bigb

Will do, do you use the torch to heat and bend them too? I got a nice little Smith for small indoor work.

I like that idea and hopefully will do that tomorrow if I get my huge list of chores and honey dos finished. (started a small plumbing task today and, well you know how that goes. Dam Kohler, at least I got to fab up a special wrench to work on the stupid thing)

Charles, I appreciate all your advice. This is what I am trying to do. The forge surfaces are pretty hard and durable now which I like because it doesn't fall apart when I shove stock into the pot. The problem is the shape and depth, the funnel shape lets my coal roll into the fire, can't keep any waiting on the edge it will just roll in. Plus the pot is too deep, I can only get good heat on the ends of my work piece and not the middle unless I build a huge fire so I want to bring that up a bit to be able to pass longer stock thru the fire instead of trying to jam it down into the hole. I need to use something fairly stable so it doesn't just fall into the tuyre. The bottom of the fire pot is 1/4" plate and I made my grate out of 1/4" and it sits 1.5" above the Tuyre. I thought I would use clay and I do have a few ounces of pre mixed refractory cement left in the bottom of the pail which will dry up if I don't use it soon. Does this seem reasonable? The forge I didn't build but received free from a customer who inherited it when they bought a house.

I have some of that pre mixed refractory cement, you do have to apply in very thin layers or it won't harden. Also it is not rated to be outdoors although I haven't had any issues with it, but I do live in a hot, mostly dry climate and I do keep the forge covered when not in use.

At risk of thread jacking I'll step in with an observation in an attempt to add more value to this thread. I've been following the clay threads for a while and one thing I noticed in one of Thomas' replies is that clinker loves to stick to clay. I hadn't seen this except in that one post and it has made me re-think using clay to re-shape my fire-pot in my barrel forge. I am now thinking of using Kast-O-Lite.

Those are really cool, I have a bunch of concrete nails, wonder how they'd work? I think I'd name the last one with the Sax "Coaltrane"

pics didn't show up. Did you polish the spike with a wheel and compound? I want to try polishing one of my crosses but they have square cuts and I wonder if the cloth wheel will grab them

My round pieces are good for small stuff but they do have cut rings in them I need to polish out, it imprints on the copper I use them for.

Lot's of Oxweld stuff available used and cheap on ebay. I have Victor, Harris, Smith and Oxweld. After using the Oxweld it's my torch of choice, perfect balance and easy to control without the valves getting in the way all the time, especially if you have big hands. I paid a lot less for the Oxweld than any of the other torches and parts too and if I had to give them all up but one I would keep the old Oxweld. Esab still has new cutting tips for Oxweld. They also introduced a new series of Oxweld and Purox sets in 2012 called "Elite" but I wasn't aware they already discontinued them http://www.esabna.com/us/en/news/archive/purox-oxweld.cfm

No problem. For a nube your work looks really nice, I am a nube too and I would be embarrassed to put my work next to yours. What did you use to polish the end of that spike? How long did that piece take you to make?

They're about 10 x 10 and a foot long. That front board on the pallet is a 1 X 6 Lots of goodies to be had there. 40 cents/LB

Saw these today at Tucson Iron & Metal, pretty sure they are some grade of stainless. I got some round ones a while back but these are much bigger.

Not exactly. The 90 degree column is used for derating purposed only. Field installed #12 wire is not allowed to have overcurrent protection over 20 amps with a couple of exceptions regarding motor and compressor loads. It is not rated to carry 30 amps, no way, no how. Motors and compressors have high startup current for miliseconds.

I just took a screenshot with Windows Snipping Tool and saved it as a jpeg

No grass here mostly sand and cactus but I get your point.

I need to get some clay to change the shape of my fire pot and forge floor a bit, it is a barrel forge presently funnel shaped and I need to bring the fire up a bit higher and level the floor a bit. Question is what kind of clay should I use? Local pottery shop sells recycled clay for $15 twenty pounds. Or I can get something like a castable fire brick mix at the kiln shop that needs to be fired and costs a lot more than $15. Near as I can tell the forge is made from dirt/clay with hardware cloth on top covered with refractory cement.

Wow small world. My 4th great aunt was Juana Madrid, wife of Santiago Blea, the founders of Trementina. I went to the Trementina reunion this year and met over a hundred cousins.

Welcome Freddie and are you related to the Bleas from New Mexico?

I am a beginner as well and I can tell you my first experience with the coal forge was not so encouraging, I was struggling to manage the fire, it was too hot and smokey and I went through a lot of coal. Fast forward six months, I got a decent blower with a switch to shut off when pulling stock out or going to lunch and a dam to limit the air flow, Keeping my air flow way down and learning to build a much more conservative fire that still gets the job done I can now run it a half day on very little coal. I am wearing a respirator for the soot but planning a chimney soon. So all I can say is give it a chance and you will probably grow to love it. I am keeping my coal forge and my present propane forge plus building another propane forge with a bigger floor area.

Thanks for that info JHCC, I did see that page a while back but it is nice for a refresher. I wish the links at the bottom worked though. I had actually forgotton about leaving a small hole at the top. I picked up some 1" scrap plate today and will get the torch out soon to make a "spacer" or two.

The height depends on how tall you are and what height is comfortable for you to work. I built a 4' and a 5' out of storm drain grate. I am 6'3" so I made them 40" high but they actually came to 41" with the grate on top. I made the first one with bolted on extensions for adjustability but never needed to adjust it. One thing I will say is that it is too high for a vise and I need to re-think that one. On the first table I cut my grate lengthwise into three sections. They rest inside the 1/4" angle and any part can be lifted out to make a space for OA drops etc.

How deep is that fire pot? My makeshift coal forge has a fire pot that is several inches deep and kind of funnel shaped. I am constantly having trouble getting some of my work into the heat, mainly pieces 6 or 7 inches long. I can get the ends heated fine but when I need to continue on down the piece I find I have to angle it into the fire pot to get to the heat which results in running the end into the fire pot before getting the last part in the heat. I am thinking of cutting a thick "block" with a hole in the middle, placing it on the bottom of the fire pot and setting my grate on top which will raise my fire a couple inches. I have also considered maybe I am not making the fire big enough, but I suspect with proper design I could accomplish what I want without making a bigger, wasteful fire.

Thomas, We do get a bit of rain here, almost 12 inches last year. I know that doesn't sound like a lot but you should have been here the day it fell!

That is a great idea. Myself I found a bunch of bucket teeth at the scrap yard and I welded one to a piece of round plate, works great for cutoff and for opening up my split crosses, Your trailer ball idea has me thinking, I believe I have an old 2-5/8" ball in the shed with a 1" shaft that I could grind into a 3/4" square to fit my little Swedish anvil. Are trailer balls hardened? I wonder if the grinding heat anneals them?