Frosty

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised at how many of the IFI gang live within visiting distance. Heck, if it turns out we're neighbors I'll be forced to tease you mercilessly. While we get your burners running like a Swiss watch that is. <grin> Using it without the flare won't hurt a thing and if it's the only way you can get it to burn properly then you should take it off. Ron liked using his burners outside the forge as heating torches so he puts high desirability on burning properly outside the forge. 7"x7"x12" is 588 cu/in and about 2x what a single 3/4" burner is actually good for, figure about 300 cu/in for a 3/4" EZ. Back pressure in a forge that shape can be an issue too. A second burner if paced well, will bring the majority of the forge up to welding heat. Frosty The Lucky.

That'd be a fine addition to my library. I'll have to keep an eye out. Till then the online edition will have to do. https://archive.org/details/elementaryforgepractice00harciala Frosty The Lucky.

While I'm not really a group think kind of guy I have to agree. Not that I think you'll be driven off by a complainer. I sure hope not if you stop posting I'll have to try picking up the slack and all of you know how quiet and shy I am! Every once in a while someone just has to give a person some kind of grief, maybe it's the only way they can think of to make some kind of difference. I get one now and then, happily most have been PMs and easy to ignore. Still, I sometimes am sorely tempted to tell them to put me on the ignore list or just not read my posts. Being type II diabetics our blood sugars can get low or worse running high and we get annoyed enough to reward such folk with some attention. I know my posts in this regard sound like Thomas'. Have an apple or take a walk Bro that'll do the trick. <wink> Frosty The Lucky. And often CRABBY!

Beautiful flowers, I think you're getting the hang of it. Frosty The Lucky.

Rob: where are you? You never know someone here may have just what you're looking for but don't know you're in the neighborhood. Failing luck and buying from the steel yard I suppose you could talk to the folk at a fab shop, the ones doing fences, railings and things like windmills often have drops too small for them to use but fine for us. Frosty The Lucky.

Kaolin clay (porcelain) is a high alumina ceramic and resistant to fluxes. Mixing it as a thin slip and just soaking the Kaowool or equivalent then letting it dry before firing will rigidize the stuffins out of the blanket. WE started mixing our own home brew high zirconium kiln wash, 70% zircopax and 30% kaolin clay. So far the home brew is working just fine in my forge. Frosty The Lucky

The tread coil moved around while heating. I guess that's not too surprising, there's a LOT of expansion going on in that length of stock. Maybe welding some long stock, say 3/8" sq. along the coil in three locations, 120 degrees apart. Then I'd tin the inside of the coil with braze, slip it hot over the shaft and start heating the whole unit till they sweat together and cool it all. My thinking is first to splint the coil to keep it from going snake dance while it's heating. Tinning it will prevent you from having to try brazing it like we did in shop class. that just takes too long and requires spot heating making the snake even squirmier. Slipping the coil over the shaft which isn't up to brazing heat but is clean, Clean CLEAN and fluxed. It needs to be a little cooler than the coil so there's clearance. The inside of the coil is already tinned, the shaft is clean and fluxed so all there is to do is gradually bring it all up to brazing temp and let them marry. Tinning before joining will allow you to use the female coil as a jig to keep the two matched. Brazing the female threads would be the same process in reverse. Tin the outside of the female coil, clean and flux the inside of the box. You MUST use something as a release agent on the outside of the male threads or take the chance of the braze sweating that far and making it all a big lump. Talk works as will soap stone. Rub it well and it shouldn't braze. Best of luck, we're pulling for you. Frosty The Lucky.

A friend on an E-mail list posted this to the list and I thought I'd share it with you guys. Don't worry there's plenty of iron and steel. Give it the full 10 minutes, it's worth it. https://www.youtube.com/embed/mdXTXWpIYgQ Frosty The Lucky.

Not a bad application. I can see snarling irons and such, I'd use steel bar rather than pipe but it'd be harder to make them interchangeable sizes. Not terribly hard but harder. Frosty The Lucky.

