pkrankow

Can you post before and after pics too? Phil

Funny, I use the back of a hacksaw blade as my scraper for wood and the shank of a 1/4 inch or so drill to put my burr on. I've also used broken glass, no need to put a burr on that, but wear good leather gloves, and tape the edges you are not using. For scraping wood with glass, take a piece of window glass (I like double strength) nick the edge near a corner or short edge with your glass cutter and use a padded pair of pliers to "twist" off a useful shape for your project (concave or convex) between 1/2 and 1 inch wide, as long as you need. Voila! you have a double edged scraper that will last for the day and cost near nothing. Takes practice to use these, more tricky than metal scrapers. But this is somewhat off topic now:o Phil

Love the table, the lamp is interesting, but I don't "get" it. Sometimes artwork is...confusing...not within my understanding. I like the details and textures in the lamp. Maybe I can't see the forest for trees, or maybe I can't see the tree for the forest. Phil

Lately I have used the backside of disposable razor knife blades. Just flip the knife over and push the burr off. Since they are stamped, one side has a nice corner that removes aluminum and mild steel burs nicely. Then again, I've only been messing with sheet metal lately, and burnishing is sometimes as effective as stripping the burr away. I've used a variety of purpose built deburring tools that have swivel heads for cleaning holes, and a double carbide wheel job for cleaning sheet metal edges, but these were provided, either in class or by my employer (or a machinist I was helping). I wouldn't buy one of these unless I was repeating the same type of cleaning frequently, they are too specialized. I've use a file, but never thought of sharpening any part of it differently for use deburring metal. I find the shoulder between the tang and file of a file without handle to work excellent for deburring pipe after cutting. Yes this involves holding the business end of the file, but most of my files are very old and near worn out to start with. I've also used a larger drill bit for cleaning the edge of small holes and small metal tubing. A half turn plus a bit and you are done. Phil

Burners limit out at about 30 psi. Propane Forge Burner Design / Sidearm Burners Burner BTU Output Zoeller uses plumbing parts, and Rex uses precision machining. If you put too much pressure you can literally "blow out" the flame by pushing it past the flame holder. Phil

So unless you have wood handles re-season like cast iron cookware? Phil

What type of jack is that? Air over hydraulic? Love it, simple design, most parts in tension. Phil

Honestly I never thought of forging the reinforcements. Now I have a list of real projects to do: tongs, a squid or hummingbird when I learn forge welding, and I want to make some leaf key rings to give at Christmas as well. I found a small stack of T-post when I was digging drainage a few weeks ago, so all I need now is insulation. Phil

Well, I decided to let materials on hand guide me. I am using a steel bolt together shelf unit that was six feet tall. After cutting the legs down, the shelf I am bolting the forge to is about 3 ft high, with legs and insulation putting the forge floor in the 40-42 inch ballpark. With wheels on one end it's more of a cart now. Since it is a bolt together, I can easily go lower if I find it too high. Not directly related, but my new workbenches are 36 inches tall too. I used the Simpson Strong tie plans, but used pocket screws. I can add the heavy duty brackets later if it needs them. Eight $5 brackets per bench was a bit too stiff for the budget. Phil

My bad, still a good idea. Phil

Take a class on First Aid and CPR with your son. Part of why people panic at the sight of blood, and can't tolerate it, is because they have no clue what to do. He saw you were injured, and had nothing to fall back on to when it came to handling the situation. With a little training on what to do, he can at least disengage his panic a little and rely on what he was taught. He can also be helpful and may feel satisfaction that he was able to make Dad better, or at least not add to the problem. The sight of fresh injury blood is serious business, especially when involving a family member or loved one. Phil

Any time you have a fuel/air charge with some heat (especially if the materials generate heat) you will have a fire at some point, if left long enough. This is why there are so many barn fires from hay or straw. Same reason grain silos explode when the elevator malfunctions. In HS wood shop, several steel drums (30 gal I think) that we dumped sawdust and scrap into had the paint burned off. During a lab period (2 hour) one caught while I was there. We all knew why there was a garden hose in the corner, and why all scrap and sawdust was removed at the end of each class period after that. I do not know if it had oil or oil rags in it too. It was about half full and just smoking a lot when it was doused. It may have been a prank, but nobody acted like it was. I seal a rag or two in a metal can while I am working on a project, but dispose of it when convenient, no coal forge here. Phil

