Frosty

Welcome aboard Joe, glad to have you. The short answer is no you don't NEED a firepot. I don't have one in either of my coal forges but I hardly use coal or charcoal, I'm more a propane forge guy. My coal forges have a duck's nest, a depression in the clay liner with the air grate at the bottom and I customize the fire size by placing fire brick around the nest. This set up allows me to have a small deep fire, large deep fire, large shallow fire trench fire, deep or shallow even odd shaped fires. That's just me though, I'm happy with a camp fire and prevailing wind. <grin> However, Dave makes a great point about setting yourself up for success, especially when you're just getting into the craft. This said it makes good sense to get the best performing set up you can afford or conditions allow. A proper fire pot has a lot of advantages it's hard to ignore. One last thing, where are you Joe? You never know who and how many smiths live within visiting distance and there are a LOT of guys on IFI. If you'll put your general location in your header it'll save us old farts having to use our memories when we're traveling in your neighborhood and want to drop in for a snack or nap. Frosty The Lucky.

I see two things, I think. First is the timbers you're using for the base. If you lay some crosswise it'll broaden the base and it won't be able to rock much if at all. Lay them with the crown up so the ends are tighter to the floor. The second thing I think I don't see is crown on the driven pullies, they look flat. Without a little crown in the contact area the belt will wander and turn over. I may be wrong about a lack of crown, I'm only looking at the pics. In person I'd lay a ruler across the pully and that'd tell the story. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Bojo, glad to have you. You'd be really surprised at how fast you can move metal with files and scrapers (Sen) with some practice. There's a lot of technique to using files efficiently and it takes some knowledge and practice. A blade sized forge is no problem and unless someone sees you using it they wouldn't know. If you can bring the steel to red heat a hoof rasp will cut the steel as fast as a belt sander with better control. A suitably small forge for this is a "bean can forge" or a "split brick forge." The bean can forge is a medium large can, a 2lb coffee can is plenty and enough Kaowool refractory wool to line it. Roll the Kaowool and insert it into the can and then punch a hole in the side large enough to admit a Bernzomatic torch. That's it, the famous bean can forge. The brick forge is two insulated fire bricks with a hollow large enough for a blade blank and a little carved where they meet and a port in one side to admit the Bernzomatic torch tip. If you need more heat you can feed the torch Mappgas. Frosty The Lucky.

I love it when folk up north finally thaw and get rolling. You're keeping busy Bryan ad that's good good good. Can you give the refinery a call and see if they sell petrolium coke? Have you tried it, if so what do you think? Meeting at Pat's tomorrow you know. In case you feel like a little road trip in all your spare time. <grin> It'd sure be good to see you two again. Frosty The Lucky.

I'm with you there, I HATE electric jack hammers, they're really heavy and don't hit worth spit. I don't really have that much jack hammer time but you can't work for DOT Highways Maintenance without getting to know the things. The pneumatic jacks were WAY better, lighter, easier on me and busted things smartly. I wouldn't own one though, not even to form steel. Frosty The Lucky.

I'm not familiar with Ron's Mongo. What's the dia of the burner tube? How large a forge chamber do you think you'll need? 2/cu' is pretty big, are you starting a spring shop? Here's the rule of thumb for burner size and quantity. "One each 3/4" burner to every 300-350 cu/in volume." This is based on the area of the burner tube so if you use a 1" burner it's twice the area and will heat twice the volume or 700 cu/in. and so on. What's better, bigger burners or more is a good question and deserving of consideration. A lot will depend on what you want to do. For instance say you're heating a melting furnace. This puts most of the heat at the bottom circulating to heat the entire crucible before exiting the exhaust port so one big burner is the better choice. If you're working long sections, say hand twisting fence pickets you're looking at using a long narrower forge chamber so more burners evenly spaced will work better. Like so much of this craft it depends on what you want or need to do that counts. I just hope this makes it a little more clear. Frosty The Lucky.

Aw, Tim didn't say with what Beth. Most any of us could fill em with BS without even trying. Frosty The Lucky.

