JamesBBrauer

Say I pour a casting about the same dimensions as a no. 2 pencil. After it comes out of the mold, can I get it warm and bend it into shape? After about four tries, I managed to pour a brass stamp for burning a logo on woodworking projects. So I've done it enough to know I can waste a lot of fuel on experiments. If anyone has tried something like this, I would be interested in any tips or cautions. It seems like it would be too grainy to bend. I make glass marbles and eyeballs, and want to pour something like an octopus tentacle, then bend them into 'S' shapes to kind of slither up and around the glass. thanks James B www.hotworksgallery.com

I make insects and fireplace tool holders that won't fit in my gloryhole style forge when the legs are splayed out, so I have been using a O/A rosebud for final adjustments. This should let me do most of the work in the smaller forge, then heat the larger sections at the end for final adjustment. And I did four burner holders, so the plan was to be able to have them blowing at opposing corners and maybe getting a little vortex going on. I could see burners pointed directly at each other blowing burning propane out of the air intake, or failing in some other similarly spectacular fashion. thanks for checking it out

Finished work on my new top-loading forge, and fired it up for the first time. I try to describe the construction details in the video-

I wanted to post a follow-up on how all this worked out, and what I did to get things working. Based on all of your excellent advice, I did a couple of things, first to get it working at all, then to tune it: First off it needed a flare on the end. I hacked one out of some thin sheet metal and was able to get a halfway decent flame running constantly. So after rough turning a 5-degree taper out of aluminum on the lathe, I first cold bent some 12-gauge stainless into a half-circle, then clamped the sheet against the taper jig, heated it, and hammered it around to close the circle. I got tired of trying to find my calculator, so I just laid out a 5-degree taper on paper with a protractor and measured off the width of the flare over the three inch length to get the dimensions for the taper. The stainless to stainless, and stainless to steel pipe are both welded with flux-core (not TIG), and it seem to hold up fine. The other thing that helped get a better flame was reducing the size of the MIG tip from .035" to .030". Those were the only two sizes I had around. I suspected from the smell, the combustion was incomplete at .035", and with the .030" there is almost no orange at the end. The MIG tips are for a Lincoln, and are threaded at 1/4"-20, and I'm glad I went to the trouble of tapping this; it was an easy change to try. For adjusting the center of the jet, I tapped my pipe with a #10-32. This gives roughly four thread turns in the pipe, and was easier than welding 1/4" nuts on the side of the pipe like on my last burner. This setup gets a good flame over a range of pressures, and heated the inside of my oven nicely. The interior of the oven is rectangular, and the burners are pointing diagonally at the floor from the upper rear corners of the box. With the door open, this arrangement circulates nicely, without blowing much flame out of the front. When closing the door it does take at least 10 square inches of exhaust to stay burning. I'm using a Harbor Freight MIG regulator, converted to fit propane. This will make up to about 25 psi, at some unknown volume, which seems to be more than what I need. - James Brauer

Your assumptions are quite correct, no blower attached. Is it reasonable for me to expect something like a pointed blue flame from a 3/4" pipe? If it is I'll keep experimenting with gas hole size, and maybe turn another venturi coupler on the lathe to see if that does some good. My first venturi coupler fit so good I couldn't get it apart to adjust the little stainless tube I had blowing into it. I think my next step will be to hammer out a flare on the end. If it works, I can go stainless after.

