Merlin05

I hear you but I think I'm going to leave it as-is. There are two reasons that chain was installed on my anvil: a) they're both about the same age, so it seems appropriate and b) if it's on the anvil, I can't use it for something else like logging - and lose it like I did with it's twin. Thanks for commenting, I appreciate it.

There isn't. A flaw in the design. Recall that I first put this together before the internet, plus it was used for firewood. I plan to redesign the forge to a) make it roll-able and b) add the "rain cap" idea (or it's equivalent) that Frosty posted above. Thanks,

Welcome from TN!

In some parts of the country, I'm considered an expert or SME on shed design and build. Ask me anything you want, I'll be glad to help!

My anvil, as received: After electrolysis: Shagbark Hickory stump, on left: Mounted: Hammer rack: And tong rack plus misc. tools basket on the front: Thanks for looking!

Irondragon, from Atlas Forge website: "The Atlas forge uses Plicast CG LWI cast refractory, cured and baked for 6 hours at 450°F. Ready to use right out of the box and it will last much longer than wool based forges." I hope this helps!

Got an e-mail from Atlas: He says it's moisture. The insulation sucks moisture when cooling; it's boiled off when heating, causing the sputtering. This makes sense, since I don't keep it running very long once it starts sputtering, not knowing if it was defective or I was doing it wrong nor wanting to blow up my shop with me in it. Next time, I'll let it run and drive on. Thanks,

Cool video! Thanks for posting it!

Any ideas on all the welding splatter? It doesn't happen very often to me, but it's always aggravating.

Speaking of welding on spring steel: IMO, Scott made two mistakes when he made his Burke bar: He hardened the bar, then tempered it. Despite spending quite a bit of time discussing tempering, i don't think he tempered it to a high enough temperature. The other mistake was that he left a forging defect right at the bend of the bar; he called it a "Beauty Mark". Scott made this bar for fellow YTer Andrew Camarata - and Andrew promptly broke it. He very briefly shows the repaired bar in one of his videos and it appears it broke right at the forging defect near as I can tell. The repair? Andrew welded it right up; says it has worked fine since then (see his comments in the video in the OP. So, relevance to this thread: Everything I've read for pry bar tempering is to leave it as-is after normalizing; the failure mode should be bending, not breaking. Granted my normalizing procedure may not have hot enough or long enough to cool or whatever. This steel has never been hardened or quenched since it left the factory; it's been brought to forging temps, not once but twice and it sat in a "tempering" oven for 6-8 hours total. I plan to heat it up one more time to at least a dark blue temp before I put it into any heavy use. If it breaks, so be it; I've got tons of leaf springs hanging around here.

The back end has a small opening at the bottom; probably 80-85% closed. Regulator is the 20 psig that came with the unit. I don't know what pressure I'm running; as stated my version did not come with a gauge. I'll try a higher pressure. Thanks for the help!

Tried it again yesterday afternoon. Went over the instructions word for word to make sure I RTFM; near as I can tell, it's installed correctly. Worked fine until it got hot and I put the metal into it to heat it up. I thought maybe putting the steel shank in there was disrupting the gas flow, but then that doesn't make sense: the whole purpose of this forge is to put metal into it and turned them knives or whatever. Here's a picture of the forge and how it's designed; this is a stock pic from the Atlas site. The brass piece is what I removed to clean out the tiny orifice. Note that the directions state to make sure the burner is centered into the forge; you can see the three @@ allen head screws used to position and lock it into place above. The only other adjustments are how deep the burner goes into the forge (they want it about a 1/4" from inside) and of course the regulator. Any other ideas, suggestions or help? One Contact form with e-mail and one VM: still no response. Thanks!

This not normalizing? "To normalize it, I put it back into the fire and got it to a dull red heat, then just turned the blower off and let it sit." Dull red heat in bright sunshine, not dark. I forgot to mention: I heated the pry bar end up to 450-500 degrees for an hour and a half prior to welding. Before I use it, I plan to heat the pry bar end up in my forge, but I haven't fired it up since.

I've been using this type for a long time. I think I got a couple 10 packs several years ago. Never had fly apart like that.

In the OP: "Posted Saturday at 06:00 PM Fired up my Atlas forge this afternoon,...." Any of you expect a response on a late Saturday afternoon or Sunday? ETA: I just sent them an e-mail using the same problem statement as above.