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.

I forgot to mention that chain that's wrapped around the anvil waist. It's a 5/8" forged logging chain I found deep in a swamp near the Orange/Seminole county lines in central Florida along the Little Econlockhatchee River. It was abandoned near some 12'-15' Cypress tree stumps. Huge trees, I wish I had pics. It was probably 100 years old when I found it and I found it in the mid-70's. I used to have it's twin but it got lost on my property a couple years doing my own logging. I thought you guys might be interested in that little story. Seems appropriate to be installed on a probably 100 year old anvil.

I was making a basket for my anvil stand and cutting some 1 1/2" bed angle when this happened. 14" standard off-the-shelf HF 14" chop saw. I've never had this happen before. Luckily, I was both wearing my Eye Pro and standing well to the side when it decided to let go: Wear your Eye Pro! Thanks for looking!

I made the first iteration of this forge about 20 years or so ago. I started with an old truck wheel, welded a 3/4" pipe nipple for side blowing and then used it with firewood - all I had at the time. Wood worked *sorta* ok, but then life intervened and this thing was carried around for 20 years until I decided to modify it for coal. How it started out; ignore the blower, it wasn't a part of the design then: You can see the pipe nipple flattened out to spread the air out; it didn't take too long to figure out it didn't move nearly enough air to work, so I ended up just using a big box fan on it when I used it with firewood: The first mod (besides cutting the nipple out) was to add a drum brake to it and then add a flat plate for the air supply for bottom draft: Added a pipe for the blower: And then added an Englander Stove Works AC-16 blower fan. Although it has dual "Low-High" switches, it blows waaaay too much air, so I had to remove it and replace it with a $2 thrift store hair dryer: And here it is with it's 2nd forging (1st was some anvil hammer rack brackets); this is a truck leaf spring I made into the working end of a Burke Bar, the subject of another thread in Projects: Please let me know what you think, I appreciate it!

Ever since I watched Scott over on the Essential Craftsman YT site make a video on how he fabricated a Burke Bar, I wanted to make one. If you don't know what a Burke Bar or what it looks like, here is the video: So I found a piece of 5/8" thick truck spring leaf and cut it to size, welded a piece of rebar to hold it for forging and hammering and then got it heated up in my brake drum coal forge: I was shocked at how easy it was to forge the pry end down and to bend the bar into the angle needed: 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. Here it is after the fire has cooled down: After grinding down the bevel for the pry end. I messed up the shape of the nail puller. And after "tempering" in my toaster oven at 500-550 for 6 hours: After cleaning and polishing with a 120 grit flap wheel: Time to move onto the handle. I found a piece of rectangular tubing; I *think* it's 1"x2"x1/8", but I'm not sure: Cut the slot, cleaned it up: Welding pics aka Splatter City! Cleaned up nicely though: Anyone who watches Scott at the EC channel will catch the reference: Those White Ox gloves are - by far - my favorite work gloves! Thanks for looking!

Ok, some more work. Note the fore and aft (unseen) hold downs - in engineering school, I'm pretty sure there were no classes on the downsides of "overkill". The yellow strap is to measure an anti-splitting and hanger ring. Anti-splitting and hanger ring made and mounted. It's 3/16"x2" flat stock. I wanted to make it out of 1/8"x1.5" but I couldn't find a piece long enough. Just as soon as I finished this, I was putting away a piece of leftover 3/16" - and dang near tripped over an 80" long piece of 1/8". Never fails. Forged a couple 90 degree rebar brackets: And used them to make a hammer rack: Made a little 8x8" storage area under the horn for misc tools and to hold my current supply of tongs: Thanks for looking!

The answer to that question is literally in the first half of the first sentence in the OP.

Fired up my Atlas forge this afternoon, it wouldn't work at all at first. Finally had to remove the gas burner outlet orifice(the brass piece in the pic below) and rod out the tiny little hole. Got it reassembled and fired it up. But it's sputtering. Not constantly but every once in while it will go from the standard burner hiss to a "cough, cough, cough" type behavior. No flame when it's sputtering. I used a steel brush bristle to rod out the tiny orifice; I'm not aware of having anything else that small to clean it out. Any ideas, thoughts, suggestions/ Just noticed: Mine didn't come with the pressure gauge. Also, tank is full. Thanks,

Frosty, it was Billy and Gabby with Duck River Forge; now defunct due Billy's death. She is still alive and well and selling 60 lb of coal for $14 each. Nice lady.

No worries, I'm going to find out this Thursday: answered a CL ad for coal. Turns out it's the same place I got it last time. The lady seems to be still alive. I'll find out their names or their blacksmithing company name then. Thanks,

I need an anvil stand. Does anyone see any anvil stands in this pic? How about in this pic? The left piece came from the Shagbark Hickory that narrowly missed my house; the right is a piece of Red Oak that fell across my one mile gravel road. Both were cut and shaped at my cousin's sawmill. The left is sized for my anvil; the right is sized for - dunno. Yet. The tractor forks? Yea, you're not moving these beasts very far without them! Did some routering my new router; first time job - please be gentle. Added some of that "Grip It" plasti-dip stuff to act as buffer to deaden the sound of the anvil. Not pretty but it fits: And mounted: Thanks for looking!