Frosty

Seattle Pottery Supply is who we bought zirconium silicate flour from. Rather than using full bricks for the floor running one layer of ceramic blanket and overlaying it with a split fire brick works better. Just as durable and insulated where the flame is hitting. Frosty The Lucky.

The taxes are getting comparable too but S. Cal is drier. I like dry but it's plain crazy dry here on a cold day, makes me wish for an Oregon Missed. Oh yeah, no scrap yards here either, none that will let you in the gate even. Before the accident when I was noodling with spinning burners I checked with exhaust shops for SS pipe and they had a pretty good range of diameters. I don't think there was any much under 3/4" though but I didn't ask for the full range. Maybe online? Frosty The Lucky.

Don't buy special IR shielding glasses just don't stare into the forge. Keep an eye on your steel but don't stare in for more than a few seconds at a time you'll be fine. Frosty The Lucky.

That reminds me of what slope workers meant when they replied to a, "how is it outside?" question with, "50-50". That's a -50f at 50mph. day. There were worse believe me. No forging, none at all. Frosty The Lucky.

Crematcarta? Frosty The Lucky.

But doing it that way deprives folk of seeing the look on folk's faces when they see how much stock is in a garage door spring. Oh come on JW, we're still "pretty close" to on topic. You wouldn't really deprive us of good entertainment would you? Frosty The Lucky.

Jim means keep the scale brushed off or it'll get embedded in your work. The anvil's face will smooth up the more you use it. Well, I'm pretty sure that's what Jim means I don't think he wants you to take a grinder to it. I don't. Frosty The Lucky.

Select a rod for steel on stone applications, steel on steel is for wear resistance can spall and chip under impact. That isn't an ASO, it's an anvil embrio. (Anvilbrio?" Frosty The Lucky.

There's always something isn't there? Think of the clinker. Frosty The Lucky.

Would you like me to make up a definition? I can get started as soon as I finish my meatloaf sandwich. Meatloaf sandwiches mmmmmmmm. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard John, glad to have you. There isn't a lot of difference in the forge itself between naturally aspirated and gun (blown) burners. The basics of the drawings are fairly good for a forge. There is a LOT of recent discussion here about forge construction and kiln washes. Probably the most relevant factor to consider is the furnace's volume and shape. A well tuned, 3/4" burner (determined by the nozzle diameter) is generally good to bring 300-350 cu/in to welding temperature, say 2,300f. It doesn't matter if it's a gun or NA what makes heat if putting X amount of burning fuel air in the chamber per second. PERIOD. Building a gun burner is much easier than a NA it doesn't require the metal shop skills as they're don't require precise work. That just is, no reflection on anybody. I can't tell you what volume or pressure a blower needs to output to work well but more than you need is much better than less. It's easy to gate the blower and reduce it, heck you'll be doing that to keep it tuned in operation anyway. Frosty The Lucky.

Cody: Now's a good time to discover the internet ain't as hot as most folk think. Face time beats monitor time any day, well when it comes to actually learning a craft with a minimal PITA factor. The telephone is also superior when you're trying to find things, if a company doesn't carry or do THAT they'll probably know one that does. You don't get that kind of give and take online. Hook up with SCABA, they'll get you rolling. I've been known to modify hammers, it's why they're on my buy it for reasonable list at garage yard, etc. sales. 20 oz. +/- ball pein. Frosty The Lucky.

Steel at forging heat will scale in open air regardless of the forge. Unless it was scaling IN the forge you just ran into normalness. Sheet seems to scale a lot faster but it cools so much faster it's in and out of the forge a lot more often. Frosty The Lucky.

Over the top is a good adjective, Frosty dittos! I love forging copper but have never tried that thick. How many times did you have to anneal it, or did you work it hot? Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard David glad to have you. What Thomas is saying in his oh so diplomatic manner is you need to put your general location in the header there may be Iforge members close enough to visit and they may know exactly what's going wrong. Anyway, there's a factor to hot forge sputter I haven't seen mentioned. How far into the forge is your burner? If it's too far the burner itself will get hot enough to pre-ignite the fuel air regardless how fast it's moving. There's also the intense IR radiation a reverberatory forge is designed to produce. IR radiation travels in a straight line so it can and will affect the fuel air in the tube so if the tube is getting hot too it can become a problem. IR radiation is another good reason to NOT aim the burner perpendicular to an opposing forge wall. After all that, if the burner is inserted more than say 1/2" into the liner you might try pulling it back. Frosty The Lucky.

