Frosty

The pipe 90 you're using to hold the jet is seriously restricting the air intake, that's why you have to crank it so high to get what you do. Replace the 90's with a smaller dia nipple that goes all the way across and drill it for the gas jet. That's how Ron makes his and it works. At 720 cu/in you'll be able to get away with two 3/4" burners but it's a little much volume but close enough. Two 1" burners is a LOT of burner and will probably start melting the refractory. Those three "T" burners aught to be a goodly dollop of too much burner. Of course my philosophy is, it's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. If the forge is too hot, turn it down, that's a problem everybody should have. Frosty The Lucky.

Beautiful finish to an ambitious project. Well done sir! Thanks for sharing, it's a very nice online process piece. I'll bet it'd make a good article for your local smithing club. No? What next? I'll be waiting with bated breath. Frosty The Lucky.

Yes, a vise will work as a press but with some strict limitations. It's SLOW so it'll only do things that don't have to move far or can be done cold. A good friend of mine in Fla. forge welds with a vise and it works a treat. Frosty The Lucky.

Excellent Greg, we're on the way. Once again I find myself with a little regret for living so far from the main stream, I'd just LOVE to make meets at other clubs. If you ever get up this way let us know and we'll fete you. Same goes for anybody. Frosty The Lucky.

I watched season 1 but haven't been keeping track of season 2. The smithing caught my eye but I was a little disappointed that there wasn't a lot more. <sigh> I'm not a vikingOphile so I'm not up on hardware, weapons, etc. Still it looks pretty good as far as authenticity goes. Of course that's just me, YMMV. Oh yeah, I agree, it's a good hour's watching. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard, glad to have you If you put your general location in the header you might be surprised at how many of the IFI gang live within visiting distance. That and some questions have regional specifics we just can't take ito account without knowing where you are. If your necking die isn't working cold try marking it with a black Sharpy (black felt marker) heat it with a soft flame till the marks turn clear and or go away, then quickly swage it in the dies. That's what I'd try. However I doubt I'd take a commission like this, too many shops around that do this every day. The guys who run electrical conduit have swages and presses for doing exactly this. Larger diameter and I'd refer it to a muffler shop. That's just me though. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. Just out of curiosity: was your question an attempt to bait Thomas? There's nothing specific about it, just a few very non-specific questions. If you just don't express yourself well, you'll find us mostly pretty tolerant. I have dirt, light and water, where can I get seeds and what should I grow? So, tell me, how would YOU take it if a stranger introduced himself with a question like that? Myself, I'm inclined to answer in kind, eg. At the steel store, make what you want. On a more serious note, you're set up in a welding shop, pay the owner scrap prices to use his drops or just ask where they buy steel and buy some. What's your skill level? Are you at a point where you're still developing basic eye hand skills? Make nails and work your way up to key fobs, leaf wall hooks, etc. Don't sweat the terminology too much, nobody worth listening to is going to mock or give you grief for not knowing the name of things or what a process is called. Just don't get testy if we ask a question about your question. We're getting pretty good at translating blacksmith's jargon from many countries into new guy speak. Don't sweat it, we'll deal. Lastly, if you're just a smart alec get used to being ignored and maybe moderated or even banned. Frosty The Lucky.

Hey Sean! Good to see you back on IFI. I don't remember if we discussed the next meeting's subject. I do know Jim is a pretty accomplished smith and I'm hoping he has a plan. If not, I figure we'll just make a mess in his shop and beat some hot steel. Frosty The Lucky.

1/2" NA burners are pretty common, one of the three I have the jet size up front in memory. I don't know much about molecular physics, how the things interact other than the very basics. How small a burner can be would be a matter of experimentation for me. Heck, I don't even know how small a mig contact tip I can get so I can't even guess. Of course using a mig tip for the jet is as much a matter of convenience and any superior performance attributes. Well, that's why I started using them, Mike Porter on the other hand says the long smooth mig tip makes a more laminar flow of propane and so better induction. sounds good to me but I can't say of my own education or research. What I do know is they work better than a hole drilled in a piece of pipe. Commercially NA burners can be pretty small, under 3/8" but they're more refined with tapered tubes from the jet to the outlet. Whoever wants to start experimenting, please post the specs, results, pics, etc. I'll be watching avidly. Frosty The Lucky.

I hope you can make a few contacts. I don't know if any of the guys in south Central use coal, I do know some guys have used beach coal from around Homer but I don't know how well it works. Even with a superb coal exposure less than 50 miles from here I use propane. I wish I could give you a rundown on how to judge your coal but I'd just have to do it and show you. Hopefully someone on IFI can describe the process and what to look for. Have you tried charcoal? It burns clean and hot, is easy enough to make and can be had most anywhere. Frosty The Lucky.

