natenaaron

What do you mean not hardly.  It is 126 miles to the next "town" and a hundred more miles to where a black smith is.  Unless there is a secret list of blacksmith locations somewhere.

Oops, should have said Pressure gauge.  Long week.  I'm tired.  I have a HP regulator.  No tape on any connection, only pipe goop.

I don't have a regulator but this was no where near high pressure.

Yes, way overkill and not getting where it should.  I should be burning up metal in that thing.  I'm not, so the heat is going some where.  I thought out the doors so I sealed them up.  little hole to put the steel through and still nothing.  So going to start over.  I got Mike's book in the mail.  I'm reading it closely. 

I hate not being able to do what I want and not being able to figure out what I did wrong.

By the way, if anyone is reading this and has a mind too, Mike Porter's Burner book is well worth the money on amazon.

Some folks just don't have time to fix a tool so the ruin the tool.  Chisel handles are easy to make. At least the blade is not mess up.

Fix her up and don't let anyone else touch it but you.

CU/IN = 362ish and 620ish

1inch burner = 45 tip, tube length 8 inches, 1.25 inch/1 inch T.  No idea what intake area means

3/4 inch burners are built to your 3/4 inch specs on the nose.

I have made two forges.  One was too big for the 3/4 inch T burner by just a smidge.  I built another one for 2 3/4 T burners which should be over kill.  I put a 1 inch T burner in the smaller forge and that should have been complete overkill.  Neither forge will get a piece of metal past bright orange almost yellow.

Both forges have the same 2 inches of ceramic wool blanket capped by 1/4-1/2 satanite and two washes of ITC-100.  After questions here I made the necessary changes and even completely blocked off the front and rear doors to see if that helped get things to a higher temp.  Nope.  All that happened was the outside of both forges got screaming hot.

2 things I have noticed.  

Number 1-After running the smaller forge for about 30 minutes I swear the 1 inch burner is spitting unburned LP.  in the middle of the flame hitting the metal it looks just like a drop of water is hitting the metal then goes away, and does it again a few second later.  My assumption is the tank is freezing up.  I was in full sun and the temperature was 106 that day and the tank was in water so I have no idea why.  it is a 30 lb tank.  I have had a hard time finding a two way connector to daisy two 30 lb tanks together.  Supposedly this will help

Number 2

My heat is going elsewhere.  When I say I closed the forges up I mean I only left enough space for the 1/2 square bar to hang out.  Totally closed up with hard brick other than that

Only part of the floor of the larger forge is packable refractory and the rest hard brick.  I believe the hard brick is sucking the heat away.  

No hard brick in the little forge but man that thing got hot, so clearly my heat is escaping 

Conclusion

I messed something up and I am going to try again. This time a lot more research and zero thinking.  Only follow the recipe.

grrrr.

On 8/10/2016 at 4:56 PM, Elciteeve said:

Well as this is my first post it might already be obvious I'm new to IFI. I've been researching how to get set up forging for a while now and my first real find (or at least I hope it is) followed me home so I figured I'd give a shout out and see if this is actually worth keeping. I plan on having this chunk of metal be my learning anvil (ASO I think it's called?) Metal type is unknown although it's magnetic. weighs about 40lbs according to my bathroom scale. Measures 8" high by 3.5" square. What do you guys think, will this get me started? I was hoping for something bigger, but this was free, how could I say no? I'll be looking at a used railroad turned anvil this weekend that I might be able to get for cheap if this won't work. 

That thing is going to bounce all over the place.  Figure out a way to secure it to your stump or whatever.  Mine is 80 pounds, barely missed my foot and gouged a 1/2 inch deep pit in my concrete floor as I was pounding out some metal.  Once you have it secured.  Have fun.  I have a RR track anvil as well and I keep going to the chunk O' steel.  More real estate on top.

Concrete good but be aware molten metal can cause the concrete to pop.  Torch cutting something big is better done outside.  Other than that I've dropped just about every blacksmith project I have been working on on the floor.  Yeah, I'm that new, and the only problem I had was when my 80lb ASO bounced off the stump and gouged the concrete floor.

I've been searching Mike burner.  I will go searching thanks.

