Frosty

A couple points. Quick quick quick. Do your thinking in the fire. Pulling the work then trying to decide what to do is wasting time, effort, steel and fuel. Is your work scaling IN the forge or after you pull it? Hot steel WILL scale on contact with air but if it's scaling IN the forge it's burning too lean. You're putting all this effort into failed rojects and worried about burning a little too much propane? Propane is more valuable than your time ad the steel? Turn the propane up a LITTLE bit and see if that helps with scale. Throwing a piece or two of charcoal in a gas forge works well for scavenging free oxy. Its an old school trick before folk started paying better attention to air fuel ratios. Get a good wire brush, hammering scale into the work isn't attractive. A butcher block brush is the same basic thing as sold as a blacksmith's brush. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. There is a LOT of reading available here, literally thousands of posts on almost any subject you can think of. If you don't understand what you read, please give a shout someone here will answer even if we have to make something up. Frosty The Lucky.

Yeah, I actually subscribed to the IPS forum and have tried emailing them directly. The ONLY reaction I get is "All issues have been addressed." IPS has their money and don't care. A perfect example of "don't pay the ferryman till he gets you to the other side." Frosty The Lucky.

You have a hand drill and a hack saw don't you? You don't need to weld a stand together it can be bolted and secure. You don't need to leave the anvil in the stand to move it either., Just a little nylon webbing and you can make a slip on handle. Move the stand separately. Frosty The Lucky.

I LOVE the reactions of non-speakers to jargon. I think I've posted the burner to forge volume ratios before but the ratio is determined by the sq/in. of the burner tube compared to forge volume. For example a 1" burner will bring 700 cu/in to welding heat. A 3/4" tube is approx 1/2 the area of a 1" tube and will bring a 300-350 cu/in forge to welding temp. A 1/2" tube is again 1/2 the area of a 3/4" tube and will bring 150-175 cu/in to welding temp. These ratios are approximations, some burners just work better than others, all four on my shop forge are a little different. There are other variables besides the "Homemade" factor. Shape of the chamber counts, long and narrow needs more burners of smaller output for an even temp. Forge liner counts a LOT, hard refractory like Missou or hard fire brick is a tremendous heat sink and a poor insulator so a lot of fuel will go to heating the liner. Insulating liners are much more efficient at keeping the heat IN the chamber but are fragile. Less fuel but easy to damage. Kiln washes REALLY help keeping forge liners from being dissolved by welding fluxes while preventing ceramic fibers from visiting our lungs and in some cases increasing the IR reflectivity. Okay, that's the relation of burner size to furnace volume, you can extrapolate up or down with simple arithmetic. Jet size can be calculated, I know because guys who can do math better than I have: Ron Reil and Mike Porter for example. Me, I just experimented till I had jets that put the most fuel in the forge and entrained enough air to burn cleanly. My chart says: A 1/2" tube likes a 0.023" mig tip jet. A 3/4" tube likes a 0.035" mig tip jet. A 1" tube likes a 0.045" mig tip jet. A little basic arithmetic shows the jets follow pretty close to the same curve as the tube cross sectional area. Roughly anyway, scaling up or down it would provide a good departure point to establish the best jet size for your burner size. Frosty The Lucky.

That's one of the many things I'm editing. Pics are pretty much ready but the text is really wordy like me. I have it ready to gally proof and am sending it to be proof read. It'll be up before too long I hope. Frosty The Lucky.

When you're using a grinding disk resist the common tendency to move it back and forwards quickly, that's what the motor is for. Just a slow steady movement and it'll cut faster, cleaner and the disk will last longer. Rounding the corners is is the same in principle as forging a round, start square, knock the corners off, then knock those corners off then round it up. Same process different tool. A rasp is probably too aggressive to start with, chamfer the corner with a coarse bastard and once you have a flat switch to the rasp. Heck, forge a sen and scrap the edges round. Don't use concrete in the stand, the impact energy from hammering will break it up quickly. Just mortice it into the block, if it jumps around too much drive a couple wedges at 90*. LIke I said earlier I like a steel stand, especially for this anvil and you can secure it with set screws. Frosty The Lucky.

