Frosty

The station owner with the wrecker kept telling me not to carry gas on the truck! Thank you for reminding me of just what a crummy wrecker drive I was. He insisted there should NEVER be gas on the wrecker or service truck unless called specifically for gas so we could put the expensive gas in the cans. I used to have customers stop by and give me some darned nice Christmas gifts though. Funny those same customers followed me to the new station when I got fired. Frosty The Lucky.

That's a clamshell forge, the name's already assigned. Well, on second thought that's if you're going to hinge the halves together to open and close. Frosty The Lucky.

We weren't trying to make anybody feel dumb some things are easy to overlook and easy to correct. When I was called out on a wrecker call to retrieve a vehicle that "broke down" or wouldn't start it was routine to ask if it had gas. The gas gauge was the FIRST thing we checked and always had a couple 5 gl. cans on the truck. More often than not they were out of gas. It happens to everybody, you should've seen the look on my face when the shop mechanic flipped the fuel switch to the tank that was full. Frosty The Lucky.

Ian's retort is elegantly simple hopefully he'll get back to his lap top soon and post. The system I used the one time I helped build an indirect method retort was as simple as I could make it. yeah, I'm a BAD engineer, I know. It was a 55gl drum with a clamp on lid I replaced the rubber gasket with stove rope, probably over kill. We laid it on it's side in a piece of pipe that was about 6" bigger around. We kept it on the bottom by laying pieces of rebar (it was at hand) across the pipe under the drum with the 2" bung at the bottom. We screwed a 2" street elbow into the bung, a nipple that cleared the side by maybe an inch I don't recall, an elbow and another nipple a few inches long. This was aimed back under the center of the drum. The back of the pipe was blocked completely with sheet steel and dirt. The front was blocked by sheet steel with a little gap on top and a draft hole directly in front of the 2" pipe burner. The inside of the drum was packed with alder and willow in the 2" dia. range left in the round so gasses can circulate. We packed the space around the drum with the branches and twigs from the alders and willows we filled the drum with. Well we pout a couple pieces of pallet wood in too but I don't think it mattered. We lit it off with a little charcoal lighter fluid a LITTLE like a 1/2 second squirt and a match. It smoked till the brush got rolling and then it settled down to a nice burn. WE could tell pyrolization had begun when we started seeing white vapor (steam) coming out the smoke hole. The wood gas was burning and when it stopped a couple hours later we blocked off the draft hole and smoke hole and let it cool. It doesn't really matter what you use to contain the drum so long as it won't burn or be damaged by the fire. Wood gas burns HOT so cinder blocks are a bad choice. Digging a hole for the drum and covering it with a piece so sheet steel is a good choice. Frosty The Lucky.

Good point copper is softer so it conforms and makes better physical contact for better electrical contact. I think you're right. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Eric 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. Telling us in one post isn't going to stick in our heads after we open another one. That 5' shaft will make a sweet anvil, lots of bladesmiths are using shaft anvils. A horn is over rated for most smithing. There is a large blade section here, lots of reading worth reading. Same for blacksmithing, forges, trouble shooting, etc. Lots of top shelf info available for the looking. Frosty The Lucky.

The ones who'd make up a story about a hot flying hardy to cover for them ironing and talking on the phone at the same time? Frosty The Lucky.

That's a fair dinkum spoon. Looks about right for ice tea or flux, of course that's just me. Don't stare into the fire, keep an eye on your steels and the fuel but do NOT stare into it. It can cause IR cataracts. Glenn's warning is too true pupils are open wide so more IR is doing it's thing. Also looking at the flame will really throw your night vision off and you may trip. Forging in dim light is good, dark not so. Frosty The Lucky.

Make the local CBA meetings as well, it'll put you in touch with tools, materials and more blacksmiths. They do demos and depending on group have open forges so you can take a slash at the day's demo. My parent's last Cal. house was on Lake Davis in Plumas County, you could see the big tree near the house from Portola. We used to watch the lightning storms scouring the top of Mt. Beckworth from the living room. Nice country. Frosty The Lucky.

Oh come on, you just answered the phone while ironing! Try a different leg. Frosty The Lucky.

I'm not a teenager and can make a reasonable guess? Please feel free to disprove my guess, I'll look forward to your results. No pics necessary thank you. Frosty The Lucky.

Okay, don't think I"m making fun of you, I've done this too many times to count. Was it grounded? Was ground clamp on clean steel? Sometimes laying a piece of work on a grounded steel table isn't good enough. I've taken to grounding the work directly whenever possible. Frosty The Lucky.

Nope not that one. Frosty The Lucky.

Nothing's a step up in manliness mounting handles that Gorilla Glue if you hold it in your hand while the excess flows out. Hold it in your lap and you'll WISH it was wax. Frosty The Lucky.

