Kozzy

I too would like to hear some discussion on where to point burners. A lot of the commercial forges seem to point dead center--straight at the likely location of stock placement--but there have been some hints in the forums that offset is better (iirc, it was said to help reduce scaling and part-surface over-heating). If I had to guess (since I don't have a working gas forge yet)...I'd guess that pointing at one side of the shelf would allow you the most flexibility in placement of stock for heating. However, that also means your stock is heated less evenly. So what's the right balance and is it even a big enough issue to worry about?

USDA allows carbon steels for use as cooking surfaces only. Obviously you have to avoid those with added lead and a couple of other nasties. We do food equipment using carbon steel (usually 1040 for us) for cooking surfaces as well as stainless for other food contact surfaces. There is a special caveat for fryers--you need a steel/stainless that has ZERO copper content. Copper acts as a catalyst for free fatty acid build-up and can cause the oil to go rancid quickly. Tortilla cookers, pancake cookers, french toast cookers, and a few other similar "flat" products use off the shelf channel in A36 or similar. Usually no need for higher carbon or heat treat because the cooker will draw the temper anyway. Surface cure is done like any cast iron pan. For the most part the USDA inspectors understand but every once in a while you get one who is ignorant and you have to "teach" them what they already should know. They hate that. Most of the pizza equipment we have done is for raw product and has been stainless. We have done some in cookers but those were stainless also simply because in a commercial application, "you might as well" to keep the USDA inspectors smiling.

The pressure issue is an interesting one. I tried to do a little research and there is not much to work from that isn't heavily generic. One thing that popped up which implied higher pressures are a good thing is how they are rated: It seems that the rating is generally expressed in how many HP you "suck up" with the pressure you apply (my interpretation). Minimum was about 1/2 HP per square inch being cut---on a 2" belt (common), that means you will stall most smaller grinders too easily to use the belt as effectively as you should. Amount of pressure was also highly related to backing material. Stiff belts were for the higher pressures and flexible belts better for low pressure grinding (according to 3M). Friability is the issue. Too little pressure and you are not breaking and exposing new cutting edges on the belt. That worn out belt may actually just need to be hit hard to cut like new again. In any case, the subject is interesting to me. If anyone has or can find better references to pressure....preferably in actual pounds applied rather than the amorphous HP that tends to be used, I'd like to hear about it. It'd be nice to know if there are comparative results for belt life or material removal per minute based on tests just to see how it all affects the process. My little belt grinder aint even close to strong enough to apply the pressures I should be using. Dang thing stalls if you sneeze hard at it.

I'm anything but an anvil expert but that appears to have a lot of swayback plus some damage on the step which implies questionable use. At that price, I would tend to think you could do better, especially in your general part of the world. It's an easy call when you already have an anvil to beat on but my call is that you could do better if you have some patience. I suspect that not too far down the road you'll start battling that swayback and be wishing you had waited around for a better beater block. But...it's just my wild opinion and not much more.

Maybe I should have clarified better--the intent was to emphasize how bad the average spike was for knife making and that if someone insisted on making a knife from spikes, at least use the HC version and have a slight chance it won't be utterly useless. I had edited out the common phrase "knife shaped object" to describe results and now I wish I had left it in

Just one point on the hardness matter---there are *some* spikes made from higher carbon material. These will have "HC" stamped on the head. Those without the HC will make lousy knives. Those with the HC will be about like a medium carbon knife with a minimum of .2% carbon (vs .06 min for standard spikes)--somewhat useful but not great. Here is a link to specific spike information from 1968 standards http://www.worldclassknives.com/spikes/spikes.pdf

One poke for newbies---QUALITY hack saw blades. A good blade is at least 10 times and more like 50 times better than a cheap one. Most on the home center shelves are "handyman" grade and pretty mediocre..most=virtually all so it's not usually worth trying to sort out the crap. Best to buy good blades in bulk packs from a machinist supply source. If you don't have a decent hack saw already definitely go high-tension, not the ones where the blade is tensioned with a wing nut. It's also handy to get a second saw...a smaller one which you set the blade to cut on the pull stroke can be a real life saver in odd situations. Sure, you could just turn the blade around but then you wouldn't have *2* hacksaws .

