Frosty

Unfortunately you only hit him once?

We used to have bottle rocket fights too but they're too loud to have them going off very close. We didn't have them very many times before moving onto something else. Our bottle rocket action was more like a series of ambushes.

Frosty The Lucky.

When I started monkeying with burners I only knew of you by name, I don't think we spoke directly until you joined Iforge. 

I just deleted a bunch of things I've learned talking to you and changes I've made to the T but I started sounding . . . Nevermind.

You've spoken about that T burner's flame and I like it too. I'd like a hands on look at it to see how he did it.

Frosty The Lucky.

Johnson and Masters handled do it yourself gene splicing.

Frosty The Lucky.

Ever been hit with a Cumquat fired from a Wrist Rocket? even through 2 flannel shirts and a sweatshirt a green one will leave a bruise the size of my hand, say 4-5" dia. and draw blood through the skin. We outlawed Wrist Rockets for sling shot fights. Mine would put a 3/4" wrench size Nut through a car door from 75'. 

Ever have pellet gun fights? NO BB guns allowed, BBs go right through doubled up pants and shirts while pellets just leave welts. We had a no above the belt and pump limit. no CO2 cartridge guns either. 

Sheridan's rule!

Frosty The Lucky.

I did a search for Simond Store burners and found them on Amazon for $74 and change. Right below them on the page was a stainless steel T burner for $38 and change. 

I might have to buy one, that's less than what I spend on materials and we have Amazon Prime so we don't pay shipping. It'd be as much to check how they got an apparently good looking flame the ratios aren't what they should be. Like the ones I used are the only ones out there. 

When I started on the T and got the first one right all I knew was what a good oxy acet torch flame looked like and tinkered till I got fuel air close.

I'm the first to admit there are many times more about fuel air burners I don't know than I do and I'm a big use what works guy and their T burner looks good from here.

Frosty The Lucky.

A melter is a type of furnace though probably not a wax melter but a tar pot on the roof with the roofers is fired by propane or fuel oil would be a furnace. We heat our house with an fired oil boiler, the firebox section is called the furnace. Furnaces burn things whether as the process or the end result. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Ditto Mike about not being able to see the flame for the light, maybe take a pic in the evening? 

Does the burner actually tilt up at the angle it appears to? With the type of melter you're using the crucible should be stable enough to use a smaller plinth and aim the burner under it. As it is the flame is directed in an upwards swirl and you want to keep the flame IN the melter as long as possible to transfer energy where you want it. Yes?

That is my favorite type of small scale melter, I hate lifting the crucible out of a flaming pit, too much chance of tipping or dropping it while you're getting BBQed by the radiant heat. 

All that said if it's been working all this time (Since you could get a decent burner for $85) I call it a good effective burner.

How about this for you. While you're melting and casting with your current set up how about building a burner? Just because it is home built doesn't mean a Mikey or T is a "better" burner, they're just relatively cheap and you get to add to your acquired skills list. Hmmm? 

I'll bet I know where you can get a hand getting them right and tuned. 

You have NO IDEA how hard it's going to be for me to not refer people to . . . "Mickey." Thank you for that.     

Frosty The Lucky.

Goodness, lighten up on yourself man! Propane burners aren't magic or some kind of super science they operate on some of the most basic principles there are, the same thing that causes a wind behind a truck to go the same direction as the truck until something changes it's direction.

If your burner does what you need and want it to then it's a good burner. Looking at the picture I'd set it up a little differently I much prefer to have the 1/4 turn shut off valve at the regulator than at the burner. That way if you need to turn it off in an emergency you are standing as far away from the burning device as hose length lets you. It also depressurized the hose when it's off. I really prefer to not have any more of the fuel circuit pressurized than necessary when it's not in use. 

Enough of that, blather. Show us a pic or two of YOUR burner burning if you want to know what we think of it. Do you know where it was made?

I have to cut this off for now it's bed time and I have a couple things to do before I can lay me down. Deb and I took a 40 mile drive out to Sheep Creek Lodge for dinner on a perfect spring day so I'm kind of pooped and will make more sense tomorrow after I've had my coffee and a nibble. 

Frosty The Lucky.

One of the brothers introduced Mr. Volcano on Iforge. I wonder if he's still lurking.

Ever do a web search for a "Frosty T burner"? Last I did there must've been 20+ guys selling them and not a one understood how they work. Every stinking one had a too small mig tip extended into the mixing tube making really FAST burners. 

Not that I'm complaining I put it in the public domain on purpose so folk could make an effective burner for not much $ or shop skill. It does gripe me to see MY NAME on poorly made versions. The plans are commonly available with no strings attached the least they could do is follow them!

