DennisG

I make things with the ball side. If you can think it, you can do it. Also the ball is good for making textures. I think it has been around so long because it is very versatile if you take a moment to think about what you can do with it besides using the hammer end. But what do I know?

Thanks for the replys guys. Maddog, I like to keep a door open (seen in vid) to make sure I have good air flow and I hope that will help if I get any leaks, but I will check the connections periodically, thanks. The board is not a kaoboard but a cement like board, cuts easy with a table saw, my friend (seen in one of pics) uses the kaoboard and his is fibrous. I will post a close up pic of side shot of some of the board. I am also going to be looking into coatings asap. I still have a few bags of coal left as well as buckets of coke, but those I will hold onto for special days and when I go demoing, but I do miss the smell of a coal fire. HWH11, Thats another thing I found with the gas forge, I can leave and come back and continue. Now, thats not to say I can't do that with coal, but with coal I use up precious fuel while it is in holding and then if it goes out I am at the start again. I have my back closed right off at the moment, I have some pieces for openings so that I can do longer work, but I just keep it sealed. Tim McCoy, My neighbors are cool with me using coal, just harder and more expensive now to obtain. I am not rich with $$, as most I think in these times, but I have brain's oozing with ideas so I think cheap and what will work hence my home made forge with the high efficiency furnace blower for a fan, and a home made anvil (pics are gone). Yeah, I "do the familiar in an unconventional way". Teenylittlemetalguy, I'd try the tank in the water thing but up here it is now freezing winter, -20+C, so too cold to keep things in water. Might have to look at connecting tanks together. Frosty, How is it working with the supply coming in on the side, do you have pics of yours to show?

As Per Frosty's request, I have added 2 more vids of the forge going and what I worked on. I will say that once you get a piece to temp and work it, getting it back up to working temp is easy. I have also found that I do not get scale on my pieces. This leads me to believe that in my forge I am burning all the oxygen in the interior atmosphere and during the mix/burn. Am I right? Toreus, I am looking into types of coatings I can use/ best suited, for the board I am using. Thanks for the suggestion. I have noticed some cracking on the surface. Since I don't know how to embed the vids, here are the links (edit: wow just putting a link embeds)..... enjoy and do respond please if you have anything to say or add. I have thick skin and have a special place I can go to and cry in private LOL

Dodge, visit http://ronreil.abana.org/design2.shtml. Go down to the BTU output calculator and the other docs to go with it. Down load that and it will help you since it has a section that also calculates how much time a certain sized bottle will last. I have a #60 (0.04")orifice and a 20lb tank. I use a middle coefficient of .67, and 8psi. The calculator says I should get 8.14 hrs out of my tank. Since I turn my gas down when pounding big things and such I figure I will get closer to 10 hrs a tank. Hope this helps.

Dodge, you can get guages for the tank, we have them on our tanks for our fork lifts, they work in the vert and horiz positions. Not sure the price but maybe check with your local propane supply company.

Hello All. To start I want to apologias for the size of the pictures, and to see the videos you need to click the linked words. And although we have been mistaken for brothers, we are not, and that is Scott in the pics. I started Blacksmithing using coal. I love the smell, feel, sound of it burning, pretty much everything to do with using it, including the dust. The downside to coal up here is how hard it is to acquire enough to use it on a daily basis without it costing an arm and leg or driving for hours and having to buy tonns at a time. I can buy it at a store but that is 55$ per 50lbs. So this problem has made me think and then switch to gas. A fellow local Blacksmith, Scott, has shown me his in action. With the research on the net and here on IFI as well as Scott, I started to build my gasser. Since I work in a steel shop I got alot of the parts free. I used 3/16 sheet cutoffs, thinnest we had, some 3"X3" 1"X1" angle, and 4 nuts and bolts for the legs. The forge I put together and welded at work since we were slow. The forge turned out to be 14"X18". I went to a local refractory company and talked with them about getting some refractory board and how much it would cost, my lucky day. Turns out that they had 4 sheets of board 24"X36"X3", I could have them for free if the thickness was ok (I had wanted 2" thick). Well, for an extra cost of nothing and an over all cost of nothing to get the 3", I said sure. Next I needed to build my burner. I chose A Ron Reil Type Burner with Gary Overman modifications. Between them both I think I found what would work best for me and my skill level. Scott and I were able to get together on fri to get all of the parts together. We drilled a #60 (0.040") orifice in the nipple. At this point I would like to say that without Scotts help I would not be able to do this. I suggest that if you are not a fully loaded shop find friends or other smiths to give a hand. We attached the top bell, nipple and bottom bell (flare) together and welded the nipple onto the top of the large bell. . As you can see in the pic, there are 2 rings on the nipple, these are washers I used to steady the burner when down the hole into the forge. You can also see little tabs at the bottom of the hole, these stop the burner from falling into the forge. The piece beside is the cutout of the fire board for the burner. The burner itself when seated is aprox. 3/8 - 1/2" back into the board, this is to protect the "flare" end. After the welds had cooled we attached the fittings to the hose and Acct regulator. At this point we were ready to test fire the burner. With the test fire a success and no leaks found and all equipment working it was time to try it in the forge. After the forge test we took out the inline valve as it was not working perfect. During the firing there was alot of cracking and pinging noise that turned out to be the board. I have little cracks but nothing serious or any chunks coming off. We found that the design for the back does not work and allows flame out the top, this I will fix by removing 1/8" of the steel sides to allow a flush fit up. Today is sat and I will be moving this new forge into my shop and using it. I hope to add more to this post on how this day goes. Thanks for having a read.

nice catch! and welcome to the fun.

