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I Forge Iron

Broadus

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Posts posted by Broadus

  1. When I build a much bigger indoor forge I want to try to build it with a remotely placed bosh on top of the forge. There's a good photo of this type of set up in Richard Postmans book on mousehole forge, I would post it but I believe the photo is copyrighted... the bosh works the same way a "pop pop boat" or coffee pot works.

  2. Mac I want to attempt to fabricate a cone from a  fan like pattern, but if that proves too difficult I'll try taking slices out of a thick pipe. 

     

    I think I've finished my final design, if the weather is good tomorrow I'll start fabricating.

    Thank you guys so much for the help!

    image.jpeg

  3. Oh!! Well that's great! I I can go back to my original design! I was so bummed out when I found out I "had" to use a side draft hood outdoors! Thanks guys!

    By any chance does anyone know any good plans for a real hood? If not I'll find/make some. 

  4. I understood all of that, and I was calling the side screen a wind block. I've heard and seen that a big hood like that doesn't work outdoors, is it the side screen that makes yours work? Sorry if this sounds argumentative, I'm just making sure I get it right... That style of hood looks so much better and is much simpler to design around this style of forge.

  5. I greatly prefer the look of that style of hood, but I was under the understanding that, that type of hood drew smoke based on the rising smoke just being funneled up. Though your forge does have quite a wind block...maybe that's the solution I need!

  6. The height of the chimney illustrated is only that tall because I ran out of paper, I could make it much much heigher. I really dislike using Coke so I don't have to worry about designing it for that.

     

    So if this overly complicated bosh won't work I'll just compromise and push the bosh back and the hood forwards... Before I start fabricating does anyone know if the super sucker would still work outside if it was oriented like in diagram B? 

    I will be powering it with a hand crank blower, but I may build a pair of bellows for the sake of presentation. And I definitely won't be building a bottom blast, a side blast seems like a much better design, and it has "visual mass" where as a bottom blast is just a flaming table, once you add all your forge jewelry and du dads I've found it that the flaming table can become to look very messy and confusing, especially to someone who doesn't know what they're looking at. 

     

    If the alternate hood orientation won't work I'll go with design A.

     

    thanks for all the help! 

     

     

    image.jpg

  7. I suppose it would heat the water more... Though I don't think it would heat it enough that it would stop cooling the tuyere, though I will make a small air gap between the hood and the bosh, possibly even fill the gap with refractory of some kind. Without the bosh the placement of the hood gets awfully awkward... Does anyone know if the super hood would work in a more upright position? 

  8. Charles I will probably be using bituminous, but if smoke becomes an issue with a crowd I'll probably use anthracite or charcoal, maybe Coke, I'm hopeful the hood will take care of that though. 

    And I'll be mostly doing very small stuff with this forge, 1/4-1/2, though I'll probably push its limits setting up some tooling. 

    I really don't want to push the hood out into the "bin", I think a hood places awkwardly can look really tacky (I'm going to be demonstrating at a a big festival with it, so presentation is important). I'm not worried about the added difficulty of fabricating the u shaped bosh, the guy who I'm going to have help me weld it up (since all I have is an arc welder and I'm rubish with it) has made motorcycle gas tanks. Though I may make a smaller bosh and make a bigger gap between the bosh and the bin.

    thank you very much for your insight! I know you're one of the only side blast forge guys on this side of the pond. 

     

    Mac I definitely won't be making it out of stainless! I'm too stingy for that. But I was going to make it out of a thicker sheet (11 gauge, or 1/8"). I'll have to look into galvanizing! Though my dad said he had some sort of gas tank liner stuff, "red coat" or something. I don't know how it's so with heat though. Small footprint comes first as this is going to be my mobile forge... I'm going to build a MUCH bigger one in my shop when I get everything cleaned out.

  9. I've finally decided to level up from a break drum forge, and I want to do it right this time. I've been studying up, and I think I may have designed the forge I want.

    I just want to check that I'm not overlooking any fatal errors in my design, which I know has flaws.

    I would have used a tried and true premade design but I couldn't find one that had all of the features I want. Those features being; a compact, water cooled side blast forge with a hood which will function outside, this is a lot to ask for. Basically a do all forge I can take almost anywhere.  This would be much easier if I didn't also want it to look good. The main problem is to get the hood (super sucker because its the smallest that will function outdoors) and the bosh tank to fit in the same space. My solution to this is make the bosh a kind of U shape so that the hood can fit in the middle. I'm not even sure if this is even necessary because the bosh tank is now stupidly big (13 ish gallons according to the liquid volume calculator I used.) so I wonder if I could just get away with just a wide shallow bosh. The reason I wont just make a thin tall bosh (which is obviously most effective) is because I don't want the hood to hang off the back of the forge, I know its finicky but I want a really nice presentation when I take it to the fair, and because I'll have to look at it the whole time I work. So I'm trying to keep the bosh tank the same dimensions as the base of the hood. 