Pine tar, also called Stockholm tar: Pack a steel 5 gallon bucket as tight at possible with pitch pine (sappy stuff from the stump or roots) split is good. Cut a small hole in the steel lid, make sure to remove the rubber gasket, or use a piece of steel sheet metal with a hole in it. Go to your bonfire pit, and dig a hole large enough to place a 1 gallon paint can below grade. Place the bucket upside down on top of the paint can, so the hole lines up with the open paint can. Staking the bucket in place might help some, or use a few rocks. Build a fire around the bucket and maintain for 4-8 hours. Produces between a pint and 2 quarts of pine tar, and a bucket full of nice clean pine charcoal. Recipe is courtesy of Woodenboat magazine, but I can't find the correct issue to copy it exactly. I understand that any sappy pine will work, especially if harvested in summer, the "wrong" time of year. Stumps from harvesting are recommended from some links I have found. Pine Tar; History And Uses Making Tar at Tar Kiln Hollow Have fun Phil

I notice that you use many many many turns of wire around your bundles. Is that really necessary? Isn't the collar supposed to hold everything...or is that expecting too much from the collar while hot before welding? Would less wire work, or is using a longer wire making it easier to reuse the wire for other work, making your shop consume less overall? On the humming bird did you reverse the wings? While these sculptures are rather simple, the small details make them outstanding. Thank you for sharing Phil

Didymium Safety Glasses These? I recall didymium tint being funny, but haven't handled a pair in quite some time. Please post pictures. Phil

I got a few ring stories, a non-ring story and a tip. We will start with the tip: If you can't get your ring off, take a 6 ft length of stout string (or #0 suture) and start wrapping your finger from above the knuckle. Wrap as tight as you can stand, and don't worry about your finger turning colors, you will be unwrapping very soon. When you get to the ring, tuck the end under the ring. At this point the ring may slip off, all the better. If the ring is still on, take the end under the ring, and start unwrapping. Use needle nose pliers, or forceps, to control the end if you need. As you unwrap the ring should be forced over the thread and compressed flesh, removing the ring without (additional) injury or damage to either the ring or person. **IMPORTANT: MAKE SURE THIS WHOLE PROCESS TAKES LESS THAN 3 MINUTES TO PREVENT TISSUE DAMAGE FROM LACK OF BLOOD FLOW*** Now story time I was braking up concrete in my basement to install a sump well using a broken torsion rod (about 4 ft long, 1 inch spring steel) and a sledge hammer. While setting the rod in a drill hole, I somehow clapped my finger between the hammer and rod, smashing the ring well. Hurt like xxxx too. I ended up smacking the ring again to get it off, and straightened it on the but end of a drill bit in the vice. I was happily not really injured. Our jeweler won't touch my ring, or look at my ring after declaring it has "extra character." I hung myself on a shelving post by my _right_ ring finger falling off a ladder at work, while trying to get a tire down from the top shelf. We only stocked a few trailer tires, so this was kinda funny, in a very painful way. My skin was peeled back from the fold at the palm to the next knuckle. I have always worn my ring on my left hand, and was wearing my ring on my left hand at the time. The ER doc had some problems with this and thought I just switched my ring over to my left hand at first. Just because you are not wearing your ring doesn't mean you cannot have an injury that is usually caused by a ring. Also never keep heavy objects above chest level. Phil

Robert Palumbo was one of my professors in school. He is participating in a solar furnace project with the purpose of developing a process to make ZnO into metallic Zn through disassociation, a process similar to reduction. It turns out that you can make an "air battery" using Zn=>ZnO reaction, enough to power some small cars. There is an experimental solar furnace built in Switzerland that achieves 2000F. It looks like a glass walled office building built into a hillside to get enough collection area. palumbo solar furnace - Google Search A lot of articles to wade through, most requiring membership. Sorry, I don't have membership either. You might need to brush up on your calculus to understand some of this though. I know there is a formula for calculating the area of collector needed to bring a chamber to a given temperature for a given solar incidence in these articles. Your solar incidence is either measured or reported as a seasonal average for your area, but will vary from day to day. Since I haven't used this level of math in years, I would need to brush up to understand it too. Phil

Welcome aboard Ryan. I am making my first forge too, and came up with some extravagant plans from a 16 gallon barrel. My plans became much smaller as I took stock of various thoughts. Are you making swords? Do you need such a long forge? Would it be better to cut it down some, open up the cutoff and flatten it out to get metal to make ends? Firebricks on angle iron tracks are often used as effective doors. Is the lid metal too? You can make a front door by cutting this up. 1/8 inch steel or stainless steel pop rivets are nice, cheap, and effective, but be careful about breaking drill bits. Can you buy a second trash can to get more metal if you really require the length? One 3/4 inch burner working correctly heats 200-350 cu inches of volume to welding temperature. Having more heat available means you can turn down your pressure and not use all of it. Not having enough will always be not enough. You need openings in your ends to let hot exhaust out, figure at least 4x4inch or equivalent. I am unsure if this is per burner or not. You can always use a firebrick with a notch cut out of it sized loosely to the chamber at the back to reduce volume and change exhaust gas flow. Large forges are going to consume large volumes of fuel. Energy used to heat the forge with is never reclaimed to do work with. Reducing a large forge with a movable back wall, and turning off burners helps some. Unused burners can be damaged by heat or other factors, there is a report of a rodent getting cooked in one. You can also double the metal thickness where your burners will be, or use separate supports if the walls will not hold the burners. Drilled or welded angle iron, or punched legs from inexpensive steel shelving is effective for bracketing. Read Ron Reil's website, Forge and Burner Design Page #1 , and check out the blueprints section here. You should also check out the freon bottle forge on Ron's website or the simple gas forge on Zoeller Forge. Just call up your local HVAC company and ask for a few spent freon bottles, you can probably get them for free, but they may be punctured for recycling. This is not a big deal, just line up the hole for something and cut it away, plug it with a bolt, or ignore it. I probably should have gone that route for myself (I did think about it), but I wanted something that had a wider floor area for hot bending metal. Remember that there is more than one way to do anything and your brain is your most powerful tool. Phil

