Frosty

How are you preparing your coal? Are you breaking it into walnut or acorn size pieces? If you use large lumps of coal it has too little exposed surface to consume all the oxy from the blast. The excess air blowing through the pile will carry heat away from the fire even if all the oxy is gone. Breaking into small pieces exposes more surface in a cube of the volume change. This applies to the voids between particles so the oxy is consumed quickly and the heat has to go around a LOT more corners to find a cranny to escape through. So what this means is nut coal fires tend to trap the heat in the center of the pile over the air blast. And the oxy has been consumed just at the lower boundary of the sweet spot where it's hottest. So, have you broken your coal up? It's important. Frosty The Lucky.

It looks pretty good to me. How long have you let it run? Frosty The Lucky.

If you beat hot steel into submission on it, it's a REAL anvil. Period. That's the only valid definition of anvil. Frosty The Lucky.

You like the character lines on that hard working old lady do you? I like you already, she's a beauty and doesn't need anything but put back to work. If I haven't welcomed you aboard already I do so now and glad to have you. Frosty The Lucky.

I don't do much solid fuel forging but when I was drilling I'd do a little smithing around the camp fire almost every night. A sideblast is FAR easier as a field expedient all you need is a fire and source of air. Below is a field expedient I set up to repair a log tong I bent clearing land for the house. The air is being supplied by a 12v Coleman Inflate all, a blower for filling air mattresses, rubber rafts, etc. the yellow thing between me and the pickup. It's blowing through a piece of junk pipe and would've made welding heat without trouble had I needed it. The fire is behind the little log to my right. Frosty The Lucky.

Aw you don't have anything to apologize for Dave, you're pretty new here and are coming up with good ideas. So most have been in place for quite a while, they were good ideas then and are good ideas now. Most of us who teach folk do it for ourselves as much as others. My first serious student Richard was probably the best I've had, a home schooler with parents who expected him to excel. My second was Lindsey, a grad student who made a practice of picking up a craft at every college she studied and I was only 50 miles away. She was studying to practice sports medicine and understood instantly why I hold a hammer the way I do. I was incredibly pleased to find out I was right, my method minimizes joint damage and is a good force multiplier. I learned more from those two kids than years of studying on my own. Every time they asked why do it that way? Why do you do that? etc. etc. it forced me to examine MY methods and actions closely enough to explain them in terms suitable for a beginner. Even better was when they asked Why don't you do it this way? I cherish ideas unpolluted by knowledge, fresh eyes often see things the experienced don't. I don't think I've met a teen age boy who didn't want to make a sword, I did. I tell them up front I won't be teaching them how to make a sword, I don't make them I'm not qualified. I tell them I can teach them to forge so they can learn to forge a sword if they get good enough. Lindsey is the only person I've let make a knife in my shop but she has so much more raw talent than I do it would've been truly unfair not to give her a shot at it. Anyway, every state fair or demo, or place where smithing is talked about I hand out bunches of cards if I get a call it's a surprise. If one in 10 who call actually come out I'm really surprised. If one who does come out comes out more than once. Etc. etc. you get the idea, I don't have many students, maybe1-2 a year in a good year. Hard work is pretty self filtering. S'okay if somebody only wants to give it a try I'll give them a crack at it they might take it up. Frosty The Lucky.

Oh yeah, those came out much more uniformly. Keep the first set for when you're feeling down about not getting something right you can pull them out and see how far you've come. Learning this craft is a lifelong exercise in failure analysis. You'll always see the flaws in your work even when nobody else does. You'll always be looking for ways to eliminate the flaws. It's what makes the craft so satisfying on a soul deep level. As a suggestion making the bits a little longer will give you more size and position range and it'll make adjusting them easier. That's a heck of an improvement you're on track. Well done. Frosty The Lucky.

If you're on uneven ground use three legged stands they may not stand level but they'll be steady. Frosty The Lucky.

It climbed down the ladder, went in where it's warm and stays off roofs. Frosty The Lucky.

Uh HUH. You have my mouth watering either way. Frosty The Lucky.

We didn't care much about legality back in the day and I don't think finding the intoxicant of your choice is hard in NJ, then or now. Induction might have had something to do with the Hindenburg, probably not a forge though. Frosty The Lucky.

Looks to be a fine setup Donnie. Left handed? I LOVE the drawers in the anvil stand. The only thing I see missing is a cup holder. You're a fine example of what's really necessary to be a blacksmith, it ain't the tools, it's the brain and desire. Well done. Frosty The Lucky.

Too true Thomas but rjs didn't ask about his elevation he asked how HIGH he is. Reminds me of greeting friends in the 60's-70's. Frosty The Lucky.

