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I Forge Iron

pyroguy_3

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Everything posted by pyroguy_3

  1. A couple labs in the chemistry dept. at Ill St. U. (where I go) have Nitrogen generators of this type. All I know is that those are very far from cheap... Basically it pressurizes air, and then picks out the Nitrogen using various membranes/crystal lattice type things.
  2. I have a very similar forge to yours, in that it is a rivet forge... I've always had some sort of refractory material in it, be it refr. bricks or just lime from the liming of our fields. I recently used fireplace mortar and refractory bricks to fabricate a firepot for my rivet forge. I used a 3" wide masonry chisel and scored the bricks to make a slanting edge which turned into the slanting edge of my firepot. I did this for the four sides and then basically filled in as much of the rest of the pot on the backside of my firepot as I could, up to about .5-.25" from the rim of the forge. Then using fireplace mortar that came in the caulk-like tubes that you need the little gun for I filled in all the joints of the firepot and backfilled as much as I could. After about 3 hours of burning cardboard and wood scraps to cure the fireplace mortar, I ran a coal fire hot enough to forge at for about 20-30 minutes for the final cure. After doing some more light forging the fireplace mortar is as hard and solid as a brick and I can actually get my forge up to welding temps. So, you may try just using some strapping and bolts to keep the crack from spreading, after drilling out the end of the crack like I believe irnsrgn said. Clay would work just as well, but this is what I had on hand, and I haven't had any problems at all with it. Good luck. Also, my forge is stationary and never moves, so clay may be a lighter route if you are moving it in and out of shelter. good luck.
  3. Just thought I would clear this up, it's kind of my thing (chem major and whatnot) Ethyl alcohol ( with nomenclature of ethanol-C2H6O, also) is the main constituent in all alcoholic beverages which are consumed. Rubbing alcohol, as ThomasPowers said, is either denatured ethyl alcohol or isopropyl alcohol. Denaturing alcohol almost always means adding methyl alcohol (methanol- CH4O) to make it undrikable. Methanol is derived from woods, hence the name wood alcohol. Isopropyl alcohol (isopropanol- C3H8O) is the more common rubbing alcohol. It is more likey that the ethanol in hand sanitizer was denatured to prevent people from getting drunk off of it. Therefore, if a child were to eat hand sanitizer they would in effect be poisoning themselves with wood alcohol. So this story is partly true, and partly false. The underlying story of kid eats sanitizer and gets hurt, versus the .85 BAC. There are also some other constituents of hand sanitizer that aren't too nice, which is why it's a good idea to keep an eye on the kiddies!
  4. Um, this may/probably is not true. While the alcohol used in Germ-x is ethyl alcohol (Hand Sanitizer- Germ-X » Fight Germs With Your Bare Hands «), which is the 'active' component in drinks, an 85% blood alcohol level would be instantaneously fatal. I don't even know if you could get that much alcohol into a body without passing out far before that amount was reached, even if it was possible it would more than likely be vomited out before the majority could get into the blood. The legal limit is 0.08%, and 85% would be a .85 blood alcohol content. This kid would have had to have a huge glob of sanitizer in their hands and just drank it to get that drunk. So, the moral of this story is to watch your kid when they are using potentially harmful substances.
  5. Well, I am led to believe it is the orriginal blower that came with the rivet forge. It is a champion, as to what size I don't know as I am not in a current position to look. It has an electric motor that connects into 110v via outlet. The motor is connected to the blower by two flywheels. I tried putting a dimmer switch inline with the power and motor, but at too low V. I was creating shorts in the motor. I might look into putting some sort of foot pedal, however I have a dirt floor and dirt and electrical components don't like eachother... I may eventually rig up an electric blower when I get sick of this finicky thing. The main question is, can the grate holes be too small? I don't have problems with clogging with these size holes, but I think the air speed is too fast.
  6. After the orriginal grate that came on my rivet forge rusted out, I made one out of 1/4 or a little bigger steel plate. I drilled about 9 holes, about or smaller than the diameter of a pencil probably, in the plate and bolted it over the hole. However, my fire tends to burn very quickly and I am constantly adding fresh coal. Even with the airflow gate on my blower almost all the way closed it still burns quickly. Are my holes maybe too small, and this is causing the air to flow too fast through the grate? I was thinking maybe the pressure in the pipe is too great. Should I drill the holes out?
  7. If you're on a tight budget, any hunk of steel with a relatively flat face will do. If you have, and are willing to spend, the money buy a more expensive anvil. It is all up to you. My anvil is the 100$ special, it's 110 pounds and it serves me quite nicely. I've worked on nicer anvils and there is a large difference. But I'm going to drive this one into the ground. I get enjoyment out of forging no matter what I am beating on! Another thing, what kind of use will it be getting? I mean will this be your first time at the forge, or are you well versed in the ways of the hammer and just wish to have some other people's oppinions?
  8. I got a set of craftsman punches/chisels, and a Remington 11-87 Sportsman 12 guage. That's all.
  9. I'm just going to take a piece of about 1/4 inch scrap I have, cut and cold bend (read beat it with a hammer on the dirt floor until it's domed) and ta-da! Thanks for all the great help. And if it burns up I'll probably try a drain cover thing, or get one off ebay. Thanks again everybody.
  10. Thanks for all the great answers. I think I'll probably try to find a piece of scrap and drill through it to make a grate. now that I think about it, I know exactly which piece I'm going to use! Thanks again everybody.
  11. I messing around today trying to make my first rivet for a pair of tongs I'm working on and I suddenly noticed my fire was gone after coming back from the anvil. Turns out the inner part of the grate had rusted through. So does anybody know of a place online where I can get a replacement grate? I was also thinking that maybe a drain cover would work? Also contemplating fabricating a firebox to just set on top of the hole and build up around it with lime or refractory clay. Any suggestions? I'll try to get a picture of the grate up soon. Thanks.
  12. Sorry about the late reply, haven't had internet connectability for the past week or so.
  13. Thanks Mr Smith, it almost looked like a piece of cast or wrought iron that I had broken before. It looked almost granular. It's okay though because I decided to mount the leg-vise a different way.
  14. Today I was trying to bend a leaf spring into a U-ish shape to secure a leg vise to a fence post I sunk in my shop's floor. I had gotten the first 90 degree bend and had put the piece back into the fire to make the second bend. I had to run up to the house so I turned off the blower and started to pull the piece out of the fire to set aside and it slipped from my grip. I immediately jumped 6 feet backwards before it had hit the ground, and when it hit it broke clean in half at the bend! I'm not sure if this is usual for leaf springs since this is the first one I've ever worked with, but what did I do wrong to make it crack like that? I may have quenced it after the first bend too, I don't exactly remember. Thanks.
  15. It sounds like I have just about the same kind of set up as you do. The barn I have my shop in is my girlfriend's fathers so I can't cut through anything. I have a rivet forge sitting in about the middle of the 12 foot high rolling doorway, inside the barn about a foot. I took three 4' sections of stainless steel 6" diameter ventilation and riveted them together into a 12' section. I attatched a pulley at the top corner of the doorway and ran a rope through it that ties to a foot long section of wire which is connected to the end of the 12' long chimney. I made a hood that wraps halfway around my forge, out of tin I found in a ditch, and then put a variable-angle L-joint at the top of that. So, all I have to do is pull the chimney apparatus up to the top of the doorway via pulley, and insert the other end into the L-joint at the top of my hood. I haven't had any trouble with ventilation once the heat starts going up the chimney well. I'll take some pictures tomorow in case my explaination is lacking, which it surely is!
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