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I Forge Iron

wirerabbit

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Everything posted by wirerabbit

  1. You can check out my JABOD thread if your interested, but I'm a potter and had the 2800s on hand. Also, they were much easier to shape than hardbrick for a quick forge build. My tuyere sticks into the firebox approx. 3/4 to 1 inch, so no protecting the steel pipe tuyere there. My next forge build will have a cast tuyere end ala Japanese bladesmith forges. I also chose the IFBs for this build because they have such lower thermal mass than hard firebrick, the forge cools much more quickly after a session. I like that.
  2. How wide of a kerf did you cut in your handles? I made sure the handle on my new (to me) one pound cross peen had a widened kerf. My bandsaw has narrow blade. Perhaps you are crushing your handle rather than just wedging. I feel that was my problem with my steel wedge. Too thick. Show us pics of handle before you hang the hammer.
  3. Paul, take some measurements of the H,W, and D of firepot along with the vertical and horizontal location of your tuyere too. I'm having great success with my set up and we can at least compare. My tuyere is 1" pipe. I'd try that as your first mod. See if that doesn't get some more air into the pot. I have noticed that when I have had trouble getting things hot, I had an obstruction in the tuyere. Softbrick (IFB) will slag and melt into blockages. My 2800s are melting down around the tuyere. Also, lump charcoal from the store does have foreign matter mixed among the charcoal which will melt into blockages. I have pulled out pieces of limestone, melted brick, plastic and a chunk of what I think is a mica-type stone.
  4. Looks great, Frazer. Man, if I wern't 1600 miles I'd bring my 2002 F250 and 18 foot flatbed trailer for a warm bed and several cold pops. Glad you'll be at your own house now. So many possibilities for a shop. Rock on.
  5. Finished shaping with grinder and file my wee hardy. Now to the heat treating. I also finished the last of my first punch set: a ball punch. I need to make something to open up those Topo Chicos at the forge. *wink*wink* I also handled my first hammer, an ebay find. I needed a lighter cross peen. The eye is a round-end-straight-side hole, but not symmetrical. Top (or bottom) of hammer eye differs from opposite side by 1mm side-to-side and about 2.3mm length wise. I thought I could feel a slight waist to the hole but I'm not sure. I picked the smaller side for the bottom of the hammer. Unfortunately when I drove the steel wedge it cocked the hammer head out of square and so you can see the snout up aspect in the picture. I'm 99% sure my handle was a straight fit. I bet I could have foregone adding the steel wedge, but I wanted to do things right. Even forged the wedge from some punch material off cut. First handle, so great practice at any rate. I suspect that perhaps the hammer eye is also not parallel to the hammer face. (It's not quite parallel to the hammer sides, after all.) Does anyone have a suggestion for visually checking that once the hammer handle is out?
  6. Nice looking hardy, MG. So how do you like your charcoal forge these days? I liked seeing how your forge design changed as you got more information. I'm really interested in knowing how the cutouts for a lower hearth seem to be working out for you. My similar forge has the tuyere lower from the hearth than yours seems to. Was wondering if you fight the charcoal to keep it in your firepot. Would you mind telling me the full firepot dimensions including the level of tuyere? You seem to have more room in there for those monster jackhammer bits you have been forging into tools! I get pretty hot temps in mine without having to top with firebricks. Can easily spark carbon steel if I'm not careful. Have not yet tried to forge weld anything at this time. Rock on.
  7. Thanks for the encouragement, Daswulf. Tools, ground, filed, and wire brushed today. It was my reward for tilling in five sacks of goat manure into the new planting bed. Going to be a rose garden with a few native Texas trees. Not sure I'm bothering with heat treating as the sucker rod is 4621, but I did make a test piece I'll oil quench once I find a quenching container. This stuff was very easy to forge. At one time I had three bars in the charcoal fire at one time. Might be why I forged in an index where I didn't need one and left one out of a forging where I needed one! Such is the life of a beginner. slot punch, round punch, square fuller, and hot cut chisel.
  8. Yes, you can bleed off excess air to control your blower. I've seen some great ideas on here. Shutter or gate works great! I decided on a small DC motor and controller for my set up and have had no trouble with its functioning. I have the added ability to blow full blast to clean ash from the gruyere before I start for the day. Do you have enough pressure with your fan to forcefully blow out your tuyere?
  9. I worked on blacksmith tools and among others, finished my first hardy from a sucker rod end. Left my charcoal bed low and was able to work three pieces of round bar stock at a time. Chisel, punches, and fuller cooling in the can as I type.
  10. Congrats on the anniversary (and the big job in Finnland). I finished nothing quite as ambitious as some of what I have seen lately on this thread, but I did get some more time on the forge today. Finished my second set of tongs. Was going for v-bit, but after my first v swage broke apart during the initial creasing of the bits, I realized my next project needed round bits and I didn't have the right square stock to accommodate. Heating up the new swage to try and get it to set down on the anvil more. My firepot isn't large enough in this configuration, but I tried. Rivet up with another bolt. These bolts do have a bright coat of zinc, so I really need to get some round bar stock for rivets soon. Had to trim off the uneven bits, and a small difference in reign length, but there they are. First set on the top, latest on the bottom. Used same starting stock just 1/2 inch longer per half than the first set. Next project will be hot punch, v-fuller, square center punch, and hot chisel from sucker rod.
