pkrankow

The edges already look dressed, so leave them as is until you can form your own opinion from experience. Phil

http://www.google.com/patents/US425602

Burners are easy to build from plumbing parts with common tools. No need to use a weed burner. Weed burners also move a lot of air, which is not good for heating steel (forms excess scale), but pretty handy for lighting the brush pile into a bonfire. A properly built burner in a properly built forge cavity will have the fire occuring inside the insulated cavity, the pipe is just carying cold air and fuel. Enjoy the reading, lots to learn from those links! Phil

Wheels might be nice to have. This is going to get heavy in a hurry. I unrolled a rust holed air compressor tank to use as a table for by brake drum forge. I think it was a great solution even though I could not get it perfectly flat. The table does not need to be heavy weight to work. I think your torque converter is a novel and good solution. Everything is on the back burner till after Thanksgiving at least, maybe even New Years. Phil

Knock the corners off on the grip area of the reins. You may be using that pair for quite some time, they look sturdy and adequately made. My first pair were too thin in places and broke. Phil

I think my hot cut is currently around 25 or 30 degrees included angle. I did what Brian Brazeal suggested in this thread, start thin and redress thicker if needed. I also used 4140. Phil

I cut my table top today Might be a month or more before I continue though... Phil

I was neither planning or not planning on painting. I never considered it one way or the other. Paint will have to wait for spring since the weather has turned around here. Phil

I made some progress with my hour of free time today. Sometimes the "hard way" is easier than the "easy way" Yes the sheet is galvanized, and I ground back over 4 inches on all sides of the opening. Pickeling just wasn't working. I moved the opening 2 inches closer to the center of the sheet after drawing the cutout on. I also need to shorten my tue, and I plan to cut it off the ring and move the Tee closer to the firepot. The tube is thinwall post from a clothsline. Phil Odd, the pictures are in reverse order. If it is not obvious, I ground both sides of the sheet to remove the zinc. Phil

Are the lags pulling out? Otherwise that hold down should work good. I started a thread that might help you a couple years ago Lots of good ideas here. Phil

I have used a chiminea without a blower at all (which self destructed soon afterwards) a hole in the ground (it was a "try something once", and successful with a small electric blower) a small brake drum set into a steel table with a Champion Lancaster blower (my current forge) and two different commercially made forges with electric blowers (Very nice!). The chiminea was a qualified success even though it was ultimately a failure. It was my first experience as an adult with hot forging, and I did produce the desired part, an exhaust hanger for my car hot bent out of 3/8 round rod with minimal tools (Success!). The small brake drum has a hard time heating 1 inch stock, but is fine for 1/2x1 and smaller stock. The hole in the ground performed similarly but was underpowered with the small bathroom exhaust blower I used. I am in the process of building a forge table to use this mild steel firepot based on commercial firepots. http://www.blksmth.c...eel_firepot.htm Is there a "best forge?" No, there is no best forge for everything that is forged. Is there better designs for what size material I am working on? Yes, but sometimes the differences are style and not ultimate function, so many designs qualify. You also need to consider "what makes it best" because what is measured can change the "best." (ie, fuel consumption, range of sizes heated, portability, etc.) Phil

https://www.speedymetals.com/pc-1168-8321-3-4140-hot-rolled-as-rolled-plate.aspx Anvil. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Stand it on edge, build a base, use it. No I don't know what shipping is, and that is the only reason I don't have one of these. Phil

If you want pipe call upon your local garage door place and ask about their scrap pile. Springs too. The majority of garage doors use a pipe, and every replacement creates a scrap pipe that is almost identical in diameter to what Champion used. (Well, at least on my Lancaster) Phil

Chainmaker? Very interesting. Phil

I use a propane plumber's torch to light up. I usually light a double handful of store bought lump charcoal, then add the fuel of choice for the day. I use charcoal, coal, and corn. Phil

Plans and a kit based on these plans http://blindhogg.com/eerfgrinder.html http://polarbearforge.com/grinder_kit.html Polar Bear Forge lists a breakdown price of just under $800 using his kit. I would recommend practice with whatever equipment you choose. You can do stock removal on wood or mild steel bar stock to get good at maintaining shapes, maintaining angles, grinding to dimensions, grinding to layout lines, profiling, etc. There are also jigs that can be made to aid in holding features like angles in control. I don't even know where to start describing them there are so many concepts. Phil