If you have a good farm supply store near you, your bucket selection will increase immensely. For the small stuff I prefer a stainless steel milking bucket--never gets skanky with rust and not all that expensive. Your profile says Maine so be warned of bucket freezing--they'll often blow out the bottom as the ice expands. The milking buckets are one piece so won't do that (although you might have to pound a bulge back in place so it sits flat). Galvanized utility buckets tend to be constructed with a bottom insert. Keep plastic buckets out of the sun so the UV doesn't make them brittle...or use livestock watering buckets designed to sit in the sunshine.

You'll find that the price goes way up as you get into the ability to measure the higher end of what you'll need to measure. Most of those IR thermometers (I assume that's what you mean) top out well below the HT temps you would need to reach. If you eventually get one, you'll also get one more surprise: The temp of the blade-like part you are measuring drops incredibly quickly once you pull the part out of the heat. You need to hit the quench a LOT faster than many people think. No dwaddling. I have a good industrial IR thermometer but it's range tops out at about 1500f so I have never used it for HT temp measuring. Unless you are getting exotic, I'd personally stick to magnetic and visual cues, saving the IR thermometer (a cheaper one) for measuring stuff which can't really give you those cues like tempering.

Taiwan for some...sorry.

It appears that you might not have a big problem with outside corrosion. From: https://www.dynalene.com/Molten-Salts-s/1831.htm "Additionally, these salts are non-toxic, non-flammable, and exhibit negligible vapor pressures even near peak operating temperatures, minimizing safety hazards and the need for high-pressure equipment. Dynalene’s molten salts have excellent corrosion resistance to stainless and alloy steels and are compatible with carbon steel below 350°C." The low vapor pressure implies they don't outgas much in terms of nasties. Compatible with carbon steels implies that even that which escapes probably won't be too awful. Some other positive things are also implied about the nitrate/nitrite salts on the site. But---a KISS solution is always best and what Charlotte mentioned about a sand bath sounds well worth a try before going to more complex solutions.

Cold saw is the way to go if you need accurate and square cuts. SOP in structural steel fab...at least prior to the new CNC beam lines. The problem is, they are not cheap. I have read some reviews on the Grizzly unit(s) and people were reasonably happy--but commented that it was a hair loose (like all chinese stuff). Jet has a couple of models also so you might compare there. Best is to wait for an industrial auction and get a Dake or similar true industrial brand. Quality blades are the key. Personally, I'd put the money into a better quality horizontal bandsaw unless you are cutting lots of small solid bits that MUST start dead square--faster, cheaper blade replacement, better ability to use coolant (than the lowest end cold saws), don't need a high infeed and outfeed table, better portability to tuck out of the way in the shop, larger cutting envelope.

I octuple the call for a real electrician on this one. It's a little too big a bite for the average home-brew job. Lots of fiddly code compliance issues from end to end and nothing already in place which gives a good start point. Suggestion, though. The local home center likely has a "book" (more like a notebook) called "code check electrical". This is NOT an instruction manual on wiring but a very basic list/explanation of common code issues involved with wiring. Studying this cover to cover while you sit on the pot will at least help you understand what the issues are and help you better guide the electrician to the result you want...and understand the choices he makes as well as why he gets paid lots more than the local burger flipper. They also have them for plumbing and general construction--all very good learning resources for the background info you need to better manage your own projects. Give yourself a christmas present.

I was wandering through the internets and happened across a style of axe used in Portugal by those harvesting cork from cork oak trees. It'd be an interesting project so got a little attention. Looking closer, however, I noticed a wedge system to attach the handle which I hadn't seen before. It appears that they use a 3 wedge system in an equilateral triangle to expand the handle and keep it in place. By my take, it allows for a round drift (easy) with even pressures around the whole perimeter of the eye. Got me to thinking about wedge systems in general. To the best of my memory in the US, I've only seen single and double parallel wedges used--probably for economy. It's actually a pretty lousy system as it tightens in the exact wrong direction: If you are only using one wedge line, it'd seem to me you'd want to keep it tightest in the line of force rather than side to side. I've had single wedge tools loosen up in that line as they wear, even if you tighten the wedges to apply the usual side to side pressures. The problem is, a wedge split the other way is likely going to increase handle splits when used. Is there such a thing as the ultimate/better/best wedge system? Something that stands out above average? Just curious to see if someone's run across something that they felt was outstanding or unusual (eye-catching).

Those were quite common as paperweights. Remember that in the good old days, offices rarely had A/C so you opened a window to get some summer cooling--and everyone had paperweights on their desks. A salesman's sample would usually have a much more complete finish to show the details--putting their best foot forward rather than being just a rough casting like that. You can still buy mini anvils in the 1 lb range--for actual use by jewelers and such (machined top) I have one on my desk right now that was a "free gift" with another Grizzly order a decade or two ago.

