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I Forge Iron

Storms!!


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After weeks of spending all my free time, and that is not much, on building my lean to I decided not to build today but to actually use the forge. The forecast was for possible showers and, you guessed it, I had a beautiful fire going, was banging away happily on a set of tongs then dark clouds, thunder, lightening and HEAVY rain. Tried to carry on to the end of the storm but it virtually put the fire out. Had to give up.

Suppose there is next weekend, or should I keep working on the lean to????

Wish I didn't have to work. It sure gets in the way of hobbies and drinking beer.

Now I feel better................

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wish my only problem was rain :( we got literally, LITERALLY!, 3 feet+ of snow here in western pennsylvania. 26 inches over night 2 weeks ago! roofs are collapsing all over and ive had to shovel my TIN garage roof off 5 times! i have never seen this much snow in all my 18 years(not long compared to some)the only thing i heard of that compared was the mid 1970's i can't get to my car, my shop, anything! good thing i don't have a job at the moment. and BTW tin roofs get super slick when wet or snowy so ive fallen OFF of the roof more times than ive shoveled it :rolleyes:

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Rob: Bummer about being rained out even UNDER a cover! Sounds to me like you need to keep building. If the rain that put out your fire was coming down the stack there are a couple solutions. (No, I don't mean dissolved in water!) Okay, a rain cap over the stack works very well but can be a problem if you get high winds so guy wires may be necessary. Even with a cap wind driven rain can get past it and into the fire so running the stack down to a "T" and then to the fire gives any water a place to drain without going into the forge, wood stove, etc.

Youngsmith229: Falling off the roof is a BAD thing! I'm guessing your roof is either close enough to the ground you weren't injured though maybe there was enough snow to cushion your fall.

So, one pretty darned safe way to get the snow off the roof is with a "snow rake". This is basically just a 1" x 4" x 36" hoe on a long handle. You stand on the deck BACK from the edge of the eaves where sliding snow lands! Then you boost the hoe end up on the roof and drag it back to the edge pulling the snow off.

Another method is to use a rope with a small casting weight. You throw the weighted end over the roof, then you and a friend on the other end simply walk it along the roofline using a sawing motion to drag the snow off. Roof projections can get in the way of the rope method but another similar method is to literally throw a lassoo up on the roof and drag the snow off.

Then again, not being particularly young a little added work seems like a good trade off for not enjoying a good fall off the roof. . . Oh yeah, our roof is some 23' off the ground so THAT might have something to do with my opinion. It's also a 4 1/2 to 1 pitch and steel clad so deep snow doesn't stick so. well Better yet, it's more than strong enough to support a good 5' of wet heavy snow.

Frosty the Lucky.

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well the one fall was about 1 foot and the rest were about 8 inches. but the impact onto the roof kinda hurts. and i do have a roof rake i love it, but if the snow gets hard or REALLY deep it has to be shovelled. ive never heard of using a rope, that i will use in the future :D


I guess even I could handle a foot or less fall. Still . . . :blink: The truth is I'd hate to see someone else in the hospital for something going wrong doing a routine chore. Been there, EMTs cut my "T" shirt off, still recovering, don't recommend it. Just be careful okay? ;)

The rope trick likes hard snow less than a rake so it might not do it.


Frosty the Lucky.
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Back in 95-96 I was living in the Allentown area and we had a 3 foot dump overnight then, they closed down the state, troopers arrested anyone caught on the roads. But it was also an El Nino year starting around then as well, so every time there is one west has mild winter and nasty spring rains, ending in lots of flooding, the east gets hammered in snow. I understand completely about wanting to work, I would suggest looking for a tent, I use a 10x20, one thats a little more heavy duty, they can be found on the cheap. Look around your area for frames of carport tents that dont have roofs. Ask the owners if you can have the frame and throw a tarp over it and tie that down. OR find some2x4's 8 of them and plant a foot or so in the ground and throw a tarp over that. Better yet find a tree with some good branch coverage and tie part of your cover up the tree and run it down off that. Just a few suggestions.

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Can you up some pictures of your lean-to / overhang your making?

I've often thought about making myself something like that at my next place. Sorta like a carport in dimensions with maybe a hole cut into the roof of it to exhaust my coal forge. Maybe even closed/walled up on a side or two.

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I went out Saturday morning and it was dead calm so I started burning off the weeds---tumble weeds burn only a little more violently than gasoline! Got most of my yard near the forge burned off and then the wind picked up and picked up enough that I wasn't going to get on the shop extension by myself trying to put up metal roofing. I'm perfectly fine *not* making a trip to visit the Wizard of OZ thank-you-very-much! I did work a bit on the false truss fastened to the end of the old shop building getting it ready for the roofing. Of course when I was up on the ladder I had *3* phone calls I had to get down and go into the house for, being president of an ABANA Affiliate has been increasing my exercising quite a bit!

Sunday after church the weather cooperated in that between showers I was able to get the first two 3x11' sheets up in place and screwed down, 4 more and I switch colour and have to cut them to size.

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With all the news lately about the subzero weather and heavy snow that the Northern, Midwest and East coast areas are experiencing, we shouldn't forget that Phoenix also has had it's share of devastating weather in the last couple weeks.

Below is a photo showing damage to a home from a recent storm that passed through the Phoenix area. wink.gif

Dam.doc

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