Irondragon Forge ClayWorks

Sometimes the steel fairy's are good to us. I've had them bring me things that I didn't know I needed.

My 30 lb Starr has the same "oil wells" and I just squirt a little 80wt gear oil in them before starting to use it. It doesn't "drip oil" and has been running fine since I got it and poured new babbit bearings. The felt or cotton is a good idea though mainly to keep crud out of the bearings (never considered that). I will fit some to my hammer today.

Yep... hover over the red ebook-free button and the option to download the pdf file all 12hunderd & some pages is there.

4 hours ago, Frosty said:

 

IDF&C: They make cool Minion outdoor fire places or chimneas. I can't think of a good reason not to let your Minion moonlight as a BBQ and hold down a part time job as a charcoal forge. Maybe a  Steampunky minion Hmmm?

Frosty The Lucky.

How did you know Debi is a minion aficionado ? Here is her version of a favorite minion that she made in a steel fabrication class at Eureka Springs School of the Arts. It's about two feet tall made out of reclaimed items.

The link is the one Big Bill put in. Here it is again.

https://books.google.com/books?id=DTcxAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA279&dq=pattison+general+supply+1904&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiCjc_ozYLQAhXGPCYKHZEbCTUQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=pattison general supply 1904&f=false

That takes you to Google Books. If you look on the left side in Google Books you should see a red button that says ebook-free there is a pdf download link there.

Today I finished up the propane forge we were building and gave it a test run. Works like a charm. Then I cut apart one of the two water tanks that followed us home.

Started out with a 3 in. air cutoff wheel but found out it was painfully slow. After cutting a slot long enough to get the blade of a reciprocating saw in finished in short order.

My wife sees a plasma cut fire pot out of the main part and I see a charcoal forge in the bottom, also got some real heavy rubber that was the bladder which should come in handy around the shop.

I fixed the boo boo about the channel to hold the fire brick, cut it off and leveled it and welded it on again. I fired it up without the kiln shelf floor and it came up to yellow heat in 10 min. I put several pieces of scrap stock in and it got them to welding heat without a problem. I left them in to see if it would melt/burn them and it did not after 20 min. so I guess we are good to go. My wife says we don't need Plistix because bubble alunima is a reflective coating.

48 minutes ago, Eotte said:

I am building my first forge and am almost finished I am just curious as to how far apart to place the burners. The for itself is 18 inches long. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Try looking here, your question has been answered many times. Start with forges101.

https://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/65-gas-forges/

The first two pictures are just after firing it up.

After about ten min.

http://i68.tinypic.com/9k2g5x.jpg

Not sure about the kiln shelf floor, seems to be interrupting the flow (swirl) of the flame and the heat seems to be lower than before. I don't know if ITC100 or Plisitx would help or enlarging the orifice to the next drill size.

I have one that's 55lb and looks identical to your 155lb one. They were made in China, cast iron base with a steel top welded on. They were imported by several farm supply stores several decades ago and predate the HF junk being sold today. I bought mine at a local store Race Brothers and it has served me well for a traveling anvil.

Did you click on the link? It's on Google books see the ebook-free button for pdf download (or bookmark it for online reading) .

Will do, she was upset because our fur kid Daisy dog got bit by a copperhead and her foot (the dogs) swelled up to twice it's size. A quick trip to the vet was in order. The dog is going to be fine and on a 7 day course of antibiotics to prevent any secondary infection.

I finished the metal work on the forge. Welded together angle iron channels and welded them to the forge for the fire brick doors. We decided on soft firebrick because we have a lot of it from the kiln's. Also cut some kiln shelf for the floor. I will get some pictures of it running when the sun goes down. Probably will paint it black with 2000 degree high heat paint.

Front view would anyone believe me if I say I planned the channels to be on an angle?

rear view

 Depends on what you put on top and how it's anchored, four 6X6s bolted together to make 12X12 would be more stable.

1 hour ago, (M) said:

For this burner or one like it could I get away with a 1-20 or even 1-10 psi propane regulator?

I doubt that it will be your last burner so go with the 0-30 psi regulator.

When I find a relative thread for what I'm doing, I bookmark it in a folder named Blacksmith. It helps a lot for going back and re-reading.

My wife and I have had some heated discussions about kiln washes so we won't go there. She doesn't know how it will react, outside of the glaze formulas and is not into experimenting.

1 hour ago, Frosty said:

Good grief, I take a day for a club meeting and I miss a pun thread. DRATS! Oh well, complaining is fu tile.

Your forge is coming along really well What can your better half tell us about using Veegum? What does she think about what we're wanting to try using it for?

Frosty The Lucky.

She has only used it in certain pottery glazes and has no idea how it would work when mixed in a castable refractory or IR reflecting wash.

I remember Ike, torrential rain and wind. Tore up the chicken house curtains we had on the forge. Now that the curtains are in shreds again I'm going with something tougher next.

I use 80 wt gear oil, some use chainsaw bar oil with STP or Dura-Lube added. To get the bearing race out in your picture, you need a spanner wrench that goes in the two holes.

Did you oil it like instructed back in January? Looks to me like the grease may have picked up pieces of bad bearings or gear chips and jammed in the bottom of the teeth. Use a solvent like kerosene and wash out all of the grease with a brush, while working the gears back & forth to see how badly they are worn.

In southern Florida, my mothers home which my father built in 1947 had those style shutters for hurricane protection. We could close up her house in less than ten min. while all the neighbors had to take all day nailing up plywood (if they could find any). I'm making some for our shop out of tongue & groove pine.

Wonder if it could be an anvil or die for a big power hammer?

Fired it up a while ago and ran it at 3 psi for a few min. then gradually increased the psi and opened the air choke until it was running at 15 psi. The bubble alunima cured without any problems and it came up to yellow heat pretty quick.

I took another kiln shelf to block the rear port and found out we will not use kiln shelves for the doors. When the forge was shut off and cooling down we heard a ting and found the shelf to be cracked (sounded just like a blade ting when quenching wrong). So Debi wants to use soft fire bricks in a channel for the doors, that way we wont have to worry about transporting fragile kiln shelves.

May have been good the air bags failed to deploy with all the recalls of Takata air bags that the dealers can't do because of the unavailability of new air bags from the manufacture. Glad everyone is on the mend and "someone" was looking out for them.

My doctor told me years ago I had to give up wine women and song...

So far I've quit singing.