DennisCA

Painted my anvil stand to protect the metal, I also charred the wood while I was at it, then rubbed it down with BLO. I wasn't too careful with the paint so I slathered it over the anvil base and also on the end grain..

Worked 4 hours (time went fast, I was surprised) and all I got done was drawing out two reins for a pair of tongs.

Dragged home an induction motor, I tend to accumulate these when I find them for a good price (20 euros) and near me. Got a shelf of various motors now, this one was 2900rpm (2 pole) though. Bit unusual but useful. Might build a smaller portable blower from this to use in the machine shop as a more powerful shop vac / dust collector. 

Or I will use it to drive my 2x72 grinder which is being built atm, but I have a 4kw motor too for that which I think is better suited.

Ah well, as to that I removed the top of the barrel when I made the forge so the bottom is solid. Hole it is then.

True but I need to dry it out for the same reasons, just gotta do a burn in again, maybe several times. It's very annoying. The bricks don't seem to get so wet though, it's mostly the mix. There are some bricks buried in the sand/clay mix but I think they are pretty well insulated at all times.

I wonder if a small hole in the bottom of the drum would be a good idea, so water can drain.

Not sure if the forum can embed video, but I hard to burn it in again with charcoal, just used the hair dryer for this. Rained alot overnight and the inside was soggy and wet despite the cover. I have sealed up the joint between the two barrels whch I think might be responsible for the excessive water ingress. But, just a look at the forge running on full blast, too much blast for forging, but cool looking.

https://i.imgur.com/70BVMSR.mp4

Just a brain bug, it happens to me now and then. I do infact know of the difference between casting and smelting, but like I said brain bugs happen, especially when using another language (my native tongue is swedish)

You can smelt cast iron for sure, to make cast iron stuff. Checkout luckygen1001 on youtube for cast iron smelting.

Now can you use cast iron as a source to make steel or something to forge, that I don't know.

Arranged some bricks, will try it later and see if it makes any difference. Could adjust the one brick to close it up more. Also need a more permanent way to attach the air hose than duct tape.

On 9/8/2020 at 8:02 AM, wirerabbit said:

Hey Dennis,

No forge problem, a me problem. 

Sorry I use coke instead so my requirements are different.

Mainly I made that comment because several people have commented that the wheel forge is a bad starting point and so on, but from what I could see in your linked thread, you have basically built a JABOD forge, then later you put in firebricks instead to shape the firepit. Still seems to me like it has got the normal shape I have observed others make.

So what does it matter what the container is, a semi wheel or a 55 gallon drum or a wooden box? The important bits AFAIK are the shape & dimensions of the firepit, the location of the tuyere and the amount of air.

I looked at your forge thread and size and shape wise it looks similar to other charcoal forges I've seen posted on this site as guides for others, so I don't see the problem with it?

If you are referring to me using a bigger pile of coke, I was thinking in terms of insulation rather than burning more coke, as was explained to me, if you pile a load of coke in a forge, it will only burn where there is fresh air, as coke does not self combust, so piling more coke on means the hot spot in the forge gets buried, i.e. insulated and doesn't lose heat ot the surroundings as quickly.

I suppose a wall or room of bricks around the fire would do a similar thing.

I use a new blower now, engine room fan with a PWM for controlling the fan speed and it moves more air than a blow dryer does I would say. The coke fire seems to be working better with the increased air blast, I also put in a bigger pile of coke this time so I coule heap it up, I understood this was good for retaining the heat. Someone (a sword smithing guy) also said it might be good to line the backside of the forge with more bricks to reflect the heat, even a small roof over the coal fire would be good.

I removed the metal pipe entirely and just left the hole the pipe made in the clay, that way I have a slightly larger hole of 20mm for the air. I got the forge hot enough to burn some steel by misstake. Might also have been running the fan too fast, it seemed to me once it got really hot it needed less air to keep going so I could turn down the fan.

One problem I have is that coke keeps falling out the front and down on the grass. Gonna make a small ledge with a narrow opening for inserting material.

23 hours ago, wirerabbit said:

The controllers are great, aren't they? What kind of blower is that?

It's supposedly an engine room fan, it had decent specs and I was recommended it by others who used it for their forge, though they did not use the PWM, running it at full blast gives a lot of air though I have a lot of leakages in my current setup.

I got quite a lot of things finished today, I hafted my latest axe (longest one)

And I finished this blower with a PWM controller for my forge, used an old tool box to keep the electronics in. Got great control of the air flow now.

And I got started on my solar air heater for the shop:

I also made a hook today but that's the one thing I forgot to take a photo of.

6 hours ago, Irondragon ForgeClay Works said:

No, like you said by not using the oxygen cutting lever.

I did figure that was how you meant it but I wasn't sure.

I've used lye personally when doing electrolysis, helps cut the grease and fat even at cold temps. Nothing like a boiling lye solution to degrease something however... Or even just hot. But hardly risk free to be dealing with.

My lathe is a Swedish Rexvalter VF-118, it's based on the South Bend 9 lathe and in a lot of places feels like a copy. It's a machine made in a metric country but all lead screws are imperial. It can cut a large array of threads. I like the overall size but wish for a lathe that was the same size, but heavier built and larger center height. But oh well lathes are expensive, cannot have everytihng.

Cross slide nut and lead screw needs replacement, as do the half nuts on the longitudinal feed.

9 hours ago, Irondragon ForgeClay Works said:

That is how I use the A/O to localize the heat when I need to.

By using the oxygen lever?

I don't got an oxy setup, yet, but I remember having seen not rosebuds but smaller brazing nozzles for propane, they don't put out as concentrated a flame as a welding tip but not as large as a rosebud. The common design here for oxy-acetylene is injector based (AGA X11) and I've heard people say you can actually run propane with those tips, but not to welding heat. And I guess you could get something of a localized heating with the cutting torch and a propane tip, just don't hit the oxygen lever once it's up to temp...

I personally find this a very interesting topic. Clickspring demonstrated this process and I always wanted to try it but didn't have a forge or heat treatment oven. I thought it would have several applications when machining certain parts to be able to carburize and harden them, and I can see the use for blacksmithing too. Isn't it quite ideal for many tools to have a soft body and hard striking face for instance? 

I finished the coal raking thingy  today, I guess it looks kinda odd though that  it's not black in the middle:

Thanks for the compliments, I finished the shaft last night and wedged it, the hammer is now ready to start acquiring a patina. Wiped everything down with BLO.

Kept removing material from the hammer head, now at 1250 grams and I think I will stop here. Made a new shaft for it, haven't made a smithing hammer shaft but I looked at what others prefer and also some videos with smiths talking design, so I made a slimmer handle.

Not yet attached permanently, still want to do more shaping. 

I could get .85 metric tons (a big bag that fits on a EUR pallet) for 860 euros from a place up north, supposed to be same size as the above. But at least a hundred more for shipping I gather so almost 1000 euros for .85 tons. That's 1873 lbs so around 53 euro cents per pound. But that's quite a lot for someone just starting smithing, and has no place to store that amount of coal either.