OddDuck

It "wood" work like a champ. Take a look at this link: http://www.woodgas.com/history9.htm This is a small gassifier unit that is relatively easy to build and it does work. I built and used one to experiment with, and was able to melt brass and copper with it. If I didn't have about a thousand other projects lined up at the moment, I would be moving forward with my MKII version of a gassifier. I do have an eventual goal of having one that will be powerful enough to reliably melt cast iron. If you already have a gasser forge, this would just replace propane as the fuel source. The forge design wouldn't change a bit.

Rutterbush, I just sent you a PM.

The question is, what exactly are you going to be using it for? Are you building an oil-fired forge, or a heat treat oven? A furnace burner would be way overkill for, say, a forge that you were just going to be heating knife blanks in. These things put out beaucoup heat energy, and that's an understatement. You are going to need a forge with a fairly big internal volume (and really good refractory) just to have it burn correctly. There are also a few other considerations. The fuel, if it is WMO, is going to have to be very well filtered, or you are going to be constantly fighting clogged nozzles. There are simpler (and possibly cheaper) alternatives, a Brute or Moya style injector burner, or, a hotbox (ursutz) burner. Personally, I think the latter has great potential as a forge burner. Simple to build, and no fuel is blown directly into the forge chamber, allowing for better atmosphere control. (Great. Hopefully I haven't just started a massive "which is better" debate...) When I get a few projects off the docket, sometime before the end of the year, I am going to build a vertical forge to test my Paint Bucket Ursutz in, just for grins and giggles. A home heating burner (Beckett is one manufacturer) can be found around here on Craigslist occasionally for free up to $150 or so. I don't know how available they would be down south.

Minor update, it now has a new stump to sit upon. White oak 20" tall by 18+" diameter. Not quite as old as the anvil but pretty close. Probably heavier, though.It's a piece of a tree that used to be in my front yard, the state took it down when they widened the road, and I convinced the tree crew to leave it. My kids and I counted the rings and came up with a rough guesstimate of 1895 on the tree's age and that was about 6 years ago. I knew I wanted it for a reason. I still have about 20 linear feet of log left, I'll get it sawn up eventually. On a practical note, there's a reason that lumberjacks don't use electric chainsaws. Somehow I managed to cut this chunk off with a 14" bar electric chainsaw. Only took two days worth of work, and just about killed the saw. Don't laugh, it's all I had to use and was much better than a handsaw. Not reccomended.

I'll stick with my initial statement and leave it alone. I'll see if I can flatten it through overuse. Sas Mark, what you see is all the markings I could find. It could be the bottom of a 9, and you can make out the 3 almost.

Thanks guys, Mousehole eh? I thought it looked like an older one, the face is about 10"x4 1/2". Oh, yeah, the hardie has a taper to it as far as I can tell. The horn is a bit smallish, but hey, A horn is better than NO horn. Here's a question, if it is wrought, would it have a steel plate on the face, or is it solid wrought through and through? If so, how much would it damage it to level out the face a bit?

Craigslist does have its uses. I nearly missed it, it was hidden at the end of a description of a bunch of other things. It's a bit rough, but hey, $75 for a 93 lb. anvil isn't too bad. Not sure of the make, not even sure it isn't a cast iron ASO. It has some rebound, and compared to the piece of rail I have been using it has about 4x as much rebound. A little ring to it, so can't be that bad. The face is pretty scarred up, but I'm just going to use it as is. No half-a##ed repairs, it's good enough for my level of expertise. I might touch up the edges. The only thing that I did to it was take a wire cup wheel to it to clean it up a bit. The only marking I could find was a partial number on the side, and I think it may just be the weight. 3/4" hardie hole, no pritchel hole, and if it's a casting at least it's a halfway decent one. I'm wondering if it was perhaps somethinhg like a Sears and Roebuck farmer's special or something similar. It seems to have had plenty of use.

Really neat video, Richard. It's on my list (on the "eventually" side of things...) to make iron or steel from scratch. There's a couple of nice iron deposits in Maine, and I really like the idea of going fromm raw to finished, just to say I did it. What percent, roughly speaking, of the bloom is steel? Do you get a decent yield with the methods that you are using?

Simple is good, looks more or less like mine. The biggest part of the learning curve is the transition between propane and oil. Ironwolf, I just use gravity feed with mine and it works fine. The only screening I do is with a piece of window screen to get out big chunks, other than that they don't clog like nozzle burners.

Newport? You were almost to my neck of the woods. There is also a neat place in Liberty Maine called Liberty Tool Works, they have thousands of old tools and such for sale. That almost looks like a big flake came off the side from a mis-strike, but the pic was pretty big so I couldn't see the whole thing in context. Are you eventually going to perhaps have some anvils re-cast? I would be interested in how you would gate something that big.

