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I Forge Iron

Frosty

2021 Donor
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Everything posted by Frosty

  1. A sleeve to keep the cloth from resting directly on the hanger is a good idea and I think a high quality clear coat on the rest should do for many years. I have wire coat hangers I brought with me from California more than 43 years ago. Maybe find out what they're coated with? Frosty The Lucky.
  2. Looking pretty nice Spanky. Have you thought about doing a little wood grain texture? Wait, those are jewelry aren't they? So smooth would better. Frosty The Lucky.
  3. Cement overshoes?! That's a bit drastic isn't it Steve? I mean sure folk who not only don't look in directories are as annoying as the ones who don't read: FAQs, stickies, related topics, go to libraries, and such but just shout out questions in general but what the hey we have to have some entertainment. You could just save him in the IPS cloud instead. Oh wait, that WOULD be cruel something quick like drowning would be more humane. . . Nevermind. Frosty The Lucky.
  4. The only time I've added water to a charcoal fire is to put it out. I control the size and shape of the fire with bricks arranged around the duck's nest and how much fire there is with fuel and blast. Frosty The Lucky.
  5. Just move the hook to the center and let the cloth keep it level. If there isn't room to let it hang cross ways to the rod then put a turn in the hook so it hangs at an angle remaining horizontal in the closet. Yes, SS to prevent stains. Frosty The Lucky.
  6. Hitting the hydraulic supply is a good idea I've never been in one that didn't have just about everything. One in a port city is likely to have fittings to any country's standards. We have a rubber and hose supply that is THE place to go for oddball fittings. Anchorage is a port city and air hub. Frosty The Lucky.
  7. I was getting the wrong idea. Good to know I hate thinking ill of someone even for a good reason. No problem with Devil Forge integrity glad to know. Spending another $50 +/- to get it up and running is economical. If it's going to take a little while to get the reg and fittings you should hold off washing the Kaowool till you get the second layer. ITC-100 is too expensive to put where it's not needed. Keep us posted, we're pulling for ya. I was just reading and replying to a thread about adapting a Brit fitting to an American propane tank or visa versa. The suggestion came up to try a hydraulic supply and I remembered hitting a rubber and hose supply. IIRC Walla Walla is inland but you have an airport so being able to match parts from all over the world is important. Frosty The Lucky.
  8. What BS. Selling a product you have to convert to use? Do they let you know that before you pay for it? Frosty The Lucky.
  9. You're not likely to find a pristine Soderfors that size for that little so I'd say that's about as good as you can expect. Nimba are top shelf anvils made in America from modern high quality steel and professionally heat treated. Pretty hard to beat. Frosty The Lucky.
  10. It doesn't come with fittings usable in the States? That doesn't sound like such a good recommendation to me. Have you called Devil Forge? You shouldn't have to go buy special components to use the thing. Frosty The Lucky.
  11. Black Sand Beach should be a good spot to extract magnetite. Thinking about it a little later it's not cyanide that turns so many mineral such pretty reds and oranges it's usually arsenic. Nope, the list so long the life so short is no mystery to us or our spousal units. Frosty The Lucky.
  12. I've been getting forbidden or I would've replied sooner. You're not getting it, calm down. Draw a circle on a piece of paper, draw a horizontal line through the center. The jet should NOT reach this line to start tuning. That is the starting gap. That is an illustration if you cut a mig tip to match a circle on a piece of paper rather than the air port on your burner I'm going to insist you wear a dunce cap and sit in a corner. Taking the mig tips out, putting different ones in, lighting them without the burner attached isn't going to do you any good at all. Just follow the steps, this isn't about randomly trying things till something "works". It's like doing algebra follow the steps and show your work. Frosty The Lucky.
  13. Welcome aboard, glad to have you. Aw, you're not in such desperate straits you have the #1 hard to find tool an anvil and a blower makes putting a forge together pretty darned easy. The rest are easy peasy, any smooth faced hammer under 2lbs. is a good place to start. I like starting folk out with a 32oz. Driller's hammer the handles a little short so it's easy to control while you're learning hammer control and it's not so heavy you're likely to injure yourself. A couple ball peins are good to pick up too, they're on my grab-em if the price is right list at garage, yard rummage, etc. sales. Cold chisels and punch kits are on the list too, they make excellent stock, you can put many right to work. Start practicing at the anvil with pieces of stock long enough you don't need tongs, say in the 24" range till you've developed the skills to make them, then go to town making tongs you'll want a bunch. PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) is important, eye protection a MUST, almost anything else you do to yourself will heal up. The traditional retirement notice for a blacksmith was losing the other eye. A couple pair of pliers, slip joints are good for holding punches chisels, etc. if you get short ones, the work is HOT even through a glove. Vise grips are good for same and SOME tong work. Diagonal side cutters and fencing pliers are good for cutting wire, etc. A couple Crescent wrenches will serve for twisting wrenches till you can forge em up. If you're going to wear glove I don't recommend it but wear one on my left hand because I use a gas forge and it blows HOT and fire out the doors when I'm fiddling with the work. Any if you wear gloves, especially leather gloves have a bucket of water handy so you can get it off quickly. See, if you get leather too hot it will shrink and trap your hand then cook it, If you dunk it in the bucket the water will cool the heat and soften the leather. Occasionally you might want to stick a foot in if a cut off or something HOT falls in your shoe/boot. I think that's pretty good as a basic kit. You have the good parts, the rest can be made. Frosty The Lucky.
