Frosty

Are you talking about the self sticking wrap used for sprains and securing bandages? You can pick it up at any place that carries pet supplies, it's called "Vet Wrap" the more expensive human use version is found where Ace Bandages and such is found. I'm not recommending it for wrapping hammer handles, I've never tried it. I'm just pointing out a source. Hopefully it's the stuff you're talking about. Frosty The Lucky.

What's faster about using pallets is prep time, it's already planked and dry so all you need do is make it small enough to fit the retort. Using green wood, especially fast growing evergreens like Christmas trees you need to cut it, split it and dry it. Even then it's pitchy wood so it's trickier to coal. Soft wood makes fine forge fuel it's just not as dense as hardwoods. That means it's more porous so there is less fuel energy per volume, say BTUs per CU/FT. Being more porous means there is more surface available for chemistry like oxidization. It burns faster releasing heat faster. This means the absolute temp in the fire is higher. Hardwood charcoal is called better because it's denser or heaver per cubic foot and pure carbon is pure carbon. With less surface available for chemistry it burns slower and at a little less absolute temperature. It lasts longer though. Is it better? Depends on how you measure better. Back in the day when iron production depended on charcoal from start to finish and you had to ship charcoal in to buy it you wanted the most for your money. Well, wagons, barges, sacks, etc. of charcoal aren't all that heavy so volume is the limiting factor shipping. A barge only has so many cubic feet available for cargo so the denser charcoal is BETTER. A barge or wagon of hardwood charcoal contains more BTUs of energy and that's better. There are other factors that make denser charcoal better, it's stronger so will support ore weight in a cupola melter or smelter but those are things that don't really apply. My point here is about hobby or other small scale blacksmithing operations, the difference in density between hard or soft wood charcoal isn't that great. Hard doesn't last enough longer to make much difference and soft isn't enough hotter to make much difference welding. It's a wash as far as I can tell. Frosty The Lucky.

It's cool seeing you in your shop Theo and if you talk slowly enough I usually learn something. Marco is pretty darned good with the camera, he has a good eye for framing and lighting so the pics are good. It's a funny thing about confidence, they can hold all the self confidence courses they want but the only real road to confidence is knowing HOW to DO things. If you can DO you can handle most anything. You and Marco have a real win win thing going on. Good on ya both. Frosty The Lucky.

Wow, that certainly looks like an excellent resource especially for the bladesmith. I wonder if the local library will ILL a copy? Frosty The Lucky.

You can make charcoal from most any wood but it's not something to just dive into and pine can be pretty pitchy so it can be like gasoline on a stick. Besides, most farmed Christmas trees sold in the US aren't "pine" Fir is (I THINK) more popular for a number of reasons. Regardless the type of wood you use is less important than most think old pallets make excellent charcoal and any outfit building houses has dumpster loads of scrap. What's more important than available wood is safety and legality. You really need to do some research and determine fire codes, legal liability, insurance, etc. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header one of us might be within visiting distance. I'm assuming you're in Alaska but I'm used to assumptions being wrong. I don't think the fellow who posted the offer is still subscribed to Iforge nor the Alaska Association's Email list. You can probably find Randy's plans on the web. If not the solid fuel forge section of Iforge contains probably hundreds of posts about coal forges: different types, sizes, building them, using them, etc. I'm in the Mat Su valley just a bit north of Wasilla and there are a number of Valley smiths. There are quite a few in Anchorage as well and a few here and there spread all over the state. If you're reasonably close to the Valley our next meeting is the 23rd. of this month in Palmer. Our meetings are open to the public we have demos and open forge stations to try what you've learned or share tips. Lunch is usually potluck with a pot of something yummy usually on hand. PM me if you need or want details. New folk are always welcome. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Jeff, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the IFI gang live within visiting distance. I'm unfamiliar with building forges the way you did. Do you have a link to directions or a video so I can get a handle on what you're talking about. Your description lacks the kind of details we'd need to review what you have. Can you post a Youtube video of your forge running and maybe pics showing the details of it's construction especially the burners. Frosty The Lucky.

Tim: I think there's a little miscommunicating going on here. When you say the reg doesn't match the fitting do you mean you can't screw the foreign regulator into an American propane tank? Mike is talking about replacing the foreign fitting on the hose with an American barb fitting so it'll fit an American reg. Trying to modify the tank fitting on a foreign regulator would require some machine shop time. Better to hit the local propane supply company and buy a 0-30 high volume regulator. You will probably need to change fittings on one end of the hose to make up to it but that's pretty straight forward as Mike has said. I hope this clears the problem some. You guys are reeating yourselves and not making headway. Frosty The Lucky.

Gee, can't everybody do that? Frosty The Lucky.

I'm not normally a solid fuel forge guy but I've never noticed a significant difference in the shapes. Some project might need a long narrow or big round fire but that argues for a duck's nest unless you have a lot to make. Frosty The Lucky.