  11. Nooooooooooo! That'll turn your beard from a heat shield into a fuse! Second day of forging for me. Gotta go soak the beard. T
  12. Another two hours of forging today. Wind was up, so I rolled the forge into the front of the garage. Got me out of the wind and allowed me to see colors much better. Here I'm preheating a tong blank while I heat up two spring steel bars for drawing out. I'm working on a nata for cutting charcoal and v-bit tongs for punches and hardy tools. This forge likes the charcoal a bit bigger than what I starting out forging with. Now I am chopping to about 1.25" to 1" or so. Not fussing about it as much. While I started out having to send the poker down to the tuyere to open up the fire now and again during my first several forging sessions, I have not had to do that nearly as much these last two sessions with larger charcoal. I'm getting great energetic, but not blasting flames from the pile and easily bright yellow on the metal without having to really pile on the charcoals. I have started letting the coals burn down quite a bit before adding more charcoal, and I have not seen any deleterious effects on the steel (mild) or heats. The IFB continues to degrade. I removed a nice glassy green blob before I lit the forge today. Might have to enlarge the firepot and try a different refractory solution earlier than anticipated. Going to be fun. Just a little bit of singed beard today. No worries, it needed a trim.
  13. Needed a v-swage for my next set of tongs (v-bit) and decided to do some modern a.k.a. stick welding. Three pieces of 3/4 mild steel square bar, some grinding, some welding, and then A LOT more grinding later... The tongs will help me forge my first set of punches as well as my first hardy.
  14. Nice lot. Are the open ends in good shape? I have been slowly adding to my wrenches. My skidsteer and implements have some pretty big bolts. T
  15. Update: Close to 20 hours on the forge so far and small incremental changes have reduced my charcoal consumption, increased the heat to my pieces, and allowed me to learn quite a bit about forging. Some items of note are I have started cutting my charcoal larger and the fire seems to be much more lively and heats stock better Though the firepot is made to JABOD specs, sweet spot seems to be a bit lower that the hearth. Adjusting amount of charcoal and how I place my pieces have kept me forging. Will have to modify soon I think, maybe in 20 more hours. Electronic blower controller is a great asset. I can set air for the job and just forget it. On/off switch makes things very easy. Scale does not seem to be a problem as i initially thought. I don't see excessive amounts. I have had great luck with obtaining high heats without burning the carbon steel I am now working on (leaf spring and sucker rod) and the heat has allowed me to really move the steel. I obtained another milestone in my forging journey. This batch of charcoal is popping just a bit more than normal and today I started to smell burning hair. I brushed my beard and sure enough a red-hot ember dislodged and fell to the ground. Check that one off the list too. I will post some pictures next firing for comparison.
  16. Hey Goods, I know. I changed my picture sizes when I edited my posting, but I forgot to correct my text. I was speculating on that narrower bar below the rotary blades. I was wrong, btw. When I spark tested, it came up at least leaf spring quality carbon. I don't have a collection of known steels to test against right now. Still, that small bar is about 2 inches wide and should make a great bolster plate. I honestly don't know what I'm going to do with those rotary blades yet, but I hadn't thought about making blades. Perhaps a fuller or a butchering tool of some kind. Now I need to go study up on what Boron does in steel. Thanks all for the heads up. I've been trying to locate info regarding steel type, but nothing so far.
  17. 20 cents a pound at the scrap yard. Some mild, some spring. I have 12 ft of 5/8 " sucker rod and what I think is at least medium carbon bar over 1 inch. I started salivating when I saw the spring (~2") in the bin. Shredder blades probably mild steel but will make a great bolster plate for me. Odds and ends to play with.
  18. Hey Paul, Hedge Apple is made into charcoal, but that might be for smokers. I wish it grew here where I live. I would try it for sure. Potter's who high fire love to place the green apples in pots for the great ash effects. Guess the real question is how much ash does the charcoal produce.