Hey guys there's no need to Quote a post and resend the pics already posted. Glenn has to pay for bandwidth lets give him a break. If you wish to make a specific point then cut all the other pics in the post except the one in reference. Please. Frosty The Lucky.

Those'll work just fine. Yeah sitting on the bench took a lot of rebound out of the test. How high it rebounds only counts as a comparison to how high you dropped it from be it bearing or hammer. Put some radius on a couple edges, sharp edges are NOT your friend. A stand will be your next project, something as solid directly below the block as possible. Wood block is okay but those are light enough I'd go steel for the rigidity. Remember you'll be beating HOT steel on it so it isn't going to ding up forging well, except when you miss but don't worry. If it gets too beat up flip up a new side radius the edges and shine it up. You can grind all kinds of useful shapes into the 2" thick piece, A fuller for a start and a couple swages. It's a bit thick for a hardy or fuller though but useful for sure and certain. Not a bad start at all, I've worked on worse. Frosty The Lucky.

Like pealing an onion isn't it? Can you drill it out as it sits? Do you have a good drill press and vise? You might be better off cleaning it up and welding it solid. Drilling through chicken track welds can be a serious PITA. Heck I wouldn't be surprised if Mr. Braze every darned thing used SS rod when he struck an arc. Just because SS is better . . . isn't it? I worked with guys like that, couldn't run a competent bead so they REALLY screwed things up by using ss rod. What Maroons, ultra Maroons! Frosty The Lucky.

Turn the volume down or better, off. Gas forges are worse than wind on mics and no I don't want to listen to a power hammer for 20 minutes. You can dub in narration later. Keep the light BEHIND the camera! Rehearsals aren't cheating! Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the IFI gang live within visiting distance. The must haves are pretty simple: A fire, something to beat against, something to beat with and something to beat on. I'm not joking that's all you really need for years I forged in a camp fire sometimes on boulders with whatever junk I found. An anvil is anything heavy and hard enough to make hot steel move when it's used as an anvil. RR rail has been used to good effect for better than a century. Sledge hammer heads make nice stake anvils. Axles buried flange up at the correct height make a good anvil. Most any steel shaft on end is good. And so on, imagination is a handy tool cultivate it. For a hammer most any smooth face is good. Don't use a really heavy hammer, 2lbs. is more than enough to learn with. Hammer control is about accuracy and control more than strength. Once you're developed good hammer control a heavier hammer will do well for you but till you have they make mistakes permanent much faster and can injure you. Believe me things you can ignore as a young man will catch up with you later in life. Sooner or later you'll need tongs but you can use long pieces of steel and not need them. Steel doesn't conduct heat very well so if it's say 24" long you can hold onto one end while the other is melting off. Eye protection!! The traditional retirement program for blacksmiths is when they lose the other eye. That's a B-A-D tradition do not continue it! Good safety glasses are a must in my shop unless we aren't doing anything but talking. PERIOD. You want to wear natural fibers or leather, synthetics will melt and deep fry your hide is a bit of HOT something touches them. Cotton, wool, hemp, leather, silk even don't melt and they stink if they catch fire so you aren't surprised. And just get used to the idea of setting yourself on fire once in a while. Leather boots. Gloves are a maybe and sometimes good or sometimes VERY bad. I run a propane forge so I'm frequently reaching through dragon's breath and it heats up everything within about a foot of the door. It makes wearing a glove on my left hand pretty necessary. Just remember if a leather glove gets hot it shrinks, traps your hand and bakes it like a potato. Just take a look at the crumpled shrunken mess leather turns into if it gets too hot. Wearing a leather glove on my left hand is one of the only reasons I keep a bucket of water near the forge. If it starts to squeeze my hand I dunk it straight in the water. Aloe Vera gel is a good thing in the shop, you WILL burn yourself. Treat it quickly and minimize the damage. Do you have 1st aid training? It can't do any harm to take a course. Keep a full 1st. aid kit at hand, you're going to. cut, scrape, poke gouge, bruise, etc. yourself. Learn to clean and dress minor wounds and keep your cell phone handy. There is a large section of projects and instructions for beginners. I've gone on long enough for now. Frosty The Lucky.

