Frosty

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.

No problem survives a good explanation, I'll need to think about the wave front description but I get the flame. The pics on Rex's front page about the middle of the page show a 2 part flame, mostly primary that's a little bushy and a bit of tertiary, showing minor orange rich characteristics. Hmmm. The effect is obvious and it only takes a little thought to see the benefit. Is Rex still machining his burners from billet? I've never talked with him that I know of but there was chatter when he was getting known. I was frankly shocked when it was said he was machining them from billet (heavy tube maybe?) on a lathe. Doing it that way beyond prototype and test units never crossed my mind, ever and I grew up in a machine shop. . . Metal spinning and machine shop that is. Even with CNC machines the time and material waste is staggering. Okay, I need you to explain why the intake slots are superior to rows of holes. I've never liked rows of holes for intakes, even in some of my other experiments but I want to know the why of it. I can visualize differences in how the air interacts as it enters the tube but my minds eye and reality aren't necessarily very closely related. Slots: Even number, odd? Radially opposing, alternating? Intake area vs. tube x sectional area? You know the basics. Ever test them with smoke to the intakes? I mean actually watched the action? The sugar mist they use to test respirator masks behaves similar to propane. I wonder if I can color it to keep track of mixing by port? Hmmmmm. I know how you felt when Rex showed you HIS first interpretation of your burner. Years ago, when Ron and I were winkling the things out, about the time we took our different paths. We never had a falling out we just went our way and we still talk occasionally. Anyway, I was just getting decent results from the "T", I got tired of all the stuff it took to get a linear burner to work. I think I'd just gotten my second mig contact tip jet working and performing in a forge. Deb and I were building the house, I'd moved a basic kit out but not my propane forge, I didn't have enough secure storage and we weren't really living here yet. Deb and I'd mostly moved in when an Artmetal list friend drove the Alcan in his camper and spent a week visiting. Robert and I took a little tour of Turnagain Arm in my Eagle Talon and we talked burners down and back. I learned a REALLY important lesson as a result too. Robert was intrigued by my "T" burner concept and was kind of excited when I told him how I got one tuned. He'd built several of Ron's linear burners and Robert said to get them to do the job he had to build them just way too big. Well, we had a great visit, his wife and Deb did some of their own touring, we shared food, drink, laughed and lied good stories. After a too short week we parted ways, happy folk. About 3 months later Robert sent me an Email with an attached picture!! ! Being able to attach to email was just getting started on my level. What was the picture? Robert's version of the "T" burner with a beautiful 3 section flame. It was, the primary was a clean graceful cone, the secondary was a close tight sheath and the tertiary was but a feathery reminder of one HOT MOMMA propane flame. Imagine (IF you can ) my shock and dismay to see he'd built it WRONG! He'd rotated the T fitting 90* and plumbed the jet fittings on one side of the run opposite the tube and was using the chase as the air intake! My fingers fairly FLEW on the keyboard explaining what he'd gotten wrong and how to do it correctly. HAPPILY I reviewed his message and noted a couple details I'd forgotten when I saw the picture. This was a 1 1/4" burner that Robert used in his iron melter and it'd melt 30lbs of iron in about 30 minutes. I was still wrapping my head around that tid bit when I refocused on the picture of the absolutely perfect flame. Sooo, I deleted my embarrassingly wrong reply and congratulated him on a beautiful burner. Robert Grommon(sp?) had built the SideArm out of a misunderstanding from talking to me about the T burner. THAT was my lesson of the time, I never NEVER go anywhere without a pad of graph paper and pencils. Of course if I'd had any paper with me the Side Arm might not have gotten introduced to folk when it did. I'd better sign off for now. I have a lot to think about. Thank you MIke it feels good to stretch the brain. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Fuzzy, 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. While liking feedback is a great straight line I'll have to leave it lay for now I don't even like to think about me and cucumbers. <shudder> On a seriouser note, work heavy to light, finish the thick sections first they can stand going back in the fire more times than the thin sections. EG. Measure ad twist the shank first, then draw the points and make the finials. Bending the hooks can be done at low temp low red is plenty. That way you won't burn the ends off the hooks. Just don't forge tapers and points that cold, even mild steel will break at black heat. Yeah, that was too cool. Frosty The Lucky.