Oh well at least I have positive confirmation you don't have to know what you're doing to make a burner that works. Maybe not top of its potential but one that'll heat steel. Careful what you wish for eh?

Frosty The Lucky.

A neighbor of ours had a couple potted wisteria on their concrete patio well away from house, fence soil and kept it mercilessly trimmed. They were probably 7-8' tall and maybe 3 wide. When they were in bloom you could smell them for blocks around if the wind wasn't blowing. 

We had a bougainvillea in front of our place where the jet crashed across the street. When in bloom which was most of the time it was beautiful and smelled like heaven. Dad hated it with a purple passion and I didn't understand until I'd gotten big enough to turn the hose on. The hose bib was on the house where the bougainvillea was planted, dripping water made it a VERY happy thorn bush.

I swear the thorns were around 2" or longer, sharper than a needle and you couldn't break one with pliers or cut them with normal hedge shears. I took diagonal side cutters and a saw with me if I had to go under there. You could make a lethal weapon from a thumb sized switch. 

It would've been interesting to see if it and Wisteria would fight to the death. My luck they'd cross breed and produce a rapid growing thorn bush without a scent that wouldn't blind you.

Frosty The Lucky. to have escaped the bougainvillea!

When I was a kid any adult in the neighborhood who saw one of us with a bow would confiscate it immediately and worse, call our MOTHER!

We used to get into dirt clod fights, especially after the "rainy" season when you could grab a hand full of grass and pull a dirt clod with the roots. You could really get some distance slinging it. 

Then I was watching my baby sitter, TV and an episode of "Have Gun Will Travel." Paladin had been way laid by the bandits he was tracking and left on the prairie with no water, horse, boots, guns, etc. He came too, found an old covered wagon that had been massacred by Indians. (mid 1940s TV show) He was able to find water in a barrel, found broken glass to cut canvas to make footwear and clothes. He used a piece of glass as a magnifier to start a fire. Then using a boulder for an anvil forged a piece of wagon tyre sharpened it with a rock wrapped the handle in canvass for a knife. Killed a porcupine with a rock from a canvas sling, ate porky and flour/salt/porky fat biscuits while he sewed canvas into moccasins, cloak, water bag and sack for the biscuits and a sort of hat using porky quills and threads from frayed canvas.

THEN he went to town forging arrowheads and using the knife split boards, carved and scraped short heavy "arrows" fletched them with turkey(?) feathers. Then he carved another board into an atlatl and went hunting bad guys before dawn.

What really stuck in my mind was how he saved himself, got the bad guys, the bounty, his horse, gear, etc. by making it with what was there. 

Anyway, the older kids used to be able to throw dirt clods a lot farther than us little kids so we were always getting battered when we tried to join the fun. A couple of the big kids, one especially were  bullies we were fair game. A little experimenting with bamboo and I came up with a pea gravel slinging atlatl that would raise welts on bare skin at lot width distances, 100' IIRC.

Better still, all the houses across the street from us had been bought and razed for an airport safety zone. A jet trainer had clipped a power line and crashed into the house across the street and one lot down from our place. So, about 3/4 of a mile between us and the Van Nuys airport got turned into a grass seed farm.

How does that fit in with little Frosty's pea gravel atlatl? Every driveway on our street had pea gravel driveways and nobody would yell at us for collecting it from long gone places.

That meant that little Frosty could scoop a flinger full of gravel anywhere on the street and rain pain and welts on the big kids. Even after one ambushed me and took my bamboo flinger he couldn't figure out how it worked and I made another. Bamboo stands were weeds, once rooted it took extreme measures to get rid of it so nobody cared how much we cut down. Bamboo swords were old time toys.

Sorry, long kodak memory but that episode of "Have Gun Will Travel" was a huge inspiration for me to bet into blacksmithing. And YES I can salvage road side steel as boulder, fist sized rock or two, make tongs from split willow and do some pretty convincing smithing at the camp fire. And NO, split willow tongs don't last long but you usually get several pair from one willow sapling.

Frosty The Lucky.

Yeah, it's pretty typical of a product type becoming popular enough small manufacturers get on the wagon. Each has to market their own forge for less $ or more special features than the others.

Guess where we'll see where commercial forge evolution takes us.

Frosty

I wouldn't expect you to remake your anvil stand like mine, I just posted it to show an option I like. I just said this in another thread without realizing it was another thread but repetition isn't all bad.

