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I Forge Iron

TimB

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Posts posted by TimB

  1. Forgive me if I'm being slow, but what I'm gathering here is that oxidized metals, (at least Al, and Fe) are harder than the metal is originally---then rusty steel must get weaker due to brittleness of the harder oxidized form?

     

    If Al oxide melts at a higher temp than a cutting torch can achieve, and an Al can will scratch a windshield because of its harder Al oxide form, then why will it melt in a campfire that won't melt steel?

     

    If a cutting torch can't melt Al oxide, then the blue flame of a furnace burner surely won't either.

     

    And no one knows how hard woodpecker lips are

  2. Mark,  you could check with your local HVAC service company too, especially the ones that work on oil furnaces.  We have used a moldable ceramic fiber blanket for years for rebuilding,  creating , and lining existing brick combustion chambers.  It comes wet, and looks just like a cloth diaper.  Once formed into place and fired dry, it is the consistency of Styrofoam, and reflects the heat of the flame back in on itself for efficiency purposes.  I haven't used it in this application because I like coal, but it's in the back of my mind to use because coal is getting scarcer for me.

  3. What is aluminum oxide? 

    It seems to me that an oxidized form of aluminum wouldn't be hard enough to use as an abrasive for sanding steel--that it would be weaker than aluminum, like oxidized steel is weaker than steel, so I suspect then that what is used as the abrasive on emery cloth is different from how it sounds.

     

    Also, sand, when melted, forms glass--an electrical insulator.  This could cause a problem if sandpaper were used to polish metal, and sand fragments imbedded in the metal, then it was heated, and the resulting glass insulated the metal electrically---as in an HVAC guy cleaning a flame rod in a residential furnace, with sandpaper, to get a better electrical connection to the flame. He could inadvertently shorten the effective life of the flame rod.  Aluminum is not an insulator, so my assumption is that given the same scenario except aluminum oxide abrasive cloth is used,  that would not end up also insulating the flame rod.  I was told once that it could, but I don't believe that for the above reasons, but I thought I should ask the question to see what you all think.

  4. Just about every gas fired furnace nowdays has a flame rod, and as an HVAC/R tech, I've seen many, but lately I been having trouble with a batch of them I got in.  The flame rod is nothing more than a metal rod, insulated from ground by a ceramic insulator that also mounts the flame rod, and holds it in the flame of the gas burner.  The flame transmits an electric current that the rod picks up and transmits through a wire, back to the ignition module.  This is how we prove flame on these such appliances. 

     

    Anyways, the flame rod is designed to contact the flame, and frequently glows red the entire time the burner is burning.  Seldome do we have a problem with these burning in half, or melting, warping, or crystalizing, but on this latest batch, I seem to be having all the above happen.  A flame rod that I had installed 2 weeks ago, now has a "plumage" running the 3" of its length.  It looks like a bloom, or a small pile of fileings atop a magnetic point on the side of the flame rod.

      This track can run the length of the rod.

     

    My question is, would this be evidence of impurities in the rod, or of improper flame properties, like too little air (May cause a carburizing flame).   I don't see any problems with my equipment but I would like to better understand what the rod is telling me.

     

     

     

    post-7904-0-54947900-1361912794_thumb.jp


  5. Here is what I put together from a propane bottle ( SAFETY FIRST ). I used adobe.

    LeeRoy


    I like that, that's kind of what I plan to do next, and use a vaccume motor / hair dryer, / small blower--- something that uses less electricity than the air compressor.
  6. Here's a picture of mine that might spark an idea for you. Since propane tanks are a dime a dozen now since the valve type changed here in the states, (or, like me you had a few laying around anyways). I unscrewed the valve and screwed in a 3/4" nipple, (I'm using compressed air) , but the next one I try, I may cut a 2" hole and use a blower--high velocity / low psi air.

    post-7904-039081800 1286602423_thumb.jpg


  7. I seem to remember from somewhere that the noise of metal cutting: drilling, milling,turning etc. is particularly damaging.



    I can see that. I've also heard ( though not verified) that electric motors emit a frequency not necessarily audible but still damaging, I suspect that is true with frequency drive motors especially, some of them really scream. I don't worry much about it though, the motors I generally hang around are in mechanical / boiler rooms, and I always wear hearing protection in there.
  8. One of my grandpa's died at 93, the other at 87. Both were farmers during the war, both bootlegged liquor same time as Capone, both had and ran hunting lodges. Both ate farm food--grease, butter, whole milk and cream from their own cows, pork, eggs, and wild game. The 87 yr old spent his last years working, at a school district, smoked his whole adult life, and enjoyed whiskey, though I never seen him tipsey. He never had high colesterol.