We need a better idea of what you are lifting AND what you are using for the lift. Some info on the nature of the move would help also: Moving it across a shop vs onto a truck, 5000 miles of dirt road, and 300 feet up a loose gravel hill are 2 different things. Some machine tools like lathes are notoriously unbalanced and might require a different set-up. From my experience, you also might be over-complicating things--but without info it's hard to tell.

Here's an article about bending non-round tubing http://www.thefabricator.com/article/tubepipefabrication/bending-nonround-tubing Be sure and look at the noted "figures" as they clarify a lot of points.

You are going to collapse the outside of the tube a bit with just about any easy method. This is SOP on most items but can yours tolerate that kind of issue? There are ways around it like filling the tube with fixturing metal or a "snake" but that would not be cost effective in most circumstances. Are you doing 4 corner bends from one piece of stock or individual corners that get assembled into the frame?

Speaking of # 1...while in China a few years back and visiting a manufacturer, I noticed that the guys arc welding would do it in shorts and flip flops, squatting down with the part being welded just in front of them. The front of their legs looked like my 130 year old Grandma's. You forgot the corollary to #4: As soon as you get the forge fire blazing really well, that's when "nature calls" and you have to find the bathroom

Mine also sounds like a freight train so I generally run it as little as possible and off hours. I have triangles and they cause me some problems--jam really well into 1" bores on parts. One of these days I'll change to smaller rods or cones. I found that the action of the triangles is so mild that at best, I get a little bit of clean-up but almost no breakdown of sharp edges or deburring action from them. They are more of a polishing media and if the part is not already good and smooth, it isn't going to get much better. I also have some media that looks exactly like Hershey's kisses chocolates--and those are much coarser and aggressive. I use them almost exclusively because I get a better finished result in terms of deburring. They still don't really break sharp edges much but they do show a surfacing effect on the parts. I run wet. When I bought it used, it came with a 5 gallon bucket marked by the former owner "deburring soap". Although I am not sure of brand or anything, I can tell that it's really heavy on anti-foaming agents. Might even be something like clothes washer soap (about that thick). I generally run just wet enough that everything is fluidized and well wetted but not underwater. It generates enough "mud" from the breakdown of those "kisses" that I flush it regularly.

You beat me to it. "Traditional" is little but a marketing term in smithing where the actual meaning is in the eye/perception of the maker...but it has some real meaning when it comes out the product output. How many times have you seen the term "wrought iron" when the product was nothing but cheap tubing bent to emulate the real thing? Technically one definition of "wrought" is simply "worked" so it legally applies but it definitely violates the spirit of what wrought or traditional really is. If I was pressed (no pun), I'd define "traditional" as a control issue: The outcome of the material is in the Smith's hands rather than relying on jigs, fixtures, and dies for the result. Obviously fixtures et al have a place but in "traditional" smithing, the final work is not primarily defined by them but by the smith and how such tools are used. The Smith is in command of the tools, not the other way around.

Google says "Clenching" tongs of some sort.

Thanks for the info. This is really only for use as a back-up forge when something that needs a large heat comes around such as heat treating a larger object. You can shut down 2 of the 4 tuyeres which would help gas use a little but I do know it's not practical for daily work. I've been pondering "upgrades" also to some more modern materials, especially in the lid, as well as tweaks to better enclose and retain heat rather than heating the whole world. Primary forging is done in a coal burner for now...and will eventually be in a smaller proper gasser. Can you elaborate on what to search on to take a look at the book you mentioned? Thinking even more...This old beater has all the beginnings of what would be needed for a proper gasser with a ribbon burner. All I'd need to do is ditch the old lid, fill the trough to make a proper hearth, and build a much smaller enclosure to sit on the hearth as the heat chamber. Hmmmmm.

I'd call that an understatement . Looks like the quality of work that most of us can only aspire to meet

Those plans are basically designed to use a single sheet of plywood. You might save a little space building smaller but probably not cost or labor. The plan shown has an internal dimension of roughly 1.8 square feet. Just for kicks, say that one could move the piston at a rate of 1 foot per second (4 seconds for a full stroke) without being too over-taxing: That translates to about 110 CFM. A shorter box (smaller in length only) would just mean changing stroke direction more often and losing a little work efficiency but not much. Compare that 110 cfm to many of the blowers advertised which seem to run in the 135-165 CFM range--and tend to be choked down a little by a gate.