder with a 1/16" or 0.045" metal cutoff wheel. If you are VERY careful and don't rush you can cut that stock easily with the angle grinder. I have no O/A torch, abrasive or dry cut metal saw or plasma cutter so I have to make do with what's at hand. I routinely cut rod and bar up to 1 1/2" and sheet steel up to 3/8" thick. Just take it slow and careful and wear the proper PPE!

Charles, I hear you on the 4-pounders. My hammering rhythm with a 4# is: "bang, bang, bang, bang..bang...bang.....bang.........bang.............bang....................bang" (you get the picture) :wacko:

Charles, after I "corrected" and cut off the fishmouth, I indeed did taper off the square corners first and then worked the punch thinning process. I also used a 4# then later a 3# hammer, hitting hard to work the metal while it was all hot and never hammered cooler than red-orange. That way the soaking for the next hammering round was less time. Going too cool to extend hammering time is NOT the way to do it. Gotta keep that steel hot all the way through. :)

My first experience with a fishmouth was when I was making a hammer punch from a ball pien hammer head. Not ever having worked with thick metal before, I just rammed it into a hot fire, ran the blower up to heat it up fast so I didn't have to spend a long time with the heating process (such as a soaking heat), and when it got to orange-yellow, I started hammering away. After a few heats and the tapering process proceeded along, the fishmouth developed so much that you could stick a marble in the hole. Well, that fishmouth got cut off with an angle grinder and cutoff wheel after it cooled! I started the forging again from there and subsequent heats were allowed to soak and the temp was brought up to forging heat more slowly than before and the punch was nicely drawn out to about 6-7 inches long with NO fishmouth! :)

Link doesn't work...message says "page not found".

Endo, you didn't mention the thickness of your bar, but another cause of a "fishmouth" is uneven heat. On thicker stock, if you rapidly heat the stock then forge it, the outside will be somewhat hotter than the middle, hence the hammer will move the hotter outside metal further resulting in the lip protruding over the cooler,harder inside. Remedy...soak the metal for a longer time to insure even heat distribution throughout the metal before hammering. If thinner, then the remedy Charles suggested would work.

All those "n's" in that post drove me batty. Too hard for me to read, so skip that post!! :wacko:

Frank, that is a great tip. Thanks for mentioning it. :) I'm always losing my punch marks at yellow and orange heat and have to wait until the piece goes to red to see it, then the piece is almost too cool to work. Will try it tomorrow!!

My fan is not close and I have to date (knock on wood) no problems with eddy currents. Besides, I move around and adjust to the wind from it. I do both back to front and side to side fan directions, depending on wind direction. Last week we had a good wind from the north and it was stronger than the fan! Just moved the forge around 90* :) Nice thing about semi-portable forges. Gotta get that hood fab'd!!!!!

Lots of smoke breathed in plus lots of green smoke will make ANYBODY have a sore throat and cough and hack. Stand back away from your fire and the green smoke when you first start it up, then let the flames devour the smoke and it disappears. Lots of folks coke up a bunch of coal at the end of the forging session and use that to start your fire next time. The coke won't smoke like the green coal. You don't get metal fume fever from coal with sulfur. That comes from metals such as zinc, chrome, cadmium, etc. heated in your forge. I need a hood on my forge, so for the present time, I just have a box fan mounted on a rack behind me that blows the smoke away. Might add that hood soon...in the dead of winter, that fan blowing on yer back ain't much fun....more pressure to get the hood mounted!!!

You are going have to address the debris and fine particles that are thrown off by the cutting and/or grinding. Probably safer than fumes and acid treatment, but PPE would be the order of the day if using lathe or grinder.

I don't have a lathe, but simply clamped mine in a drill press vise and drilled the hole that way. Good illustrations, BTW.

Alan, I've used your technique and it works fine for me. Quick and easy. Hardest part is drilling the tool blank.