Simon Wicks

If hydrochloric acid reacts strongly with a small piece, i'd hazard it is zinc. Probably worth a bit as scrap.

Brilliant! Looks an awesome project to try

I use a large plastic bucket and have not any mishaps. You just need to be a little wary so as not to melt it. However if you can find a nice galvanised metal bucket, that would do you nicely. A small wooden barrel aswell if you can find one would be ideal. Plastic is fine though, just be careful with it.

I use the same technique for lighting my charcoal forge. I have some fire lighters that are mdf soaked in kerosene and wax. One of those lit with a match and some small pieces of charcoal and i can have a fire ready to use in under 10 mins. I've also heard of smiths using a gas axe torch to light their coke fires. I;ve used small propane torches and i've found the lighter block and match to be the cheapest method MAPP gas is £30 per bottle in B&Q. I can even make do with some wood shavings covered in WD40!

Seems these are pretty common place in the UK. I have one for this exact purpose having seem people here using them. Got mine for a tenner though with free postage ;) :P I stuck mine on a dimmer switch, which works pretty well as a rheostat.

I've made a few pairs of tongs. They are absolute dogs to look at but they have improved my technique. I have noticed the problems Joe talks about - rough reins. I want to make a swaging tool with a spring loaded top die i can have in my hardy hole to smooth out stock i've tried to forge round.

I did a little reading online and apparently you can remove chromeplating using hydrochloric acid (also known as muriatic acid). Makes sense as the lab i work in prepares soil samples by digesting samples with hydrochloric acid or aqua regia and we regulary test for tri and hexa valent chrome. Only trouble is the waste it generates is pretty nasty - hexavalent chromium salts, which are rather carcinogenic and can screw up water treatment systems if just slung down the drain. I need a way of removing chrome palting from hydrolic pistons as i have been given several off cuts. If you can safely dispose of the waste, acid treatment might be the cheapest alternative otherwise it can get pretty pricey i would think. Requires experience of handling corrosives plus PPE for actually dealing with the stuff though.

I've seen several videos like that. I had mostly presumed they had no coke to hand. That said there are some great videos where they use coke from the previous fire to get it going. One video i saw was likely done with green coal in order to show how well the chimney worked on the small mini forge they guy made. I watch a lot of youtube vids for forging, often many different vids for making the same thing. That way i get a broader knolwedge base to begin my own experimentation.

The time has come to build myself a more permament setup. My wooden frame forge has served its time and is now showing its limitations. It struggles to get larger stock hot and it just too small for my needs. I have done some research and very nearly bought a BECMA forge. I have however designed my own homebrew version using a ford mondeo break drum as a firepot. The hearth plate is 5mm thick mild steel and the edging is 2mm thick 25mm x 25mm angle iron. Not yet welded, i need to bribe my uncle enough to let me use his welder. Legs will be about a metre tall and made from the same angle iron. I have some 50mm ID steel pipe to connect the blower. I'll make a tuyere plate from a piece of 5mm plate with holes drilled in. My air will be supplied by a fan for blowing up bouncy castles. This forge should be able to use both coke and charcoal. I want to move toward coke as charcoal forging is getting expensive to buy the stuff and i go through it quickly. As i understand it coke should not produce much if any smoke? I have a blacksmith and farriers supply near me so can get good coke. Here's a pic of my work so far. Its hard work drilling strough that plate steel! I will grind down the lip of the break drum front and back to complete it. The tuyere plate will be bolted on with stainless steel bolts.

Hehehehe, cheers guys :) Excuse the table, i tend to use it as a pallette when painting miniatures and yes i am extremely messy! It has been thouroughly tested with a wide range of beverages and has passed muster! I love jwilson's use of a horse shoe. I have several given to me by a colleague so i will have to try out making a bottle opener with one.

Mine isnt very pretty.... i had to improvise a punch to get the "tongue" to form and the hammering is pretty rough but i am still happy. I even made the tongs i used to forge it. Most importanly though it works. I made sure of that ;)

Ah, good tips. Thanks guys!

Work with the hammer and get strong. You dont need mass for strength, just check out some of the guys making videos. They just look like fairly average build, however they'll all be strong as ox's. If you're worried about being asymetrical, weights will get you some of the way but they dont work enough core muscle groups. Do a kettle bell work out. That will increase core strength as well as arm and shoulder strength so you actually be able to do more than a bicep curl or a straight bench press (which very rarely has any real life use). It'll also make you much fitter to boot.

Yeah this was mild steel..... i havent dared go near anything tool stee like. I guess if i'm getting it that hot with tool steel it'll end up like "cottage cheese"? I did that frequently as a kid at school. We had a gas forge that heated a pile of ceramic chips. I made more sparklers than useful tools with that thing - much to the dismay of my design and tech teacher. I'm stuggling to see the temperature of my work peice when its in the forge. There's too much stuff on top of it to watch it properly. I'm having to dive about at awkward angles to watch into the fire. Have i placed it correctly in the fire? Should i be placing it deep inside the hot spot or a bit further to the surface? Sounds like i might have to get my backside to someplace to learn how to do this properly.

Today i learned my little forge can get up to welding heat and beyond. I was in the process of adjusting my tongs to hold some round stock to make a punch. I opened up my air valve (too much in retrospec) and turned to grab something from my work bench. I came back to find sparks poring out of my fire. I pulled my tongs out and i'd burnt the ends off! To make the best of a rubbish situation i tried to do a basic weld. I chopped off the burnt bit of steel (mild steel), folded over the metal back onto itself, applied some borax and crammed it back into the fire. After a few weld heats i was able to watch the centre of the fire turn from orange to yeallow then to white. Keeping the fire at this point i watched until i saw a few sparks from the top of the fire. I withdrew my work piece and hammered. Is this a correct way to determine forge heat or have i overheated the steel by this point? Most of the youtube videos i have watched on welding things like damascus billets have been with gas forges or in the case of coal forges you dont get to see the fire at all. I performed two heating/hammering cylcles, air cooled then ground the surface to check the weld. I didnt see any inclusions and it looked like a single peice of homogenous steel. From what i gather it has welded though i wont know how strong it is until i try some destructive testing of it. I wasnt trying to see if i could weld yet. It was on my list of things to try once i had made a punch and a better pair of tongs. But at least now i know i have the means to do it and i have done it successfully once (probably fluke but meh! :P ). I would like to know whether i'm doing things right or whether there are other signs to look out for?