Frosty

Welcome aboard Danny, 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. It's obvious what went wrong. You don't know how to forge weld. There's a LOT more to it than just heating and beating. If you'll stop by I'll be happy to show you how. Frosty The Lucky.

Molten copper has a powerful affinity for oxygen and oxidized copper is junk so it's really important to either keep oxy away and or deoxidize it. Flux in a crucible does two things, it floats impurities to the surface and makes an air tight cover, a prophylactic oxy barrier. Adding charcoal is a deoxidizer it's one of the few things that has a stronger attraction to oxy than copper does. I'm not a caster but that's the general purposes of the two additives to the process. If you join a casting forum you'll have better info available. There are good casting books available as well. I'm sure I'm not telling you something new when I say molten metal is dangerous in the extreme and not something to be taken up casually. Frosty The Lucky.

Nice restoration. It's good to see a fine tool brought back to life. Just no details about any illicit trade you two ply in back alleys. . . Please! Frosty The Lucky.

Good! It's always good to see someone with good working gear. Frosty The Lucky.

Nice work. You caught an industrial look pretty well. Frosty The Lucky.

Metal flex pipe is required by code for clothes driers in some places. Appliance stores carry it. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard GG, glad to have you. A couple things about gas forges in general. Welding temp is sort of a general target temp, not a requirement. You can always turn down the gas for lower temps but it's kinda hard to crank one up beyond it's max output. So, that's the reason behind the rule of thumb of one 3/4" burner per 300-350 cu/in volume. That would be a rule of thumb in the shape of the fire chamber has a lot to do with the shape of the chamber. A long narrow chamber will have a much more even temp with evenly spaced smaller burners so long as their output is in line with the chamber's volume. For a sort of extreme example, take a look at ribbon burners. In essence a ribbon burner is a plenum chamber feeding a bunch of 1/4" burners. A good way to learn what you need from a forge is to start out with brick pile forges. They're easily changed to suit your project and learning curve. They're really easy and relatively inexpensive to experiment with till you know your own needs. A lot of guys use and like pipe forges but you're going to find a 6" ID is going to be kind of limiting if you want to turn scrolls, make shelf brackets, etc. Learning what you like to do is part of the learning curve. If you don't step into the trap many of us have of trying to build the perfect . . . whatever right out of the gate. Yeah, I have my first propane forge in the shop but it hasn't seen fire in 25 years. Frosty The Lucky.

You and Lisa are on the list here John. Fortunately the throat and attached pieces heal pretty quickly. Do take the pain meds, a person heals faster without the stress chems a body secretes when in pain. Got a list of movies and music ready? I found reading, especially a comp monitor made me hurt more at first but after a day or two I was fine reading. Audio books are a winner though, zero effort when healing is good. All the best to you and yours. We're pulling for you. Frosty The Lucky.

I'd maybe use them to build a BBQ or outdoor fireplace without better info on the pricks. If they're "contact" fire brick then their temp rating should be plenty but those look more like exterior or structure brick. If they're real fire brick it's a good price but without some documentation I'd look at it like being charged to make a dump run for her. Make some calls on the phone, the internet is WAY too impersonal to ask questions. Call the local "Readimix" or whatever the company is that pours concrete. If they don't carry fire brick they can sure as heck tell you who does. They'll also be able to tell you how to mix contact refractory according to predicted temperature. "contact" is kiln furnace jargon meaning "Fire contact" I have no idea why they dropped fire from the term but I try using the correct terms, it saves confusion when talking to pros. Anyway, Hit the yellow pages and talk to people. describe what you're doing and what you need. If they don't carry the product they will refer you. Just be polite and ask if they have time to answer questions. It's FAR more effective than trying to use the internet. Frosty The Lucky.

Looks like quite the griddle but I'd sure as heck strip it to bare metal before I used it. I'm not about to guess what I THINK's on it from a pic on the internet, I wouldn't base a decision on such. I'd treat it like it's been soaking in red lead paint for 50 years and have it sand blasted, then probably burn through a few sanding disks with my 9" disk grinder. BOTH sides. Is there a hub? It's certainly not a dozer track sprocket, not at 12mm. thick it isn't. Too big around and too thin to be a road grader walking beam sprocket. It's cool and will make a terrific BBQ griddle. Of course not knowing what it's off of just opens the possible stories you can tell about it. Oh Oh, it's part of the speed reduction system to spin a flying saucer! That's it, I knew I'd seen one before. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Bill, glad to have you. Don't sweat it, being in your right mind is over rated there're lots of us here. Acoustic research eh? Sounds interesting. I don't suppose advising you to wear hearing protection is necessary? Enough funnin . . . for now. What do you have in mind to make? In general there're tools, decorative, architectural, and so on. Oh I suppose you've probably already clued us all in on that stuff and I forgot, happens to me all the time. Frosty The Lucky.

Mosquitoes in Alaska are required by the FAA to have tail numbers and running lights. Folk used to put a couple tablespoons of oil on ponds to kill mosquito larva but it wasn't so healthy for other things. However garlic oil is VERY anti insect and doesn't bother anything else. IIRC a tbsp will put a sheen on about an acre of lake surface and all it takes is a sheen. I have a lid on my water so I don't drop things in accidentally and the LG usually manages to hit it with a drop or two of oil now and then. Another good anti larva treatment is a few drops of dish soap. Adult mosquitoes can't land on the water and stay on top so they sink and drown. It works on mice that try to get a drink and fall in, their fur immediately saturates so they sink and drown. Dawn isn't toxic either so if Falki wants a drink he'll only be up on his iron. Frosty The Lucky.