Jeff: You might contact the outfits in the interior who heat treat and see what it'd cost to bring one end of that shaft to a RC 58-60. As our admitted knuckle dragging donut hound says 4140 as from the mill is as soft as it can be. 4140 is an amazing alloy that can take horrific stress and pressure without work hardening to an embrittled state. If you own a recently made high powered rifle take a look at the breach and consider that thin looking steel takes pressures I think in the 200,000psi range. (The guys who actually know will correct me I hope) Still it's outrageously high pressure and it happens fast. Airframes are 4130 a lower carbon version of the same chromemolly alloy and if you've ever watched the wings of an airplane in flight you get an idea of the important properties of chrome molly steel. virtually any common steel subjected to the stress and flexing of an airframe would work harden become brittle and break and pretty quickly. What the chrome does I'm not sure but the mollebdenum is like rebar in concrete or straw in mud bricks. It has a long molecule and gives steel alloys a high flex rebound and doesn't work harden. More and it becomes air hardening steel like a chainsaw bar, it's not only really flex strong over heating it just makes it stronger. In the correct alloy and % that is. It's great stuff, I LOVE molly steel. The difference between 4130 and 4140 is 0.1% carbon, bringing 4140 into the carbon range where it can be hardened appreciably. The molly % isn't high enough it's an air hardening alloy though. Heat treating a piece that thick isn't something a beginner is going to do well in a home shop. Heck, there are threads here about hardening 4140 and the pitfalls involved. If yo can have it done professionally for reasonable that's what I'd do. Once heat treated it'll make a superb anvil. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Lee, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header we'll stop bugging you. While being a neighbor of Mark's is handy dandy it's not quite where you are. Then again, it's not a rule it just makes getting together with folk easier though I suppose Mark can or has filled you in on that. You a lucky dog! Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Danny 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. We call those ASOs Anvil Shaped Objects. They're not worth much as an anvil and worth scrap price, as Thomas said about $0.25/lb. Don't buy it, not even as a garden decoration. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Don, 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. If you like learning you've hit the jackpot the craft is a life long learning curve. Frosty The Lucky.

Heat turns coal into coke by driving off the volatiles leaving relatively pure carbon. It's the same process as charcoaling wood and it's called "pyrolization." Frosty The Lucky.

I'm lighting a torch so I can find my pitchfork! Now just you relax and hang around Quint. I believe the London pattern developed with the armor makers but it's just what I've heard. Just because I CAN forge on any suitably hard ad heavy object doesn't mean I do it often. and Yeah I have three, the two I use and one Dad said was off a family farm. Frosty The Lucky.

Wow you guys type fast! I just now tuned in to this thread, maybe I just missed it? Beautiful handles Tristan. I'm thinking they're marketable. A 100lb. Kohlswa would be sweet. You've used my Soderfors, they're very similar in quality. Give the baby a hug for me please. Frosty The Lucky.

GREAT Score! Now to find a square shear and box and pan break for similar. I get shivery just thinking about it. Frosty The Lucky.

I'm getting to be a huge fan of yours. I'm thinking we could start a cheering section. Frosty The Lucky.

Yes, you can use it to run machinery in the shop, especially if you don't have electricity available. thing is 18 hp is a lot for any single piece of equipment a single man shop is likely to need. For instance my 50lb. Little Giant power hammer runs fine on a 1/2 hp electric motor. It'd probably like 1hp better but even then 1 hp gas motors aren't so common. Back when I was designing my own self contained power hammer I was thinking a 5hp gas engine would be just the right amount of too much power. 18 hp is enough power to drive a shaft down the center of your shop and power a number of machines simultaneously from belts dropping from the line shaft. I think 3-5hp. would power most anything I'd need, from the power hammer to a hydraulic forging press and forge rolls, the lathe a mill and various other shop equipment. I'm not going to be running more than one at a time after all, well except a cutoff band saw. The power cutoff saw is the ONLY power tool I'll set, start and walk away from. Even if there's a catastrophic failure the worst that can happen is break the band, that's a $18.00 failure and nobody can get hurt. Nothing else that will move or work steel gets to run on it's own. Even if I had a Nazel 3B or the equivalent self contained power hammer, a 5hp gas engine would be plenty of power. However, I do sometimes run my shop tools on a 13 hp Onan gas engine but that's my welder generator and it's a true multi-tasker. It's a multi process welder and will provide 100 amps of 120v or 220v single phase ac. It's really the only practical way I can think of to run my shop off a gas engine. We built the house with it and it's back up power if MEA power's going to be down long. I suggest getting a generator to run your shop till you get power run. You can get welder generators for not too unreasonable and you probably don't need something like the one I have it's more at home on a welder's truck than a home shop. Some years ago I gave a friend a hand welding the foundation girders to the piles and the frame for his hangar. We used a 5k Honda welder generator, it was a SWEET piece of equipment and probably plenty for what you want to do. That's my two bits worth. Frosty The Lucky.

