Thesterlingcrab

Oh my god I am such an idiot i completely forgot about how Pennsylvania is one of the largest coal exporting states and how cheap it would be, thanks for reminding. (P.S I am not being sarcastic i completely forgot about that lol thanks again)

So I currently am building a forge to run off of feed corn out of an old pellet grill it will be a side blast my question is should I have the air inlet low compared to the level the corn will be filled to or should it be higher up?

Hey it’s been a while the reason it is so large is I got it for free from my step brother who works for a lumber company and this peice had been sitting there for ever and he was able to get it for me and now I understand about the toe jack thanks I am probably going to buy the chainsaw bar for my father as a Christmas present in all reality and thanks for the feedback!

So I recently have acquired a log of seasoned poplar weighing about 1000 pounds from what I can remember from the last time I looked at it it was approximately 2.5’ in diameter and around 4’ in length i plan on buying a larger chainsaw bar in order to be able to cut this in half so that I can use it as an anvil stand once I get a proper anvil I was thinking about possibly making a carve out on the bottom for a toe jack to lift it if necessary but my question is is it even worth it to make this cut out or should I just leave it flat

So I recently bought an old post vice and the handle is wrought I can tell by the banding in the cracks that are splitting across the grain my question is should I replace the handle or just use it until it breaks the cracks started as minor marks but now are a decent size maybe a 1/8 inch deep

Yeah the 5” piece was a part that my instructor sent me down to have made for something he was doing and I know I am way overthinking this I have a tendency to overcomplicate things lol but thanks

The thing is I don’t have enough hands to forge them out is what I should say I do have access to a ton of material but I don’t have the hands to hold the material hold my round stock and hit it with a hammer

Yes I have a very beefy drill press and sizes vary I am just trying to build up by tooling I always could have the machine shop at the trade school I go to for welding machine them out but they take forever once I had to have them drill a 1/2 inch through a 5 inch piece of steel and it took them half an hour and three kids to do it while I stood there although that was around a year ago so they may be more competent now lol

So I don’t have the necessary material to forge out swages I specifically want to make a set of half rounds but my question is if I was to go and cut some pieces of pipe in half length wise to create a semicircle then cut out the general shape in a piece of steel with a plasma cutter or torch then weld it all together would that work? Or am I just overthinking this

Thanks I decided instead that I am using an old pellet grill and am going to coat it with homemade refractory right now I am just using wood but I can’t get it hot enough I know wood itself is finicky to get hot but do I want to cut it into small chunks almost cube it into like 2 inch cubes? I am just using all the wood scrap that I have around first because they need used then am going down to a feed mill near me and am going to run it off of corn because I can get a 50lbs bag for around 7 bucks

Thank you so much like I said I have plenty of different options for bellows and I will get that litter for it yet again thank you so much

So I am 16 and on an extremely tight budget and want to transfer from my crappy little propane forge to a solid fuel forge and preferably want to make a side blast what are some heat resistant things I can make to coat some old patio pavers with a thick layer of it I know you aren’t supposed to use things like bricks or patio pavers but firebricks are so expensive I have access to torches plasma cutters chop saws all types of welders and know how to weld and I can get a decent bit of plate steel probably up to 3/8 being the max for free from my trade school I go to I have plenty of shop vacs i can use for blowers along with fans and an industrial grade blower fan just wondering if anyone has any ideas of what I can use /make to coat it thanks!!

So I like to peen over my pins on knife scales just for added support but my question is how much do I want to have sticking out on each side and is there a better way to peen them over so I don’t bang up my handle scales and make dents in the wood

I am studying welding but the two instructors in my school have taught us the general way to use a Bridgeport as it is always a good thing to know how to use as a welder and the reason I put it as a floor pedal is I do cycle through a lot of different tools when using it It is not a dc motor so I can’t reverse it but I still use it for threading as on the lowest speed it is probably at most 120 rpm so it makes for a great threading tool

Oh boy do I know with loose clothing and jewelry my first day at my trade school in our first safety briefing we got a look at injuries that can occur and one of em was what they like to call “hamburger hand” the result of a guy getting his entire hand dragged in when running a boring head on a Bridgeport because he was wearing gloves

Yeah thanks I am going to set it up so there is a secondary switch as a hard stop and saddly the motor is only a 1/2 horsepower but she is still a champ and she was manufactured and ran in my home city of Erie pa so she is definitely worth it

If you are speaking of the tig floor pedal then not to worry as I am just using the shell it was an old broken one from my trade school so I took the electronics out and just wired up a push button onto it but if you are speaking of the thing on the wall I have no idea my step dad just bought it and gave it to me lol

Just wanted to share my find I have had her for about 5 months now and have used it almost daily picked her up for 100 bucks off of marketplace and hooked it up to an old tig floor pedal weighs more then 300lbs and works better then the big jet brand one at my trade school She used to be run off a line shaft but has been converted to an electric motor she is gonna outlive me even though I am only 16 lol

Yeah thanks I have been looking for an anvil for forever but most around here are swept up by the Amish before I can even get a chance to look at them and the others are way way to expensive for their size I do have a full yard of railroad track as you have stated but that is my stepdads truck bed weight for the winter lol but yeah for now I am going to stick with the improvised anvil until I find the right one

So I have a small anvil that I made at my trade school from which I go for welding out of a piece of railroad track it has a horn a pritchel hole and a step I have easy access to lots of lumber for the base I was just going to mount it to a big log my stepbrother works for a tree felling company so I can get it relatively easily so my question is what type of wood should I use? I was at first thinking cedar because of its rot and weather resistant but I will not be able to get cedar so what is my next best bet? I live in north western Pennsylvania just for context of tree types I also have a post vice I picked up for 50 dollars that is currently mounted on an oak 4x4 that is around 4 feet long with around 1.5 feet buried but it still isn’t very stable I can not cement it into the ground my next thought was to mount it to the tongue of my tractor it is on the larger end of small tractors it is an old case but I can’t spin the thing around yet so it is facing away from my forge as I still need to fix it what would be my best bet?

Yeah thanks will take those plans if you wouldn’t mind just send me a message and I can send you my email currently I have a small handheld belt sander an angle grinder and bench grinder the only big tool I have in my shop is my drill press bought it off of Facebook marketplace for 100 bucks it used to be run off of steam but has since been converted to electric it is a real work horse runs better then the big jet brand one we have at my technically school lol Thanks and yeah I still have a bit of work to do on the handle and to be honest I have no intended use in mind for it when I forged it but think I might use it as a small carving knife and the reason I have that little hollow at the back is due to a cold shut I had to grind out I just got done forging my second knife out a few days ago but still have a lot of work to do I will take pictures later today that one looks a lot better although it is out of a non hardenable steel but by itself the steel is decently hard I am going to have to trim it back quite a bit since it used to be an old Allen wrench type thing that had a ball bearing in it and the ball bearing is currently a sore to look at since I didn’t have the sense to cut that end off before forging it

Yeah thanks I carved out one of the sides then had to go help my grandmother for a while and while I was doing that my stepdad did the other half with his dremel for me I would have done the half I carved out with a dremel but I need to slow down and take my time more so I opted for just a chisel it turned out pretty decent for my first knife especially since I am self taught

Ah yeah got it sorry and yes I did got a piece of black walnut cut it in half and carved out the profile of the tang with a chisel

Will give updated photo when complete

Just putting the finishing touches on my first knife it might look [bad] but it is my first knife made out of a chunk of railroad track i think it turned out semi decent considering i am self taught but please tell me what I can do better!!!