stovestoker

Yes the muffler pipe is nice and light. It's easy to work with. A bitch to weld, for me any way. I used spot welding to get the flange on. Check your local muffler shop. They probably would be happy to help. Especially when they here it's for a forge. A lot of people think it's pretty cool. I would go with a local owned shop versus a chain.

In A previous post I asked for help plumbing  my ducks foot to an electric blower. Many said that I needed an air gate versus a rheostat. I thought I could get away with the rheostat, but the response was slow and I don't think the fan was blowing as hard as it does wired directly. I was going to make an air gate but with the price for a centaur forge air gate being 14 bucks I figured I would give it a try.

This is just and FYI for the way I went about it. I only post this to help anyone else just starting out like I am.

I looked online and could not find clear instructions. Not that I am going to do any better, but I thought I would throw up pics as a guide.

I went to a local muffler shop and picked up a used 3 foot piece of 3 inch exhaust pipe for a whopping 2 bucks. the 3 inch pipe was a perfect fit. I think I will use short self tapping sheet metal screw to secure it.

I was looking at centaur forges air gate. Can anyone tell me how you plumb it in? It doesn't give detail on the diameter of the opening.

I have a rheostat set up from a cheap dimmer switch. It works OK. I think it's to fragile so I am going to locate a good one. suggestions welcome. As far as an air gate goes. I need an air gate if the fan is constantly blowing high, does this apply with a rheostat?

I was wondering if it was OK to hook my squirrel cage blower directly to the ducks foot as I have it mocked up in the pic. I wasn't sure if maybe there would be to much heat to hook the blower up this way. Or should I put in about a foot of duct work in between them?

Good info to go on. Just got back in town so I am going to take a harder look at it.

I knew my question was a " why is the sky blue" kind of question. But I am trying to learn the differences in steel so when I go to the scrapyard I know what clues to look for when trying to find scrap for each different application. I know it will take more experience heating, banging and using to understand what I am working with.

You know now that you mention it. Those kids at the scrap yard have some kind of spectrometer. They used it one time when I though I had stainless. Turned out to be titanium. I was hoping somee would say low.carbon, or high carbon from the color of the sparks.

I found this round stock at the scrap yard today. they were 1 inch bars cut in 2 foot lengths. There were hundreds of them. I got five. I didmt want to get more not knowing what kind of steel they were. Here is a pic while on the grinder.

well then maybe the hand crank stays in service. I think I need to take it apart and rebuild it. Anyone put a pulley and electric motor on the shaft the the handle is on? Maybe to hard on the blower.

I agree the thing is noisy. that's the first thing my son said" I don't like it!" What would be a good affordable (relative I know) alternative blower?

Well I have a champion hand crank blower, but I found a leaf blower at a yard sale for 5 bucks( I thought it was a good deal) that sucker blows a typhoon. I was going to put a dimmer switch to tune it down. I like the champion blower just because its low tech and has with old school cool factor. but it is a work out and its a chore to work it, rake coal and hold long stock at the same time.

So I figure the hole in the flange itself is about two inches in diameter. I was worried that I would not get enough airflow, but It sounds like it won't be an issue.

I recently purchased a centaur forge firepot and elbow assembly. It came complete but I need to plump it to my blower. I am going to hove to make a flange and pip to connect to the bloer. I was wondering what most people use or do they make their own? I have material but no clean way to cut a hole. So I was wondering if there was an off the shelf part like an exhaust flange that I could weld some pipe to. I thought about using a 2 inch black pipe flange but I was not sure if this was too small for good air flow. thoughts?

First thanks for all the advice it really helped. I took a little bit from all the suggestions and finally got that sucker free. I will post my pics and a brief description on what I did in case someone else trips over this info.

First off there are many techniques to accomplish the same result. The bottom line is it takes plenty of elbow grease and patience.

I don't have a picture of my first steps, sorry for that. But I took the whole vise and placed it upside down in a bucket and ran electrolysis on it for 24 hours. After it came out of the bath it budged just a bit( good sign) Look up electrolysis rust removal on YouTube.

I then clamped it horizontal in my other vise and filled the screw box with PB blaster for another 24.

This morning I put a persuader bar on it and got the screw to come out.

My steps to clean up the screw are as follows with pics. You can apply to anything that needs rust removed.

1.I took all the parts and soaked them in a bucket with dawn and hot water. this was my simple degreaser.

2. once I got them fairly clean I prepped them for another electrolysis bath.

3. I only have an automatic battery charger. But you can trick it into staying on if you hook it up in phase with a battery. I barrowed one from my ATV. An old bad battery would be better.

4. I got everything rolling and left it to cook. I used regular baking soda. the vids I saw said to use washing soda, but I could not find any locally. I doubled the recommended amount to compensate.

5. A trip to Home depot, and Rangers baseball game later I took them out of the bath. I rinsed in water and hit them with a wire brush.

6. I put the whole thing back together with a liberal coating of chain bar oil to keep it from rusting up gain.

The thing works pretty good. There are a few issues that I will address in another post, but all in all I am stoked that I got the thing working again. It will need a spring and a mounting plate but maybe I can find one or fabricate one.

I may give it a few days in electrolysis first, then try the solvent.

So should I soak the whole thing in a bucket?

I got this vice along with a lighter one. This vice is bigger and older and im in love with it. I would like to get it back into service but the screw is frozen. Need advice on where to start. I don't want to destroy it trying to free it up. I tried pb blaster but so far no luck

Men wiser than me. this is why I'm here.

My first bottle opener. not perfect, still learning. but it works. had a great time testing it.

I was thinking about putting a torch on the bends then trying to straighten them that way.

sorry posting pics from a phone does not work.

glen, it may be the way the pic looks. but it is vertical. I put a level on everything when fitting up. the base plate has a hole the nub sits in. ill try to post a better pic.

You can see that it is slightly out of vertical because there is no spring. I need to make a spring and that will hold the vice perfectly vertical. I want to straighten the leg but am not sure how to go about it without dicking it up.

Fabbed up a stand for my vice. Need to have it welded with a better welder.

I scrounged enough scrap to make a vice stand. A friend of mine gave me a footing plate off of and old crane that was broke down in his pasture. worked out well. I tacked it up and I am going to lug the thing over to his place so he can weld it properly. My flux core just wont get it. I hope to find a heavier vice to mount on it someday.