Iron + aluminum makes either brittle iron or brittle aluminum. Not very useful. Aluminum can be forged, and foil is made out of a pretty ductile alloy so it should forge alright. You should probably cast it into a blank first, I don't think it would forge weld at all. Heck, your best bet with the tinfoil is melt it and cast it into a sword blade. Count on losing about half of the foil as dross in the melt. Cast it like they used to cast bronze swords. Be warned, you will probably find yourself a whole new hobby though!

Old Home week for BYMC! I guess we know where the oil burner technology is, eh? Matt, I never had the PBU coke up, the fuel and air flow isn't conducive to that, however they can flood easily, and can be just as finicky as the Moya. I haven't used my last PBU build in over two years, as a matter of fact I pirated parts off it to build my Moya-style. The oil injection is in the setup right above the floor flange attached to the top of the paint can. Here's a pic of it: Worked quite well, I set it up with my small furnace and got it to blinding white in about five minutes, so they can definately put out the heat. I think that a forge application, along with a kiln setup or a reverb setup would be the niche for an ursutz. Now I've got to pull it out and experiment with it. Great. Another project. :P

The burner for my big metalcasting furnace is a Moya-style. Here's a pic: It's a little dark but you can see the basics. Very effective, puts out prodigious amounts of heat. You will definately want a high temp liner or you will wind up with a forge full of molten goo. Skip the portland cement, stick with the purer clays like kaolin or 3000f+ rated commercial refractory. They can be tricky to start up, you need a good pre-heat for the oil to vaporize and ignite correctly. Otherwise you get billowing clouds of black smoke. You may want to add a propane pre-heat for ease of use. You will also need a pretty good blower, to compensate for backpressure and restriction of the burner tube. Honestly, I don't think this is a great design for a forge burner, it can be difficult to control the atmosphere in the forge, and I don't think blowing oil droplets all over your metal will help the forging. I'm wondering if this is an application for a hot-box style burner, like Lionel Oliver's designs or mine, which is based on his.: I call it the PBU (paint bucket ursutz), and it worked pretty well. It got surplanted by the Moya-style burners and is considered a generation or two back in the oil-burner tree, but would work well for this application, I think. Just my two cents.

Why why why is all the good stuff on the wrong side of the country? :rolleyes:

Speaking as a backyard metalcaster myself, what you have there is as rare as hen's teeth to find cheaply and in good condition. They would probably go well on ebay, you may want to check out a couple of metalcasting forums and offer them there. If I actually had money I would give you an offer, I would love to find one in that condition.

Odd Duck Foundry. (and Forge, eventually...) It just fits. When I started out as far as I knew I was the only person in my neck of the woods doing this. I had to choose a hobby where there were no (as in nearly the entire state) suppliers for stuff. I had to make it or fake it. It also describes me, I am that poor sclub that buys the car that was made on the one Tuesday of the month where they put the "special" parts in (as in "Oh, we'll have to order that from Timbuktoo, your model doesn't take the ordinary part we have right here in stock...") I don't watch sports. I prefer working nights, I have an odd sense of humor. Etc etc etc. It just fit.

Oooh, molten metal... Gotta love it. Who needs to pound on it when ya can pour it? Very nice setup there, I havent gotten into lost wax or sculptural casting yet, I do sandcasting at the moment, but I'm sure someone will talk me into it at some point. Got any pics of the final product?

Welder, didn't find this post until now. Hope things will be looking up for you, at least heating season is almost over. As my mom is fond of saying, "God writes straight in crooked lines." Maybe this is the reason he had you buy all this stuff over the years, or it's his way of telling you you don't need all that stuff... The meaning is yours to find. I've said one for ya, and hey, your wife did find a job, as measly as it is. Anything helps, yes? Have faith, and maybe even say a prayer for the faceless bureaucrats that will be deciding your case. Good luck, and think positive.

No injuries from smithing yet, but I've just barely started, so give me a few days. That being said, let me tell you about the dumbest thing I ever did. I've had my share of bumps, bruises, and self-inflicted gore, but this one takes the cake. I'm speaking of the Great Snowblower Incident of '07. Yup, had to capitolize it. I own an old (okay, practically antique) Ariens 8 HP snowblower. It's getting tired and tends to clog if the snow is a bit sticky. I had nearly completed the driveway after a storm when the chute clogged. This particular model has a pair of manual clutches, one to turn off the auger at the front, and one to disengage the engine. I flipped the auger clutch ,engine still running and clutch engaged, and for some reason I reached in through the auger at the front with my gloved hand to unclog it. I heard a thunk, and realized that the auger clutch just engaged again. THUNK! Luckily, where it is an old and tired machine, my hand in the impeller was enough to stall the engine. You may all stop cringing now. After an eternity of hollering for my wife, or fifteen minutes or so, with my hand stuck firmly in a several hundred pound machine, she found me and called the fire department. It was like a keystone cops episode. Tewnty people tearing an old snowblower apart to free me. It's the only ambulance ride I have ever taken. I didn't break any bones, but I have a lovely three inch scar on the back of my right hand and a matching one on the inside. The first two fingers of that hand are a bit stiff, too. I'm xxxx lucky. I shudder every time I think of it. I still have that snowblower, it still runs, and I shut off BOTH clutches and use a stick to knock out clogs. My hands go nowhere near the moving parts unless it's OFF. I can be taught. Okay, someone top THAT one! Edit: Sorry about the finger, glad to hear that it'll be okay.