That makes my head sweat just watching the video. I'd recommend against looking like a terrorist in these parts, Alaska is a concealed carry state. Joking aside there are lots of folk here wearing various head wraps so that alone is unremarkable. How do you get a welding/face shield over it? Frosty The Lucky.

I was going to post a pic or video of moose on roofs but didn't find one worth attaching. It happens a few times a winter if it's very snowy. Snow slides off the roof and makes a handy pile so moose can climb up and reach uneaten buds on the trees. It's a 30'x40' shop and the tree got me not long after this was taken so it's still unfinished. Room, you certainly don't think this itty bitty shop means I have plenty of room do you? It was getting crowded before I got the roof buttoned up. About that wind vane, it turns away from the wind and quit working at all. Frosty The Lucky.

Vapors go around corners just fine. When Thomas says not in the same space he means the same ROOM Period. Remember, physics doesn't care how we parse words it just IS. Find an old Gym locker at a yard sale and bolt it to the outside wall of the garage and you're golden. Being attached doesn't require open floor space or a door, the roof is attached so you have open space through the rafters/trusses right where all the HOT is going to go. Frosty The Lucky.

For me 0.0125"r is about max unless need need something specific. The big thing to remember is to NOT leave a sharp corner on an inside bend as it'll act as an initiation point for failure just like a scribe mark on glass. This is known as a "cold shut." I see Thomas got ahead of me again. Like that's an accomplishment. My main anvil's edges taper from almost no radius to about 0.0125" not that I measured them. My Trenton has some larger radii but it was "repaired" in a past life. Just breaking the edges will go a long way towards preventing chipping. Frosty The Lucky.

I believe UVEX has models of safety glasses with a sweat catcher/barrier above the eyes. Frosty The Lucky.

Yeah, winter can be a problem. You COULD make a teapot rack to sit on the forge. It might be enough to keep the bucket thawed and serve the double purpose of keeping YOU thawed with a nice steamy beverage on breaks. I'd say that's what I do but a tea pot fits in the heat exchanger on the barrel stove as does a foil wrapped sandwich. Warm is a good thing in winter. Frosty The Lucky.

I had to submit it in a new thread our quietly industrious mods must have moved it for me. I'm sure we would've been in the same clique in school. In today's school system we'd definitely be on the WATCH list together. I think a lot of us would've been friends or cell mates if your luck hadn't held out. Frosty The Lucky.

You can forge 316 but do a lot of test work before you try making something you want to keep or sell. It's really heat sensitive and has a narrow working range. It has a serious learning curve, be patient it's only steep if you hurry. Naw, it's not very good for things like punches, chisels, etc. I don't believe it'll harden worth beans. It's really good for other tools though, ever work glass? polished it's good glass tooling. Same for pottery and such. I'd have to look it up so I won't say it's good for food prep but maybe. A web search should cover food contact suitability. Nice all weather and outdoor applications though. It's long time shiny goodness is legendary. Nice wind vanes, door furniture, etc. 1/2" rd. is a little small but certainly good to have on the racks especially once you learn to work it. Good stuff good score. Frosty The Lucky.

When I started learning to weld, "Watch it!" was the standard warning but the instructor in my high school "Heavy Metal" shop class stomped that one first day. Mr. Harding's logic was inescapably right so we learned to say loudly, NOT shout, just loud and clear "EYES!" though, " Striking an ARC!" was . . . acceptable. Folk who aren't familiar with a welding environment will automatically LOOK at the person saying "Watch it!" same for "Look out!" or "heads up?" What kind of warning of a trip hazard is "Heads UP?" "FEET!, HANDS! HEAD!, EYES, HOT HOT HOT, HOT METAL, MOLTEN METAL," etc. are good warnings. They tell a person exactly what's at risk or what the hazard is, just like the waitress at the coffee shop saying, "Behind YOU" as she carries whatever behind someone. My "Sparky" coworkers would say, "Live" as a warning to just stay back a good 20', if you were already that far back and they said it to you they meant you should go set cones a LOT farther back. Some overhead signs State DOT were responsible for run on 660v but we'd get called out on down power lines in emergencies and some transmission lines carry 7,000v or higher. We knew enough to just barricade as far away as possible and control traffic till the pros arrived. Funny how you don't have to explain what "LIVE WIRES!!" means to anybody who survived their early teen years. Frosty The Lucky.

Chaos Theory refers to phenomena as a "Strange Attractor." Non linear mathematics show that attractors concentrate(?) order from chaos. The trick is getting the right amount of chaos, not enough and the system is too stable/stagnant, too much and order isn't possible. There are no pools of smooth water in a waterfall, white water rapids is a different story on the other hand. Anyone want to write the formula for predicting blacksmith tool attractors more predictably than the "get one, more will follow," rule of thumb? Frosty The Lucky.