Inert, doesn't that mean it doesn't react at all? Nitrogen isn't highly reactive and is generally considered nonflammable but if it isn't reactive nor flammable how do you get NO2? What use would plants have for nitrogen if it weren't reactive, what value could they derive? I admit I haven't done any professional welding in a while but I've never heard of nitrogen in a mix gas though there were some interesting tri-mixes from the blue bottle guys back when. It's been even longer since I did much tig and then it was heliarc, the guys using argon were outside the box. I run 70/30 in my mig, 70% argon and 25% CO2. and to be accurate you can't call this MIG, CO2 isn't inert. It's properly called GMAW (Gas Metal Arc Welding) Lots of sheet metal guys are using straight CO2 for GMAW, the CO2 degrades into oxy and carbon gas and really makes the puddle hotter while the extra carbon makes the filler flow better for smoother welds requiring less cleanup. I'd have to do some checking to see if a reactive gas can be considered inert and I'm not likely to but I'll check any cites. I don't think the basics of chemistry have changed that much but I'm wrong enough to accept corrections provided with good proofs. Frosty The Lucky.

Ever spun brass? Brass is a lot harder to spin than most think, it work hardens quickly and if you don't know the feel of when it's going over you risk it coming apart in the lathe. Even scissor tool spinning is risky till you learn the feel and sound. Dishing or sinking is far safer and not a lot harder to do. Annealing is a matter of bringing it to a low red and letting it cool, quenching just shortens the time till you can get back to work on it. Of course you can heat it to low red and work it hot. The trick Dad used to tell me for working brass and bronze alloys is, "Take it as far as you can on the first pass, you only get three." Basically you can move copper alloys as far as you can on the first push but it'll work harden to possible failure mode in three pushes. (beatings, spin passes, pressings, etc.) Frosty The Lucky.

Nice cube twist but they are pointy in the hand. I like handling sharp things, I roll bottle caps between my palms because I like the sensation. Lots of folk don't so even pineapple twists can be hard to move. I made a number of doffers for my wife's spinning friends, they all loved how they work but don't like the pineapple twists because they're too sharp. The doffers the spinners love has a cable twist handle, it's easy to grip while being smooth and comfortable and better yet, looks like yarn. My thinking on this kind of product is to make a number of each style and see how they sell and adjust to maximize profit. Frosty The Lucky.

Glad to hear you weren't hurt or worse John and I'm really hoping you don't hear about a neighbor getting shot. Okay, now for your head slap. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!!!! Didn't someone here just post an article about someone getting killed when a civil war cannon ball exploded? how long a soak time depends on what kind of oil you use and what the patch is. If it's a hide patch it'll take quite a while to soak the powder. WD-40 will penetrate pretty quickly as will any pen oil. Diesel fuel is fast too but plain old water with some Calgon in it is faster yet. Calgon is a wetting solution or surfacant, it breaks surface tension and lets capillarity do it's thing as fast as it will. Better yet, don't use a hot saw, use a hack saw and lube it with oil so it can't spark. Hey, at least you didn't just put it in the fire. <grin> Frosty The Lucky.

Guys have been using jack hammers to form steel for quite some time, probably since they were invented. You actually have quite a bit of control at the throttle, you can make them just buzz or vibrate on the bit, hit softish, or fast and hard. We had one at work you could do single blows with and it was a big beast of a hammer. The concrete breakers for mounting on equipment are even better controlled, we rented on for a back hoe and it'd do all kinds of good stuff, even slow hard push. I was thinking it'd be a pure treat as a log splitter. Frosty The Lucky.

It's been quite a while since I messed with hydraulics but I'll chime it. As I recall I just plumbed a "T" in the supply and return lines, making sure the lines were larger than the orifices in the fittings. I don't recall there ever being a problem with rams out of sync unless there was air in the system. Air is easy to see as the rams get spongy and jerky. If it happens very often I put a bleader cock at the highest point in the run. A word to the wise, I only used hydraulics in situations where we had to fix problems and make mods, I'm not now and never was trained in hydraulics so I may well be wrong all round. Frosty the Lucky.

