Avadon

Oh I should have said something earlier. All I need that brick for is beginning blademaking/knifemaking. That pipe-flange with nipple holds all the million of forming pip-cap tools I have. So when it comes to horns, stakes, etc. etc. etc. I have all that virtually covered... Here is just a little of my forming tools I even have anvils I can mount on that pipe flange so I can make bends to any height. Sure it's not like my Gladiator anvil, but for something that was virtually free, I don't think you can go to wrong. Plus I don't feel bad if it rusts into the ground or I beat it ugly hehe

After using a few bandsaws, something tells me that block should NOT take 6 hours. You need to change the blade. Your blade is probably doing nothing more then friction cutting, not unlike cutting a wood 4x4 with a metal wire. Call up grizzly, msc/J&L, kbc, etc and ask one of their techs what blade you need for your saw for exotic metals. Trust me you will be glad you did. That block shouldn't take easy less then an hour to cut through.

Thank you maddog and woody. I'm going to try Airgas and see if they have what is in the picture above. Airgas is really the only thing "welding" on capecod, so if they don't have it or can't order it then i'll have to fish it down from the internet somewhere. I'll definitely check out the MSDS. Most of the welding products I use I know are full of carcinogens, but since i've been welding forever I think they have actually mummified my body lol

is this stuff brazing borax? cause i braze copper and brass with it.. will it work for forge welding A36 steel? Copyrighted photo removed and a link inserted.

What does brazing borax look like? I went to Lowes and they only had the normal type of flux's for copper brazing.

Only problem is welding really large billets like that to other billets means you really have to preheat the xxxx out of them to get them up to a temperature ready to start welding. It was pretty difficult just to get good fusion on those feet. I have a 200Amp Dynasty 200DX TIG, but something with probably another 50% more power would easily come in hany for this kind of thing.

I think this is about as cheap of an anvil setup as you can get. 4X4's I used PL (sub flooring adhesive) and lag screws to hold to a giant log/stump on it's side. Then I planed an area on top for a large steel brick 11.5"L x 4"W by 2"H and I welded 6 tabs (3 on each side) and bolted it down with 3/8's x 6" long galvanized lag screws. The end effect creates a chunk of steel with a lot of mass behind in it. All in all this cost me nearly nothing. Probably less then 15$ in all. Thought I might share this as it's so often we hear people waiting a long time to save up for a real anvil, and yet this way you can have an anvil for next to nothing and still save up for an even better anvil setup. I got this billet as a scrap cut-off at my local steel supplier. Most places will let you pick through their cut-offs which they usually set in a pile or on a shelf somewhere. If one doesn't have a welder you could bolt right through the chunk of steel itself or even perhaps just glue the chunk of steel down with PL or other sub flooring glue, that stuff is serious, just keep in mind it won't be easy to ever remove.

Well I got the idea from someone saying that if you don't have a drum to burn wood into charcoal you can alway make a fire and when the wood is glowing you can bury the combustable material and it will vent it's gasses and basically leave you with a decent amount of goal left over. Probably not the most efficient way of making charocoal but that is essentially what I think happens to most peoples firepits, when they try to bury the fire at the end of the night or when they use water to put it out prematurely. At 7$ a bag for charcoal.. might not be such a bad idea to scavage some campsights. I'll let you know if I have any luck with this method. I also have ton of wood to burn up come burning season. I often wonder if a lot of people burn their wood into charcoal at night as to draw less attention from the smoke?

dig them out with your bare hands.. sheesh what a bunch of nancies...... i always use my teeth and bob for them :D

It dawned on me a few days ago that because I live near a state park that allows campfires (and their are always campfires going) that I might be able to go get coal from their campfires after they are burned out and they've left. Is this worthwhile or would the wood/coal be totally spent?

Oooooo nice thanks for the comments guys. I think I will build one then. I think your right rmcpb about also having a heavier forge. Not that a washtub forge couldn't be beafed up, but the lively one above seems a little on the light side. I like the heavyness of my brake drum forge. At 200#'s I know it will never fall over and if I need to stand on it for some silly reason and adjust the flu I know I don't even need a latter hehe

What do you guys think of washtub/washbasin forges? :confused: Do you love them, hate them? what are their advantages and disadvantages. I know there is no clinker breaker and anything that falls into the blast is hopefully pushed to the end cap, which then the unit has to be lifted up and emptied or blown out. But outside of that how resillient and long lasting is refractory? do they get hotter then brake drum type forges? They do seem deeper.