Nice job, how's it work? Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Greg, glad to have you. If you put your general location in the header you might be surprised at how many of the IFI gang live within visiting distance. The Rex burners are made by Rex Price, not Ron Reil and are different types of burners. The inside dimensions of your forge put it right at 221 cu/in volume and ONE 3/4" Rex is more than enough to bring that volume to welding, heck melt steel heat. To burners are making way too much back pressure so it's huffing and seeing as they are NOT actually burning they're blowing cold air. Turn one off and close the choke so it doesn't act as a chimney and get cooked. That forge chamber is a shape that isn't going to want to heat evenly, it's long and narrow so the volume under the burner will be the hottest and cooler the farther away it gets. If you actually need even heat you'll want to make two 1/2" burners and use them in the existing burner ports. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Sean, glad to have you. Have you been reading the sections? Almost any questions you have are probably answered there and more than once. At the bottom of the home page are the regional organizations, if you hook up with the one closest to you, you'll find you'll learn more in a day with an experienced smith than weeks of trying to teach yourself. Frosty The Lucky.

I've made rope dies after Mark, the Metalmangler showed me how and it's pretty simple. First I made a flat spring die, then used round stock bent double to forge the rope die into it. For 3/4" rope use 3/8" round bent double. 1/2" rope is made with 1/4" round bent double, etc. OR you can simply forge the bent master into each half of the spring die THEN match them up, weld on the spring and finish them. Final finish by easing all the corners and edges so they don't make cold shuts. This die forges the square stock on all faces and corners with a result looking just like 4 round sections touching/connected longitudinally. I think stock driven into a die with square sections may want to jam. However as the die warms and the stock cools it may just drop out. . . Maybe <grin> The short answer though is, yeah I'm you can make a die like that work, it just may take some tweaking. Frosty The Lucky.

Put up some pics of what you have and the dimensions of the inside of your forge. We'll get you up and running in no time. It's almost impossible to give specific answers to vague questions. A 10gl. tank is just the shell, the volume and dimensions that count are the fire chamber. fire brick refractory has it's problems too, they have a pretty high specific heat and a LOT of mass so it requires quite a bit of fuel and time to get up to heat. That said however once up to heat the recovery time when you put a cold piece of steel in will be very good. The flame doesn't really heat the work, it heats the inside of the forge which then transfers heat via radiation to the stock. So, the higher the specific heat and thermal mass the liner has the faster it can heat the stock. Unfortunately the higher the specific heat and higher the mass the fore fuel it takes to get the liner hot. It's also a poorer insulator so you lose more heat out through the liner and shell. Anyway, post some pics and specifics of the forge and we'll get you going. Frosty The Lucky.

Door knocker was the first thing came to my mind too. Folding door handles is a good idea as would be folding lift handles like on a tool box, trunk or tack box. Wind chimes could be popular too. Frosty The Lucky.

I've never met a smith or group of blacksmiths I didn't like. Early on I did meet a couple guys who didn't even want me looking at things they had on sale, they didn't want me to steal their secrets. Those however, have been a scant minority, very few and I think guys who weren't good enough at the craft to feel secure. Hard to tell but I did take a look at the products and just because made versions. And that, I think is my story, I've never watched someone forge or looked at forged work and not learned something. I don't know what it is but I enjoy few things about the craft like showing folk what I know. Seems I'm not the only one likes to show what they know either. Frosty The Lucky.

I like them. Great use for salvaged fasteners, the steel really brings out the brass and copper. Triple ditto on the Steampunk crowd as customers. Frosty The Lucky.

After taking a look at the follow up pics it'd be a pure shame to scrap that gun. It appears to be repairable if not, trade with Ric! Frosty The Lucky.

On the list here. Frosty The Lucky.

Search, "hold fast", "helpers" and "tong keepers". Drats, that last doesn't sound right but I'm drawing a blank. Keepers slip over the tong reigns and slip towards the ends to keep pressure on the work, they're usually flattened ovals or "C" clips. Then there are spring swages, bottom tools and guillotine tools. All do the work of another person at the anvil. Frosty The Lucky.

A good synthetic hydraulic fluid like DN-600 will stay fluid below -80f, the temp of dry ice and is far less flammable than acetone. I don't know if you can still get DN-600 but there are better extreme low temp fluids available. Frosty The Lucky.

What is the meaning of life the universe and everything? "Hitchhikers Guide To the Universe." Frosty The Lucky.

Bryan: Make sure Usibelli doesn't sell you sub-bituminous coal. So far I haven't heard anything good about it for smithing. I'll keep my fingers crossed. Frosty The Lucky.

Tin knockers and silver smiths use a similar forming hammer though smaller, I don't recall the name but I have a couple. this one's a mason's hammer but that's no reason not to dress the peins for forging. One of my favorite straight pein hammers was a mason's hammer now it's my straight pein. Frosty The Lucky.