    The 93 yr old didn't smoke or drink much that I know and ate the same things. One of his favorite foods was pork blood sausage (yes, made from a bowl of blood collected when they slaughtered a pig.) He had teburclurosis twice, and lived through it. three years after he died they started trying to convince us that eggs were unhealthy---right, grandpa might of lived longer I 'spose.

    Now days, people dying off much younger were raised on food flooded with steroids, synthetic look alike foods, and grown in worn out ground that must be chemically treated to grow stuff that looks like food, so it can be picked way before it's ripe, and marketed.

    Our bodies have been designed to cleanse themselves, otherwise our lungs would look like a long neglected furnace air filter. Grandpas would have looked worse, sooner.

    I just heard today that health researchers are finally figuring out that an hour of excersize a day keeps kids from getting fat.

    Conclusion? health scientists are morons. :blink: I never take the word of a "scientist" at face value, unless experience supports it. <_< I was asking the experienced, for their experiences. :)

  9. Just as a side note, although all the causes of tinnitus are not known, (some are, like excessive noise) there seems to be evidence that suggests to the audiologist community that tinnitus can also be caused by diet. Some folks have reported that quitting things like caffeinated drinks (and other things but I can't remember what they were,) has a result of improving their tinnitus condition.

    Just a glimmer of hope for some---maybe. :)

  10. I always suspected that, since the dawn of the Walkman. When I worked in a print shop doing odd jobs I would wear ear plugs and headphones over them with the music just loud enough to hear, but I allways wondered just how loud that really was after the 25-29 dB filter.

  11. I tend to wear foam ear plugs, almost religiously, even driving. I have some tinnitus and don't wAnt any more. I've even been known to put them in at church when the sound guy ain't paying attention to the Db level. I like the foam plugs better than the silicone ones because they conform to the changing shape of the ear canal when I yawn, grit my teeth, or whatever, and always have at least one pair in my pocket.

    I've allways wondered though, if you loose hearing enough so that you have to turn up the TV, or radio to hear it comfortably---say, above 90Db, does the Db level still affect your hearing like it would if you had normal hearing, even though it's only comfortable with hearing loss?


  12. Why is your face so close? Should your anvil be higher so you don't "lean over" as much?


    Actually, I'm not leaning over at all, but the question itself suggests to me that you lock your elbow at the end of your swing??? Not that the elbow would be hyper extended, but that the muscle tension of the triceps would still be engaged in follow through at the moment of impact, requiring the wrist to absorb any rebound?

    One theme I'm hearing though too, is body position relative to the anvil. Should the hammer fall on the anvil directly in front of my belt buckle, or directly in front of the hip (or where the hand would be if it was hanging limp from my shoulder)?

    Edit: Ok, read further on the subject and I'm thinking I get it. Thanks guys
  13. Forgive the simplicity of my question, but just in case there may be some wisdom available that I can use...

    Occationaly, once in a while, I miss the red target with my 3# cross pien and hit the anvil, which causes the hammer to rebound at great velocity toward my face. So far I have controlled it in time, and not whacked myself, but it catches me by suprise every time I do it, and I dread the day I react too slow and make the connection. I use a mild steel, homemade anvil, knuckle height, and was wondering if a real anvil responds that way with such dramatic rebound, or if there's other bad habits this may be indicative of.


  14. Tim; One problem with using screws is that when screws are parallel with the grain of wood each thread cuts the grain... so the effect is similar to drilling rather than wedging. I often just cold forge 1/4" rod (also use wood wedges first) for wedges and that works pretty well. If your system is working it is the wedging action NOT the threads which make it happen... in end grain nails are FAR harder to remove than screws. This is NOT just theory I know it from experience too. Of course handmade nails (and wedges) hold way better than factory wire nails or even screws in ANY orientation.

    Thanks Bigfoot, I was wondering why it wasn't done more. It didn't occur to me that the threads may be cutting into the grain. What would be the detrimental effect of that though?

    The last couple handles I replaced had been bought years before I needed to use them so I kinda figured too that maybe the wood had dried as much as it was going to in this climate.
  15. I've always just run a good lag screw into the end of the hammer handle, pre-drilled if the screw threads won't catch. The width of the screw acts as a wedge, and the threads keep it in. I generally have more screws laying around than wedges anyways.

    At least my hammers have never been accused of having a screw loose. :blink:

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