I only used the rack on the far side to hang tongs very briefly for two reasons. First if I'm using tongs they're in my hand. Second and more memorable, the rack holds tongs bits up so you have to give them time to cool down or walk around the other side to lift them by the reins. In my setup the best place to hang my ready tongs is at the forge where I need them most often and you would have to almost reach into the dragon's breath to grasp them by the bits. 

I have a rack on 3 sides of my little steel table next to my forge station to hold my less likely to need tongs, top tools, bottom tools and the pointy sharp tools you do NOT want to walk into. The table has a lower shelf I can let HOT things cool on as does my too large 4 burner shop forge and the garage sale steel serving cart that serves a the NARB forge's stand.

I also have tong racks standing next to a wall for those I have and may need someday or maybe modify into something special. Auctions and chance find smithing tools are welcome to live in my shop. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Good video, I've always liked Kim Thomas, he presents himself as very likable and a good teacher. Thanks for linking us John.

Not spearing myself in the leg is one reason I hang my ready hammers handle down, it lets me feel which is which without looking too. I haven't hung tongs on the far side after a couple tries, they're much more convenient hanging on the forge or table racks. Worse, After using a pair you can't easily pick them up until they cool down and the racks on the anvil stand hold them bits up.

Frosty The Lucky.

Rawhide fletching? I believe historically the strings were waterproofed with lard, beeswax tends to flake off in use. Even as soft as beeswax is the shock from release shatters it. Tod has a number of videos up about crossbows including steel ones.  I really like his methods of research, testing and production.  https://youtu.be/wWiZpenRGx8   https://youtu.be/2IdfmaC_t-Q 

Frosty The Lucky.

Art.

Frosty The Lucky.

You and me both George and my advice to anyone building one buy new spring and have it bent and heat treated by the spring shop. It's cheap compared to building an furnace large enough to heat treat one yourself. They're professionals who heat treat springs all the time.

Frosty The Lucky.

At the risk of a bunch of rolled eyes from the gang I'll post pics of my anvil and stand. . . Again.

This is my Trenton, I don't know why I didn't take pics of my Soderfors in her stand but this is what I have on file. The first shows the stand and hammer rack, there is another on the far side for tongs. 

The second pic shows how the tong racks wedge the anvil into the stand. The rim is 2" x 3" angle iron 2" flange up and fitted to the anvil's base. You have to hammer the hammer racks in. The anvil is secure enough I load it all in the pickup at once with my engine hoist. That's how it's rigged in the pic. They rest on the angle iron just fine, no plate under it. In the second pic you can see how the angle iron's flange and racks makes a nice hand tool shelf between the feet on each side. 

Frosty The Lucky.

The smith wouldn't have to take his shoes off to count to 20 either!

Frosty The Lucky.

Tap . . . tap . . . tap. (the sound of Frosty's toe while he's waiting for the promised GOOD joke)

Frosty The Lucky.

American rail weighs between 115 and 147 lbs/yd. and in lengths between 39' to 82'. This means that the shortest length of the lightest rail weighs, 115lbs x 13 yards = 1,495lbs. Each. 

I don't understand what you mean by "sound bar" all I see searching the web are the speaker type sound bars. 

Of course that lets me speculate which is an enjoyable past time of mine.

Soooo, is a sound bar something that makes a clear sound when tapped by a cane?

Or maybe, they can be sensed by certain hearing aids that emit a tone when close? 

Or? 

If it's the second and hearing aids detect them then you could bury baling wire and provide the boundary tone. Hmmmm?

If on the other hand it is a physical barrier found directly with a cane then virtually anything will do. Being a GVT funded operation in the redwoods talk to forestry, they frequently thin young redwoods planted after fires or in re-forestration projects. You should be able to acquire more saplings than you'll ever need by asking. I'd bet they'll deliver them off gratis.

Frosty The Lucky.

Now you're going to extremities!

Frosty The Lucky.

It's a hand hold. I SUPPOSE you could think of them as a blacksmith's 1st through 4th. helping hands.

Frosty The Lucky.

The snail turned out really nice Billy, thanks for the WIP series so we can copy it more easily. 

Your anvil stand looks pretty good Tommy. You might consider making the one leg that extends so far a little closer. Horns don't take very heavy work so they require less support and clear foot room is precious.

Frosty The Lucky.

I believe the foundry is the facility rather than a single piece of equipment though I'll be happy to learn differently. English is such a slippery thing you just never know for sure. 

One of our club members is a professional bronze caster and pours over a sand box or outdoors on dry dirt. He conducts the yearly iron pour at Art on Fire event and that's all on the ground. Until a couple years ago I demoed blacksmithing about 50' from the cupola and iron pour. 

Frosty The Lucky.