Very well done, beautiful. Small work is harder in many ways than larger pieces. When you're doing something with say 3/8" or 1/2" stock you can make misblows without doing a lot of damage but something that small requires real precision, one misblow can turn it into scrap. Frosty the Lucky.

I don't even try my burners outside a forge, I have a nice torch. I run 0.035" mig tips in my 3/4" burners and 0.045" mig tips in the 1" burners. I adjust induction by moving the tip closer or farther from the throat. (the smallest diameter of the tube right after the intakes.) The farther back the more air it'll induce and visa versa. I'll need to start playing with Crosses again, I haven't moved the lathe into the new shop yet and the snow's still a couple feet deep around the Conex so it's snowed in. Nothing like winter for an excuse to avoid heavy lifting you know. <grin> Frosty the Lucky.

GOTCHA! Frosty the Lucky.

Just as Sam says. The mantra of fusion welding is, "make a puddle, fill the puddle." Torch, mig, tig, stick makes no difference, the rule holds. Frosty the Lucky.

I paid $7,000 for the 50# LG I got a few years ago but I'm a Looooong way from anywhere there are very many. It's in pretty good condition, plenty useable as a plug and play unit though I could use to make some dies for it. Frosty the Lucky.

If it works it works is a philosophy I tend to go with. A wide platen is a good thing and facing the slot away from you shouldn't make any difference to the machine. Frosty the Lucky.

Just be aware synthetics don't like hot stuff, scale, sparks, cinders, etc. will stick and melt into it, maybe not deep enough to damage it but maybe. I like canvas, it's easy to make fire resistant with a soaking in a borax solution and tends to last a long time. Frosty the Lucky.

Dangerous? Have you taken a close look at the inside of a blacksmith shop Nuge? I don't know where you could walk in mine without something waiting to get ya at one false step. Good looking forge Bruce, I like SS for the shell as it's more IR reflective than mild steel. Would you mind running me through how you put your cross burner together? I've tried it a couple times but never got it to work well and I have the "T" configuration down and got to lazy to trouble shoot a cross. Frosty the Lucky.

A decent rule of thumb I use trying to figure this kind of thing out is, "it's easier to shorten something than make it longer" What I'd do is make it longer and fatter than I think I'll need and trim it to fit later. I would make a smart remark about Thomas' knuckles dragging but I'm sure he's heard them all. <snicker> Frosty the Lucky.

I forgot to welcome you answering your question in the other thread Johnathan. Welcome aboard, glad to have ya. Please try to avoid postings like this, repeating a question in different threads is hard for blacksmiths to be nice about. We're a direct bunch and are likely to tell it like it is so if you annoy someone they're going to say so. Frosty the Lucky.

First, 7018 is DC rod, not AC. E 6011 is AC but your amperage is too high. E6011 is kind of tricky to run till you get used to it but it's less sensitive to dirt and poor conditions. It's always going to give you a rough bead compared to a 70xx rod as it's a fast freeze rod. As Phil says it's pulling the weld causing the cracks. How deep have you scarfed the join? You're welding pretty thick sections which takes more care and is trickier. Scarf (grind 45* at the joint) to half the depth of the material or more. Make s small root pass and multiple fillet passes, none of them heavy. Be SURE to chip all the slag off before every pass. Okay, there are plenty of experienced welders here, myself included who wouldn't need to make this kind of weld but it takes experience and practice. This is a bit overkill for what you're doing, usually needed on much heavier welds but it will work to prevent shrink checking in the weld effect zone. (parallel to the bead) Frosty the Lucky.

I'm thinking H13 is wasting a high alloy. It's a hot working steel and not necessary for anvils, though some folk are using H13 in their anvils. If I had to choose I'd go with 4140, I don't know enough about the vanadium alloy to choose it at this point. Vanadium alloys can be both hard and tough as all get out so would probably make good anvils but you have to know what alloy to use. 4130 is low carbon intended for stress environments where work hardening is a BAD thing, aircraft frames for instance. It doesn't get hard, it's designed and alloyed to NOT get hard so it's plenty tough enough but isn't gong to be hard enough to resist denting. Bear in mind these were my musings, I'm no expert and I'm sure lots of guys here know a lot more about it than I. Frosty the Lucky.