DennisCA

On 4/3/2021 at 2:16 AM, George N. M. said:

Pine tar is a useful substance for many things but I would be afraid that I would never get up if I sat in a chair finished with pine tar unless it had dried for a couple years.  I have always really liked the smell of pine tar.

It dries in a few days in the hot summer sun when mixed according the century old recipe of 1/3rd pine tar, 1/3rd linseed oil, 1/3rd turpentine. Our deck is finished with a concoction like that, and my garden swing I built many years ago:

Right now it's almost black looking, think it needs a cleaning.

Just pine tar is also used on the underside of wooden skis, often applied using a flame, but not so the wood burns.

I was mentioning a charcoal retort in another thread and someone gave me a tip about Hookway retorts, well that lead me to this

Link removed

This looks like a hookway retort to me, though he doesn't call it one. However in the beginning he already mentions that he's made a better one based on a japanese design. He says issues with the design in the link above were "overcooked" charcoal from high temperatures, as well as toll on the components due to the same.

Link removed

This one the author claims is better, it's certainly larger and it also uses the woodgas to keep making the coal. But supposedly at a lower temperature. Personally it looks like it smokes too much! Going by the text it's like that for several hours... Don't yet have enough info to make a proper assesment... Has anyone had experience with either of these designs? I can't build anything which creates a lot of smoke, hence the hookway retort was looking real interesting, though apparently it's got issues I wasn't aware of, at least according to this guy.

I'm not really after charcoal for smithing but cooking and taking advantage of the fact I am producing enough scrap to make a few batches every year. But still I want the most efficient setup possible within my means. Hence I am going to be very OCD about anything I set my mind to.

The hookway retort looks very interesting. I wonder do you get any tar out of this process? Where I lived used to be the center of the swedish empires tar making and a few years ago they had this tar-making event that was the culmination of several years work, a huge underground "valley" that burned for days. End result was lots of high quality pine tar and charcoal. Be nice to get some tar out of this as well I was thinking, I use it for protecting all kinds of exterior wooden structures and furniture.

It's probably time to do some research on this, and a motor driven solution definitely.

5 hours ago, Paul TIKI said:

DennisCA that looks really nice, especially those benches.  It looks big enough to drop a 55 gal drum on for a charcoal retort if you wanted to.

I could definitely fit one in there, but I wonder if such a big fire would create too much smoke, I do have neighbors. I've had ideas about a charcoal retort since I got some branches and stuff from dropping some trees, but I was considering using a 55 gallon drum as the burn vessel and use smaller vessels inside. With a fan you can get a roaring fire in a 55 gallon drum without any smoke. Like a forge.

Do you use it for smithing purposes? This one is mainly gonna be for burning bonfires and perhaps some cooking over wood fires, I am thinking of making a spit so I can grill chickens and the like over a fire.

I put it in place and I cut an old log into benches, tomorrow it's traditional easter bonfire time here where I am. Usually we make really large bonfires that the public goto, but coronatimes mean a private bonfire.

More stuff from my dad, the bottom of a water tank he threw out, fire pit so we can have a our own smaller bonfire at home this year. Since the public easter bonfires are not allowed due to covid.

Might be a tad large. I will see where I can fit in our yard, I'd like to make a permanent spot for it, with benches (thinking split logs) around it and a tripod to hang a grate from so you can cook over an open fire, or maybe a spit.

If it's too large I'll probably use the plasma and a circle jig and cut it down, and move the legs inwards.

19 hours ago, JHCC said:

No work is garbage, if making it moves you — however incrementally — from a lower level of skill to a higher one. 

That’s outside my wheelhouse, but please make sure that you have excellent ventilation. We do NOT want to read about you getting suffocated by the fumes. 

No worries, I don't even have a shop yet to put it in. But once that's completed it'll be an uninsulated shed with good air circulation and open doors. Anything that applies to a propane forge applies here.

For free, from my dad. It has however been outside an entire winter. It's an oil burner, 8 - 30 kw. The kind that would heat a homes boiler, this one was in a commercial scale green house that has since been torn down. I think if it works it will be a good start to a diesel forge.

nothing smithing related, still too cold here but it's getting better fast now. I made this cutting board, and a router jig to plane it

16 hours ago, M.J.Lampert said:

kids

"fire" 

"oops didn't mean to hit you dad"

half a minute later..

"fire"

"oops didn't mean to hit you dad"

you

"ok that enough the catapults are now mine"

 

I am worried I might be releasing something I wish I hadn't, but oh well.

I test fired one last night and it worked, the catapult has no stop on the  throwing arm, but it gets thrown clear on it's own so it flies roughly straight ahead, which I think is good.

I have to modify the trigger mechanism, I tried to superglue it but it just didn't hold, I will have to resort to a mechanical fixing.