My only suggestions are: Get a better, preferably non flammable table to set the fire pot in. Then hit the truck parts store and buy an exhaust flap cap that'll slip over the bottom part of the tuyere. Trying to dump the ash by unscrewing the cap is more PITA than it's worth. Frosty The Lucky.

You're a strange guy Ian but here's mine. Frosty The Lucky's Cell.

Actually hardening with sugar is an illusion, your pants are just getting tighter your legs aren't getting harder. I don't know why you couldn't case harden with sugar though don't know why you'd want to. Sugar has a lot of extra junk in it that wouldn't be so good in steel. It might not even be a true case, it could be a layer of contaminated steel say the sulfur. Why not just buy a commercial product? Yes you can get HRC files and they're more accurate than punches without special equipment. Oh I just noticed this in the knife section, I don't think case hardening is useful for knives or what's going to happen when you sharpen it? Heck, the edge would just roll anyway. Frosty The Lucky.

Geeze sidetracked again. Beautiful bottle opener Froggy! I believe you needs you a moniker to reflect bottle opener mastery. How about "Captain Church Key?" Frosty The Lucky.

Looks good. Glad you made the decision it was Good ENOUGH before messing up beyond recovery trying to get it perfect. Lots of projects have been FUBARed by trying to get them just right or perfect. Been there have the scrap pile to prove it. 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. So what didn't work stick welding the billet together? You couldn't get a handle bar stuck to it either? How much arc welding experience do you have? Seriously, arc welding a billet together for the forge is, for the most part a non issue, it doesn't even have to be a decent weld let alone good. Frosty The Lucky.

You didn't think I won the Birch tree death match with charm did you? Up till not long after that pic was taken I used to get accosted by giggling young ladies pretty often and occasionally young boys wanting lessons, autographs, etc. It was fun to go ahead and sign an autograph for the looks on their faces when they saw my name on the . . . whatever. It hasn't happened since I started buzzing my hair, first for a friend with brain cancer and now because I'm too lazy to comb it. I actually met Mr. Norris and Bruce Lee once but I was like 18 and there wasn't any resemblance except hair color. They came by the Dojo and were introduced all round. Turned out they were looking for extras for a movie that didn't float. Frosty The Lucky.

You got THAT for $500!!! Holy Moly what a DEAL! I wouldn't do a thing but put that fine old lady to work, there's nothing but cosmetic dings, nothing that'll effect your work. Now if you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the IFI gang live within visiting distance. You WOULD like to get together with experienced smiths and flatten the old learning curve wouldn't you? A day with an experienced smith is worth weeks maybe months of trying to figure it out yourself. I'll bet there are guys not far away who'd be happy to show you what you can do on that fine old lady. Frosty The Lucky.

The burn looks off center because the opener didn't land straight down, it hit and slid a little before laying flat. It wasn't the result of you jerking your arm or the pattern would be a little different, more smudged and the tendency is to jerk straight away from HOT. Keep aloe vera jell in the shop or for serious burns Silvadine ointment. You really don't have to ask me how I know these things do you? Carnuba just makes the work look wet and a little shiny it's famous for not yellowing or darkening with age. Frosty The Lucky.

Charcoal likes a side blast better than a bottom blast. Check out some of Charles posts on the subject he has it down pretty pat. A lot of the TMI about all the different forge designs, especially adapting brake parts, drums, rotors, etc. are by guys trying to figure them out. They find something that can be MADE to work or they THINK will work so they post it. Winnowing the wheat from the chaff is probably one of the hardest things to learn using a forum for research. Seriously, you can make a perfectly usable forge with a blow drier a short length of pipe and a wood fire. You don't really need the blow drier or piece of pipe but they really make it easy. The pic below is me straightening a log tong I bent. The yellow thing in the left back is a Coleman Inflate all, 12v blower for inflating rafts mattresses, providing air to a smith in the forest, etc. There's a piece of pipe to a wood fire. There isn't miuch smoke because it's mostly coals. And Yes, I'm using a log for the anvil but I brought my real kit out shortly afterwards. Frosty The Lucky.

I got 12 tpi hack saw blades at the local hardware store, Sandvics as I recall. the rule of thumb is 3 teeth on the cut at all times and it's really HARD to find blades coarse enough to be efficient. The 3 tooth rule is of limited use for a hand saw we're just not physically strong enough to push say a 3tpi blade through 1" steel. The problem is folk think finer is better but it's just not true.Too fine is worse than too coarse, the cuttings can't be carried out of the cut and roll up between the teeth, bind gall and you're done. If it happens in your band saw or power hack saw you may not be able to get the blade out at all. If the blade is too coarse just turn the feed rate down to a crawl, you can hear when it's cutting right or hogging too hard. You gotta listen to what your tools tell you. The best I've found for my horizontal vertical band saw are 12-14 tpi variable blades. I still have the pack of 12 tpi hack saw blades I bought I don't know how long ago. I have a band saw so don't use my hand saw as much as I used to. Frosty The Lucky.