Frosty

It's almost too pretty for a blacksmith shop, don't let the wife see it! One feature I really like about it is it's height, it's high enough it's far less likely hot high Carbon pieces will fall into it accidentaly. Of course the lid doesn't hurt. Nice piece of kit. Frosty The Lucky.

Can't find an anvil? Good grief man isn't there ANY large chunks of steel at that yard? Anything heavy enough to beat hot metal on is a REAL ANVIL. Find some lighter hammers and that 12lb. sledge head is anvil enough to make world class swords on. Keep your eyes open, there are a lot of things in common use that make wonderful anvils. Just remember the anvil doesn't do anything, it's the mind, hands and eyes of the smith that does everything. Frosty The Lucky.

So I'm not the only one who can be comfortable in the bush, cool. I was already an accomplished rough it camper when I got the job as a driller and started spending 3 weeks a month in the bush. When I was in town I'd go fishing and camping with friends and they'd freak when they saw my shelter kit. I'd take a plastic tarp, couple space blankets, a ground pad and sleeping bag. Tag alder is everywhere and it's considered a weed by Fish and Game and Forestry up here. A few long wands make the basic arch about a foot higher than to sit in comfortably and shorter ones woven in from the back makes a dandy lean to shelter. The first space blanket gets woven in to provide the inner wall of the shelter. Then thatching the shelter IF grass is available. Weave a bet from alder and willow wands supported on small logs or forked sticks. Logs are MUCH better but you gotta go with what's available and rocks are only OK. Lay leaved branches and grass over the mattress springs and the ground pad on that. The only camp bed I know of that's a better sleep is warm sand. Sand's like a waterbed for fitting a bod. Hopefully there's be dry rocks close buy so I could build a proper reflector fire pit in front of the shelter. On one job there was slate close and my fire pit had a chimney, oven and cooking stone above the main reflector. THAT was a nice place, one of the best ever. Heck, I used a nice sheet of slate for a dinner table and one as a side table by bed. Sweet digs. Frosty The Lucky.

80's-90's100's down south eh? And that's the reason folk like Alaskans live here. Is it too cod to be comfortable outside? Put on thicker clothes, simple fast and effective. Too HOT? Tough tootsies you can't only take off so much before accommodations are provided, no air conditioning though. First couple snow or ice days are always entertaining, your average driver seems to forget what a slick surface is if it dries off for a few days let alone all summer. IIRC last fall we had around 200 vehicles in the ditch between the Parks cut off and Muldoon rd. a distance of about 20-25 miles. Then there's the Seward Hwy. aimed south out of Anchorage but your selection of ditches is more limited you can pick the cliff face or Turnagain Arm. Either isn't good so most folk just bounce off each other till they slide to a halt. After it snows a couple times folk get their heads out of their . . . cell phone receptacles and only a few ditch divers a day is normal. I love driving on ice, used to go play on frozen lakes but front and 4 wheel drive takes most of the fun out of drifting. Ice is good, you can drift a car at 10mph. and not need a hot rod engine unlike even wet pavement. Just remember guys, when the icy roads come to your neighborhood your breaks are NOT your friend! If it drops in the pot in front of you just drive through with as LITTLE steering as possible. If you can't even let off the throttle without sliding put the car in neutral and just keep straight down the road. If you have to stop let it roll to a stop. If you see vehicles out of control in front of you again do NOT break! Gently steer at where they ARE, they won't be there long. aim BEHIND their direction of travel and just roll through. Avoid rush hour, there's a darned GOOD reason I was usually better than 30 mins. early to work. Even then time the traffic so it's as light as possible when you're on the road. Yeah, I drove the 53 miles to work every day, making the roads and highways as safe as possible for the citizens was my job. The worse the conditions the more important it was I was out there driving on them. Yeah I know I'm weird but I LOVE winter driving though since marrying Deb it's not so much fun she insists on studded tires. <sigh> Be careful out there. Frosty The Lucky.

I like you more all the time. You go girl! Frosty The Lucky.

Deb has some (now) amusing stories about me in the hospital. I never stopped trying to get home, they had to keep me tied to the bed. One is about the nurses asking her if she knew what I was doing. I was making motions regularly, "living?" my memories. Sometimes I was cooking, stirring, adding things, tasting, etc. sometimes driving but she couldn't tell what, I used to operate lots of different machinery. Well, they asked her about one behavior I only did if I thought nobody was watching and Deb recognized it immediately and asked me, "Jer are you smoking?" I guess I went through quite the shuffle to hide the smoke, look around and acted like a little kid with his hand in the cookie jar. Frosty The Lucky.

I thought of you when I saw the weather report tonight Bryan, got a little sleet here today, the termination dust is working down the mountains, anytime now. Frosty The Lucky.

Try a 1"x8" tube on the front burner. It appears to be a Reil style linear burner flame holders aren't going to work well on these. The floor of the forge is a V and the flame is aimed directly into the center. This will increase back pressure a little and retard heat circulating. The forge is large, how large work are you planning to doing? You mention heating 1/2" stock, this is not an appropriate size forge for working stock that small. The closer the forge walls to the work while maintaining room for flame circulation the more efficient it will be. The ends need to be closed up significantly, it's not an all or nothing thing. Start blocking the ends and when the burners stop operating efficiently open it back up a LITTLE till they're working properly. Adjust by stages, one thing at a time. If you change several things you'll never know what did what to the system. Frosty The Lucky.

I wonder what the next trick to post is going to be. Maybe write on a bathroom wall and post the pic? Frosty The Lucky.

