Frosty

You are all on the prayer list here. May God bless. Frosty The Lucky.

Josh: It's CO, Carbon Monoxide that's the real killer. CO2 is a combustion byproduct too and can be dangerous but it's the CO that'll kill you without warning. CO and smoke detectors are a MUST. Frosty The Lucky.

Picture an unwelded socket but instead of one non-lapping space, there are two gaps and socket halves with matching rivet/bolt holes. The handle slips between the halves of the socket and you drill it for the bolts/rivets. I figure two through rivets/bolts and it'll be as secure as you'll need. I know this type of socket has a correct name but it's lost in my scrambled brain filing system. <sigh> Frosty The Lucky.

You're right on one account Yahoo, NOTHING is always right. Argon will stop oxidization by displacing oxy in the atmosphere but it won't undo it unless you provide carbon to reduce it. Frosty The Lucky.

Thats a fine looking knife. I look forward to see more as you develop in the skills sets. Well done all round. Frosty The Lucky.

Nice contrast in the layers, what are the steels? Nice handle too. Nice blade all round. Frosty The Lucky.

Not enough info to give you any specific info but for bare basic I'd probably start in the $100/ft range for bare basic railing or fence and go up from there. Gates in the $200/ft and up range. That's just low ball blue sky talk though, there are too many variables involved for anything else at this point. Frosty The Lucky.

Looks good to me. Frosty The Lucky.

Oh yeah, that'll make a fine bench anvil Bryan, good score Bro. Frosty The Lucky.

Forge an anvil bic or we'll do it next time we get together Bryan. I've never heard any thing bad about a Rhino anvil here or elsewhere. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Bear guy, glad to have you. Free for the gas and you're not posting from the road? If not, get thy hiney moving! That old lady will do you good service and make you enough to buy one in less distress. A smooth boulder will serve as an anvil and make you the money to buy tools and equipment. That one's a winner. You betcha. Now go get it or we'll tell mocking and disparaging jokes about you! (well, not really but we WILL give you crap) Frosty The Lucky.

I don't know of anyone who's used an aluminum keg or pony for a forge but there are guys who have used the steel and SS kegs and ponies. I'd think twice about using the AL one unless someone gave me one. The problem I see with an AL shell isn't so much worry about melting it as it's high conductivity. I'm kind of a selfish guy I paid for the propane and want to keep as much heat in the forge as I can and AL just doesn't fit that model. I know I've said this before but I'll say it again. I really like single wall stainless steel stove pipe. You can get it in a large range of diameters and lengths and a person can get creative with the diameter by snapping different diameter sections together for the odd sizes. Common diameters start at 4" for clothes dryers and work their way up by increments, 5" is available, 6" is really common, then 8," 10" and 12" are common sizes. they all run in lengths by 24" increments. A good pair of aviation snips will make the length you need. If you want say 11" dia. put a length of 5" and 6" together. Easy peasy, pick a diameter and make it. You don't need special tools: a hand drill, bits and a hole saw does most of it tin snips and a pop rivet gun, tape measure, steel rule, red marking pencil and a center punch pretty much completes the tool kit. Legs are easy and off the shelf but the industry calls them wall brackets and they come in all the common sizes. drill a couple holes and pip rivet them on. It's a done deal and good for a lot of weight, easy peasy. SS stove pipe is more expensive than a salvaged freon or propane tank but it's light, easy to work with NO torch or welding at all and Stainless is a lot more IR reflective than steel let alone aluminum. The only hassle might, MIGHT be making the burner brackets but what the hey use those trimmings from a length or get creative with wall hanger brackets. Thems my two bits and I'm sticking by them. Yeah, I've built a number of gas forges, my old original 10.5" diameter 12" long steel pipe forge sits sort of in the way and I haven't used it in a while but it's there if I need it. You certainly don't think I'm throwing it away do you? <gasp of shock!> The ones I've made with hardware cloth and kaowool have been reabsorbed and reused as have the bean and coffee can forges. Hardware cloth and tin cans are all over the place. If they're too much in the way put them in a plastic garbage bag on a shelf stack them where you aren't going to trip on them or take them apart and reuse the refractory. The Kaowool or equivalent is the expensive part. ITC-100 has become the REALLY expensive part but there are economical and home brew alternatives available listed here. Frosty The Lucky.

Eric has a good point, using the stove pipe or similar to direct the dragon's breath and exhaust gasses away from the burner works well. It's how I do it on my forge, I only have two pieces of split brick sticking out over the opening to deflect the flame from going straight up. It works well in most situations, Ionly dig out the wind screen when it's breezy. Yellow flame means rich and blue means anything from neutral (stoichiometric) to lean. It takes time and experience to tell what a blue flame is telling you. Just remember orange and yellow are rich, not enough oxy. to consume all the fuel. A LITTLE rich is better than a little lean, a lean fire will oxidize the steel in the fire. Hot steel will always oxidize in open air. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. If you put your general location in the header you'll get to meet the locals a lot sooner. There's a regular poster here lives in the Moapa Valley though I can't remember his name, the web handle is Bigguns I believe. Oh yeah, get your son signed up here soonest, we LOVE helping folk develop this addiction. <grin> Frosty The Lucky.

I'm not clear on the idea Wayne. Do you mean have the burner mounted on the forge horizontally or put the "T" on the tube by one leg? As in a "Sidearm"? I've thought about mounting my burners horizontally but just haven't tried it. We did mount a 1" "T" in a Whisper Momma through the end and it worked really well it didn't have end doors. I think a horizontal mount may be a good way to avoid the exhaust plume and sure worth giving it a try. I just don't see it doing much for breezes though. Frosty The Lucky.