LOL....no offense boys, but up here in Alberta Canada, paying 4 - 6$ lb is close to normal.

I do demos up here in Canada, our season is over but when we are out there we have a full setup, forge, anvil, leg vise, post drill. We go in 2 or 3's so that someone is always hammering and someone is on the table. We are finding that benches for people to sit and watch the work being done does alot for sales. When they see what you are making laying on the table they want to buy more. If you have a wife along then that frees you up to hammer and talk to the people/crowd while you work. Nothing brings people to see the Blacksmith and his wares like the sound of an anvil and smoke from a forge. Think of them as a 20' neon sign pointing at you. Oh, have stories ready for people, folklore, history, family stories, crowds love to hear them, share them, talk about them. One sound bit of advice I learned from the guy who taught me demoing, leave your area as you found it. Clean all the garbage from around your site, no ash or clinkers on the ground, no pieces of metal left. Gets you noticed and invited back. I do like all the things you have for sale, all "usable" things and well priced. The setup was very good too and you posted the prices clearly. If things don't sell this season at least you won't have to toss out the stock, but you will be ahead for next season. Nothing worse then doing a show and running out. The only other point I can make now is to have fun. Enjoy the people, they are not only customers, they are friends, contacts (for rare finds), people to hang out with for an afternoon. Do it until you have found it is no longer fun.

I used forklift tines for my anvil. They were 4140H. Since they were only 3" thick, I laid them flat and have a 5" - 6" face. Works perfect and easy to face. I took the leftover pieces and made 2 hammers with it, one for me and one for my daughter.

Over the horn of the anvil? or if you have a mandrel of some sort. I am using the same basic design for mine except I am using the 3/4 to 1" pipe bell instead. Here is where I based mine on http://www.myheap.com/book/chapter-02/reilburner/reilburner.php I am just not using the nipple and the jar lid, yet, maybe.

No idea on the floor but I have a question on the fork truck..... Do you need one for personal use once or to always have around? If it is for a one use thing why not think about a picker truck?

Hello to you in Saskabush. Nice gate and WHY did you settle in Sask of all the places Canada has? Welcome to IFI also.

So the wool will sit inside the rig you put in? Thats how it looks to me? a good start.

Why not contact your local refractory place and ask if they have any throw offs. I stoped into a local one and scored 3 sheet 24" X 39 1/2" and 3" thick for te low price of free. Swing in and tell them what you are using it for. Never know unless you ask. As to placement of the burners what is wrong with the current location? Are you changing the size of the things you are working with? Maybe look at what you do and if it will still suit your purpose.

Hey Mark, Very nice! Now get ready for ppl wanting you to make them things like it once they see it. I like the reflective nature of the base plate. It is very good work in my books.

you are not supposed to do that. you make it, you take a pic and post it. darn tease! Glenn, can you do something about this? LOL

Very lucky Grampa, and she is very talented. Beautiful work.

Glad to hear more on what Brian has to offer from the students point of view. I would like to be able to spend a week with Brian, maybe in the spring or the fall next year. Go to my daughters wedding or Brians? Too close to call.

Hmmm..... I vote it be held at Glen's place. Being that I live up in Canada, I would have to make plans way in advance and justify it to the mrs. since she is never happy when I want to spend $$.

Very nice, keep pounding and enjoy.

Howdie from up in Canada

A few weeks ago a fellow local smith told me another smith he worked with had a post drill for sale. He went on to tell me the fellow bought it for 60$ and had to rebuild it from the parts he had from other drills to far gone to be rebuilt. It had taken him some time to do it and then he painted it and now wanted to sell it. Was I interested? Umm......YES!!!! how much? Well with the use of all the part and painting and such he wanted 80$. 80?!?!, yep, 80$. Well, I didn't have 80 on me at the time, would he be willing to hold it for me? He called him, told him who was interested and would he hold it, yes he would. Life is good! Two weeks ago I went and picked it up. It was like it came right from the catalog. Only 2 small spots had repairs otherwise it is perfect. I went and got a chuck for it sat and today I mounted it. Why did I get it so cheap after all the work he had done? I may have been doing this for a few yrs but I have not been able to acquire toys so smiths make me great deals and it is understood that down the line I will make some new smith an excellent deal also. Pay it forward so to speak.

Hello folks On Aug 14th Andie, Scott and myself did a demo up here at Mayorthorp AB. It ran from 11am - 7pm. The town had a big parade and then after there was the fair grounds where baseball, amusement rides, shows, and other demos were going on. We had alot of interest as we also promote the Blacksmith guild wherever we go. People asked alot of questions. Old timers would talk about being kids and turning the blowers for hours on end and doing plow shears. The smell of the coal forges brought them over, watching and talking with us kept them there. We have started to notice more women are staying and talking about the craft since we added Andie to the demos, we think it has to do with the wow factor of a girl smith. Even the old timers watched her and talked with her not at her. Scott was interviewed and filmed making a leaf for a group planing on doing promotional things, I was not to clear on it but they were very interested in our doing Blacksmithing around the province. All in all it was a great day, with kids and adults alike stopping by, talking, sitting to watch, coming back to watch more and just generally having fun meeting Blacksmiths. I do love this craft.