NolanF

Hello Everyone, I come back here to share with you a project I am really proud of. I made my first forged tool. Using traditional blacksmith techniques. 

I initiated this project with my desire to make my own forged tools. And that's what I did. I made my first blacksmith experience crafting this axe. 

I am so proud of it, I wanted to have your advice on it. I made two little videos of this project, one about the blacksmithing part and the other about the handle woodcrafting part. 

I leave you these two links, so you can tell me what you think of it: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l4fDzdk8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUq0g6k

Thank you, have a great day !

Nolan

Thanks to both of you !

Hi everyone, I come back today to show you a thing I really proud of. I started practice blacksmithing about 5 months ago, and now I did my first real project a small tiny axe. I really like the result of it. I don't have a lot of things to tell on this post but I would really like having your advices on it.

(Activate subtitles so you can read my explainations)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUq0g6kR3EM&ab_channel=Nolan

What do you think ? =)

Thanks, have a great day !!

Nolan

Ohh you assemble a nice little device ! What does the LCD show ? 

I followed your exemple I ordered a small voltage controller part on eBay for 4 dollar. We'll see if it's going to be nice ! 

On 7/28/2020 at 12:53 PM, wirerabbit said:

I ordered one off ebay for a little over 8 bucks. I searched for DC motor speed controllers. Works for 8 to 60v or something like that. I bought one with an on/off button and a display that will show me 0 - 100% modulation. It will be worth it to discover the minimum of air needed for a particular heat. I'm sure I'm burning up charcoal faster than I need to airing by hand.

Oodles of information on the interwebs regarding making your own PWM board as well. Ain't nobody got time for that.

 

Taylor, near Jeddo TX

Yes it seems a good idea I'll take a look. I am sure I burn too much charcoal too, finding the perfect amount of air seems not easy. I thinks it needs time to understand exactly how much air you need for you workpiece to be heated efficiency.

On 7/28/2020 at 1:33 PM, Irondragon ForgeClay Works said:

It is important to be able to control the air going to the fire. I like your blower setup and it would be easy to add an "air gate" between the blower and tuyere to control the air instead of the speed of the fan. If you Google coal forge air gate there are many pictures of them. In a forge I used, the air gate was made from an automotive exhaust heat riser valve with a rod attached to the lever push the rod to close and pull to open, more pictures on Google.

On 7/28/2020 at 2:24 PM, BillyBones said:

My air gate is a lid from a veggie can. I cut a slot in front of my fan in my tuyere little more than 3/4 of the way through. Inserted lid into slot. All the way closed i have about a 1/8" gap for air to pass. By lifting the lid out of the slot i can go from 1/8" to 2" opening. Since my original blower failed i have had to switch to   hair dryer till i can get out again for a new blower i also drilled 6 holes between my blower and gate.  Even with just a 1/8" opening the hair dryer was to much. I used exhaust pipe for my tuyere, the part that is flared to be the "female" end of the pipe i cut off and it makes a nice sleeve that goes over the holes to adjust air flow with. 

Keep it simple.

 

Yes it seems to be a good idea maybe with a lot of tiny holes to be more precise on the amount of air you want to remove. I'll keep that idea in mind maybe I'll do it on my forge =)

On 7/27/2020 at 12:02 AM, Irondragon ForgeClay Works said:

May I suggest putting some still pictures up, as a lot of members don't have high speed internet or have to pay for data usage and videos are a chore to try and watch.

The only thing I can think of is how are you controlling the amount of air in the fire?

I dropped down some pictures of the final look for you.
And currently I cannot control the amount of air going into the fire, it's constant.

On 7/27/2020 at 1:03 AM, Marc1 said:

Great job Nolan. Particularly love the air funnel

Make some more photos or videos about heating up steel 

Thanks Marc ! I will soon make video about my first axes and knives forging. I'll upload them to my channel, and I'll also make a post on the forum to show you.

On 7/27/2020 at 3:16 AM, Frosty said:

Good job Nolan. You have a proper blacksmith's approach to problem solving.

Frosty The Lucky.

Hi Frosty Thank you very much =)

On 7/27/2020 at 3:58 AM, wirerabbit said:

Nice, Nolan. Hope to see some picture of what your doing with your tricked out forge.

 

Taylor, near Jeddo TX

Thank you Taylor ! You'll see it soon I promise !

On 7/27/2020 at 8:08 AM, DennisCA said:

You could probably control the fan speed with a PWM. Or just a sliding gate.

I thought about it but I really do not know where to get a variable resistor for the 12V fan. Do you got an idea ?

Hello everyone, I posted few weeks ago to show you my first forge making, and I had a lot of interesting advices from peoples on this forum.

I made modification to it to increase it's possibilities. People told me that using a leaf blower was too much air provided to fire and could burn up blades. 
Talking with these persons made me think about a old computer I didn't used for years that had a huge fan in the power supply part. So I transforme the utility of this fan to forge air supplying. 

