f18framer

Free hang. if i leave marks on the metal from walking the cup, i fail that coupon.

i was talking more along the lines of TIG welding not stick. il take your word for stick. my certification for stick only required me to do a multipass 1G. never really messed with vertical welds with that. i do know that you have to change your torch angle for vertical welds and that does have a effect on penetration.

i dont fly them but i do work on them. i do all the repairs on the carbon fiber, hydraulic systems, flight control sysetms, landing gear, and the metal work for it. i am actually out in the Mediterranean sea right now lol.

yea the Hampton roads area has one of the largest populations of military personnel in the world. ive been in this area since 2007.

Ok so basic things to remember about welding. Clean your metal. the cleaner base metal that you start with the better. ideally, you will clean both sides of your metal to bare clean oil free metal. take a grinder or better yet a sander and run over the area you are about to weld to get all rust especially off. then wipe the area with isopropal or rubbing alcohol. let it dry and and you are ready to go. your area should be literally white glove clean when ever possible. The reason that this is important is things like paint and rust contaminate your weld causing impurity in the weld and reduce strength as well as make your puddle misbehave. Rust especially is a must to remove. Oxygen is your worst enemy when welding. rust is simply oxidized metal so it is packed with oxygen. Pay attention to your electrode angle and distance when welding. with stick welding for general aplications, you should have your electrode at a slightly backward angle "pulling" the weld along. The distance of the electrode from the weld is also very important. you should keep the electrode buried in the puddle. you will see "flame" coming out of the sides of your weld. if you see this you need to push the electrode down into the puddle more. with stick welding being a consumable type of electrode, you have to constantly keep advancing the electrode into the puddle. speed and heat are kinda a thing you just have to learn by doing. Keep your electrodes dry. wet electrodes throw lots of splatter everywere. the ideal place to keep them is in an oven. however we dont all have access to them, most of us dont lets be honest lol. but keep them in a sealed container with some descant or vacuum seal them or something. water molecules contain Oxygen and oxygen is our worst enemy when welding. you have been told correct that you will absolutely burn your weight in electrodes. i have burned litterally hundreds and hundreds of electrodes learning this art.

were abouts? I am not a true virginian lol. I am originally from Nebraska. i am here for military purposes.

if you have the ability to tig weld i would do that all day. for things that you are gonna see the weld, and it is important that it looks good, i always use a tig weld. it will take some practice to master but it produces very small clean strong welds.

i dont have much experience with this particular type of torch but it seems like you may need to turn the gas pressure up a bit. is there a regulator on the tank? the pop you are hearing is the flame accually sucking back into the torch body a little bit. it is called a flash back. for this reason a good torch system will have flame arrestors or check valves on them to prevent this flame from going too far back into the hose. as you can imagine that could be bad. also if there is a regulator and it is turned up, check for the check valves and ensure that they are not stuck. as you mentioned it probably has been sitting for a min so the line may have a restriction somewhere whether it is the nozzle itself having a bit of corrosion or a stuck check valve. turbo torches rely on a clean jet for the fuel to come out of at high velocity to draw in the air mixture it needs from the holes at the base of that torch head just above the handle.

the down side using vertical say like a 3F, welds is that you are fighting gravity and in order to not make the weld puddle drip, you have to run a cooler weld as well as change your torch angle to a more extreme angle to use the arc to help support the molten puddle. That reduces penetration and obviously wont have as much strength as a horizontal weld like a 1G or 1F.

yea it is just like welding. I am also a aeronautical welder in the Navy and have taught a lot of my friends how to weld. the concept and action of welding is very simple. it is getting the setting up of the machine and the steady hand and the eye of were to keep your arc as well as when and were to add your filler that takes the practice. i am just the kind of guy that likes to read (look at pictures) and learn as much as i can about something before and during doing it. i wish i was back home were i could go to stuhr museum and take a class or two. i know one of the guys that is on this forum works there as the blacksmith. i have seen the pictures in the gallery. im not sure if it was the same guy as when i was a kid, but they had summer classes for kids out there and that was my first experience with blacksmithing. that is were i fell in love with metal work in general. probably one of the reasons that i took the path i did in life.

also, do you guys know of any good books (with pictures, i like pictures) or videos that give some good techniques for shaping metal? i have scoured amazon and all of the books i found all have the same info and it is too basic. it just talks about simple things like drawing out metal and such. i will have to look around my area for some flea markets. i know were there is one but it is a good 90 miles away and really only has random crap from peoples house there. never anything good really.

i agree with you can do some good work on a good heavy chunk of steel. i have a machine shop a few blocks away that could smooth out a side for me if need be im sure. is there any good spots to find tongs and such? vice grips dont work so good. they are a little short lol.

