Tbmartin

Gents, So I haven't had my forge up and running for a little while. Summer fun has taken hold and all the work to go along with it. I have been slowly & steadily acquiring items for the craft though, so it hasn't fallen completely to the wayside. I just picked up a 100 lb London anvil, the only other markings on it are JB, I will post a pic once I have my stand built for it. I also built a stand for the 75 lb Buffalo anvil I got from the grandfather so it is now ready for service. One of my main problems is my workspace, as I am forging in the garage with the forge out on the driveway. It can be a pain in the xxxx to move everything around just to pull the vehicles in every time. So to remedy this I have made a bargain with the wife... A bathroom renovation for a small shop in the back yard. I'm sad to say that the bathroom renovation will get a far larger budget, but I am okay with that as I quickly got approval from the boss! So far my plan is to make an 8 x 10 shop with an 8 to 9 foot sloped roof. I may increase the size to 9 x 10, but can't go to 10 x 10 to avoid accessory building by laws in the city. The walls will be sheeted with plywood and either cement board, tin sheeting, or cinder block heat shield around the forge area. I will put a hatch in the wall at the back of the forge so I can slide long pieces through to be heated in the middle. The floor is already poured so that's easy. I will probably go with a shingle roof and was thinking about hanging canvas tarps (welding blankets) on the interior to insulate and muffle the sound of me whacking away. I have multiple neighbors across the alley in condos so I want to be considerate of the noise. These tarps will also provide spark containment around the bench grinder and table sander so it should prove to be a three fold addition. As a plus there is a large tarp being thrown out from work that might just do the job. I am running an LPG forge so I am wondering what should be done for ventilation, should I put in a ceiling fan? I could put a louvre or vent on the high side of the sloped roof and keep a door or window open but I'm just not too sure if that will get the CO out well enough. I will have to pull an extension cord across from my house for any electrical equipment so it would be nice to keep it simple. I plan to have two doors on the side of the shop so I can open it up and work half in half out when the weather permits. I saw Jakob Farams shop and thought it would be very similar in design, only the roof being a single slope and the doors on the side of the shop. The interior looks great so I think I could easily fit my kit in and have room to add stuff with time. With the double doors I think it will add expandability as well for the future. SO... I'm looking for ventilation suggestions, canvas tarp thoughts, design flaws or ideas, and any other advice you guys can help me with this project plan. Cheers!

David your forge is looking great! We should go into production with those air tank bodies hahaha. Have you visited the store Hoof and Nail in Calgary? I have been thinking of ordering a couple things from them but I would really like to go into the shop. With them not being open on weekends it makes it a little tough for me though. When you get those tongs done let us see how they turned out!

CJF, I used a kiln refractory cement to coat the wool blanket but I can't recall the name of it, I will take a look for the receipt when I get back from work. I think the volume is around 370 cu. inches, I have been running one burner for the last few lights, I may have got a little over zealous on the burners but if I run both she heats up material like crazy. It also sends a lot of flames licking out the front door which can heat up too much of steel which I would be grabbing. For longer pieces such as drawing out reins I really like the dual burner but for smaller stuff I only use one burner to keep the hot spot right on the material. I have been contemplating taking out the front burner and plugging the hole with a piece of kiln brick, but I still enjoy the flexibility to run one or both.

I've finished my first set of tongs (second if you count the mini garbage trial version)! After a number of sessions and working on three or four different things at a time they are complete. I'm not overly happy with the rivet job I did but I'm going to make a rivet block soon to make things easier. I think I'm going to start on two drifts, one for hammers and another for tomahawks as I now have the tongs to work some railroad spikes. Another set of pickup tongs might be on the list as well as the ones I have now are borrowed. After asking every person I could think of my grandfather gave me his fathers anvil from their farm (which he sold in 1955). The thing was chipped and abused and nicked to all hell, but a sand blasting and an hour under the grinder it looks pretty xxxx good. Hopefully I can find another anvil solid steel and a little bigger but I'm happy with this heirloom to back into use. Just need to build a stand for the bugger...

So I have fired up the forge a few times now (avoiding the cold weather we had for a few weeks). I made a small pair of tongs just as a practice template out of 3/8 round, forged a chisel and started turning a big hex key into a cone hardie. I also found a steel supply that sells cut off scrap for cheap so I picked up 20 lbs of different stock types. Yesterday I started on a pair of goose neck tongs that will hold rail road spikes. Got about half done the first side and had to shut it down for the day (had too much honey do items on my plate). One question I have is how to judge if your steel is getting hot enough before working it. I get the steel a good orange hot before pulling it from the forge, but I don't seem to be getting very much time while hammering it out. I even warmed up the anvil by heating a piece of 1" round and bending it at a 90 to sit in the hole of my makeshift anvil. It seemed to help a little but I am just wondering if I need to soak the steel longer in the forge? The stock I was forging was 3/8 x 1". Just want to make sure I am getting enough time between each heat before I start to draw out my reins. Thanks in advance.

