polarbearforge

Here are a couple pictures of the door on the back of my venturis. http://www.polarbearforge.com/temp/small_forge_back_open.jpg http://www.polarbearforge.com/temp/small_forge_back.jpg There is a stop to hold it open, and there is a slot for it to lock into place when closed. It's filled with high temperature refractory. Jamie btw, the whole forge body is laser cut.

I built the inline treadle hammer from plans by Clay Spencer. I have a picture of it here. At the time, I didn't have room for the treadle hammer and rolling mill, so I no longer have the treadle hammer. The main modification that I made, was instead of welding the tube for the pivot of the treadle to the front of the upright column, I drilled holes through the column instead. Obviously I had to make the treadle a bit longer, but not bit problem there. I used 6" diameter round for the anvil, and a lead filled tube for the hammer. Jamie

These are the kind that I make for re-enactment events. They hold better than rebar. I make them from either 1/2 inch square or 3/8. Jamie

I'd laser cut it myself, but then again, that's what I do a for aliving. Jamie

I regularly cut up to 5/8 inch steel. Somtimes 3/4, 7/8 and even 1 inch thick. Stainless and aluminum are my other common materials. I've cut 3/8 inch stainless and 1/2 inch thick aluminum. Really nice cuts. I program and operate everything for my machine. It's a Trumpf 5000w co2 industrial cutting laser. I'm very rarely bored. I've cut everything from garden art to knife blanks to semi truck bumpers to cabinet parts to machine gun parts and all sorts of other fun stuff. Most of the time it's the minimum order that's the kicker for people. It is a fantastic tool if used properly. Jamie

I program and operate a laser for a living. I've cut knife blanks for a company (sorry, can't say which). Make more sense for mass production rather than just one or two. Jamie

If you want to try powder that's a bit cheaper, you can get steel sandlbasting media pretty cheap that is a high carbon. The stuff that I played with was 1.1% carbon steel with very few extras. It works well for experimenting before buying the different varieties from Kelly. Jamie

When I first started pattern welding, this was the combination of materials that I used. I found no need to remove the paint. Heat is the best cleaner, and proper use of it and flux will take care of it. None of the inclusions I have ever had could be attributed to the paint. 10 inch sections is a pretty beefy size, I'd probably start smaller. When you tack weld the ends, I wouldn't fill the entire end. I'd run 1 or 2 lines across all the layers. Anytime that I've seen the entire end filled with weld, there were usually inclusions at the ends where the flux couldn't escape. Jamie

I use it all the time for pattern welding. There is one big advantage (or drawback, depending on your point of view), random pattern is nearly impossible. I have to really work at it and try to get random pattern. Completely straight is a piece of cake. Ladder patterns are wonderful. It takes a slightly different train of thought to manipulate the patterns, but it's worth it. Jamie

Yep, I'm on here. It's a wonderful tool, but just like every tool, it has it's strengths and weaknesses. The first one I built, had a maximum thickness of about 2 inches. It doesn't move steel real fast at that thickness. I usually work in the 1.25 and down area. What other questions do you have? Jamie

Never tap the anvil. It drives me nuts. Ask Finnr (poster #3). He was driving me nuts, though I swear he started to really do it on purpose. Jamie

My first damascus was strapping and bandsaw blade. I still use it to teach pattern welding to people. I usually start at about 25-30 layers, and it's not that bad doing it by hand. (Of course the rolling mill makes it easier....) You can weld just layers of strapping to itself and get a pattern, though it's rather muted. I've never cleaned off anything from strapping and never had problems forge welding the material due to it. Other problems sometimes, but not because of the gunk on it. Jamie

It depends on who it is. Sometimes having an assistant is more work than not having one. For me, in my shop, an assistant would just get in the way. Now I rarely blacksmith and focus pretty much on bladesmithing, so it will vary a lot from shop to shop. Jamie

I'll second the mineral oil. It doesn't go rancid like vegetable oil can. Jamie

If you mean the plans with the roller blade wheels for guides, I built one. Here's a picture of it http://www.polarbearforge.com/shop/treadle_hammer.jpg. I followed the plans for the most part. There were two things that I did change. For the tranisition piece that pivots on the head and connects to the cross bar I used a large piece of angle iron and cut it down to size. I didn't feel like bending the pieces like the plans showed. The other change I made, was to drill a hole through the column rather than welding a pipe to the front of the upright colomn for the foot pedal to pivot on. I tried it both ways, and it was a lot sturdier. The only thing to remember is that you need to make the treadle a little longer. I no longer have it to take more pictures. At the time, I didn't have the room for the treadle hammer and rolling mill in my old shop. So I dismantled the hammer. Jamie

Nope. When I teach people how to pattern weld, I have them weld cable first and then go to layered. (Assuming that you've forged before.) Jamie

I've built a number of forges, mainly with some aspect of bladesmithing in mind. I favor a round forge chamber to maximize swirl. The burner arrangement is different. I'm not sure I'd want it coming up from the bottom like that. It does seem that a bit of a chimney effect would happen and a lot of the heat would just go out the opening. I'm probably just missing it, but where does the gas hookup in the second picture? I can see the air connection, but I'm missing the gas. Gas forges are definately capable of getting hot enough to melt steel. My first forge (which was too big to general bladesmithing) would melt steel if I wasn't careful, and that was at 7 pound of pressure. It was a forced air burner. My small portable forge that I use for demos is a venturi. The first one would keep a real nice forging heat at about 1 1/2 pound of pressure and forge weld at about 4. The current one isn't quite the same, and still needs some tweaking. Ron Reils forge burner page is a really good reference. The venturi burners I use can be found at Propane Forge Burner Design / Sidearm Burners Jamie

Greetings! I know a few here, and recently found the blueprints section and that eventually (after I looked at ALL of them) led me here. I'm a bladesmith that works as a machinist. I consider myself a geek on many levels, and usually research the living daylights out of topics. I don't really do much decorative blacksmithing, when I forge, it is guaranteed to be a blade! Jamie (Cool, one of my introductions that doesn't sound like the opening to a support group. )