Dunning-Kruger Effect! Yes, thank you, it was discussed in a thread here a while ago but I couldn't remember which one or the name. It's been driving me nuts since and I've been dropping the description with shameless abandon hoping someone would post it again!! Heck I even asked outright a couple times. Well, I think I asked. My folks weren't too strict on most things but we were expected to think things through and work for our spending money. I remember the look Mother gave me the ONE time I called a spade a pointed shovel. I don't know if she was disappointed or about to laugh AT me. It was a look I never wanted to see again, better if she was mad than disappointed. I can only remember getting one spanking I didn't deserve. (that time) We really had to push to get a spanking but if Mother asked if she had to get the wooden spoon it was last call. She never threatened but if she opened the drawer it was a done deal. I think two swats was a pretty severe spanking I think I got 3 one time but I was really asking for it. Dad never hit us except for a cuff for doing something really stupid dangerous in the shop. It was the shock of the act not pain that embedded the lesson in permanent memory. We were lucky in selecting the parents we did. Frosty The Lucky.

Exactly. The ancient blacksmith saying I made up some years ago referring to children being, "opinions and ideas unpolluted by knowledge" I cherish kids around when I'm smithing. They have most of the brain power of an adult just not the library. Fresh view and thoughts. Good stuff. I just have to remind myself more often the older I get, cerebral petrification happens if you live long enough. Frosty The Lucky.

Would those be 8hr. days, longer shorter? I'm aware it takes a lot to produce an hour of air time show. Old days they took a week to produce a 1 hr.show and there were only about 20 minutes of commercials per hour. Now it's more like 40 minutes of commercials per hour. If I were to be simplistic and say eight 1hr. days it'd still be an 8:1 production ratio and even with modern tech, that's really unrealistic. Just so you know I enjoyed the program. Then again I didn't expect instructional TV and it was pretty close to what I expected. Sure I wish there was more time looking over you guys shoulders while you did the tricky bits. Say: how you isolated sections, How you estimated finished dimensions from stock dimensions and how close you got to your estimation. Oh heck, who built the forges? What make were the anvils? You used your own hand tools yes? What do you estimate the air temp on the set? Okay, I'll let up. . . for now. Frosty The Lucky.

What did you start with as stock? Nice job of keeping them straight. Marcy will need sheathes to go with the fork and spoon too. Frosty The Lucky.

How about this. Think before you write, think like an educated articulate gentleman. Everybody slips and types something they shouldn't but grownups don't make excuses let alone lecture adults. And that was a truly lame excuse. Frosty The Lucky.

Oh Ian, you should to learn to let go a little, it'll do you a whirled of good. Why would he need to try keeping Mosquitoes out of the quench tub? How many WWII fighter bombers are still flying? Frosty The Lucky.

Alan, Dave: You guys warped the fabric of the whole subject and weft it for someone else to patch, darn you! It's getting better with every picture Andrew, I hope their punishment hasn't left you bobbin. Frosty The Lucky.

Just so you guys don't get the idea I'm suggesting briquettes for fuel, just that they're not the bad juju their reputation says they are. The volatiles are burned out of coke and it's the tarry goop that causes coal to stick together and cave up. The volatiles are also more easily flammable so a coal fire stays lit more easily. Frosty The Lucky.

No, I don't have pics or an example of what I mean by the loop. Maybe I can describe it clearly enough. Getting even folds for a twist would be as easy as wrapping rod around a piece of flat bar, say 1/4"x4". If you did this but left one wrap longer than the width of the strap on the far side from the shaft you'd have the loop end. If you do the fold technique simply leave one single bend longer on the end away from the shaft. When or if you weld the rods to form the ends one will have a staple shape bit extending beyond the bundle to make the end loop from. I've always found basket twists challenging but discovered it's okay to cheat and take a screw driver, pliers, special made bending forks and a cool gizmo posted recently to them to tweak them right. I hope that's more clear. Frosty The Lucky.

This is starting to sound like a TV drama sort of a blacksmith version of, "Then Came Bronson." You'll know what I mean if you remember late 60's early 70's TV. Life twists and turns, dips and dives and is never dull. I'll tip a brew to your good fortune in love found and success. Keep us posted though I live for the next episode of "Crazy Ivan's Road Trip. Frosty The Lucky.

If you're new to knife making then you need more experience to heat treat by eye. A heat treat oven takes the guesswork out of it no matter who you are. One of the guys in our club recently got a liquidation sale ceramic kiln rewired as a heat treat and mokume oven. If you're burning any fuel you MUST have an exhaust or it's going to be choked out. You want to keep the doors in a gas forge as closed as possible without creating back pressure that effects the burners. A gun (blown) burner is less susceptible than a naturally aspirated burner but MUST have an exhaust port none the less. And YES that's a fundamental. Frosty The Lucky.

Alan Campbell doesn't ring a bell with me. What genre? Could be part of a Tic Toc man alright. Hmmm. Frosty The Lucky.