I also planned it to be removable to be able to completely clean out the ashes stucked in my forge air duct. Anyway as always I made a video of it to share the evolution of my project. 

If you want to see it :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-KL_vs-aw4

Have a good day !

Nolan

Sound amazing ! I wish I could have visited it when it was still "up".

Hi, 

Not to worry as I said I am here to seek advices and returns about my project and videos. All the things you told really affected me in good. I am currently planning on changing the air flow of my tiny forge. I found a 12VDC fan I got from an old computer and it's making enough air I think, I'll show you when It's done ^^

On 6/26/2020 at 10:44 AM, ThomasPowers said:

Perhaps the most unusual one I have came from "the black hole of Los Alamos"  a surplus store that was filled with items for the Los Alamos labs and was almost a museum in itself of the early Atomic bomb work.  Anyway they had a small blower with AEC inscribed on it, (Atomic Energy Commission) that I had to pick up---and yes *everything* there is checked for radioactivity before sale!

The place you describe seems to be really interesting. I saw a video on the black hole shop, I am a sound engineer and seeing all these vintage electronic device make me jealous. I wish I could visit this place. 

 I mentioned it in the description of the video =)

On 6/26/2020 at 11:58 AM, Frosty said:

Charcoal requires a soft air blast and works more efficiently in a side blast forge than a bottom blast.

As I said above, I am changing the blower into a computer supply fan. It make enough air I think and I love it cause it's silent (a good point for neighbors). 

I first wanted to make a propane forge but, I though playing with gas could be really dangerous when you are not experienced into these systems. It's far too dangerous for me I think. I start in a more traditional way, with charcoal. 

Anyway thank you for you comments. Have a good day

Nolan 

On 6/25/2020 at 3:21 PM, ThomasPowers said:

Have you used forges before so you know the important design details?  (Or are you building a car never having driven one but seen them on TV?)

I built my first forge in 1981 and have been forging ever since; here are a few of my comments:

1: WAY too much air; a blow-dryer puts out too much air for most coal forges and charcoal uses a lot less!  If you try heat treating with that much air be prepared to burn up blades  and scale them heavily!

2: How deep is the bed of coals?  You will want a substantial bed of coals under the workpiece and a few more inches over the workpiece.

3: Why use refractory mortar and fire brick; cheap cat litter clay will work for the liner for the base. Remember for over 3000 years people have been forging blades using a hole in the ground.

4: You will need to be continuously shoveling in charcoal; especially with an electric blower and it doesn't look like it will be easy to do it with that design.  

5: How will you clean it out?

6: I suggest you look up a proven design like the JABOD or Tim Lively's  washtub forge and see how you could use your beer keg to build a variation of one of those. (I would make a hinged top to make it easy to access for fueling and cleaning.)

First, Thanks for your advices.

1. What type of device could replace the blower ?

2. I used about an inche under and over the piece. I see I was wrong I'll try it as you said.

3. When I did researches on the forge, I was seeing a lot of "furnace" like designs so I designed mine on what I saw. But these top closed designs are mostly used for gas forge isn't it ? A solution would be to remove the door and cut the top half of the keg, then it could be more appropriate.

4. With an air flow like this I assume the charcoal I use will be consumed quickly.

5. At the end of the video I show that I changed a bit the design, then cleaning the inside of the forge will be easy, and for the cleaning of the air duct I made a removable pipe extension so I can access and clean the embers in the air duct.

6. Thanks for the idea, I saw their model I think I will modify my keg to fit into these type of forge model. (Maybe as I describe in the 3.) 

Your return really helped me thank you very much !

On 6/25/2020 at 6:50 PM, Frosty said:

Did he get back to you on the side Thomas? I don't see a second post. 

I'm not sure what to say. Do you really want our comments on a youtube how to video of someone making something they don't understand? 

I may not been clear on my video and I'll change it but this isn't a how to video, I want to make an evolution of my project to make a forge. And with timeline it to be more efficient, with help of the comments I get.  I'll specify that in the video description.

Okay you think my editing does not show what really mater, I will be more concise for the next ones. Thanks for your return

On 6/25/2020 at 4:11 PM, Irondragon Forge & Clay said:

What type of coal are you using it looks like charcoal to me?

Sorry I saw a section coal forge and I posted in there. I thought it was the good place. 

And about the propellant I use it just charcoal. Find coal in my country is harder than finding basic charcoal ^^

Hi everyone I am new on this forum, I seek advices on my little coal forge.

The inside diameter is about 20cm (7.8inches) long and wide and 30cm (11,8inches) high. I used refractory mortar and bricks as "walls" and for the door. The air flow is coming from the bottom and is provided by a old leaf blower. 

I designed it to make the heat treatment for my knives blades, and maybe try learning blacksmithing small things.

My little tradition is to make a video of each project I made to share it with community and have advices in return.

Anyway I came on this forum to gather advices and to improve myself in blacksmithing. You can see the small video here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GojnZ6XMocA&feature=youtu.be

Can't wait to read your comments.

Thank you

Nolan