You also suffer high doses of radiation from that big unshielded fusion reactor in the sky!! Igneous rock too? Oh my. At least you don't have big trees too close do you? About coal and radiation and radioactive particle releases. Just because virtually every coal power plant releases more radiation a month (I don't recall the actual number and ain't going to look it up) than 3 Mile Island during the "Melt Down" doesn't mean we're going to change to clean power. Too much lobby power in DC from the coal industry for that to happen. No, I'm not suggesting an atomic reactor as a forge. On the other hand if you put one together and get it working I want PICTURES. Frosty The Lucky.

I'd hard face it. Trying to do a full penetration weld will be a serious PITA keeping the plate from pulling into a dome. Sure you can do it but it's only 4140 and isn't going to get particularly hard, better than mild but still falls short of serious anvil face hard and for that much work I'd want something in the RC 55+ range. If I had the project I'd probably use 7024 Jet still a PITA. Give a shout if that's what you decide to do. Hard facing isn't that hard to do and if you pick the correct rods it will not only be hard it'll be impact and deformation resistant. A couple passes of deformation resistant build up rod and it's not only not going to deform under years of sledgehammer work it's hard enough to crush rock. Pre-heat it before hard facing and grind with cup stones while it's still red from running fast hot stringer beads. Use graduated grits, start with as course as you can get, I have 60grit available at the local commercial hardware store. Once you have the face smoothed and cleaned up to the finest cup stones you can get switch out to disks and finally paper disks to finish. It'll cool as you grind so by time it's ready for sanding it should be cool enough it won't just burn them up. Remember to keep the stones and hard disks FLAT, if you use the edges or tip it you'll end up with a wide fuller and NO don't whip the grinder back and forth, that noise it makes is a motor. Seems everywhere you look people are stroking the disk grinder back and forth fast. This does NOTHING good it guarantees you won't have an even bevel or chamfer. Smooth slow passes are a GOOD technique it's easy to keep a slow stroke uniform, you can actually SEE what's happening before it's permanent. Experience hardfacing. . . Me?

Welcome aboard Navaja, glad to have you. I usually suggest new folk put their general location in the header so people you're within visiting distance of can invite you over but . . . Wait, I guess I just did. We love pics, most any pics, your work, shop, equipment, tools, pets, scenery etc. about anything you'd let your 8 year old daughter look at. Frosty The Lucky.

Don't apologize for not knowing the craft, nobody was born knowing this stuff. As Thomas says bone black would work to make steel but it's char, not ash. Ash is the mineral content that won't burn. I've seen ashes in resin castings, some classy some incredibly tacky. Now I wish I hadn't remembered one of those really REALLY tacky ones. I need brain bleach!! Frosty The Lucky.

Looks good. How does she work? Nice job of tinkering a power hammer, lots of guys THINK they can figure something out from pictures. It's a pleasure to see the work of someone who actually can. Frosty The Lucky.

If you're concerned about nuclear radiation from coal, wear a dust mask and goggles. Shower immediately when done, shampoo repeatedly. There's no really good way to get hair completely clean though it's just too porous. Maybe just keep shaved down. Wear coveralls and wash your clothes separately. Of course if you were to walk around with a Geiger counter sometime you'd discover we're surrounded by radioactive stuff. And the RADON Oh my run RUN! Minimize exposure but don't get silly about it. The only EM radiation from forges is IR. Don't stare into the fire, keep an eye on your steels but don't stare. Frosty The Lucky.

If I recall correctly some of the early arc rod fluxes were largely saw dust so you might try saw dust and Elmer's glue (milk glue as a binder) Maybe adding a little sand or similar to develop a slag layer. Is there a reason you don't just buy welding rod? Frosty The Lucky.

She's a beauty Tony you be one lucky guy! Let me know next time you're in the states I'd like you to buy me a lottery ticket. Frosty The Lucky.

Mighty fine Mollusk you made Joshua. Frosty The Lucky.

First suggestion beef up that forge table!! That looks as flimsy as it can get and stand in still air. Even if you don't light the yard on fire Murphy says the top of your shoe will be in exactly the wrong place when it goes over. No blast when you're grilling dogs, they like a gentle heat and some soak time. Oh no borax! Nice fire rake well done. Next session project suggestion = toasting forks with bottle opener finials. Frosty The Lucky.