That's a darned nice anvil, excellent rebound and great depth under the anvil, it's basically ALL sweet spot. You and your friends sure put a lot of work into the horn and it looks darned nice. About the only suggestion I have is maybe putting a radius on the edge so you can shoulder work without making cold shuts. The whole edge doesn't need a radius but some sure does. Well done. . . whatever your name is. All round fine job, that baby will serve you and yours for generations. Frosty The Lucky.

HEY! Enough of this nonsense, you're supposed to be healing up. Charles is right dialysis will deplete you're system, you might ask the doc if there are particular things you're going to need. Do you know the prognosis? I'll be praying this isn't going to turn into a lifetime practice. You might want to cut your girlfriend a little slack, stress can really make us do and say things we normally wouldn't. Your Mom's having to deal with the stress too so it might not be all one sided. Just give it some thought, your girlfriend may well deserve another go. Heck, ask your Mom, see what she thinks. A guy can't have too may people who love him you know. Get well Bro, we're pulling for you. Frosty The Lucky.

You don't need a pritchel hole if you use a bolster plate which is a piece of plate with different size holes drilled in it to support the work while you punch it. A hardy hole is handy but you can either use a post vise to hold it (already mentioned) or make bottom tools that will lay on the anvil face. You can use a hot cut instead of a hardy a cutting plate or saddle is all that requires. The only bottom tool properly called a hardy is a hot or cold cut off chisel bottom tool. Okay maybe a bottom butcher is a hardy, I don't know that one but I'll happily make up something plausible if you wish. At any rate, there are a number of perfectly good ways to hold bottom tools without needig a hardy hole. Frosty The Lucky.

Tristan: I'll be bringing the Patterson flux to the meeting at Jim's for everyone to try. Bring some of that spring and we'll give it a shot. On the other hand if we get a warmish weekend you could come out. Sean'll be out next Saturday temperature permitting. Frosty The Lucky.

I like Johnson's paste wax almost as much as I like Treewax. Treewax is carnuba and is the stuff they armor bowling alleys with. Either goes on warm iron much better than room temp, a little heating with a heat gun or blow drier will do it. Either dries hard and doesn't rub off unless you really work at it and it'll polish nicely before you can get any off. I have a mix of paraffin wax, turps and Neatsfoot oil that goes on well, hardens up well and is long lasting. I have the same mix using bees wax instead of paraffin and the finish is a little softer but nice. Frosty The Lucky.

When I erected my 30'x40' red iron steel shop it was getting crowded before it was weathered in. Build it as large as you can, build it easily expandable. Shed roofs can easily turn into peaked roofs twice the size and going longer is as easy as adding more trusses. GOOD ventilation, electrical outlets, the more the merrier and put them on several circuits and light, lots of light. Sure the common preference is for dim light so you can judge temperature so put the lights on several circuits so you can turn some off. It's easy to turn a few lights off if you don't need them but you can NOT turn lights on if they're not there and you need the light. As you get older you need more light and experience will teach you to judge heat under different conditions. Floor anchors are good, real good, I've described my gozintas enough times I won't be boring you with another repeat. It's just so very handy to have a grid on 4' centers of 2" sq. receiver tubing cast in the cement floor. My Little Giant stays put even though it rocks back and forth like normal. It's anchored to a gozinta and just rocks a little. Sweet. How you going to heat it? The best time to think about it is when you're building. Windows are nice too, natural light and extra ventilation. I sure wish I had windows in my shop but I didn't pay the extra and. . . <sigh> I've rambled enough, much more and I'll be designing another shop, like I need another shop. Frosty The Lucky.