You know Dave, if I wasn't getting a pretty good idea of what a joker you really are you'd be creeping me out with the whole man crush thing. Part of my bucket list is to travel around and meet online friends face to face. In a truly manly man way of course. Some of my earliest memories are sitting in the living room with Mother and Dad cutting blanks with tin snips. Dad was a metal spinner and machinist and we always had a spinning lathe stashed somewhere in the house so he could do side work. They were Depression kids and worked non-stop to get ahead. I also remember sitting on the ways of Dad's spinning lathe playing race car with the free play in take up wheel on the tail stock as he spun in the basement. It's how he baby sat me as. I have very clear memories of why I could only play with the free play in the wheel or bad things happened. I credit this for my almost hard wired feel for working metal. I can feel and hear metal's malleability and only have a work hardening failure if I push it deliberately. I grew up in Dad's shop, I only got an allowance till I was grown up enough to get around his shop without drawing too much blood, then I earned spending money. I got paid piece work till I was 16 and his operation got large enough OSHA took notice and suddenly it was flat illegal for me to walk past the office hall. There are NO pictures of me working in his shop, insurance companies and such would've. . . I was spinning before I was 10, nothing big, rolling beads, sharpening corners, polishing, etc. type spinning but it freed up a professional spinner for other steps so I earned my 1/4 cent per part. I ran everything in his shop but the square shear, he never let us kids work the square shear, too dangerous. No problem, running the punch press or spinning lathes but not the square shear. Go figure eh? I didn't use the machine lathe much as it was almost always in use for company business making tooling but I had shop classes and had access so that was no problem. I was a full blown metal spinner by time I was 13 up to my physical limits, I just wasn't bit or strong enough for some of the work. Some exotic metals take enormous forces to move, even hot. Most were really expensive and we only got paid for good parts. I took every shop class offered in school except light metal shop, did that at home for money. Wood shop was okay, really liked how it smelled. Crafts shop was too fluffy bunny for me and I had zero interest in print shop. Boys weren't allowed in sewing or home making and girls weren't allowed in Auto shop, metal shops, etc. Stupid rules. I read constantly, have since Mother showed me there were interesting things in books everywhere. I was blessed or cursed with an Eidetic memory for the written word so my reading comprehension is WAY above average. Before the accident I never forgot anything I read, I might have to work on getting things in proper sequence but I never forgot. Heck it's all still there and I still don't forget but my filing system is seriously screwed up. Stupid tree. School bored me, I was usually finished with the required reading the first few days and the related material in the first week or two. Didn't do homework and just drifted along. A classic underachiever. I only worked hard enough to carry a high C but aced any final or other tests casually. I'm lazy about other people's evaluations, especially when I know their subject better than they do. Yeah, I was pretty arrogant as a kid if quiet about it. Even my hot rod 62 Corvette wasn't much to look at. Faded white, usually unwashed, ushined chrome, but pushing better than 375hp our of a 327cid V8. Loud? Nope, I put the largest glass pack mufflers I could fit under it so it was quiet. Cops don't look at a plain jane QUIET car. Not in super car S. California they don't, cool cars are LOUD. I drove a sleeper, all the fancy was under the hood and covered in dusty oil but boy could that ride MOVE. I took several trade school programs and earned 3 welding certs before I realized how short a professional life span welders had in the 60's and 70's it was only smoke ad the Marlboro man was still on TV and "Winstons taste good like a cigarette had aughta" according to Granny Clampet. So, even with 3 welding certs I've never run a bead as a certified welder. It stood me in good stead as a fabricator though and I saw to my own breathing gear. But that was just something to make more valuable as a driller. Professionally I ran equipment of all kinds and we did field repairs, especially the drills and carriers. Those things live a HARD life, an operator who doesn't have a deft touch and good ear ends up spending more time repairing it than running it and shortly finds himself doing something else. That's about it. I won't get into on the job stories, this has gone on way too long already. Frosty The Lucky.

Elevation can make a big enough difference to need to be tuned out. It's been my experience a 20lb. tank is generally good for a single 3/4" burner for a couple hours on a nice day. A 40lb. tank is good for significantly longer and can run two for a couple hours without pressure drop due to tank temp. Standing the tank in water is a simple and effective solution but packing a tub can be a serious PITA especially if storage room is tight. However you can buy "collapsible water buckets" in a variety of sizes. This is the results of a quick Yahoo search for those terms. https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=A86.JySWYPhVEkkAZXAnnIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTByNWU4cGh1BGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw--?p=Collapsible+Water+Buckets&fr=yhs-mozilla-001&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-001 Sorry, tiny URL doesn't like me this morning. Lots of people use the things from ranchers, campers, "preppers", etc. you can find them at outdoors, sporting goods, farm and ranch, etc. suppliers. Frosty The Lucky.