Frosty

Look through the yellow pages and call a local HVAC company. Modern boilers and furnaces commonly use ceramic blanket, various types of fire brick and kiln washes. If the one you call (on the phone) doesn't carry or sell what you're looking for they will know who does. The outfit we get most of our refractories from is in Anchorage and gives the Association a great discount and it's actually hard to get away without them loading you up with rems from furnace jobs. Legally they can't use rems on a client's job so it's trash. Most furnace guys LIKE fire and are willing to talk fire just be polite and don't waste too much of their time. Frosty The Lucky.

Be VERY careful of Gold colored plating, cadmium is VERY toxic. Getting it in you in any form is serious badness, it's considered to CAUSE cancer not just contribute or be a risk factor. Makes inhaling cigars seem like a good thing. Frosty The Lucky.

Hey Ethan, are you trying to bait curmudgeons? You had a good question, got good answers and put them to work. That isn't going to get you on the curmudgeon's (idiot) list. We do however enjoy snappy reparte and friendly jabbing. Do you want to play? We've been known to play. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Pyro-guy, glad to have you. If you put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the IFI gang live within visiting distance. I bet to differ, it IS supposed to be that much fun. Really it IS! Playing with fire, hitting things, making noise, getting dirty fooling with things inherently dangerous. What's NOT fun about any of that? Oh yeah, we LOVE pictures and we don't much care about what, so long as it's something you's show your 7 year old daughter. Frosty The Lucky.

I would've arc welded the handle on the male die rather than hand ground a groove for the wrap but that's me. All in all I'm impressed with your video production values, good lighting, well framed decent sound I muted it to keep the better half from making me wear head phones then yell because I wouldn't be able to hear her. The candle holder is elegantly simple and clean and full of possibilities. For instance a person could part all four sides, make increasing scrolls and extend them down to form legs for a sweet trivet or candle holder on legs. I'll be referring folk to your video as an example of high quality video production values as well. This is a win on all counts. Thank you for an example of what a truly knowledgeable person posts rather than the armature dreck so commonly found on Youtube. Frosty The Lucky.

Okay I got it. Slots to minimize trailing edge or "slipstream" turbulence. What are you making your tubes with? Experimented with exhaust or light wall tubing? The thinner the air foil the less slipstream is generated. That's the point of high aspect wings, long narrow and thin for a better lift to turbulence ratio. The "lift" relating directly to induction vacuum necessary to draw intake air. What's the intake port to tube area ratio in your current builds? Are you using a slide or rotating choke? On possibly a different subject, how are you generating the vortex? A person needs to take little mind journeys before they start building things or they're depending on luck to get things right. Shotgunning ideas isn't the most efficient method. Shotgunning is not to be confused with brainstorming. Brainstorming is to generate departure points. Shotgunning as a panic mode depending almost exclusively on luck for results. Shotgunning as a valid method IF logical progression isn't working. Frosty The Lucky.

The real part of this section of the learning curve is figuring out who to ignore. There is NOTHING "great job" about that forge. Your comment is part of the problem and you're rationalizing now. <Ph>

You're trying to make our point about just anyone saying whatever they want regardless of knowledge or experience for us? Let me summarize for you. That liner is not only inefficient it's DANGEROUS. Frosty The Lucky.

Beautiful blade, I prefer high contrast and that's bold, people would notice it a long way away. I have to say the handle would make it a wall hanger at my place, the end would drive me crazy in use. That's me and a matter of taste though. fit and finish look seamless and the materials are beautiful all round. Heck of a good job, well done. Frosty The Lucky.

While there are good things to see on Youtube it's NOT the place for a beginner to break into any craft. Anyone with a camera and a connection can "publish" what they've done. Searching the web has become harder over the years with advertisers "suggesting" things you MIGHT be interested in, the folk who make our browser software get paid by advertisers to subvert our efforts at finding what we actually need. For example I just searched "insulating refractory" and got several pages of hits most of which were companies selling insulation, services insulating houses, walk in refrigerators, fish packing facilities, etc. I was pleasantly surprised to see half a dozen at least mention refractories on the first page and a few makers I recognized. Search youtube for bean can forge and what you get are pages and pages of folk trying to figure out how to make one and posting what they did as if it were a success. I didn't do more than read titles so in all honesty I don't know if any of these intrepid "inventors" posted what happened IF they got a PoP&S forge liner even close to forging temperature. They almost undoubtedly couldn't build a burner that'd do it anyway. Not only is it a fail as an efficient liner it wont take the heat you'll be lucky if it doesn't fail explosively and only spalls unpleasantly. Don't wear open top shoes or boots, you won't enjoy the HOT chips and flakes in your shoes. If a person insists on making their own refractory, castable or rammable research it and ignore Youtube, Wiki, etc. try the library. There are GOOD books out there with specific formula and methods to make proper high temp refractory liners for furnaces, kilns and forges. One of my first attempts before I discovered I could buy high end refractory just a few miles from home was what I learned from a potter. Fire clay, grog and sawdust. Dampen the sawdust and mix it with the clay, sand mixture till it's reasonably evenly mixed, seal in an airtight container over night and test in the morning. If it clumps in your hand and breaks cleanly it's tempered and ready to ram in forms. The saw dust burns out during firing and you're left with a brick full of air voids. The practical problem is firing the things. Light insulating fire brick costs around 2x as much as hard brick because it takes a LOT longer to fire and it takes a number of hours at temp to vitrify it at all. And NO your propane forge isn't going to do it unless you want to keep it burning over night and SLOWLY turn it down and let it cool. So much for saving anything by making it rather than buying it. My parents called that kind of thinking, "Penny wise dollar foolish." I don't know how many pages there are on Iforge about building and lining propane forges, I'd be surprised if there weren't a sub section dedicated to bean can forges themselves. Think of searching Iforge? You k now the largest most active blacksmithing site on the internet? The one with an entire section about gas forges? Judge Milian of People's Court fame often relates an old Cuban sayings, "The easy comes out hard," and "The cheap comes out expensive." Truer words were never spoken. Frosty The Lucky.