Since when have cow pies been a product of -3f heifers? Arkie the Pooman? No . . . do NOT tell me what you use for the nose! Market THAT idea and you'll be rolling in . . . DOH. I love it when a Sunday evening gets weird. Frosty The Lucky.

Mike: thinking about experiments and minimizing flame impingement your talk about IR baffles got me to wondering about hanging a sacrificial flame baffle in the forge. Something to take the brunt of the flame contact but not disrupt circulation. It was just a flash idea a little while ago and I've been kicking around ways to hang pieces of kiln shelf. Thoughts? Frosty The Lucky.

Ahh, and here I thought the gauge and bearing was a journal bearing pun. S'okay, lightening the spirits keeps us from getting cranky. You know sort of a mood Lifter. Frosty The Lucky.

No sweat I might hold you to your no promises though. The volume of the forge to the size and number of burners is probably the most critical ratio to account for. Insulation and basic burner type are factors too but it's the amount of heat generated in the volume that really counts. There are tricks for helping to contain and retain the heat say insulation, chamber layout and shape but those are for a little later. Give me a shout when you have time. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the gang live within visiting distance. Beautiful hammer. Frosty The Lucky.

How you orient your burners depends on a couple things: What you want the forge environment to be is probably the most important. A gas forge tends to heat everything that's even close to the door trying to get an isolated or spot heat is a problem. This makes orienting the burner perpendicular to a specific spot desirable. At least to a degree and presents problems. Orienting the burner on a tangent with one face of the liner to invoke a vortex distributes the flame and heat more evenly in the chamber. I prefer a tangential alignment but that's me. When a propane flame impinges a surface high energy chemistry takes place and most refractories degrade more rapidly than just temperature dictates. This is also true for fuel oil burners so I assume any hydrocarbon fuel air flame is pretty chemically reactive. This means how the flame impinges on the liner makes a difference. The closer to the center of the flame the more unburned fuel and air there is to react with other things it meets. Aiming the flame directly at a surface exposes the surface to the center of the flame where max heat is generated as is the most unburned chemistry. Impinging at a shallow angle means contact with the outside of the flame column where most of the fuel air has been burned and it's cooler. It's not that the flame is necessarily cooler but the impact zone is now stretched across most of the forge liner so it physically can't have the same effect chemically. Most tangential alignments are across the top one side to the other. This puts the work under an arch of HOT liner and maximizes exposure to hotness. Tristan has up draft burners ported through the floor aimed up one wall then across the roof. I've used his forges and they work very well. I was really surprised that nothing seems to fall into the burner. A burner flame aimed straight down onto the floor distributes heat in a circle from the center of impact. however, when you lay a piece of work in the flame the floor is now in a heat shadow so the forge floor loses heat without being replenished by the flame. The work doesn't absorb heat so well from the flame as it does from IR from the liner. Mike, other folk and I have talked about kiln washes and why before so I'll let that lay now. Frosty The Lucky.

Those look like fine scrolling tongs Louis. You have plenty of meat in the bosses and reins so they'll take good force in use. One picture shows a little nick/notch in one of the bosses you might want to fill that and dress it up as it stands it's a weak point and an initiation point for a failure. I like to make one bit smaller than the other on scrolling tongs as well as tapered like yours. It just gives me a wider range of curve I can turn with the same tool. All in all nice tools, well done. Frosty The Lucky.

That's better. What's the chamber volume? and what size burners are you using. PSI doesn't really mean that much, there are too many variables between your shop and anyone elses to mean much. A couple pics of it running will let me see what it's doing. one pic in the door before the forge is warmed up, one after it's warmed up and another across the door so I can see the dragon's breath. If you have a full range of fuel air adjustment with the choke tuning is handled something else is going on or not. Frosty The Lucky.

WHEW, thanks! Frosty The Lucky.

You need to share some details or any advice you get will just be wild guesses. For example I say, "my daily commuter only gets 13 mpg. What's wrong?" With that little info what possible reply could be useful? Frosty The Lucky.

Don't try to throw fresh cow pies. Frosty The Lucky.

Nice, well done. Frosty The Lucky.

If you have the black pipe change it out now. If you get a flame like that forget the flare. You'll want to close the openings up some or you're just blowing heat out. Frosty The Lucky.

The Amazon link is the correct fitting. Thinking about it now I have to buy the compression nuts separately too. I wouldn't buy the fitting online, I take the correct drill bit you'd use to drill a hole to tap 1/4"-28 with me to the local heating and plumbing supply. I use the drill bit to gauge the hole in the fitting there is enough variation some are too big to work. These are common fittings but not everywhere, a good auto or farm supply should carry them like Michael suggests. When the plumbing supply up my road was out I picked up a bag at Grainger's in Anchorage because I was close. There are a number of other places here in the Mat Su Valley I can find them. Frosty The Lucky.