     

    So does anyone see anything about this which won't work?

    Thanks in advance, Broadus.

    Forge.jpg

  10. hmm... Thank you Thomas, you are correct, I seem to have had a lapse in anvil knowledge when I wrote that... oops....

     

    Now that I'm thinking about it again I have another possibly wrong theory. One major difference between anvils like Arm&Hammer's and older the "stockier" ones like Mousehole's is the built up method. The later slimmer/longer anvils were made of three pieces, the base, the top, and the faceplate. So the grain of the wrought iron in these long heeled anvils runs from horn to heel uninterrupted. Where the older built up anvils have the heel and horn jump welded on, interrupting the grain and creating a weak point, you'll almost always see these broken at that weld... I don't know if i've ever seen a horn/heel broken off an Arm&Hammer, but to have the grain oriented lengthwise is obviously considerably stronger.

    Did the technology to produce quality wrought iron change at all? I recall a trenton ad that showcased the quality wrought iron they used, showing a wrought iron bar that was bent back on itself twice cold without breaking,  I'm honestly curious, I don't intend to argue. 

    I'm also curious about why they'd put the hardy so far out on the heel, does anyone have any idea why this would have any advantage? 

  11. 6 hours ago, jmccustomknives said:

    True story bro, one night my wife went to rub my back.  She started poking me and said something to the effect, "your backs like rubbing a board", "Quick go get some Crispy Cream donuts and eat a dozen".  I've actually gained weight, all muscle.  I guess swinging a sledge hammer did more than going to the gym. 

    It always annoys the xxxx out of me that there are people who pay go to a gym to swing a sledgehammer... so much wasted energy on forging tractor tires... lol

  12. I think the slendering of london pattern anvils was due to advancements in the material they used to make them. Earlier ones like mousehole were made so sturdy because that's how it had to made for the soft wrought iron to hold up to the work, you'll notice often the very end of the horn on these older anvils has started to tip down like a teapot because that's where it's least supported. I've also noticed often on colonial anvils which have quite small heels the whole heel has begun to sag. Even over the very thickest part of the anvil it can start to sag over time. Then they started making anvils out of an entire steel top like with Hay Budden, they could get away with making the horn and heel so long since it was so much stronger, so they did... Though it doesn't make sense why it would be better to have them longer.

  13. Man! I've never had hammer envy so bad! I'm gonna have to make one those someday... the straight peen also looks cool, reminds me of the sledges those pictures of the anvil makers in mousehole forge, like the offset head that chain makers used but they looked slimmer with a longer peen. Great hammers!!!

  14. I'm not sure if i can post the picture due to it being under copyright, but here is a link to it. 

     

    http://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;s10287&pos=1&action=zoom&id=13361 

    this is an amazing picture in an anvil making shop, but behind the smiths on top of the forge is a barrel for the tuyere, there doesnt seem to be any pump. I've wondered long and hard about how it works, but obviously it does. btw this photo is also in Richard Postmans book mousehole forge, he says this photo was taken inside mousehole forge but this source says otherwise.

    maybe as the water boils the steam escapes up the pipe leading into the top of the barrel, water flowing down the lower pipe to refill the tuyere at the same time? speculating that there is also a hole in the top of the barrel? sorry if this is nonsense, I'm not a steam engineer

  15. just finished checking De Re Metallica and this seems to be a style of "hammer" from the time, there was no real implication for it's use other than to break stuff. I guess I should have checked there first, lol

    Maybe it is REALLY old, should I still use it if it could be this old?

  16. Oops! i forgot to put something in for scale... It's about 5-6 pounds, 9 1/4" from tip to tip, and 1 1/2" thick. I had wondered if it was even a hammer.

     

    Oh well I was hoping it was a viking age relic :P Thanks for the IDs!

  17. I hope I'm writing this in the right section. 

    I picked up this sledge hammer head at quadstate this year for two bucks (along with many others lol), but I don't know a thing about it other then that it is OLD. So I was wondering if anyone knows if it had a specific use or could estimate an approximate age? 

    It seems to be made of wrought iron but does not have steel faces like other wrought iron hammers. I had to make the handle because eye was such a strange shape, plus it didn't seem right to handle it with a storebought handle. 

    OldSledge1.JPG

    OldSledge2.JPG

  18. I just got home from sofa, had a great time! 

    I got a drill press, a forge blower, and a neat little bench grinder, all of which are hand crank powered.

     

    The demonstrators were great, and I learned a lot. Everyone was so friendly and creative.

     

    here's my copy of the group photo

    post-56789-0-71322900-1411871687_thumb.j

    my brother Angus is the boy in the blue shirt and I'm behind him.

     

    Before we left we heard that this year had record attendence, only 15 short of 1,000! And still tomorrow to go.

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