After dry fitting using coarse sandpaper wash the mating surfaces with acetone to remove surface oils and improve bonding of oily or resinous woods. I have not bonded those particular woods, but I have had good success with slower epoxies after proper surface prep and washing on other resinious woods. Phil

Very nice Wd. I need to take pictures of what I have already and get them on here. Phil

If you do have it milled, talk to the machinest. Have the existing face shimmed to space it off the welds, then mill the feet to level them. Then have the welds milled until the cutter is just skimming the existing face. I expect unless you find a fellow blacksmith or have a friend in the shop the abrasives will end up costing less. Phil

The bed frame is angle iron, some 20+ ft of it (1 1/2 inch IIRC). I was thinking about running bedframe angle under the table to support the firepot. If I wasn't clear, I am NOT cutting the sheet smaller than the 30x48 it currently is. The consensus is run the pot widthwise, closer to one end than the other. If I center in a 30x30 square at one end, the long end will have extra free space, with about 10 inches on the short end and 28 inches on the long end, about 8 inches on the sides. Now that I think about it, this seems close to the size of the forge WRABA uses at Century Village. I have another sheet of this material the same size so making the table wider is an option, but I don't think it is necessary. Another feature I plan on is some pipe welded so I can make long stock rests out of round rod that fold down when not needed. Any other features I should consider? I am undecided on using the slotted grate my brother provided, or making a rotating clinker breaker. Since the tue bolts in I can change my mind with little effort. Phil

I have a sheet of 30x48 #11 sheet metal for a forge table top. I have a welded mild steel firepot (I need to measure the actual outside dimensions, the inside was made to plan) http://www.blksmth.com/mild_steel_firepot.htm I have 4 different ideas on how to set the pot into the table 1 centered in the table, pot running widthwise. 2 centered in the table, pot running lengthwise. 3 centered in a 30x30 square on one end, pot running widthwise (where I am leaning) 4 centered in a 30x30 square on one end, pot running lengthwise. I have a set of bed rails from a king bed to make edges and diagonals for the legs. I can either use the bed rail or some perforated sign post (Compliments of Jammer) as legs. I intend to make it "break down" by bolting sub sections together. I have a good stick welder and mediocre welding skills for the rest. I am aware that both the sign post and bed rail are high carbon and may prove difficult to drill. Currently the forge will live on the end of the driveway. I am not sure if it is getting wheels or a method to use a handtruck. I hope to build a shop with a proper flue for this forge at some point in the future. Opinions please! Phil

Since you are considering $1000 for an anvil, how about you look at NEW anvils. You can get a heck of a nice anvil for a lifetime with that pocket of cash. Phil

There are quite a few types of coke out there. The heavier grades require an electric blower. Breeze, which is the stuff you make in your own forge from bituminous coal, can be kept lit with a hand blower fine. There are also quite a few types of coal, so you might want to find out what is being sold. Phil

Build a light box. Use a white bed sheet, old and worn is fine, and stretch it over a frame to provide diffuse lighting. Place and/or hang a backdrop such as felt, colored cloth, leather, paper, or natural material such as straw, rice, or sand in the box. Light from outside the box with natural or artifical light and take your picture. The background should be uniform. The props should be minimal. The item(s) being photographed is supposed to look like it is the focus of the image composition. Rule of thirds applies, but simply centered also applies. Manage your diffuse light to remove glare. Use a good quality camera (not necessarily real expensive) that has a MACRO feature (typically a tulip or flower icon) for close distance work. You can use optical zoom to manage your framing, digital zoom involves reducing resolution. Take pictures at the highest possible resolution and manage size and cropping on the computer. Use a tripod. Fuzzy or blured pictures get thrown away. If you want a softer image for publishing you can edit a crisp image to make it soft, but you cannot take a soft image and make it crisp. Eliminate errent items such as the string in the straw, the extra straw on the hat, any line that extends the item photographed...these are called "mergers" since they may merge with the item and misrepresent yourself. Good start. I like the rough composition of the first two images. Phil

30% is WAY better than cast iron! It might work harden if you worked the face after an initial dressing. I think you will do good to just dress it and use it, or let other people use it. Phil