I would love a reference to zircon in itc-100 Seems like a trade secret including a vague msds . ITC even lacks a web presence as far as I can find. The products that seem comparable ( plistex and FIBERFRAX ) are aluminum and silica compounds according to their msds. Kaolin is also an aluminum and silicon compound. Phil

Hey all, I'm building my first propane forge. I am wondering how high the bottom of your forge is from the floor? I'm talking about the inside, where you put your metal, or your material rest height if you suspend your material. How far does your attached material rest extend out (min/max for adjustable ones)? If your material rest sets on the floor, then it is not attached, but please say so and include your typical range of positions, and the type of stock you are usually using. I understand that everybody forges different size materials, and some people like having attached handles and others like using tongs to hold all their work. Feel free to mention what you typically use. My forge body is a 16 gallon drum cut just above and below the ribs. This makes it 11 inches long. I squished it down some to reduce the overall volume some, yet still have a large flat floor. It is about 12 inches tall making it 16 inches wide. I used some bar clamps to start the shape, then leaned on it, massaging the bend tighter to make the shape not spring out, rolled the edges down some to keep it squished, and pop-riveted partial ends on. It is a 2 burner configuration, and I need to order insulation still. Yes Frosty, squishing a long cylinder evenly is difficult, but squishing a short one is rather easy. Didn't take too long after I decided to make it shorter. I'll cut a part of the side out and weld or bolt it back together if I ever decide to make a longer forge using a 16 gallon drum. Thanks in advance. Phil

I'm building an oval job. Zoeller Forge offers a cheaper product called plistex that is supposed to be comparable, and itc100 and plistex can go over each other after being fired. I intend to use plistex from Zoeller on the forge I am building now. Anvilfire seems to have a better price on ceramic wool currently. This is my first forge, so I have been reading, but have not used either product yet. Phil

At that price, I would buy both and deal with it. There is a density listed somewhere on the mfg's website, so you can weigh it on a good scale, and then divide by the actual square footage. If it is a mfg package, then the label might be on it. There are different temperature grades, and I don't know how to tell them apart other than if it is labeled. HURRY IT WON'T STAY LISTED LONG. Ceramics people and glass artists use this stuff too. RUN DON'T WALK Phil

I hate it when the smoke gets out. Ruins the day. Phil

Fe-wood: Yep, noticed the rust in minutes between the vinegar and muriatic acid dips. I promptly sprayed them down after rinsing. Rich: Sometimes non-galvanized is difficult to source locally. I thought I would be better off using what I could get easily and stripping it. My knuckles are happily back to normal. I try to be safe, I have nitril gloves, just didn't put on a pair. I get complained at for making friends and family wear gloves, dust masks, ear plugs, etc., so I really should think more about it for myself. I thought the channel locks I used would have long enough handles, but the turbidity of the solution meant I could not see the edges to grab. If there is a chemist here, let me know why the vinegar only dip set me coughing so badly. Obviously fumes were produced. Just post a nice (or not so nice) equation. Someone should do a blueprint on chemical safety. I don't recall seeing one. If it exists, please point it out. Phil

Ok, I put my quart of vinegar into a larger container, added about a quart of water to cover, then added about a pint of muriatic acid. Remaining zinc was cleaned off with a fizz in about 20 min. When I dumped the remaining solution onto limestone gravel it ate about 2 inches deep, 2 ft circle. At least it is neutralized. Conclusion:Muriatic acid is a fast, cost effective zinc removal agent that may remain effective after one use. It produces some serious fumes, and vigorously effervesces, almost like boiling water, so work outside, wear gloves, etc. I guess I answered some of my own questions. Vinegar is definitely safer, I have a nice, chemical irritation on my knuckles from splashing while trying to pull the parts from the muriatic acid/vinegar solution before I decided to dump them. Using a dip wire and wearing rubber gloves would have solved that problem. If I am ever needing to strip zinc off parts around non-adults, vinegar would be my choice, even though it takes much longer. Original concentration of muriatic acid was 31.45%. Thanks Phil