  19. Driveway update: I spent another 2 hours on the new tongs. I started drawing out the reigns ala Joey Van der Steeg, but finished on the horn. still struggling with holding things with my flat bit tongs. I will continue to experiment with this method in the future. I also made another tong clip from portions of the first clip I made last session. I was concerned that the clip was easy to bend, so when I finished making a c-shaped clip, I quenched in water. OOPS. The second time I used it, I heard it break in half. I made it too brittle. (this was garage door spring < 1/4 inch) I also finally saw what mild steel looks like when it's just past welding heat! I had a sparkler early on. Also burned the garage door spring, so got that milestone out of the way. Those bits are WAY too long. These will be for round stock, so I will have to get creative here to widen them. Taylor
  20. Nice twist, Firemedic. You like the s-hook opener style better than the ring opener style? Just curious. Still need some tooling before I attempt an opener. Taylor
  21. What I did in the driveway: Found two more hours of forging. Used my first ever tongs to start my second ever tongs. Those are pieces of 3/8 inch by 1 inch bar, 11 inches long. They are marked 1 1/4" for nibs, 1" for boss and the rest for reigns. Forgot what I was doing and started the first bar at the far side of the anvil! Have been watching too many youtube videos. I needed to relax and remember. Sorted it out. I alternated with tong blank and a piece of crowbar for a hold fast. Left the air running as I alternated between a tong blank and the hold fast. After I finished an ugly hold fast and the first tong blank, I worked on a tong clip out of some very small spring steel (no picture, too ugly) and the second blank. Nice short session, but I am definitely forging a bit too cold. When I really let the bar stock (mild steel) get glossy, the forging was a dream. No sparklers ever, but a bit of a fire flea mess at the start. Will not use the charcoal remainders from the previous fire again. They absorb too much moisture and the popping is annoying. The second pair of tongs will be for round stock, so I can reheat that hold fast and fix that ugly bend. Next up: Punches! Taylor
  22. I'm behind in documenting the forging sessions with this forge, but after my Aug 18 session, I dug out a vitrified chunk of the old earth fill from my blow pipe. At that time I still had a good amount of crumblies sitting on the top surface of the forge. Even though I replaced the earthen fire pot with an IFB fire pot, I may have inadvertently thrown in a clod of the old clay thinking it was a piece of errant charcoal. After that last forging session, I found a blob of over fired earthenware stuck to the IFB acting as the hearth stone. More must have made its way into the tuyere. That or some junk from the charcoal bag worked its way down the fire. Anyhoo, my air was being blocked and once the offending blockage was removed, I once again heard the petite roar of a well-aired charcoal fire. Next three forge sessions (~5 total hours) produced my first set of tongs. I have since placed slices of IFB along the surface to stop any more nonsense. Next iteration of this forge will have a cast pan, cast tuyere, and replaceable brick firebox. Alas, no longer a JABOD. I'll post pics of the emptied fire pot and subsequent wear when I reach 20 hours of forge time. This is after 15 hours total forge time. Taylor
  23. Hey Dennis, Thanks for the help anyway. I was hoping for a full-time charcoal blacksmith to chime in. A clarification: The steel wheel is 17.5 inches in diameter and about 7 inches deep on the side that I filled for my forge. It is a much smaller rim than a semi truck wheel. I've pretty much determined that I was seeing problems where none existed. Last three forging sessions have highlighted that to me. I've yet to hear from a full-time charcoal blacksmith, but I can't argue with results. Finished my latest project in quick order, using much less charcoal than I did my very first forging session. I've found the sweet spot for quantity of air and now plan to alter tuyere location to see if I can improve the location of the fire's heart etc. I seem to be just above it (1" maybe?) when I lay my metal level with the hearth. In addition, I am finding that a large amount of charcoal above my work piece is not needed for the lower heats and the small stock that I am currently using. At most I have perhaps two inches above the hearth which is about 6 total inches of charcoal from center of tuyere to top of mound. At the end of my firings I stop putting charcoal on top and focus on bending out coil stock. I wiggle it down into the heart, and it is bright orange in no time. I'll keep an eye on things and see if I am introducing problems with this lower mound. Looks like I will be figuring this out on my own, which is just fine because I have been told that I'm a pretty xxxx xxxxxxx. I'll post back here with further information and questions. happy hammering, Taylor
  24. Another two hours in the shop (driveway) and I finished the tongs and started straightening some spring stock I found at the scrap yard. First order of business was to finish drawing out any fat spots in the reins, taking the corners off and straightening out the whole business for better fit up. Next, I cut the 4 inch bolt long enough to join the tongs and I peened my first rivet. Frazer was worried that any threads might bind up, but no threads were injured in the making of these tongs. These tongs are made to hold 3/8" flat stock. I made them out of 1" by 3/8" by 20" long piece of mild steel, so they will help me hold the very same stock for my next set of tongs! I might have enough material in the bits to make them v-bit tongs, but I wanted my first set to be simple. Here are some other shots. Feedback is welcome. Here are some thoughts of my own. When I offset the bosses, I was just making sure I moved metal. As it happens, I think I offset them just a bit too far. When the halves were put together I had over 3/8" gap and the bits had to be kicked back down to hold the stock. I see what looks like signs of forging too cold, but I also didn't do any brushing of the tongs while forging, so I'm not sure what I'm looking at. I don't have a block brush and I didn't want yet another thing to remember while I was forging. These tongs might fail soon because of some flaws I see at the bits, but as long as they survive long enough to make my next set, I'll be happy. My boss set downs were not consistent and as a result the neck of one of the bits does not allow the tongs to open a full 90. This is compounded by the fact that the bosses are themselves not identical. Marking up for the set downs will help with those things I believe. Then bit necks are in fact where I see one of my faults. It could be a cold shut. I did have a problem with one of the bit set downs. I continue to use less and less charcoal for the same amount of forging. This session saw just a small improvement, so I think my air set up is working quite well and I know what to expect with respect to charcoal consumption. Thanks everyone, Taylor
  25. That's great to know, Bsn. I was planning on using an end of that sub for a hardy hot cut. My little anvil has a 3/4 inch hardy and I think that rod is a bit larger than the the majority of the rod I picked up.
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