Honestly I don't know if a grill is better or worse. I felt like just the tweer would probably not get enough air dissipation under the full diameter of the coal. So i'm not sure if the grill is a bane or a blessing yet. I saw someone had a grill and they swore up and down by it since it's an easily replacable element, unlike replacing the drum/firepot. But seeing as I have a replacable 1/4" tweer I guess it's somewhat of a double up. I definitely want to try "just the grill" and see what the fire is like.. and "just the tweer without the grill" and see what the fire is like. That might lend to my ideas in making a second one. I've also seen the ole clinker breaker inside black pipe setup and yet i've been told by many people that they were not too pleased with that particular setup. From months of investigating back yard forges I came to the conclusion that there's really a lot of ways to do this, everyone thinks their way is the expert way (haha) and clearly results vary. I'll admit i'm certainly no expert, i'm just going by what the people who thougtht they were "most right" said ROFL

The brake drum had a 1/4" lip on it and i hung that lip over the giant circle i had to cut (with an angle grinder) in the 1/4" plate I supported the fire pot in. Then I just welded that lip to the plate. Believe me, that fire pot is IN there! No heat could take that out of there, xxxx I'm not even sure a direct nuclear hit could take that fire pot out of there. lol I somewhat followed this design. See attached photo. The tweer is 6 1/4" holes and it puts about a 3" or 4" area of airflow right in the middle which seemed to be what people were saying in the stuff I read. My only conern is that I may have to make a new tweer that fits into the inner bottom of the brake drum, instead of covers the entire bottom so I can get more depth out of the drum itself. Cause I think I might be a little shy on depth with the tweer and grill. But i'll have to see when i fire it up.

Thanks guys.. you just made me grin ear-to-ear Yah know, the first flight of fancy has all the trimmings and usual splendor, but the 3'rd try, the 5'th try and perhaps even the 10'th try have all the hindsight, streamlining, and minimalistic efficacy of a master builder. ;-) i'll certainly give a progress report.

oh so you want pictures of the wife.. j/k hahaha couldn't resist.

Yes bigger wheels would have been some good foresight, and they'll be on my next forge. The reason is I sorely underestimated how hard it would be to push 8" wheels over tall grass.

Yah its basically my "semi-perm" outside forge as it's heavy and really not fun to move lol I'm sure i'll make lighter more portable coal forges in the future. I may even work towards more "open" forges if the winds around here don't seem to bad, and also if neighbors don't seem to be much of a problem. The forge isn't really the problem as much as it is the hammering that attracts people attention to a forge hehe :D

So I finally finished my forge I had been picking everyones brain about forever and ever. This is basically an enclosed brake drum forge. I live in a rural area, but it's still burbs, so I had a feeling if I really have just a big open fire going that someone at some point might come over and complain. This way it looks just like one big mean bbq of evil. lol I decided to name her "Nemesis" after the remorseless Goddess of divine retribution. Sometime this week I hope to light her up and test it all out. I'll also show you the pics soon of my anvil i use outside.. it's just a giant steel brick.. hehe.. cheap, but effective. It's kind of a pet peeve of mine to have tools all over the grass as a company mows our lawn and they don't do it very regularly so if I lay things on the lawn they will get lost, thus I made sure to weld a lot of stuff on the forge to hang quenching buckets, hammer racks, tool racks, a grill pad on the right to place hot steel, and a hammer rack bottom left. The rubber mount near the hammer rack is where I push my hair dryer into it. All in all it's one very stout design. I welded much better wheels on the thing. It's quite heavy, i'd say easy 200+#'s I'm sure in using it i'll learn enough of what works and what doesn't. I'm sure this will just be one of several coal forges i'll build in my life, but this isn't bad for a mobile forge (as i'll move from here eventually) and it's also my first forge. 8) (believe me when I say I narrowed it down to a fraction of the pics I took, so i'm hoping these load okay for everyone. If it hangs you may have to refresh, but they are all small size) If you want to see many more pics of it look on armour archive here NEMESIS (My enclosed Brake-Drum Forge)

That swage that's only 105$ is pretty economical.. but I wonder as to the quality. I can't see blowing 500$+ on a swage unless I really thought I was going to use it. But maybe some really would use it a great deal. Personally I just want the dishing forms.

ugghh that kinda xxxxxx me off when people use tools for aesthetics only purposes and deprive people who can use them or want to use them to create. When I die I want all my tools to go to apprentices who have tons of heart but shallow pockets. :cool:

That goes for me as well.. i'd like that info.

Where do you sell these blanks?

Thomas, i've heard you talk about these forge welding projects a few times. Any chance you could give us newbs a little picture tutorial or step by step on how to weld up sections of metal strapping, hacksaw blades, etc. into these "billets" and then forge welding them into something. Or if you've already explained the process would you mind linking me to a thread? Much appreciated.

Thanks Josh, too bad I didn't read this earlier.. i was just right there at lowes lol.. but next i'll get some.