pkrankow

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

ITC100 is an IR reflector and stablizer. Refractory coatings suitable to apply to kaowool are stabilizers, but not necessarily an IR reflector. Coating and stabilizing the surface of the wool will prevent erosion and airborn particles.

An air gate will let you turn the forge down (throttle) instead of just having one, maximum temperature. You still need a fuel regulator.

The fuel inlet can be flush in the elbow instead of portruding any and it will work fine. Some forges of this nature use a Tee in place of your elbow so assembly is simplified.

If you are happy the price is good, I don't think my scrounging skills would have done better. (I am not good at scrounging and easy pickings are not known around me, scrap yards are closed, etc.)

If it isn't obvious, weat long rubber gloves, sleeves, and a mask working with this, especially already fired ceramic wool. Fired ceramic wool is some of the worst stuff I have dealt with.

Phil

Ball bearing test on the welds will be indicative of the weld hardness, though you still need to grind a flat to test on. Over 50% and it is good! (well, it could be better...)

Phil

You really want 2 inches of ceramic wool That looks like 1 inch.

Galvanized cold air pipe is fine. The elbow with the fuel feed is the closest place that should see "hot" If the pipe welded to the forge is pickled then don't worry about the rest of the pipe.

I do not see an air control valve in the setup. Is there one on the intake side of the blower or on the output under the table?

A ridgidizer/stabilizer is a good idea, better if it is an IR reflector too.

A sacrificial floor is also a good idea so use of flux doesn't destroy the forge lining too quickly.

Looks like a nice score overall, just needs some TLC. I hope the price was right.

Phil

I flip my 6 inch piece of rail around as a swage block. Sometimes it is just the thing, especially since it has a thermite weld bulge in it!

Stew, your wife is awesome having an anvil as a centerpiece in the dining room!

Phil

Some places sell left only welding gloves you know.

Phil

Gonna go through $50 in abrasives cleaning it up. I would have spent the $50 on it.

http://www.fastenal.com/web/search/product/abrasives/bonded-abrasives/cup-stones-wheels/_/Navigation?searchterm=&sortby=webrank&sortdir=descending&searchmode=&refine=~|categoryl1:%22600948%20Abrasives%22|~%20~|categoryl2:%22600949%20Bonded%20Abrasives%22|~%20~|categoryl3:%22604156%20Cup%20Stones%209and%20Wheels%22|~

you are gonna want one or two of these in a very low grit.

Phil

Worthless as a Peter Wright? no. Less sought after, possibly because it is an English anvil, maybe. Valued less, it is an auction it is valued what people pay.

I would be thrilled to have a 200# Peter Wright in that condition.

Good point about welded. It looks like they tagged the tips of the feet good, so it is only cosmetic and easily cut with a grinder.

Makes me wonder how the weight was determined. Write down Hundredweight conversion in case it is stamped. Did they weigh it stand and all or is the weight listed on the anvil, or did someone guess? There is nothing definative for size in the picture.

Trenton and Hay Budden are marked in pounds on the front of the feet under the horn, and Peter Wright is marked in hundredweight on the side...the OTHER side than pictured.

Phil

Looks like a Trenton or Hay Budden. I would lean towards Hay Budden because the seam between the plate and body is well cleaned up. It is also a nice clean anvil.

That anvil is going to go for a high price. Be prepared to bid $600 ($3/lb) if you have any expectations of getting it, and that might be too low. I can see a couple excited bidders running it up to $5/lb easily. ($1000 will get you a pretty sweet NEW anvil)

OTOH it might go cheap, but there is a lot of equipment and such listed at that auction.

Phil

I think you are in a show up and see type of situation. Show for an open forge night, and see what the facilities are and if they and you can make reasonable accomodations. I doubt it will be a wasted evening.

Phil

Try this

The "neutral" or slightly "rich" is where you should be for general work. Remember when you stick it in a forge cavity the setting in open air may not be correct anymore.

The dragon's breath from the forge door should look similar to your blown forge when running at a similar setting.

Phil

delete

Is the stripped section engaged with the threads in the box? If the stripped section is engaged with the screw box then you may have some future issue, but if it is not in far enough to engage, and does not interfere then it won't. The future issue would be related to very few turns being engaged together.

I find it interesting that the thread that was peeled out snapped. Was heat used when reshaping?

Phil

You need to resize your images. 800x600 is a good size. Under "More reply options" next to the "post" button is the stuff for attaching images.

I use GIMP for resizing. There are more lightweight programs out there though.

Phil

The wood is likely white oak.

Very handsome knife.

Phil

While Tim has a point (the price is pretty good for the time+materials)

If I was to do this I would use a piece of black pipe the correct od as the ID of the bend and wrap it, hot or cold, using my post vise. With a cold wrap I would clamp some angle stock or a 2x4 to the free end for added leverage and isolation of the bend.

Phil

Handsome and stout looking. Since it is solid putting locating pins in, if needed, will be easy. Great idea!

Phil

I built my 1 burner forge around a 4x9 firebrick. It is about 150 cubc inches, and may be at or near the lower limit for a 3/4 inch burner to perform properly. 2 inches of wool on sides and top, one inch under the firebrick floor. The burner digs a hole in the common stove firebrick, and with flux this is quite quick. I can melt steel fairly easily too, fagot welds are no problem, but I haven't been able to do other weld types, (probably a practice issue.)

Things I wish I did was make either a slot up one side that I could close off, or hinged the top to the bottom so I could get wider and odd shaped items into the forge. Small dimensions means that once the part has changed shape it might not fit very well, and convinience bends are only convinient when taken at the proper times.

Phil

Does your tracer make bigger and smaller? Pretty cool stuff.
Phil

Flame holders, while helpful, are not necessary because the forge cavity is a flame holder...you just won't be able to light in open air.

The Reil burner is good, but requires relatively still air to function, so it is a poor choice when used out doors with wind.

I am using Frosty's T-burner, which is a little difficult to tune but very easy to build. It tolerates wind better than the Reil burner.

Phil

http://anvilsandinkstudios.com/burner.html

There is a location field in your profile settings. If you look under my image is says "location Ohio" you can put something similar in for your own.
Phil

In the Mediterranian?

Can you get lump charcoal such as used by restaurants for cooking? If lump charcoal is easier to get, it was the preferred fuel until a couple hundred years ago. Pound for pound it has the same energy content as coal.

Generally bituminous coal of low sulfur content is used, although other low sulfur fuels are suitable such as anthracite, coke, metalurigical coke...but these more dense fuels bring minor problems over lump charcoal or bituminous coal (electric blower requirements, heavier firepot concerns.)

Charcoal, bituminous coal, and breeze coke (lightweight, soft coke) can operate without constant air blast.

Phil

That little piece looks like a ready made double horn striking anvil, just add legs.

Phil