Frosty

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.

Forbidden!

Ask at the local art supply, it's a common addition to paints and there are a number of books about it's uses, mixes, etc. Frosty The Lucky.

Pretty decent first knife Nick. Not pretty, the profile is a little too round for my taste but it's not mine. All in all looks pretty good. Bear in mind I'm not a bladesmith guy so my opinions are FWIW. Frosty The Lucky.

I'm liking this thread a lot, lots of good thinking going on. A couple more points from me. About pictures, if you check with the local college about extension courses photography is or was pretty darned popular. Explain to the instructor what you need to photograph and they'll almost put that focus to your instruction. After the basics of course. I don't know how photography classes are conducted now that digital cameras are the norm. Still the basics of composition, framing and lighting remain the same. I can see the same old beginner mistakes almost every time someone posts pictures of their work. Steel isn't easy to photograph but it looks beautiful when properly done. Point two. What you photograph, especially for business or public exposure is REALLY IMPORTANT. Pictures posted on the internet are there FOREVER. Anyone doing a web search to locate you for a commission is going to find you here seeing as this is where you post the most often and folk are going to get their first impression of YOU the person. They are looking for a skilled craftsman and the first thing they see is your AVATAR. You know the one with your tongue sticking out of your mouth? It's a really poor public expression, folk are going to feel you have no respect. Sure, it's a joke of some kind but a joke is a really poor first impression unless you're a stand up comic. Of course that's just my opinion. Frosty The Lucky.