I am pretty excited to get this garage up and running. i t is gonna be a while until i get it finished. i attempted to upload some pictures but of course the great Navy internet isnt up to the task. i am definitely going to be putting some CO monitors in the garage to warn me of that. at the last place i was stationed, i also was a volunteer firefighter and have had to deal with the CO alarms and such and have seen the consequences of not having one. I do like the idea of using the idea of using the two 1in blankets. it seems like it is better in more ways that the two inch. i like the idea of only having to replace half of the blanket potentially once the other gets worn. i have not purchased anything yet. i am waiting untill i return home so that i have the internet to look around and find some good prices on this stuff. do you guys have any suggestions on retailers? I will definitely look into that other stuff though. I have heard a lot about that ITC-100 and i think it is because it is like you said it was one of the first products to come out. The only way i can see the burner set up working is if i got the vortex just right and as the flame vortex came around the circumference of the forge and was re-accelerated by the new burner. i think i may have much more fancy idea of how the flame will actually behave in my head that will be reality haha. I am still trying to find some of the other supplies that i will need to get started. I have a feeling finding an anvil is going to be an adventure.

Frosty dont worry i dont even have access to youtube for another few months lol. i am on a ship right now were the internet has barely enough to band with to load this page haha. everything i have learned about forges has been from this forum. that is why i joined. it didnt look like a huge community but it looked like a group of people that have had years of experience doing what i have been wanting to do for years just never had the facilities for it. i just bought my first house a few months ago and got super lucky and scored a 3000sqft garage to make into my man cave. Ok so there is no coating that goes on the metal itself inside the forge i could put ridgizer if i wanted to but it is not needed. so it would go wool, ridgidizer, wool ridgidizer, cure the ridgidizer, refractory, then ITC 100 for the final coating. how thick do i want the ridgidizer between the two layers of wool? the outer layer of refractory should be about 1/2in thick. i like the idea if using the 1" wool. it is cheaper. for the back of the forge i would insulate using the same process but waiting on the final layer of refractory untill the sides of the forge are done in order to cover the seam between the sides and back. the floor of the forge in order to make it flat could i just build up the refractory to a flat surface or would that make it to thick and prone to cracking? i could use a brick and coat with the refractory and ITC100 if that fails i suppose. the burner idea i had if you were to look at the forge straight from the front and drew a line vertically through the center then put the burners at about a 25 degree angle to the left side and the other burner 25 degrees off to the stbd side of the centerline. i just figured it would be another one of them things were it isnt really necessary but it really couldnt hurt. would 1 inch pipe be adequate diameter of the burner pipe that goes into the forge. most of the blown burners i have seen use a 2in pipe leading into the forge this seems a little excessive for what i am trying to accomplish. i think that i would come off the blower with 2in pipe then split it into two 1 in pipes to go into the forge.

Ok i got some good info here. so now i think i will make a smaller forge. i will still get the 7 gallon tank but i can just cut it in half and make two forges out of it lol. i think i will make a two smaller burner set up. for the burner i will use a 1/8 in orfice placed before a 90 degree bend for proper mixing. now i thnk that the last burner question i have is for a blown burner do i need the flare on the end? i have seen it both ways. from what i understand the flare is more import for venturi style burners. also what are your thoughts about outting the burners in the shell of the forge staggered but on opposing sides? like one in the front and one in the back and put at like a 25 degree angle on each side. for the forge insulation, there is a forge wash goes on the skin of the forge under the ceramic wool correct. is that the ITC-100? this is used for the IR reflectivity yes? The refractory cement is applied to the wool as a hardening agent? and i want a high alumina cement. this helps with the wool with getting burnt up. for the bottom of the forge i can use a fire brick. would it be a good idea to weld some stand offs made of some old like 14in round stock to push up through the wool to support the weight of the brick to prevent the compression of the wool? i know that the insulating properties of say like home insulation comes from the airspace it creates. compressing it makes it lose its insulating properties. is the same true of the ceramic wool?

so two or three smaller burners would be ideal. each one will have adjustments for air and fuel. i have been thinking about having a regulator per burner to have the best control at every burner. and as in any good system check valves and flame arrestors to keep the fire were it is supposed to be. with the burners at 3/4in, i should be able to use some ball valves to control airflow yes? the other thing i have been debating is the angle at which the burner enters the forge. i know you dont want it pointing straight down at the working area but i have seen some that are horizontal and everything in between. i would figure that having direct impingement on the kaowool would be bad for it over time. i have heard that placing the burners in at a bit of a angle to create a vortex in the forge is necessary.

Ok so i have looked through this forum for the past two days and i cant find the answer to my question. i am currently planning my first blown propane forge while i am out to sea so i can build it when i return home. I was wondering what diameter of pipe is best used for the mixing pipe that leads into the forge. i have seen people use all the way up to 2.5 in pipe. that seems a little large for me. i think that i will be making the forge out of a 7 gallon or so airtank. i have been thinking of running a dual burner set up mainly for better heat distribution. i would have valves on each individual burner to be able to control them individually. Also is using the precision nozzle like in a venturi burner required for a blown burner or will simply a piece of 1/4in. pipe sufficient. I think i will be building something similar to a peot forge. what is everyone thoughts?