I am not one to support piracy, having been pirated myself on a couple occaisions.  Mikey98118, do you mind if I down load it?

Can someone point to a plan and or a description of Mike's burner design.  I have been reading lots of exchanges between Frosty and Mike about their respective burners, but I have not been able to find a description of plan of mike's.  This would help me understand their exchanges much better.

It is hard to search for something when you don't know the name of it.

Ok.  That makes sense

On 7/31/2016 at 8:59 PM, ThomasPowers said:

I've been teaching my students that the stock holding hand can go behind their back while they step up to the anvil and address the hot end without leaning over.

I know I am tired but that just confused the heck out of me.

1 hour ago, Frosty said:

That's probably one of the most dangerous things about using a propane forge, you almost have to wear gloves to shield yourself from the dragon's breathe but dragon's breath is exactly the thing that can super heat leather, shrink it on your hand and cook you.

That's why I wear the gloves.  I saw Waynecoe had a blower to get rid of that, anyone else use one?

1 hour ago, Jackdawg said:

- One of those "cant be bothered going up to the house and putting on my trousers, its only a 2 inch cut" moments. (Was just tinkering about in the shed with other stuff in my shorts when I got the bright idea)

I've had a few of those this summer.  I was working on a grant for the other job and was not wearing shop clothes when I would get to the shop.  "oh its just a little weld"  had me doing the BB through the running shoes dance.

Really have to get my brain out of my butt.  I like that HOT table idea, Glenn.

Thoughts sent.  

Big chunk of steel and a piece of railroad track is working just dandy for me.  Would I scrap it all in an instant for a real anvil? of course but until then these work fine.

The heated business end of the metal.  1x1/8 strap I had just finished putting a 90 degree bend on for a strap to hold my ASO on the stump.  I set it on the ASO with the hot corner hanging off.  Took my glove off to wipe sweat.  No idea why I was reaching past it but I bumped freshly bent hot corner coming up.  I will be getting aloe for the shop.  Have it at home, but none in the shop.  Just a few seconds inattention.  Hot metal has a way of making you refocus quick.

You are on your way with the freon can.  Keep us posted.

For once the picture makes something look not as bad as it really it.  This one is going to leave a nice brand scar.  Ouch.

This was just barely a bump after I finished hammering and took my glove off.

I like it

Go two inches on the blanket

These guys can be grumpy and I think some get a sense of accomplishment from it, but most are good folks and are helpful.  I will let you in on a secret, research and read then ask a question that references what you have read.  Don't do this just to appease the grumps.  It helps to formulate a much more direct and answerable question.  There are a lot of specifics in forge building that, if left out make a question unanswerable.  The questions you are asking have answers here somewhere but the search function being what it is (junk) makes it impossible to search effectively.  Go to google.  In the search bar type the address of the site. Then in the results you will see a search bar under the link.  That is a worthy search method.  You will find much more that way.  Search burner size and you will find a lot of good information.  Cubic inches are needed for burner size choice.

Glenn does not tolerate any type of foul language.  His sandbox, his rules, no use complaining.  All of us have had our hands slapped; some more than once. 

Depending on what you plan to do with the forge you will be looking at 1-2 3/4 burners.  2 will be overkill and one will be not enough.  That is the predicament I am in.

Being in Seattleish I would totally look up some local folks to talk to.  This is the internet and in no way a substitute for actual human connection.  I envy folks who have locals to talk to.

I know of a guy who paid for he and his wife to take a first class trip to hawaii with quarters.  He would ask for all dollar bills that he got in change given in quarters.  Then put them in the jar.  My friend was working at the bank when he turned them in.  

On 7/25/2016 at 2:19 PM, littleblacksmith said:

Yeah, I need to get better at my money management...... The 450 dollars that I made at the only craft fair I've done, which was back in April, is almost already gone, do to all of my recent......umm...... Let's call them "investments".........and I'm only 13!!

Better than booze and babes

Very nice.  If he had a girl the present is not inappropriate, or strange.  He can be sharpening it when her date comes to pick her up. 

Leprechaun poker/thumper.  Pointy end to drive him from his little home and the other end to stun him. 

looks like a porta band is in my future.