  14. I've been forbidden out of this thread since the last time I replied. I'm trying to reply quickly with fingers crossed. Well said Alan you were much clearer than I. You can close down the exhaust openings more with commercial burners than homemade ones. Commercially manufactured burner tubes are tapered full length so they are stronger induction devices and much less susceptible to back pressure external breezes, etc. After a while a person can listen to the burner and forge while closing the openings and determine when they're adversely affecting the burner(s) with back pressure. It's like any tool they speak to us we just have to pay attention and learn the language. Frosty The Lucky.
  15. Next you're going to tell me the troll is asking about burners aren't you? D-R-A-T-S I bit again didn't I?!! Frosty The Lucky.
  16. Well I apologize sirah I shant waste your time with my coy insults. That they astonish you makes my point better than I could on my best day. As you wish.
  17. I kind of like the guard pattern in your Avatar. Truth is I don't really have a good mental image of any of them but couldn't let a good straight line lay. I can however see how the idea works and am getting crazy stupid intricate mental images of basket hilts made with high contrast pattern welded stock. Frosty The Lucky.
  18. Trying to reinvent the wheel is expensive. There are I don't know how many plans for working burners available. IF you look. If you're going to just dive in without knowing what you're doing how do you expect to understand anything we tell you? Seriously you've posted an excellent example if an idea without a plan. You don't know what questions to ask, don't know anything but that it doesn't work and show us pics that don't mean anything, yet expect us to tell you how to "fix" it? I refer you to Thomas's advice to buy a commercially manufactured forge, you have to know more than you do now to just buy burners. Frosty The Lucky.
  19. Check with the building supply most have a concrete contact paint for wood but you're not building a foundation for a house. I'd just put it to work, my untreated spruce block lasted some 20 years before it got bad enough to replace, the new steel stand can be a problem for the exchequer of my estate. Frosty The Forbidden.
  20. I'd recommend Gote's forbidden method. Of course in the course of learning the craft you could turn out things like key fobs, wall and J hooks, etc. etc. sell them for a few pennies and by time the stand needed replacing you could afford to. Frosty The Forbidden.
  21. Sure, stop on by I'll show you the ropes. Frosty Some Place.
  22. I'm being forbidden every time I try replying but in sort no, that setup won't work worth the trouble to get it to. Frosty The Forbidden!!
  23. That jet is WAY too close to the tube. To start tuning you want it about 1/2 way across the air intake, that's the GAP between jet and burner tube. Try cutting 1/2" off the one showing. Frosty The Lucky.
  24. Put a strong magnet in a plastic bag then run it over river sand or let it lay in the water on the bottom. Every once in a while remove the plastic bag over a bucket the black sand will drop off. Repeat till you have enough for a smelt. If you think you're in mercury "contaminated" material check by rubbing it gently on a clean copper sheet. Any mercury will amalgum with the copper and show as shiny silver stain. If you're collecting anything in California or heck any gold country streams there is mercury everywhere there is gold. Cinnabar is everywhere you find gold, silver, copper, etc. When Dad was prospecting and selling extraction machinery we used to see more $/ton. in mercury than gold, silver and copper together recovered from California screams and rivers. Especially the west side of the Sierras, lots of mercury naturally. The Basin and Range country on east is pretty mercury rich but not like the west side of the Sierras. Dad and I always carried a 1lb. bottle of mercury, a squeeze bottle of 25% nitric acid and a little dish soap. Dawn became THE dish soap when it came out. We always had our prospecting kit when we were fishing. Funny how trout like to rest in back eddies where food comes to them and gold settles out of the flow. Catch a trout, scoop a pan load and see what you get. You'd be amazed how 3 drops on mercury put in the pan to amalgamate with gold would turn into 10-15 drops of mercury. Yeah, we carried sample bottles, notebooks and maps so we could log our results. Both gold and trout. Just learn to check for mercury, I like the copper sheet especially vibrated though some guys would just stir the concentrates with a copper rod. No matter where you are or what method you use stay out of the exhaust from the smelt. Cinnabar also contains cyanide, lots in the really RED cinnabar. The colors: RED, orange, yellow, etc. aren't only a warnings on animals. Frosty The Lucky.
  25. What's the make of the forge? I have an old Johnson Appliance 122A forge out back. It's a gun feeding for nozzles in the chamber. The burner nozzles are rectangular on the flat. I've never converted it to propane let alone lit it, these forges are more inline for a production shop, not a hobbyist. They are serious gas hogs so a person better have enough production to justify one. Burner nozzle shape is less important with a gun (blown) burner. If you know the maker you can probably get the specs from the company, Johnson keeps it's manuals, parts lists and parts available online. Frosty The Lucky.
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