I've been using a 1-1/2" Tee -> 1-1/2" connector -> 1/1-2" to 1" reducer -> no flare with a tweco tip on a 1/8" brass tube as the burner in my well insulated tube shaped forge for quite some time. This sucker simply roars with a fierce blue flame, inside or outside the forge. It drinks propane, but I am quite happy with the performance. Many happy hours pounding on hot metal. Now have built a couple of 1'x1'x2' rectangular ovens. They are packed with Kaowool and stabilized with kaolin, and have a volume of about 200 cu/in each. One is going to be a ramp-controlled electric oven for heat treating steel, annealing glass, and firing pottery. The other oven is going to be for casting glass/metal, heating pottery for raku, and maybe some blacksmithing if the work piece fits better. This is the oven where I am trying to get a propane heat source working. My plan was to use two 3/4" burners to heat the oven, and I am pretty much locked into doing that at this point. The tube holders are welded to the oven frame, and mortared in, and I bought an expensive bag of parts to build (at least) two of this size burner. But my burner building work hasn't been producing the nice fire my previous burner makes. My latest effort is a 1" Tee -> 1" connector -> 1" to 3/4" reducer -> 3/4" pipe of varied lengths. The general problem is when I crank up the gas to what would make my other burner roar, it just blows the flame off the end. My gas comes out of a 1/8" brass pipe with a coupler and male cap. I tried a 0.05" hole drilled in the cap and I got a blue flame with lots of orange at the end, which I am guessing is caused by too much gas with not enough velocity. If I cranked up the gas, it blew the fire out. So I opened out my 0.05" hole and tapped it for a 0.035" mig tip. It nearly makes a flame, but in the oven it looks more like a puddle of blue flame than the raging torrent of fire I am looking for. Is anybody else running 3/4" pipe like this? If so, how do you have it setup, and does it look like a blowtorch flame? thanks James B

Well, I'm not exactly what you might call a learn-ed smith, but I did make a tire iron out of a steering part and put it to good use doing a couple of section repairs.

We were down around ten or fifteen below zero (F) yesterday morning. My propane forge is on a wire rack cart, and I rolled it back to make room for the Jeep in the garage. It was warmer today, the moisture in my nose wasn't freezing up. This ain't natural for a Florida boy like me.

I made a couple of bark spuds out of a leaf spring and slowly tempered it till the sharpened part just started turning blue. That combo of steel and temper seemed to hold a good edge and stand up to being rammed against pine knots without loosing the edge. And like other dude says, letting that socket stay under tension will help hold the handle in place. I'm pretty sure the handle would break off before tempered leaf spring. You making shingles?

Just as a side note, you might want to check out the forums over at badgerandblade.com . They have a straight razor section, and really good shaving advice.

I've ammonia fumed a few pieces of white oak furniture, and heard of a similar vinegar treatment for that. I'll have to try the vinegar on maple sometime. I work with that quite a bit as well.

Hello. I have an old Paragon kiln, and all the parts for a wheel. Might work on some pottery over the xmas break. Also thinking of making some metal frames and permanently slumping glass into them to make bowls or something. But before doing that, I have some new tool steel to make into woodworking chisels, and maybe a utility knife. I'm in Colorado now, but lived in Morganton for a long time (1980s), and am working on a cabin out hwy 64 near South Mountain SP.

You could hang a smaller magnet over the large magnet on a string and use it as a teaching tool for kids. Learn the difference in randomness, strange attractors, emergent behavior, or chaos. Or get some ferrofluid in a clear container and have kids observe/sketch the magnetic fields. If you use it as a floor sweep, maybe put some sort of bag over it so you can pull all the metal away easily. It might be possible as a thought exercise, though ethically questionable and not very practical, to slow down your power meter with. (Dudley Doright need not reply) That is if it can be oriented to create a strong opposing force to permanent magnet in the motor on the meter base.

Well I reckon I'll have to wire a couple of those left over stove burners into that solid state 220v relay I got at the scrap yard, then run a thermocouple into a lil chip with an Arduino bootloader to control the relay. For a box, I got plenty of Kaowool and Pyrax from making my forge, but I guess I'll have to shell out for a thermocouple and ceramic sheath. Bummer. Till I get that done, I'm gonna soak the metal by color, and use fry oil controlled with a candy thermometer.