Old and Rusty passed away a while back. Angles are singing to the ringing of his anvil now. Frosty The Lucky.

Nice looking "hack" you made there Lawman. I look forward to hearing how it works. Frosty The Lucky.

Nanny huh, not a goat person I see. Well just buck up on dis bud. Frosty The Lucky.

Alrighty then. The T = 1" x 3/4" The first number is the "run" the second is the "chase." In plumbing the run is the main line along the wall and a chase is a drop say for a sink or hose bib. Run = top of the letter T, Chase = shaft. I know, that sounds pendatic but I'm trying to get guys used to the correct terms so they don't have to describe everything at the plumbing supply. Okay, a 1" x 3/4" T. The tube will be 3/4" and the ratio is 8x the tube dia. or 6" 7" will work but the 8x dia. is the most reliable ratio. one, 1"x3/4" T one, 3/4"x6" nipple. one, 3/4" thread protector. Thread protectors are used to protect the threads on length of plumbing during shipping. They resemble couplers but are much thinner and generally throw away items at plumbing supplies though you may need to convince them you aren't going to use them as couplers. I use them for flares. The jet for a 3/4" burner I find works best is a 0.035" mig contact tip. to mount the jet I tap a brass 1/8"MPT x 1/4" flare fitting. The ID is very close to the exact size to tap 1/4"x28. Tweco mig contact tips have a 1/4"x28 male thread to connect to the welding gun. I use a #3 drill bit as a gauge to check the fittings when I buy them. Be aware though some mig tips are metric thread pitch and others may have a thread I'm not aware of. That's why I just tell people get Tweco mig tips. double check though Tweco may sell other pitches elsewhere. The trickiest part of building T burners is drilling the T dead center and straight down the tube. the straighter the jet is aligned with the tube the better it works. If I screw the T to the pipe nipple and chuck it up in my lathe I can have it ready to tune in about 10 minutes. However a drill press will serve nicely with the jig system I came up with in one of those head slapping why didn't I think of THAT moments. A 3/4" Floor Flange and a 3/4" close nipple is the jig. Screw the nipple into the Floor Flange and the T onto the nipple. Now you can stand the unit on the drill press table and it's straight and square. Mark and center punch the center of the T. Dead center! Align the drill 5/16" is the pilot to tap 1/8" FPT. Align it to the center punch mark and clamp the flange to the table. double and triple check to make sure it hasn't shifted. Drill the pilot hole. Loosen the chuck and remove the drill bit without moving the table or T! Chuck up the 1/8" pipe tap in the drill press. UNPLUG the drill press! You need the grip the chuck key provides so against the prime drill press safety rule you leave the key in the chuck and that's why it's unplugged. Put a drop of oil on the tap lower it against the pilot hole and with GENTLE pressure hand turn the drill and tap the hole. That is the touchiest process making these things and the best method I know outside of chucking it up in a lathe. Now carefully tap the brass fitting in the 1/8" MPT end. Screw the mig tip in finger tight, do NOT bent it. Now screw the brass jet mount into the top of the T. Attach flared 1/4" copper tubing to the fitting and again to the 1/4 turn ball valve coming off your adapter to 1/4" MPT that fits the hose from the pressure gauge and regulator on the propane tank. That's it, mount the burner in the forge and light it up. It should be burning rich, lots of orange dragon's breath and a long light blue opaque flame. To lean it up, trim the mig tip back about 1/8" at a time and make sure you clean the burr out of the orifice. I like using a torch tip file set. Slowly trim the tip back till you get the mixture you like. The mig tip will end up well above the center of the air inlets in the T. And that's the basics of the things. If you have a problem just ask and attach a pic of what the flame looks like. One in the door one from the side so I can see the air fuel ratio. Frosty The Lucky. Yeah, the forbidden excrement is one of the joys of doing business with the SOT ware baffoons who aren't trouble shooting the new platform. We all get forbidden messages, usually after investing time and thought in a carefully crafted reply. One trick is to copy your post before submitting. If it's forbidden, try posting a short one liner message. If that uploads click edit and paste your first post and save. Sometimes that works. Another work around trick that's been working pretty well if you aren't "Quoting" someone is to write your message then exit the thread. When you return click in the text window and your message will appear, submit it quick. Sometimes that works. Cursing IPS hasn't helped. Frosty The Lucky.