Put it in a cloth sack and use a frying pan, don't get carried away. The unrecoverably fine dust can go into the pile when you char the next load, go into the garden or on the lawn. Really powder it and add it to your iron finish. It'll make the pieces very black and you can rub the high spots for highlights. Frosty The Lucky.

HOLY MACKEREL Alec! That's one stunning hammer and not in the manner of using it on someone's head. Truly beautiful, I'd be afraid to use it. Frosty The Lucky.

!! No smile and heads kind of flat but. . . Wait, maybe it's Gumby's girlfriend Goo? Sorry about the joking, it's a beautiful piece of work but the resemblance is inescapable especially to those of us who grew up in those days of TV cartoons. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Scott, glad to have you. Smithing is good therapy for many of life's . . . uh . . . challenges. It can be very meditative and teaches one control on so many levels it's hard to catalogue. Seriously, you can't even light a fire without doing it right let alone getting the steel to do what you want. It requires a person to set everything else aside, no Sensei could teach you to center better. There are lots of vets here, you're in good company, thanks for serving. Frosty The Lucky.

I'd have more to say but the keyboard on our new car's fully connected dash screen is a little small and passing these semis on the bridge and dodging oncoming traffic might take two hands. Frosty The Lucky.

Scraps are fine just harder to get to stay put. You'll want to buy one piece for a single inside layer or apply a thicker kiln wash. Talk recently has about convinced me a kiln wash in the 1/4" thick range is better than what I've been doing. You'll want to apply rigidizer to the made up ply and wash it regardless. Every time I visit the local EJ. Bartell I end up taking bags and boxes of rems home it's all good. Frosty The Lucky.

Aw, what acute reply. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard JSet, glad to have you. Do a search for the TPAAAT, it's a proven technique for acquiring blacksmithing equipment even has anvil in the name. Get a ball bearing so you can do a rebound test, simply drop the bearing from a ways, say a foot and eyeball estimate how far it rebounds. The closer to the initial drop height the better, much less than say 65% is pretty poor. I carry a couple 3/8" bearings in my pocket and keep finding them when looking for change. Work a pattern around the face looking for dead spots and flat sounds these might be areas where the face is delaminating or someone has used it as a table to do torch work on. Expect the rebound to fall off as you move out the heal, this is to be expected, it'll be best over the center of the waist. Frosty The Lucky.

I'd kind of expect new job muscle soreness to be a first couple weeks thing unless it's a very physical job, a new guy on the drill crew was typically sore for a couple months or longer. Sounds to me like you're keeping too tight a grip, it's a common beginner thing. Learn to keep a light grip on the hammer and crack it like a whip to develop power. Think spin casting. Have a case of "trigger finger" yet? Trigger finger is your muscles and such cramping up, you close your hand but can't open it and is a sign of repetitive injury. Not the first time or two but it's a sign you need to change technique or maybe job. Frosty The Lucky.

Hmmmm, if I find myself sticking to my boots it's time and past to change socks! Frosty The Lucky.

Quoting the Wicked Witch of the East? Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. Heating things necessary or not is sort of of the heart of the craft. Failure analysis is how we learn you know. Well, I do anyway I have a LOT of practice. Frosty The Lucky.

I was attacked by a great white. . . . birch. The whole story is in the Prayer section here. I was cutting fire wood and the tree kicked back almost killing me on the spot. I'm a TBI survivor and living proof prayer works. Frosty The Lucky.

Someone wants to buy YOU?! Outright sale, lease, rental or day rates? Think very carefully about saying yes. Congrats now go make a bunch of the things. Frosty The Lucky.

