Lou L

Now you need to make a cockroach/boot sculpture as a bookend to this.  I'm resisting the puns

I have similar experience to JHCC.  I use anthracite and have used rice, pea and nut sized.  The nut sized is tougher to get started  and the resulting fire is easily disturbed by inserting steel.  I currently use mostly pea sized but mix in rice along with the remnants of my remaining nut coal.  I start with lower volumes of air to get it going and then crank it up to suit the fire size I need.  When I have the air up high it actually extinguishes the coal right at the mouth of the tuyere (I use a side blast forge so this area is on the side of the fire.). It is conceivable that your air is too high in volume and you are putting out the base of your fire.

I have no experience using anthracite in bottom blast so my advice is limited to what I've shared already.  It most definitely works when you get your air and forge tuned properly.  Once you get it running right you will be impressed with the heat and flexibility offered.  Simple air adjustments are all you need to shape and size your fire...no need for coking or using water.

Lou

Fair warning:  I'm a dreamer who always tries for the complex when simple would suffice....

  I think it would be amazing to weld rods on each side of it.  Attached to those rods would be arms that are similarly attached to the base.  It would create a pivot point allowing you to stand it up for use on end or to lay it horizontally.  All you need is a way to pivot it and hinge it off one end of the base.

Either way it is a sweet chunk of steel and will serve well as an anvil.

Awww....the description had me so curious and now I can't see it  

I trust you will enjoy the reading more than you enjoy the hospital stay.  I'm looking forward to the insights you bring back after the reading.  Heal well, Thomas.

2 hours ago, Lou L said:

That rice coal sure does pop like rice crispies.  They make me become zoning all over the shop area... Little Retina seeking demon missiles.

No idea how spell check does this to me when I'm on my phone......

That rice coal sure does pop like rice crispies.  They make me become zoning all over the shop area... Little Retina seeking demon missiles.

Very nice.  Did you draw that out all by hand or was there powered intervention? 

It sure does look like a stake anvil intended for drifting tenons.  maybe the file was cut into the side for final shaping of the tenons.

Welcome Boedi!

The best advice I can give you is to start making connections in your area for sources of steel and other gear.  The blower issue is the perfect way to get started.  Talk to everyone you can about the fact you are looking for a blower.  Visit a junkyard or HVAC shop and chat with people.  They will be impressed by a young guy wanting to work with his hands and might help you out.  Before you go anywhere, though, do your homework and know enough about what it is you are looking for.

By way of example, I've made connections with three different shops (and auto shop, a truck mechanic and a small machine repair place) and now have free access to all their scrap bins loaded with axles large and small...as well as a bunch of other stuff. HVAC has been less successful for me.  I have three people in the business and have yet to get a blower...but it will come.

So start making those connections and keep mashing metal.

I know Frosty has done some serious ribbon burner experimentation recently that was pretty promising.  I seriously can't remember the title of the thread but the advanced search will find it for you in no time.  He may show up in this discussion any minute anyway.

10 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

As I recall New England has some granite and slate quarries around.  (and a heck of a lot more farms than out here!)

Unfortunately we also have too many lawyers and CT happens to be the Mecca of the insurance companies.  Hence, in CT at least, customers are not allowed to enter scrap facilities.  Someone got whacked in one in the '80s and legislators got busy.  The law was rescinded and now insurance companies won't allow it anyway.  So we have to get our steel BEFORE it gets sent to the scrap companies or it is lost forever...

Concerning the steel:  I'd go with the customer's request and start designing the tooling required to do production work.  A few well designed dies for the hydraulics press would do wonders.  It's beyond my current ability but I've seen some amazing jigs on presses that get lots of work done fast.  Tim at Big Dog Forge on YouTube has some ingenious jigs for his hammer and press.

Lou

That's a win!  You can get exactly what you want.  

No doubt about it, those are the makings of an enviable forge.  If you have the means to do the bending you can use exhaust pipes from car or truck as well.  Some old pipes with a patina just might suit that setup better than some shiny new ductwork.

On 4/22/2017 at 8:12 PM, JHCC said:

Sorry to have missed this thread's continuation. 

The feminine version of Hephaestus would be either Hephaesta or Hephaestia. 

The passage with Hector, Andromache, and Astyanax is great; I'm also particularly fond of the scene where Death and Sleep convey the body of Sarpedon to his home country. 

Thus the birth of the great idiom: "he took a dirt nap".

On April 25, 2017 at 7:58 AM, notownkid said:

There is always some specific age we are waiting to attain, 16, 18, 21, (in my day draft age) 25 for lower insurance?, Middle age, retirement age and POFF Old Age!  In my mind the difference between 16 & 21 was 10 yrs., and between middle age and Old age was 10 days. 

As my mom said keep busy learning as you wait, Welcome to IFI lots of reading here.  Sounds like you have got a good start keep with it as it is a lifetime of learning.  NEB's spring fling looks like it should be great and 2 of the demonstrators started young working with their Dad. 

Enjoy

I concur with Dale.  I'm looking forward to the Spring meet.  It's going to create some challenges for me because it is so far away and I may have to drive home late Saturday night because of family obligations.  I'm working on babysitting for a big part of Saturday as well because my wife has exams to take.  Weekends are a challenge!

Dylan, welcome to the hobby.

I still keep my first piece of bent rebar around.  I wrapped the end into a circle and tried to forge weld it on my second day of smithing.  The circle was good...the forge weld turned out to be just two pieces of rebar mashed into each other....

