John in Oly, WA

Nice! Now that I see it again, I remember that one. So, never mind my question then, Theo would've handled it just fine.

Was this one the source of the 3-D printing comments earlier in the thread?

I'm just asking, because I'm a noob myself, but could he slit the thickest part, right by his thumb in the picture, and widen it into an eye? Don't know what he'd do with the scroll on the back then.

I really enjoy Forged in Fire and Tuesday's episode was especially fine having two competitors I actually know of. Congrats on the win Theo! Very cool!

What would you have done if you'd ended up with the canister Damascus set of material that Sorrell picked? Or the higher carbon steel folded inside the milder steel (don't know the terminology). From my inexperienced eye, that canister just looks like difficult stuff to do. Not that any of the others were easy by any means.

Nice! That anvil cleaned up well.

I hope you're feeling better now Jonathan.

Very cool that you're connected to that bit of history! I always wondered why they burned the Bounty rather than beach it and dismantle it. So much good wood could have been used for so many things - housing, for one. But then I come from a woodworking background.

I made some progress on my heat treat oven this weekend.

Yes, they are a bit. I have an aunt in La Conner and one of my brothers lives in Sultan.

I didn't know that. Learn something new every day. I love it!

Hi Glenn, what part of the state are you in? I have a bunch of extra old propane tanks. If you decide to go the building route, you could have one or two. I've only built one forge so far, but it works pretty well and I got some great advice from Mikey on the burner I built, so it's working well too.

and I thought Pitcairn Island was home of the Bounty descendants.

And as the label says - to reverse rotation swap wires 5 and 6 (or 8?). In the photo, it's hard to tell if that's a 6 or an 8. I thought 8 at first glance.

I'd suggest honing up your persuasive talking skills and find all the places around you that might have big pieces of scrap steel or even an old anvil. Tell your story, that you're in school, working to learn the blacksmithing trade etc. and see if they won't GIVE you something that would work as an anvil. If you look serious and sincere enough about it, I'll bet you could come up with something for free. Also an ad on Craigslist or the local equivalent to the same effect might find an old codger with a soft spot for a young novice just starting out. Give it a shot - who knows what you might find.

A treadmill motor might work. And you'd get the variable speed control thrown in. Used treadmills can be found for fairly cheap - maybe even free. Of course I built a filter box for the motor on my home made belt grinder. The treadmill motor on it is rated at 2 hp and 7099 rpm.

Nice irons! Especially like the Boy Scout logo!

Well, apparently there must not be. Batson's booklet on forge presses has full plans. I started out with the idea of building mine with 4" x 6" rect. tube, but when I went to the scrap yard the only thing suitable was 8" x 8" H-beam. Everything else was either much smaller or much bigger. So I made mine out of that - pictures at the link below.

The belt grinder I built has a top speed of roughly 5225 SFPM with the pulley configuration I have now. It doesn't spray sparks all over the place, but it takes the metal down nicely. Some sparks when I bear down on it.

Dang, and I was going to tell him that anvil's junk, send it to me and I'll dispose of it properly.

Now I just have to say, great find! Nothing better than free! And a post vise to boot?! Can't beat that with a stick, but definitely with a cross pein hammer! Well, not the anvil directly, but the hot steel on it.

I will always be a beginner - so much to learn.

But I know the person who can tell me how many heats it'll take to make this or that definitely isn't a beginner.

If you're wanting to use the Teflon type tape, make sure it's the yellow stuff - that's made for propane. The white is for water pipes.

Impressive job on that! Looks like a serious amount of scroll saw work.

If you have enough belt adjustment, you could just let it ride over (outside) the platen wheels - or looks like it would ride the bottom one anyway - when the contact wheel is being used. Then you wouldn't have to take the platen off anyway.

Nicely fitted out! Looks a lot better than the one I built.

That looks like it's going to be a sweet forge when you're done. Keep the pics coming along on the build progress.

My forge is a one piece Kast-o-lite 30 interior with kaowool outside of that, all inside an old propane tank. I've only fired it up about a dozen times so far (I'm a noob), but it's handled the temp cycles fine so far. Being a noob, I never thought about a one-piece design cracking (red face).

Concern B is what I'd be focused on. The burner is fine, make a bigger forge body. Like you're already thinking, what you have is great until you start to bend the straight piece you've been heating up. Then all of a sudden it doesn't fit back into the forge for the next heat.