Naw, no need to appolizize. (sorry I love a good straight line even if it is a typo) You're going to fit right in here, you're a strong personality and your first couple posts had some of us thinking you might be a Troll. In the jargon of fora, lists, etc. a "Troll" is someone who thrives on dissent and we've had a couple experiences being sucked in by them. The general wisdom is, "Don't feed the Troll." For a couple few posts there we weren't sure about you and you picked up on it. It's like getting to know a new person who is loud, full of wild ideas and or such. sometimes the person is just a big personality, sometimes they're jerks. I'm getting the big personality vibe. You may get a lot of, "There the crankster goes again, watch this!" reactions or lack of reaction but it's no thing. Believe me, it's hard to beat the wild and lofty thinkers. So you aim way too high, it's easier to turn an idea down that boost it up sometimes. What the hey we may be WAY to conservative, I'm wrong often enough I'm used to it. I've been working through editing a new set of directions for my version of the T burner. It turned out my ideas for a redesign didn't work out as any improvement but I have a new build that makes the precision much easier without needing more than moderate shop skills and tools. I'll be getting them up before long now. I'll reply to your recent post in a quote. Frosty The Lucky.

Ah, a goat doe is flagging when she's in season and wagging her tail if a buck is close. Let the game continue! Frosty The Lucky.

If I recall correctly we tried fluxing with sand to see if we could get a more WI type material as well as use it for flux. Of course I might be remembering a housewarming party in 1974 too. Frosty The Lucky.

Will you please hire a neighborhood teen to video you in the shop? AFV is calling your name. Frosty The Lucky.

My one suggestion is to trim the table behind it so you can swing a wrench, stock, pipe cutter, etc. all the way around on one side of the jaws. Bolting it down's covered. Nice vise stand, well done. Frosty The Lucky.

2-3" of rammed sandy clay will distribute the heat enough it won't warp. One of my first more or less "real" forges when I was a kid was the lid from an old washing machine turned upside down with a hole hacked into it so a brake drum would rest on the rim. I then packed it with adobe. . . several times, I kept mixing it like mud instead of ramming damp. I think I was in Jr. high, 1964 maybe? I stole Mother's hair drier, the OLD school kind with the plastic hair bag, hose and briefcase size blower heater unit. Anyway, that wagon will work fine. Don't over think it though. If you're going to burn charcoal think side blast, it makes for a really simple forge. Charles will walk you through it. Frosty The Lucky.

Ooh! Did I finally hit one you guys don't know? "Flagging?" I fess to lucking out with Dag but I'm not too proud to go with it. Cool, your run is cloven! Frosty The Lucky.

And with expert advice from a bladesmith guy I'll quietly move back to the corner and listen. Oh okay, one last thing. What's French for "Mule?" Frosty The Lucky.

If the company says it's not food grade then Trewax is out. Darn, now I'll have to find something else too. It's better to know than only think a thing. Frosty The Lucky.