olfart

I bought the .030 tips today but forgot that I'd have to have a new ferrule to install the new tip. One more trip to the hardware store tomorrow! In the meantime, I shot a couple more photos this afternoon.

Frosty, I'll have to wait until tomorrow evening to get a side photo with dragon's breath. The forge is in an open shed, and daylight makes the dragon's breath hard to see. The burner is a 3/4" black pipe with 1 1/2" to 3/4" bell reducer on top with 1/8" pipe welded to a support in the middle of the opening. It has a .040 mig tip attached via 1/4" compression fitting. The propane tank is nearly empty (about 1.5" of frost at the bottom of the tank), and that may have a bearing on the inconsistency. And actually, the burbles in the gas line may be spitting fireballs, but the roaring stops momentarily. The fireballs may be hard to see in daylight. Jcornell, the fit between the burner support plate and the burner tube is pretty snug. I may have to try and find something to stuff in the support tube around the burner and see if that helps.

I've just completed my first propane forge using firebrick and a Guru's burner. I filed a slight flare in the burner opening in the firebrick and mounted the burner tube at the top of the flare. I've not yet figured out why I'm getting an intermittent flame. It roars like a jet engine for a few seconds to a minute, then I hear a burble in the gas line and the flame drops to a flicker, then jumps back to a roar again. It does produce good heat, but the on-again-off-again flame bothers me. It never has gone completely out, just drops back to idle. Here's a photo of the flame with a hammer head in the forge.

Well, I burned the brush pile today. Cooler heads prevailed, and I chose not to cook the struts after all. Too much opportunity for catastrophic failure. However, in the process of burning the brush pile I broke a steering arm on my tractor. Luckily it was far enough from the fire to enable me to remove the broken steering arm and haul it to the barn. That gave me my first opportunity to use my forge for a practical purpose! I fired up the forge and heated the bent side of the broken arm, beat it back to where it needed to be, then let it cool. I used the pinch bolt to align the broken piece and welded the broken piece back on, which was good enough to get the tractor back to the barn. A new part is now ordered, so I don't have to rely on my repaired part for very long. Thanks for all the good advice on NOT cooking the struts!

If you want shadowless, highly-detailed images of small items, a light tent is a good way. Just create a cone from a translucent material, leaving the top of the cone open just enough for the lens of the camera. Place the cone over the object on a sheet of white paper, and light one or more sides of the cone.

Of course I'll have no way of knowing whether critical temp was reached. My only means of determining whether they're safe is to further compress the spring and see if it expands back to its original position. If it doesn't, it will not be exerting any pressure on the top retaining nut. If it does, then it's down to the shop to have it done by a mechanic. If the shock itself fails due to heat, I won't know about it until it's all cool. The brush pile is more than 100 yards from the house, and I won't be going down there once I toss the struts into the fire.

Having replaced all four struts on my wife's car, I now have the four old struts rusting out by the barn. What I'm considering doing is lighting off the huge brush pile I've accumulated over the winter (includes a couple of 60' pine trees) and tossing the four struts in the middle of it. By the time it all burns down (probably around 36 hours worth) I'm guessing the springs should be pretty well de-sprung. No, I have no plans to dash out and pull the retaining nuts off the top. I'll put a screw clamp on a couple of turns of spring and see if they stay compressed when released first. If they stay where the screw clamp left them, then I'll consider removing the top nuts. If that doesn't work, I may take them to a mechanic and let him remove the springs for me.

"If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?" That used to be my favorite saying when I was teaching photography.

I'm probably going to put a commercially-made handle on this one if I can find one that will fit the eye without having to butcher the handle. We live on 35 acres of trees, so no shortage of wood to make one, just don't have time to wait for it to dry. Thanks for the welcome.

Having finally made the time to take advantage of the forge and anvil that have been sitting in the barn for 20 years or more, I'm finding metal work a fascinating hobby. I found and joined a group of hobby blacksmiths and have really appreciated their willingness to help an old newbie. They gave me a good chunk of steel, invited me to one of their activities, and provided the forge, anvil, tools, coal and labor to show me how to make a hammer. Heckuva deal! Unfortunately, when folks ask "Did you make that?", I can only reply, "Yes, I made it, but 4 other guys did all the work." That's sorta like the old saying, "We killed a bear, but Pa shot it." I did get to swing the hammer a dozen times in the process of forming my new hammer, but it was all a very informative learning experience. I'm looking forward to learning more about blacksmithing and actually getting to put my forge and anvil to work!