Good times!

Welcome Kaybee.  It sounds like you need to be smashing metal already!  I particularly love your list of goals.  It is similar to mine.  I tried making one knife.  Ground half of one side and got tired of it.  I'll finish the grinding one day...but I made plenty of tongs, tools and some decorative stuff since.

Lou

Congrats on the find.  The only good advice I've learned about post vises is to check for wear (thickness) on the threads inside.  Then apply lubrication of choice.  There is a pretty strong ongoing debate between grease supporters, those who favor oil, and the more elusive graphite/powdered lubricant wonks.  It's not my fight.

I'll be honest, Glen, I was assuming he was using a standard bottom blast.  So few people seem to use side blast forges.  That's why I feel like I'm flying blind learning how to master mine...  also, I'll be able to extract a check from my wife to send along for those shirts!

7 hours ago, Michael Cochran said:

I have noticed that several questions the new people have would be answered simply by going to the stickies to begin with. A good one is "how do I make a knife from this steel bar I found?" If they read the stickies in the knife making section they'd know it's likelyhood of being good steel and how to proceed. There are plenty of other examples I could list but I'll restrain myself.

I completely agree.  I was just suggesting a way to defend IFI from people who come here for help, get blasted, and leave.  They often deserve to be blasted but, as others pointed out, they thought they knew because they were victims of bad information.  If we have a sticky announcing those core values about which members will be sticklers.  It would be less of a how-to and more of a "this is what we believe here on IFI"....like a Ten Commandments of smithing...as we see it.  At the very least it would be fun to work together writing that list in a thread.  I'd love to hear what the experienced people on here have to say about that list.  Though, as I'm typing I'm thinking back to the stickies I read starting off and realize how much people ignore when they skip them and go straight to asking questions....

Here's an idea for attaching your blower to your forge.  Get your hands on a junked old vacuum cleaner.  People toss them all the time but they are loaded with goodies.  You can steal its blower and take the nozzles and the hose.  The hose is smooth inside to reduce static pressure and it is flexible.  I got this idea last month when my wife announced that we need a new canister vacuum. I acted put out but in my head I was screaming, "SCORE!"

To test to see if I'm right simply back the blower away from its connection so there is a gap between your ducting and the outlet of the blower.  An inch will probably suffice.  This will reduce your air flow and you should notice the difference when lighting up the forge.  Good luck.  Do some searching on the forum for blowers and forges.  You will find more ideas.

16 hours ago, yt12 said:

Can I hijack the thread ?-----HEY----IT IS MINE  !!!!!!-----granted,new topics may be a bit more wordly than mine----but any thoughts on VANADIUM anvils---and how good is a chunk o C1 as a striking anvil ?!?!-----all in good humor ya know !!!!!

Solid point YT.  Another habit of this forum is to take threads off-road and get some mud on their chassis.  I happen to like it.  Unfortunately, I'm thinking that no one here knows enough about your anvil to say more.  I think it looks to be a beautiful one and you just need to be careful about chipping.  Maybe round your edges a tad to be safe...  But congrats on your good fortune!

Concerning the aggressive posture IFI members can have on some issues: 

I have read complaints online but I take little stock in them (see Thomas's argument).  However, I think we could do more to communicate the core values of this forum so people know in advance what to expect.  We could make a "Core Values at IFI" sticky in which rants about safety, willingness to learn and anvil worship are expressed aggressively but to no one in particular.  Then a curmudgeon or a wanna-be can simply point people in its direction.  They can't take it personally because it was a pre-existing post and, of course, we softened the blow by ending it with a smiley faced emoji!

Hi Kyle.  I'm going to try to help you out before offering my ideas to help your problem.  Let me explain:

There are a number of highly knowledgeable people on this forum who will help you out whenever they can.  In fact they have spent countless hours online solving other people's problems and teaching them for free.  Problem is, they can get cranky.  Here is how to avoid falling prey to a curmudgeon attack....

1). Edit your profile and include your location.  Often times your location can seriously help someone answer your question.

2). Make sure you search the forums for possible answers for your problems.  Often using google and typing in your search terms plus iforgeiron is more effective than this site's search.  

3). Use more detail in your question.  The type/size of your forge, the diameter of your tuyere (ducting), the size of your fire pot.. etc...   All of these things will help us to answer you.

I reread your post and found that you mentioned charcoal at the beginning so I'm running with the belief you are still working with a solid fuel forge.  I hope you are using lump charcoal and not briquettes.  If not, problem solved partly.  Also, you should be using some method to control the air volume. An air gate like those used for shop dust systems.  You can also use a pvc "y" connector and use one leg of it with a gate to allow air to bleed out in a controlled way.

This will allow you to control the amount of air going into your fire.  When you start the fire you should start with a low volume of air.  It is possible that, running your blower on full blast, you are actually putting out your young fire.  It may work occasionally only because the size and compactness of your pile of charcoal puts enough back pressure on your blower and lowers the CFM's enough to get you a fire.  I imagine you get quite a lot of sparks!  As the fire becomes more stable you can increase the air to get it hotter.  This should set you in the right direction.

They look like an exact twin of my first pair.  So, of course that makes them amazing!  Seriously, though, they are surprisingly similar.  If they get the job done that you needed them for they are perfect.  I remember the things I learned from my first pair just by looking at the picture.  Enjoy the first time you use them and then make more!