I couldn't be more proud. She has issues but works around them. I've lost too many old friends to meth and alcohol. Life is hard enough without stepping into one of the many traps along the way. Addiction is harder to kick than it looks from the outside. I fought tobacco seriously for more than 5 years and it took a kick to the head by a birch to finally end the desire. Frosty The Lucky. (Lucky for a lot of reasons)

Maybe I can quote myself? Nope, new thread maybe? Using a RR spike for these applications is more work than it's worth and though it's good exercise you're teaching yourself something else. I start with 3/8" or 1/2" sq. but 1/4"x3/4" strip stock works nicely. Use several inches of stock and practice punching at a regular distance from the end in. Start with the smallest hole and make them progressively larger. While doming makes for nicer and quicker nails it's not actually necessary to heading a nail so you can just practice punching to start with. I dome with a ball pein over the prichel hole or the bolster plate. Punch and drift from the bottom and dress the top chamfer as the last step. It's all good practice and has a lot of methods of production you'll find the one that works best for you but add them all to your mental tool kit. Frosty The Lucky.

In the states we put it IN the concrete. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Michael, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many IFI members live within visiting distance. My best suggestion for you is: Stop trying to figure out how to make burners work and follow one of the many sets of directions for making the things. Just by your description I have to say you don't know how either basic type works. Before any of us can be much help you need to at least post pics of your burners. Pics of your forge will help and once they get operating pics of them running so we can help you tune them. Just be careful NOT to pay a lot of attention to "help" from guys with not much more experience than you have. Frosty The Lucky.

The profile looks like a stone dressing hammer. No idea about the hole though. Frosty The Lucky.

Ask the manufacturer to be sure. It's wattage issue Frosty The Lucky..

There's always hope and there's no predicting. My younger sister was so strung out on meth she looked like walking death, looked and acted pretty hopeless. After more than 20 years she still won't admit she had a problem but she's cleaned up her act and is doing great. Won't have more than a beer or glass of wine. The hotter the fire the stronger the mettle. You take care too, it's hard on everybody we're with you. Frosty The Lucky.

Makes sense. I'd make a wise crack here about that either being a really tall gate or you're a really short guy if that Torii is over your head. I won't though, it'd be kind of profane don'cha know. Frosty The Lucky.

Nice work all round! The bench is simple, elegant and even looks comfortable. The gate is VERY nice. Simple clean and well constructed, I like everything about it. What is the meaning of the symbol? Frosty The Lucky.

Oh come on Charles what's all this manly knife stuff? I'm voting for a pink micarta handle. Nick won't mind and it'll be easy to find if dropped in the grass. On a more serious note this is an excellent kind of competition for a couple. Spousal knife fights are only good things between knife makers and chefs. Frosty The Lucky.

Alex and the family are in my prayers Charles. This is a tough one, I lucked out and got tired of playing with my blood chemistry before I killed myself or sent myself to prison. My younger Sister had a rougher time but escaped the "life". I hope she feels the bottom now and is ready to try playing it straight. I'll say a few special prayers what ever agency she gets picked up by knows their stuff AND is suited to her. Nobody has THE right treatment the best we can do is choose wisely and work hard. Tell Alex we're pulling for her. Frosty The Lucky.

5/8" rd. is a pretty good size stock for making tongs and rebar makes nice non-slip reins. There is one thing rebar is really good for and that's identifying different working characteristics of found steel. It has enough variation to make it a vexation at times but isn't bad stock if it's what you have. Again, it's really good practice learning to recognize the steel under your hammer. You can practice sparking it and make heat treat coupons and test it. Frosty The Lucky.

I can't say about a quiet blower but your forge hood isn't going to draw well even with a blower assist, it's just too wide open. If you do a look around in the the solid fuel forge section you'll see plenty of examples of how well side draft hoods work. I've never seen an overhead hood draw nearly as well as a poorly designed side draft. Not to be critical Arbs but you're doing what most of us did when breaking into the craft. You're really over thinking things trying to design perfect tools and equipment without knowing how to use it. You have a perfectly workable forge table as she sits. However, when the refractory cement breaks out of the drum fire pot don't use the same stuff, just pack damp clay into it. Mixed 1pt. clay to 2pts. sand and it'll do the job just as well and not heat check like the cement will. I aught to post a pic of my first coal forge, makes yours look dainty and simple. I tend to over design things naturally, jut like I tend to over type when writing posts. Frosty The Lucky.

Good thinking Arbs and that was actually my second point before I sidetracked myself. Don't get in a hurry to decide on a shop name. Try making a list of ones you like and just start using them, in a while one will sort of adopt you and will the THE one that most often comes to the tongue. There is really no hurry, your rep isn't going to come because of a snappy shop name. Frosty The Lucky.

Of course it's yours for the claiming Darlin. We get used it. Frosty The Lucky.

Sorry, that came out worse than I intended it. That is the concept drawing from my first prototype and so outdated as to be almost unusable. However if you want to, it's made with lamp rod and SPT fittings. It's much harder to align or find fittings to the fuel line. It worked with enough tinkering though. The current build uses a 1/8" FPT x 1/4" compression fitting to mount the jet and connect to the fuel line. I prefer 1/4" copper line connected to the burner for fire safety. The jet is shortened to increase combustion air induction. The farther upstream of the air intake ports the jet is the more combustion air is induced. Start with the gap between the end of the jet and the beginning of the burner tube 1//2-3/4 the diameter of the burner tube. Some fellows place the jet almost in the burner tube but if you read their specs. you see they're using 0.030" and in one case a 0.025" mig contact tip jet. They have to lower the amount of and really increase the velocity of fuel fed to the burner to get an acceptable air fuel ratio. Nothing wrong with whatever system works. Frosty The Lucky.