That came out well Das, really well. How's the customer like it? Did you charge her enough? We have a clowder of feral cats we trapped, neutered, vaccinated and released. Our place is their territory and they defend it so we don't have to worry about more litters and they handle varmints. Oh, Deb spent many hours over weeks of time sitting in the barn gentling the kittens down before she trapped, vet checked, neutered, vaccinated and re-homed them. One kitten was just too leery to re-home, the vet office still tells the story about opening the kennel to do the med work on him. He was doing laps around the walls against the ceiling. They had to gas him to work on him. Qiviut lives in our upstairs and almost trusts me enough to be friends. Frosty The Lucky.

The pic makes it look galvanized, don't just toss it in the forge. That would be B-A-D. Frosty The Lucky.

Good tips Ivan, Touch typing really helps keep my hands flexible and good cooking is never out of order. I didn't k now about tumeric as an anti inflammatory but anything in the Lilly family is. (onion garlic, etc.) Frosty The Lucky.

Oh you are going to fit right in here. When asked why I like blacksmithing my usual answer is I like playing with fire and hitting things with hammers. doing something useful or pretty is the gravy on my spud. Shop classes in school fired up the forge so rarely it was questioned why the forge and anvil were there at all. It wasn't considered a "modern" industrial or commercial craft. We had machine shop equipment and sections, lots of hand work and quite a bit of casting, I'm thinking of the six years shop was available we beat hot steel maybe 2-3 times. Sad. Frosty The Lucky.

A poorly tuned gas forge that scales in the fire needs to be tuned. However there are times you're visiting someone with one that's running lean (oxidizing) and it's unlikely they'll let you tune their burners. Tossing a piece of charcoal in will help scavenge free oxy. The better course is to tune your burners. Post some pics of it running, include the whole burner so we can see the type and build. Then a shot in the door before it comes to heat so we can get a look at the flame. One from the side of the door so we can see what the dragon's breath looks like. The flame will tell us what the mix ratio looks like. Showing us the whole burner will tell us what to do to tune it. Mike's burners are a different breed of cat but yes his opinion is expert. We just do it differently is all. Frosty The Lucky.

Gumby was flat, you got that right but his head had a jaunty angle to it. https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=A86.J7sXf3JWngcAASgnnIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTByNWU4cGh1BGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw--?p=Gumby&fr=yhs-mozilla-001&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-001 Sorry about the huge link but that's our Gumby. Do you have a link to Soviet cartoons? Seriously, I love your andirons they're clean, well made, very attractive. They just remind us old farts of Gumby I'll bet they'd sell like hot cakes around here. do you have any pics of her with a fire? I'd love to see the fire through her eyes. Frosty The Lucky.

You can make Bowey knives and larger in a bean can forge. You just can't get too squirrely with bends, scrolls, etc. Maybe you can get Mike to show you how to build one of his 3/8" Pocket Rocket burners. Frosty The Lucky.

We forgot to ask. What kind of sheet metal work? There are lots of kinds and all require different tools and technique even if the basic method is similar or the same. Frosty The Lucky.

Well you're half right. I gotta think of SOMETHING to do with it. Frosty The Lucky.

Holy Mackerel Chris it's going to take me half an hour to clean the drool off my keyboard. That's beautiful on all counts. You guys are probably getting tired of hearing me say this but you need to polish your photographing skills. Diffuse lighting is the only way to photograph polished steel. There are few things harder than a long piece like that blade the reflection will kill detail every time if you don't do it right. Outdoors on an overcast day is about the best natural light you'll get. You can work in sunlight by shading with a sheet and using a couple more sheets at different angles to reflect fill light. Of course a pro photographer experienced with large polished pieces is a good bet but look through the portfolio don't take their word for it. It's a shame to see such beautiful work hidden by reflected flash glare. It is NOT easy to photograph so much polished steel. I know. Frosty The Lucky.

Look around yard, garage, etc. sales for hammers to forge into top tools. Old ball peins, especially ones with broken handles are darned reasonably priced, even here in the far frozen north I usually pick them up for under a buck. This one hired on with me as a 24oz +/- ball pein. The handle is from a plank of clear straight grain 5/4" hickory I buy from a local hardwood specialty guy. I'll explain why my handles are like this if you'd like. Frosty The Lucky.

The heat treat looks good to me. I'm with Das I'd go to work on it right away. I do hope you're using the correct paraffin fueled forge. Yes? Happy B'DAY! Frosty The Lucky.

That's coming right along. I'm looking forward to more progress pics. Thanks. Frosty The Lucky.

I do fine with the wood stove, single malt and a little water. Talking to the HVAC guys about running Propylene Glycol, the less toxic stuff in our boiler and baseboard I was told it doesn't transfer heat as well as clean water until it reaches boiling temperature. At that point being a liquid it transfers heat much better than steam bubbles. The anti corrosion additives work well and it is a strong penetrant. Frosty The Lucky.

Nice score James. It pains me to hear about tools going to the scrappers or worse dump. That's how I got my Lancaster Swage block, I was told to take it or it was going in the scrap bin. Good save let us know how she works. Frosty The Lucky.