pnut

That's quite a bit of progress. Unfortunately I'm still forging outdoors and the weather isn't cooperating. Seems like it skipped Autumn went directly to cold and wet winter weather. Pnut

Gladly ,which anvils are up for adoption? Pnut

Don't worry, you'll get a nice rusty patina before long. Welcome aboard and remember it's supposed to be fun. Pnut

No problem, one thing I forgot to mention was the sulfur content. We added sulfur to many of the compounds we ran which wouldn't do any favors for the steel you're forging. Many rubber compounds also contain about one quarter by weight of kaolin clay. I remember one recipe in particular that had four fifty pound bags of clay in a batch thats total weight was 480#. That might contribute to the ash content also. Neither of those ingredients are harmful to you but who wants all that ash? Pnut

I do believe that will do it. I use a piece of hose from a residential washing machine drain but what I'm coupling together is much smaller than a hair dryer. Pnut

Could you post some pics please? Pnut

I use a piece of rubber hose that slides over the end of the ball valve and push the hose from my pump into that. Maybe you could adapt that to your forge with a hose clamp or two for strength. Pnut

Have you seen the junction box that Jasent used? It's a junction box for electrical conduit with the dryer mounted to it and the access panel used as a dump gate to control the air flow. It looks like the best improvised solution I've seen so far. I can't post a link without my browser shutting down but you can find a picture of it in the Members Projects forum on the first page of the thread titled Jasents smithing progression. Pnut

I thought it might be a bit uncomfortable in use but I assumed he was making it as a vehicle for the twist pattern and not necessarily to be used regularly. I guess a quick way to find out would be to ask. B.E. were you meaning to use it regularly or is it decorative? Pnut

Nothing beats the sleep you get after a productive day of good hard work. Who needs a runners high? I prefer a workers high. Pnut

Elementary forge practice is widely available in PDF. There's some COSIRA PDF's such as The blacksmiths craft available also that may be useful as a teaching aid. Pnut

No siree,do not burn poison oak. You will regret it. Pnut

They'd probably smell better than leaves. Pnut Maybe not. I was under the mistaken impression they were Russian sage but the variety I was thinking of is called Russian thistle. Pnut

You could be right about that. The design above is one I've never seen before. That's what has me so curious about it's performance. Pnut

I haven't seen one in person,or heard of anyone using a natural draft forge that wasn't built into a hill. I seen the drawing in Mr Weygers book but not in use. The one you're talking about Thomas is the forge hanging from the tree correct? Pnut

Congratulations, she is adorable. I Wish her all the best in this world. Pnut

I have no direct experience using either wood pellets or charcoal briquettes but that seems to be the main drawback with the pellets especially. I was wondering about how bad it would be with leaf briquettes. If they fell apart it would produce quite a show. It'd be pretty at night. Pnut

My pleasure, It's a pretty easy to understand PDF. I thought it was useful and straight forward. Pnut

I'm not planning on making one. I was just trying to give another option to those wanting to make a brake rotor forge. I read through the entire solid fuel section and didn't see them mentioned anywhere until 256 pages into the basic discussion forum and I don't think many new people will be delving into the forums that deep,at least not for a while. I'm surprised that there's not a bunch of threads from new people asking if this works. I guess since YouTube isn't overflowing with videos of it they've been overlooked or they make really bad forges. I thought about mentioning that you'd have to remove the grate and it could be cut to size for a grate over the air supply. I was wondering about thermal cycling cracks myself. They come in fairly large sizes that could be clayed like a rivet forge. Pnut

I've been trying to make my way through the entire site and on page 265 of the general discussion forum a member mentioned using a cesspool bell trap as a firepot for a bottom blast coal forge. I haven't heard seen them mentioned again. When I looked them up they look like a good alternative to a commercial replacement pot or a brake rotor for a fabbed forge. They have a different sized flanges from I believe 1in to 4 inches and look like they would accept commercial tuyeres or it would be just as easy to make one. The one I've posted is 9inches and 4 inches deep. Has anyone else used one of these or do you know of any drawbacks? I thought it may be a better alternative to using a brake rotor or possibly even a cheap replacement for a commercial firepot. It's $23.00usd versus a couple hundred for a commercial replacement. Pnut

It looks interesting for sure. I've never seen a fabbed natural draft forge. Hope you get it ironed out. Keep us posted. Pnut

Looks like it'll do the job. Good price too. Pnut

That's amazing. How long did the chisel work take? Pnut

Before you go out and spend any money on refractories maybe dig up a glob of clay and try it first. I wouldn't expect it to last long but it will give you some idea of how much change you can expect in the noise if you do try a castable refractory. Pnut

It seems as though we agree. I haven't gone mucilage shopping in a while and haven't actually seen a bottle since I was a kid hence the hesitation to say whether or not it's still included in Elmer's product line. As far as making mucilage I don't think I have the desire although there's a ton of stuff that It's used for that I had no idea about. Medicinal mucilage anyone? We haven't passed the medicinal mucilage statute yet so I'll just have to wait till KY catches up. What do you think about the effectiveness ofgum arabic for a binder? Pnut