Also this weather really isn't condusive to blacksmithing anything, my outdoor forge is just slushy wet mush, can't keep the water out even though I have sealed it as much as I could. Looks like blacksmithing will be a summer only thing for me until I get the shed / forge built.

Been doing mostly woodworking, christmas presents for the kids, a catapult (each). Still got finishing to do and get some string, it will use two thin pieces of wood as springs.

I haven't done anything blacksmith related in a month now, the weather outside isn't agreeing with me much, getting so this time of year that it's dark when I goto work, then dark again when I go outside the door and head home. Winter is no time for an outdoor forge. Definitely motivated to get working on the shed next summer. Working on my 2x72 grinder build instead.

46 minutes ago, Savage11 said:

I've never heard of this welding machine before, are parts and consumables readily available?

Yes it's a finnish made welder and I am in Finland. Kemppi is relatively common in europe and this machine uses euro plug torches so I can buy those from almost anywhere in europe. 

I'm not that worried about support when I buy a welder, I personally think it's most important that it's technology is primitive enough that I can repair it myself if something breaks.

That usually means simple enough control boards, transformer and rectifier based switching rather than inverter based. This welder is probably the last one by Kemppi before the tech becomes too digital, I wouldn't have bought a more modern one than this and had actually been looking for it's older cousin the Kempomat 250 initially. 

It's not 100% done deal yet, but this might be following me home come Friday, a mig welder, 250A model:

13 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

I don't know if I would use harder steel for the rivets.  If I had to replace something, replacing the rivet is a whole lot easier than forging the tongs!  If you are shearing your rivets, then the tongs need to be redesigned.

If you mean what I said about tool steel I meant I should probably make a rivet set from tool steel rather than mild steel so it'l hold up to shape all those rivets.

Been meaning to get myself to some auto mechanics and see if they want to give some old car springs away. 

Thanks, and that's true but I resorted to an M8 bolt as a last minute solution because I found I lacked suitable round stock to make a rivet.

I do have a lot of bolts, hence the idea of maybe using them in the future, turning would also remove the zinc, the metal was easy to shape. Making a rivet set is also a project on the list, but I figured it's better to make from tool steel and my material stock is mainy mild steel or cast steel and junk.

I fully aware of the dangers of burning zinc fumes, comes with welding territory to be aware of that. Which is why I burned it off in the forge first when it was safely away from me and the noxious fumes were carried off by the chimney and wind. I actually mentioned that part in order to show I did it safely and didn't just use a galvanized bolt straight off and exposed myself to zinc fumes.

Been using the forge for a while now. I think the main weakness is the small size of the pipe and not getting enough air. Sometimes it's like it's enough, the time before the last I got a good fire going and it got to forge welding temp by misstake. But last time I had issues the whole time with the forge and getting it hot enough. No difference in setup, I clean out the pit every time and sort out the coke and only reuse the stuff that looks good. I think it's very sensitive to how the coals are lying, which is a radom factor.

I am eyeing this massive 2" pipe I have with a 1" hole.

Finally got the tongs done, not that happy with them but I guess the first pair are never gonna be the best:

The rivet is an M8 bolt, all I had, shoulda been a bit longer. I had it in the forge to burn of the zinc coating first. I think I could turn some nice rivet blanks on the lathe from bigger M10 bolts in the future, turn off the threads and turn the bolt head round.

Also found some spring steel (a whole bunch, 8mm ish) and I made a chisel and punch from it.

On to the next pair of toongs soon, perhaps some hooks in between. For the next pair I will use thicker material, 10mm plate I think.

That looks like the usual "Fältässja" one sees around here now and then. A friend of mine has a similar model (pictured) but his firepot is place in the center as far as I can see,

Attempting my first pair of tongs, had a brain xxxx when doing the twisting but I think I can make something usable from these.

I really like the design, it's similar to what I drew up in CAD though mine is for using coke or coal. I'm working with a JABOD and as you say it's annoying when the firepit looses it's cohesion and has to be reshaped. I did it last night again, I only get to forge one day a week though so it's not that big a deal.

Maybe next year I will have enough experience to know what size firepot I want and I can weld one up. I was considering water cooling behind the plate as well.

I have to say I am not finding a lot of clinker after forging, less than a fist full after a 4 hour session, I went through the fuel after it had cooled down and picked out the clinker and put the coal back in the bucket I fed the fire from, overall level in the bucket didn't shrink that much, seems I am not going through it very fast. I assume this coke is very clean stuff too given how little clinker it seems to produce.

I have been doing some fire management errors though I realize , such as disturbing the fire too much, I watched this video and got some helpful hints, next time I won't be disturbing the fire near the bottom.

New fan setup for the forge, no hoses to add resistance, works a lot better