JR, you want a good refractory. Don't use anything with portland cement in it. It will melt, and flux everything else in the mix as well. Same goes for perlite or vermiculite. These burners when running right will easily melt iron, and get close to steel melting temps. You will want something rated at at least 3000F, 3200 would be better.. An EPK Kaolin based clay refractory would work, Mizzou would be okay. Don't skimp, you will be rebuilding it quickly if you do.

Rambo, does the stock that you are heating directly contact the floor of the furnace? Do you get scale or flux on it? At those temps iron itself is a pretty good flux and will help to break down the brick that the floor is made of. You may have to switch to a castable, possibly something magnesia based, think how they line crucibles and ladles and such in a steel works. The chemistry of the furnace atmosphere may be the part of the problem. The floor should be the coolest part of the furnace, so the temp rating may not be the problem. Is the damage to the door arch mechanical damage, say bumping stock into it? You might have to go with a harder brick in that location. With all that said, there are some parts of the furnace that are probably going to have to be considered as "consumable", and will have to be replaced on a regular basis. I'm sure that the life can be extended between repairs, but nothing's perfect. If I were you, I would really analize what is causing the damage first, mechanical or chemical, and go from there.

Ok, here's the link to the plans I remember, these are intended to be built out of sheet metal: http://www.gekgasifier.com/nggallery/page-224/page/773/ Hope that helps.

Jr, a shop vac would work for an air source, noisy, but it would work. Or, find a junk vaccuum and gut it for the blower. Again, noisy, but it works. You would have to set up a dump gate for both of those to control the airflow, that is as simple as a plastic tee with one of the tees covered with a moveable piece of sheet metal. You can build a blower out of sheet metal and plywood, even pop rivet it together, the biggest issue is make sure the rotor is as balanced as you can get it, otherwise it will be noisy and vibrate like crazy. Look on the BYMC forum, there's lots of posts about homebuilt blowers. Get creative, the main thing is you want a blower that will overcome the backpressure of the smaller burner tube. My burner tube is 1 1/4" black pipe, for reference. The idea with the blown propane part is you simply add propane to the airstream, all mine is is a copper tube epoxied into the back of the burner pipe, with the inside end pinched down to form a smaller orifice. This has the added benifit of making the burner a dual fuel unit, you can run it on either oil or propane. I'll try to get some better pics in the next couple of days and post some details if that will help. I just remembered somewhere where there are "plans" for a blower, I'm out of time at the moment but i'll find and post the link later.

They work like a champ, although they can be finicky on startup. I use a version of this on my foundry furnace and I love it. A couple of notes on this style, though. You have to preheat your forge to at least a dull red to start it up, the way these injection oil burners work is that the oil is delivered through the center tube, and flashes to vapor in the hot furnace environment and self-ignites. they will put out copious amounts of heat. They will also put out copious amounts of thick black smoke if you arent careful. I reccomend highly having a propane pre-heat, this makes startup a breeze. here's a rather dark pic of my current setup: A couple of design hints for the plumbing, don't skimp on the size of the tube from the tank to the burner. These things need good flow rates. Put a ball valve right at the burner, and one on the fuel tank. I would also highly reccomend a large needle valve to dial in the fuel flow accurately, a ball valve has a very short range of adjustment between full on and off. You will also need a pretty good blower. Oil needs a good supply of air to burn correctly, and you need to overcome the restriction of the burner tube. Squirrel cage blowers don't handle this restriction well, my blower is a homemade radial-fan blower, 10" in diameter being turned by a 1hp 3500 rpm motor. A bit of overkill, but I have more than enough airflow. I also have a piece of sheet metal to adjust the airflow. Now, one more thing you will have to keep an eye on, and that is the forge atmosphere. It will be tricky to maintain either a reducing or oxidizing atmosphere. Also, have plenty of ventilation, please note the comment on smoke signals.

Weygers describes restoring files in his book by giving them an acid bath, he shows using battery acid, soak the files in the acid for a while and thouroughly rinse them after to stop the process. I'd be quite careful doing this, and the results may be less than great. He said that this was if no new files could be gotten and you really really needed one. Pkrankow is right, it will probably be just as easy to buy new, and you will get better results. I'm with you, I hate to see an old tool die, but turning it into a brand new tool is a good use as well. Just think of it as reincarnation... ;)