I gotta get with you more in depth Mike I want to see how you overcome the nature of propane to achieve a clean neutral burn. I dealt with the negative effects rather than trying to solve the problem. Solving the problem is much more complex than just running it a little reducing. Nate: I'm still getting a handle on Mike's terms for flame structure but we're talking about the same beast. I associate a burner flame with an oxy acet torch flame as that's so commonly familiar. Almost everybody has seen a cutting torch or can find pics of a brazing torch. The light colored opaque cone at the tip is the "primary", the darker more transparent shell surrounding it is the "secondary" and the last rather bushy more poorly defined is the "tertiary." I'm not taking issue with Mike's terminology these are just what I use and why. Post a couple pics of yours in operation and I'll make some suggestions. What you need is completely up to you and what you're doing. One, well tuned, 3/4" NA burner will bring 300-350 cu/in to welding temperature provided it's reasonably mono-dimensional. Meaning all 3 dimensions are close to the same. Long and narrow needs more burners to have an even heat so you may end up with several 1/2" burners rather than a single 3/4" one. We've been talking about refractories, insulation and kiln washes in another thread, the whys, hows and how comes of them. You might want to skim or join in. Frosty The Lucky.

A bounce castle blower would run at least 10 charcoal forges with air to spare. Hit garage, yard, etc. sales and buy an old blow drier. It's not practical to get charcoal to cave up for you, too dry so how about putting a couple bricks over the top of your brick fire pot thingy? Turn that baby into an oven you can shovel charcoal into the front. Bust your charcoal into pieces smaller than your thumbnail. The more surface area the faster it'll react to the oxygen coming in making more heat in a shorter time AND consuming more oxy faster. More heat, less free oxy to your steel. Hmmmm? If the pieces are too large you have to pump more air to get the heat but you're also blowing unconsumed oxy through the stack. Also the unconsumed oxy represents a quantity of air that isn't HOT so it's cooling the hot stuff. Don't pull your work out of the fire to check it's temp, slide your shovel along the stock and lift it so you can peak under it and see the steel. Aus: Same to you, small pieces of charcoal and ease back on the blast. If you judge your fire correctly you don't need flux, the little bit of ash or unburned charcoal that may get into the joint is insignificant. Frosty The Lucky.

You pretty much nailed my feelings JHCC, surely said it better than I did. And Owen says he's a period smith but you GOTTA call it "Traditional" or the marks won't go for it. One of my pet peeves is misrepresentation, it doesn't matter what or how you do a thing so long as you don't defraud people. Marketing has turned "traditional" into an add buzzword. Yeah, traditional blacksmithing is alive and well. It lives here on Iforge passing knowledge and such around like the boys at a pub in an old industrial town or the boys sitting around the stove sipping hot cider, or. . . Heck, we're slowly consolidating the blacksmith's lore of the planet online, looking for common terms and descriptions so everybody knows what's being said. These are the good old days. Frosty The Lucky.

But it is a real word MIke I made it up myself. Aren't ALL words made up? Lets put it in the glossary, I'll be justifiably immoralized! It's easier to control temperature in a bigger furnace. Every factor has it's up and down side. I usually advise new folk to NOT trying to build the perfect forge till they've been using one long enough to know what good enough is. That way they hopefully won't end up with as many unused old "perfect" forges as I have. Frosty The Lucky.

Don't get hung up on finding a specific size bearing, I usually have a couple 3/8" bearings in my pocket, they work a treat and are so easy to carry I forget they're there till I'm looking for something. Doing a rebound test with a hammer takes more practice so matching it against a bearing is a good way to learn what THAT hammer is telling you. Frosty The Lucky.

Ayup, I was referring to the difference between high performance and basic utilitarian. I was only retired 2 years and had time to start messing with high performance ideas when the tree got me I didn't even get the shop finished. My brain just isn't up to delving into tinkering high performance anymore. I just can't keep enough balls in the air now. I'm not complaining, I'm alive and very much aware of how lucky I am. Superman just doesn't live here anymore. Frosty The Lucky.