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I Forge Iron

Tuck58

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  • Location
    Crawford Alabama
  • Interests
    Metalworking (jewelry, sculpture, practical USEFUL items, etc...mostly small scale), casting, woodworking, gardening...too many to list.

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  1. I don't know about your location, but, living in Alabama (close to AL/GA border, abt 100 miles SE of ATL), I don't care WHAT "specialty" supplies/materials I might happen to need for any given project/hobby, I have to either buy online or drive at LEAST a hundred miles to get it (which I "have" done when ordering a lot of weight to avoid gargantuan shipping costs...cheaper to drive sometimes!). "Frustrating" is putting it mildly.
  2. I could find all female "compression" tees, but what I was looking for was male x female (top/middle of the t) x male...like I said, I'm sure it's available, but I was sick and tired of looking at fittings. Right now, I just want to light it up and get it tuned. Thanks for the help, Frosty...will update after fire-up (I hope!).
  3. So... From the 1/4 burner flare > 1/4 flare nut > 1/4 copper tubing (both ends flared) > 1/4 flare nut > 1/4 mpt x 3/8 fpt adapter > 3/8 nipple > 3/8 fpt x 3/8 mpt ball valve > 3/8 fpt flare > regulator hose. I decided to forgo the pressure gauge for now as I couldn't find a tee fitting with a female connection in the middle (I know it's out there, but the PG can wait...that and I'm sick of looking for fittings for now). Yes?
  4. So I've built my burner (FINALLY got the blankety-blank hole dead center)...now I need to connect to my propane tank. I'll be the first to admit...fittings (measurements, thread types, etc) is not my strong suit. It still amazes me the 1/8" end of the 1/4" flare fitting is referred to as 1/8 even though NOTHING ABOUT IT measures 1/8" (thought it might be the opening, but IT measures 7/32" according to my calipers). Anyway, moving along... I took the burner and regulator/hose into the hdwe, explained to him, in detail, what it was and told him I need to get from "here" (the fitting in the tee) to "here" (the regulator hose) and wanted to INCLUDE a shutoff valve and a pressure gauge in between. He looked at me as if I had somehow offended his sensibilities or something, fiddled around in the bins for a couple of minutes, handed me what you see in the pic and walked away. This is what he gave me...a 1/4 swivel, a 1/4 x 3/8 union (I think), and an adapter of some sort with a 3/8 flare... What you see in the pic, once assembled. seems to be a lot of weight concentrated right there at the tee and as my intended use for this burner is with a small-ish melting furnace, it'll be coming low into the side of the furnace instead of the top (as with a lot of the forge pics I've seen). So, having said ALL that, could someone please give me some suggestions as to what I need to go from the tee fitting to the reg hose to include a shutoff valve and a pressure gauge? I'm really not as stupid as that might have made me sound...but I seem to have a "blind spot", so to speak, when it comes to fittings. Thanks for your help.
  5. I "think" my biggest problem (so far anyway) is due to my inexperience using a tap. I have an el cheapo HF tap/die set I bought years ago, but the 1/8x27 pipe tap didn't seem to want to cut so good, so I went to the hdwe and bought a single Irwin tap...it cut MUCH better (started it in the DP as suggested in the burner instructions), but as I didn't have a tap handle that would fit the tap (HF handle too small), I ended up using ratchet with a 3/8 adapter to finish it. As you might guess, it was difficult to keep it straight while tapping. As Frosty suggested, I attached the tube and looked at it down the length...what looked like a "slight" misalignment doesn't look so slight that way, so I took another tee to the belt sander to lightly flatten where it'll be drilled (hopefully, a flat plane will lessen the possibility of it slipping just as bit makes contact as it did before), took my time to mark out dead center, hit it with the center punch, rechecked (looks good), and will have another go at it in the morning. Going to try and tap it all the way on the DP (unplugged). It's a good thing these tees are only a couple of bucks apiece!
  6. I know...I'll rig something up to check it. As this was my 1st time trying to tap (learned there's a bit more to it than simply screwing in the tap), I went ahead and bought 3 tees, the floor flange/close nipple so I could attach to a piece of 2x4 & hold the thing in my vise, and, sure enough, I screwed the 1st one up...not only did I get the hole off center (the whole thing, INCLUDING the DP vise, shifted just as the bit caught). On the 2nd one (in the pic), I had to file down the seam in the top of the tee bc it was preventing me from centering the punch and clamped the vise down better...it STILL shifted, but just barely.
  7. Perhaps I put the cart ahead of the horse by building my burner before my furnace (which will be small, hence 1/2" version), but I thought I'd go ahead and build the burner while I wait on my order from hightemptools. Still have to pick up some thread tape (I've read what I have is no good for propane, so gotta make a hdwe run). Also, I haven't pared down the mig tip yet, but here it is. As you can see, I'm off center just a LITTLE bit (you should've seen the 1st one...it was almost pointing at 7 o'clock...messed up the threads when removing the tap). Does anyone think this slight misalignment is going to cause me any problems? Also, in the pic shown, the pipe is 5 1/2" but that's because the 4" pipe I bought for the burner was in the other room when I decided to take the pics. I also bought a 1 x 1/2 AND a 3/4 x 1/2 reducer in case a flare is warranted. So far, so good?
  8. I've been lurking for a while and finally decided to join...hello! I've been making jewelry since 2008 and have recently branched out into more useful, practical items such as ant moats (for hummingbird feeders), bird seed feeders, small boxes, etc. This has led to sand casting, which ultimately revealed that my current torch setup that has served me well for years (propane/air...Orca torch, aka EZ torch/whale torch/copperhead torch) is GROSSLY inadequate for the job. As a set of cylinders, gauges, and a new torch is not in my budget right now and most of what I'd like to cast is small (5 - 6oz or less), it's time to start looking at a small melting furnace...which has led me here. Just to be clear, I have successfully cast precisely TWO items (using Petrobond)...a ring and a screw bit (the two smallest, least complex shapes I could find laying around), so I'm basically at ground zero as far as melting/casting goes. Looking forward to learning and, one day, being able to give back. Now I'm off to ask a few questions about Frosty's T-burner that I've read so much about!
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