Broomhead: I put 0.035" mig tips in 3/4" burners and 0.045" mig tips in 1" burners. However one of the guys here is getting good results with 0.045" mig tips in his 3/4" burners so use what works. There IS a lot of dragons breath coming out of your forge but it's blue and she looks hot. I'm not sure what to say about that. 8" nipples are about right for 1" burners and a bit much for 3/4" burners. EG. 8 - 9 x 3/4" = 6" - 6.75". You're a whole lot closer to right on the money with a 6" nipple. I can see I made the basic ratio rules of thumb too confusing, a little arithmetic and you can make any size burner following them. Put your gauge at the tank, it'll live a LOT longer. they have rubber diaphrams in them that don't like heat. I'll be giving your stove pipe breeze shield a try, it's so much better than the lash up I did. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Elefanten, 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. Town/city and country are generally plenty close enough. I'm not much help with the mild steel but the guys have you pretty well covered. It's what we do, we help each other. Even if it's just a good laugh sometimes. <grin> Frosty The Lucky.

Pipe won't make a good hold fast even if you can bend it smoothly. Tire irons are really cheap at garage/yard sales and most spring shops just haul old springs to the scrap yard. Visit with a box of donuts and you probably won't ever pay for an old spring. Make it so the shank protrudes all the way through the anvil, sometimes the easiest way to release it will be with a tap from the bottom though in almost all situations a tap on the back works just fine. Be sure to get steel that fits the pritchel hole with a little space, most hold fasts aren't used in the hardy though there are situations. I have a couple hold fasts for the hardy if I'm doing something that requires a really hard, solid hold on the work but I rarely use one. Another way to bend pipe without kinking it is to slide a piece of cable through it, position the pipe on the form and pull till it's where you want it. If you don't have a winch and a couple snatch blocks a pickup truck will to the trick but you have to have a helper. Making pipe hot enough to hand bend is deep enough in the danger zone a person is probably better off just buying one. You just ain't lived till you've seen a glob of boiling water hit the ceiling hard enough to break a fire/explosion light fixture. That was a worst case situation in High school but it was awesomely frightening and amazingly nobody got burned. Be safe, there just aren't enough blacksmiths out there to be flash boiling them Frosty The Lucky.

Seems a lot of sink holes are opening up recently or are they just getting more air time? Frosty The Lucky.

What happens at crystal boundaries has to do with how force is conducted, (transmitted?) Any disruption in the smooth or uniform structure, be it molecular or structural focuses the force. A good live example is to have someone stand on an aluminum can on end. The person has to apply the pressure of his/er weight evenly on the can and step up slowly. I figure under 150lbs is plenty. Anyway with the person standing on it the can supports him/er just fine. Now take a sharp pencil and touch the side of the can, about as hard as you'd press to write and the can will collapse flat. The tiny flex/dent is a stress riser and all the weight is conducted to that point and far exceeds the structural strength of the can and it collapses. This is also exactly how they implode large buildings and why in spite of Movies a sky scraper can NOT fall over, once it starts to go it will go straight down. Maybe more messy than a designed demolition but it can't tip over. Back to steel and grain growth, (crystal growth) Steel is a mechanical structure on a molecular level and any defects in a uniformly smooth material provides stress risers, just like a forged square inside corner or nick. The larger the crystals the larger the risers and the more likely one will become a failure initiation point and that's it. The smaller the crystal structure the more flexible it can be so stresses can be carried around or the steel can just yield. The less carbon in steel the less it can crystallize, (harden) the less it'll work harden and the easier it can yield. When flexion exceeds an alloy's rebound strength it starts to yield even though it may return to it's initial shape. What happens internally is the molecules are moved and not just flexed but physically slid around, making them find new arrangements with each other The easiest (lowest energy) way for iron/carbon molecules to arrange themselves is on their valence bond sites and they arrange themselves in orderly sets. Crystals. Crystals have stronger bonds to other crystals and these are the boundary sites and are far less flexible; brittle. Geeze I got windy on that one. <sigh> Frosty The Lucky.

Where do you get Ferric chloride in quantity? Last time I looked the hazmat requirements made it hard to find more than a few ounces at Radioshack. Frosty The Lucky.

Burning is oxidizing but fast, rusting is the same process including producing heat. Burning is just faster and a lot hotter. Yes, both iron and carbon burn. When you see a spark shower that's generally mostly iron but the decarburizing the bladesmith guys are always talking about is the carbon burning out of the surface of the steel. No, things can't burn in an inert atmosphere. I probably should've let one of the blade guys answer but I'm feeling impulsive. <wink> Frosty The Lucky.

Mark: Rereading I realized I hadn't answered your question about etchant. I'm not sure, I have hydrochloric acid on hand and that's my probably choice right now. I'd like to try ferric chloride but buying it is pretty pricy. However I may try making up a batch, I'll be asking a chemist friend for the details and safety precautions. I suppose I could use vinegar but it's pretty slow, so it's on the list but down a ways. What are you using? Frosty The Lucky.

The flux is Patterson #1. The label says it's for brazing, silver soldering, welding: cast iron, brass, bronze, etc. I looked up the MSDS online; it won't tell you the formula, the intent is to tell people what's in a product so proper precautions can be taken and proper 1st. aid and medical attention can be rendered. The MSDS does tell a person what's in it and this one said the #1 is anhydrous borax and boric acid. I don't recall if it was the #1 or #2 that also had iron powder. Whatever's in it it worked with deliberately really poor prep. I'll be bringing my can to the meeting at Jim's so folk can try it out. Frosty The Lucky.

It's how I ended up president you know. If you don't make the next meeting we'll have to decide just how exalted your new status is without you. Frosty The Lucky.