Well the forge is officially in operation! Fired it up for the first time and did an hour or so bake of the cement. After that I let it cool and checked insulation which all stiffened up nicely. Then I hit full flame and started on a pair of tongs made out of a chunk of rebar. Got done one side and had to call it a shift but I think I've got a good start. I'm going to try and finish them up today but need to get some small material for a rivet. Also made a stand for my small anvil out of an 8x8 post and a 4x4 cross member. Works pretty good but I'll still be on the prowl for a bigger anvil. I'll post a pic of my tongs when complete to show the mess I make hahaha Taylor

Excellent that's what I like to hear! Thanks beammeupscotty, I won't mess with something too much if it ain't broke! I put the third and final coat of kiln cement in the forge tonight. After an air dry session I'm going to try to cure it with one burner on low flame. Then it's on to making some tongs... Is that an ambitious first forging project? Hahah either way I'm gonna need them soon! Taylor

Burner design was very similar to Kcrucible's design: http://kcrucible.wordpress.com/2010/08/20/burner-modifications/ I might still look for a new tip cone but for now I'm focusing on getting some heat to that forge. Taylor

Second layer of cement is on the forge and it looks a heck of a lot better. Got it on a little thicker this time and more evenly spread. Also got the regulator and hoses for the burner and fired up one of them last night. Flame seemed pretty good at 6 psi, I moved the jet forward and back and adjusted the air baffle but didn't get that much of a change in flame colour. It went from a nice blue flame with orange flecks every once in a while to an almost greenish blue. Never found a spot that changed the flame fully orange but I didn't spend too much time testing as it was late, might try lowering the pressure to find where is goes orange. Just to make sure I'm running it in the sweet spot. Here's some pics I grabbed last night. Should have shot the flame without flash I realized now. Ill take some more to compare if I'm running rich later tonight.

So the bolt anvil has been placed on the back burner sadly, I might just have to make it later on to be a one percent-er! Instead I had a fellow find a chunk of some hard alloy 2" think x 7" long x 6" high. We did a rebound test with a 1" bearing and got about 70% rebound. I then welded it onto a 1" x 4" x 12" flat plate as a base and added a couple anchor bolt holed to secure it. Once I got it home I gave it a weigh just to ease curiosity and it came in at 40 lbs. There is a 1" hole near the one end I thought I could use for punching steel, and I ground down on edge to make a nice rounded corner. It's got a decent ring to it but I will be putting a magnet on the side to deaden the noise (I will be doing alot of forging in my attached garage with the forge out the car door). I don't want things to be too loud as my 9 month old daughters room is above the garage! I'll upload a picture later today, I was going to make a stump for this out of 4 - 4X4 boards strapped and bolter together in a square, but after looking at it last night I thought I should make the base a bit bigger. Maybe 4 8x8's strapped together with banding and bolted together. The height of the top of the anvil face should reach your wrist when standing straight correct? Now, just this morning another fellow I chatted up about steel will be picking up a hunk of train rail and rail road spikes. So now I will potentially have another anvil from the rail and some decent starter project steel. He asked if I wanted new spikes or old spikes and new or old rail. He said the new rail has a big CANADA stamp on it so I thought that might be kind of a neat touch, but somewhere I read that the older rail was higher carbon content but I cannot seem to find that article again. Thirdly I have two London style anvils, one weighing 100 lbs and the other is slightly smaller (so the owner thinks). It seems as though once you HAVE something to use and don't NEED an anvil plenty of things appear and come out of the wood work hahaha. I really like the 100# anvil but it is a little roughed up, looks like someone welded parts on top of it (not to the face), because there is welding slag beads and marks on top. The horn is also dinged up from use and I'm just wondering if a flapper disc can be used to smooth out those two surfaces? One coat of cement has gone on top of the Kaowool insulation now, I don't feel it will be enough so I'm thinking another two coats will do the job. Since it is colder than a snowman's fart up here my garage is not a great place for anything to cure nicely, so I think I will wait extra long between coats and bring the forge into the laundry room at night for extra heat. Enough prattling, Getting excited to shape some steel! Taylor

So far with just the kaowool there is a tight fit on the front hatch. That being said I layered up the front pretty well to get it even. Once I put the cement in that could creat a whole different seal though. I was thinking of putting a layer of wax paper between the hatch and main body and then cement right up to the edge to hopefully get a nice tight surface. I will let you know if I succeed or if there are any shoulda done different ideas. I made the slide out of half inch ss tubing. Pretty solid but if I need to upgrade to solid round stock that will be no problem. Look forward to seeing your forge! Taylor

David, Nope I'm down in the hat, check out my post on my forge build to see what that tank looks like. I thought about making a third door along the side on the whole tank, so I could pass large and long pieces through. But I think I will make another clamshell forge if I get to that point. '?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>>

Oh just another question, I've had a chisel and punch set for a while. Don't use them very often but I'm just wondering if I could use the punches with hot steel? They are drop forged chrome vanadium steel. Here's the set. They don't say cold chisel like another set I have so I'm just making sure before I go and wreck something. https://www.acklandsgrainger.com/AGIPortalWeb/WebSource/ProductDisplay/globalProductDetailDisplay.do?item_code=WSWWPC14R Taylor