Very nice detailed photography and descriptions. I tried searching on dagger, sword, and knife, and was overwhelmed with exceptional content. Check it out: Search the Collections - Victoria and Albert Museum

You might like the look of dewaxed shellac with a couple coats of polyurethane over top. The shellac will really give the finish some depth, like you are looking down into something three dimensional. Covered with poly it will highlight the features of the wood nicely. On my mahogany furniture I do a couple of water thin coats of shellac, after vacuuming the sanding dust out of the pores, verrrry lightly sanding between coats. This helps fill the grain as well. Then the next day start putting thin coats of poly, sanding between coats. Gloss poly can be rubbed out with steel wool to get a soft finish, or rubbed out with automotive polish to get glass smooth. Either way you get a maintenance free finish that is durable and water resistant. Here is one of my furniture projects I did like this: sideboard on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I do this as a hobby, and more to save money, than to make money. So I made my two pairs. One big and one little. If I spent money on these I would feel bad heating them up and squeezing them in the vise to fit around whatever size stock I am working on at the time. Mostly I just think they are fun to make. But would I try to drift a hole in a big hammer? Not likely, that wouldn't be as much fun. I can easily see why somebody doing this for a living would buy tongs. The economic cost of shop made can be more than the cost of buying a pair. Maybe I will go out tonight and try to make another pair. And I reeeaaallly like the looks of those machine cut blanks.

I'm all fired up about my little metal order. Have some round drill rods (1/2", 5/8", 3/4") on the way to make some woodworking chisels, and a length of 1/8" x 1" for knives and maybe another drawknife. The junkyard steel projects have been turning out pretty good temper-wise, so I figure it is time to move on to a know metal that I can dial-in better. My plan is to heat my quench oil to about 180F, get the part to the critical temp (isn't that the same as non-magnetic?) and dunk it. Then bake it for an hour or two at 450F. Depending on how these hold an edge, I may change the bake temp. I've never tried a heated quench, or tempering in an electric oven so if this is a flawed idea, please let me know. Since I'm far from expert with the hammer, I may try to mill a die for the top side of my chisels and squish them in my little 12-ton press. Seems like it will be easier to get a precise geometry in the milling machine, then imprint that on top of the rod. For the tang, I'm thinking of hammering a shoulder then tapering to a point that fits into the handle.

For most things, including blacksmithing, I consider what good enough will be before I start a project. I don't like having to settle for less than what my original goal was, but sometimes that goal wasn't that high to begin with. And sometimes if you keep messing with something, it get worse.

I finally broke down and got a Dewalt metal cutoff saw after trashing the gears in the HF version, and never having much success with blade tracking in the HF bandsaw. The cutoff saw gets more use for welding projects than blacksmithing. For instance, I needed to cut a bunch of 3" lengths out of a piece of steel angle last night, and used the cutoff saw. But I was making a bunch of table top clips for some tables, and was able to bend a dogleg in the end of the stock, then cut it with a cold chisel a single heat (with a helper).

I peeled lotsa bark today and this tool works great. It held its edge very well, even after ramming into all kind of pine knots. The thing is splattered with pine sap.

I have a pile of lodgepole pines out back that need the bark peeled off, so I made a drawknife this evening. The handles are turned from some maple I had, and attached to half inch mild steel. The blade is from an edger, and was tempered to a blue which seemed like a good midpoint without knowing much about the steel. I sharpened it up and it peels bark and knocks the top off the knots that get in the way. Most of the projects I see on here are completed with much better attention to detail and finish than this. But this sucker gets the job done and only took a couple of hours total. It was fun.

From what I picked up researching a couple of (at home) sound reduction projects, the goal of soundproofing is to stop pushing air molecules. One way to do this is to make things as air tight as possible. That way the air pushed by a ringing anvil can't make its way to someones ear drums and push those. Transmitting vibration is another thing. If the anvil is sitting on a wood floor, some of the sound goes into the air, and some vibrates the floor and walls, which in turn pushes air on the outside of the building towards your neighbors ears. Some of the sound from the anvil will also vibrate the walls, and transmit the sound outside. Hanging carpet/egg crate helps the walls vibrate less, and dampens the sound energy before it gets to the walls. Putting the anvil base on soft rubber feet might help keep some of the sound down as well. Some home theater and studio setups will use a room-in-a-room idea, where there is a second room framed in the first room, and connected with isolation bushings. But at some point it might so expensive, it would be cheaper to pay the occasional fine. Sound Proofing Walls | Sound Isolation Company

Nice work. Those look somewhat art nouveau influenced. I've built wooden chairs and can appreciate the challenges involved. Did a bent metal wood and metal headboard as well - yours is looking better than what I did.

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