Jmercier Posted March 5, 2008 Share Posted March 5, 2008 A sign that every blacksmith should have in their shop and wherever they do demos should always be "If any part of my shop OR myself is on fire, please let me know, it is not part of the demo, and just because you see it, doesnt mean that I see it." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted March 5, 2008 Share Posted March 5, 2008 No wonder they put Farmer Phil waaaaaaay out in the ocean on an island surrounded by a whole lot of water! I caught myself on fire forge welding at a demo once---folks were trying to tell me about it and I finally had to say "I know I'm on fire but I want to get this weld first" (or words to that effect---very sweaty/salty/dirty tunic wasn't going to do more than smoulder a bit.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Dwyer Posted March 5, 2008 Share Posted March 5, 2008 Ha, ha, ha Thomas. You're welcome to come visit anytime. The island just might be big enough for the two of us (for a brief period of time). Boy blacksmiths can be hard core for sure! Talk about getting heated up over your work. What a picture it makes: smoldering and flaming blacksmiths. Wow! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted March 5, 2008 Share Posted March 5, 2008 Especially since this "boy" was around 35-40 years old! The stuff I did as a kid I'll keep quiet as I'm flabbergasted that I'm still alive, unmutilated and have my sight and hearing! I think a lot of us became blacksmiths to play with fire and avoid going to jail for arson! I may have to come visit; but I keep hoping the Socorro Magma Bubble will do something local so I can get my volcano fix without travelling...(I know you just want me to visit so you can ask that I pack my suitcases and carryon with stuff and just borrow clothes when I get there---back in the pre-airline security days I once had a 90# carry-on full of scrap metal as they did not weigh the carry-ons but did the checked baggage. Poor little thing was never quite the same...I ran across a fronteir scrap pile up in the mountains of CO and couldn't let all the great stuff go to waste...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ice Czar Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 I'm flabbergasted that I'm still alive) and while the criminal stautue of limitations may have expired I'm not so sure the civil one has :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Dwyer Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 Thomas, I guess we think alike, but opposite. I want to keep secret the mis-deeds I've done as an "adult." Otherwise I'd share about the time when I was 19 and traveling from Oregon back to NH for Christmas. Stopped in NYC to drop off a friend in Brooklyn. It was a cold winter. When I went to leave the next morning my little old VW bug's oil was thicker than snot and the engine could not turn over. Well I think how can I warm this up? So I siphon a little gas out of it into a tuna can and crawl under the bug light it up and start heating up the oil pan. Of course there's so much crusted old oil crud all over the place it starts to get real smoky. I guess I was quite a sight legs sticking out of the VW billowing smoke all over the place. Numerous New Yorkers were heard to say many various phrases of alarm and expletives. One old guy was a real treat. Boy he let me have it like no body's business. He was poetry in motion New Yorker style. Anyway, I got the bug started and the heck out of there. It was so cold that winter I ran into the same problem in NH, but this time I didn't dare the gasoline approach. We pushed that bug all over Nashua to jump start it. Took many block of over and over efforts. My brother and I were late getting back to our folks to celebrate Christmas. I got a little "heated up" myself and slammed my door. It was so cold the glass shattered. Had to drive back to Merrimack without a window in below zero weather. Guess I got mine come-up-ins. How to you know I wanted you to bring stuff to Hawaii when you come? I just came back from NH with two blowers, a 70 lb anvil, a few hammers and tongs. You bet you better bring some steel and machinery. How about a power hammer?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
habu68 Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 Phil, I think I found my Twin brother, separated at birth. Does NI3, Lead Azide; and Charcoal, sulfur, and saltpeter mean anything to you? Then there is gun cotton, cordite and primacord. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LITTLEJOHN Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 I had an incident are accident while welding on a slag pot at a steel mill two of us were fixing cracks in the pots which were 6 inches thick and as much as 10 feet long .They had to be beveled out to be welded back up so for time sake two of us would weld one from each end and meet in the middle wait for the other to be done the use a needle scaler to remove the slag.We were using 18 inch flux core wire in a mig running 280 amps.As we all know from working with hot metal if it burns for a few seconds ok if more look for fire.My partner was finished and waiting for me to finish my bead when I felt a burn in my side that lasted and kept getting hotter at which time I had thought I was on fire so I stopped welding and yelled fire running out of the pot.As I ran out I felt something pull out of my side and heard my partner say O man I got you.Not knowing what he meant I looked around to find out when he finished he threw he gun over his leg and pierced me in the side with the red hot wire portruding out of his gun.It burnt its way in not bleeding a bit but still required a trip to the hospital in which I became the poster boy for stupid welding accidents.So I guess would be the mouse in Irnsrgn's experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Dwyer Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 Mouse Little John. It has a ring to it! It was just a phase Habu, just a phase. Yep, that's some of the stuff! We better help look after Ten Hammers too! Oh, Oh. I gave my folks (Grammie and Grandpa) IFI's link to Little Mikey's first hook so they could share in the glow of his success. Never thought they'd then have access to stuff such as this thread. My goose may be cooked. Is there a statute of limitations with parents for stuff like this? I may need to consult Ice Czar on this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 Well not by accident; but...I have now lived in my house 4 years and have never mowed the lot. We just burn the weeds off each winter. Common in these parts and as my house is stucco and surrounded on 3 sides by fire breaks, roads and a large field that is bare dirt. Usually not much of a problem. This year I had 8' weeds over the leach bed and a slight wind to propagate it. Very impressive; but annoying in that it would not spread sideways so I have a series of tracks through the weeds and have to go back and get the areas in between. I also did my side yard, lower weeds but more tumbleweeds; watered around the trees and the electrical transformer then did it in batches starting at the down wind part, (wind less than 5 mph---a rareity in these parts) I would never confess to knowing anything about those nasty chemical stuff even the stuff that's purple when wet... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Martin Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 I won't say how....or at least not right now, I've burned up three shirts two hats, pair of shoes, and my left eye-brow. These all had to with gasoline, home made concoctions. All whith one of my friends. We both lost shoes and shirts in the past. Bored home by ourselves, the internet and the right items. I've learned though. Haven't caused anything to go "boom" in a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geofthesmith Posted June 23, 2008 Share Posted June 23, 2008 my grandmas dog...she wouldnt stop jumping throuhg the firework fountain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabre Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 well just a second ago i dumped a garbage can o sawdust on the fire and woof burned my arm to death well i guess i leared my lesson.......:o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FieryFurnace Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 I have never lit anything with a forge fire, excepting grass from coal falling out of the forge or a hot cut piece. I did manage to light a 30 ft. tall rotten oak tree with a brush pile fire. 400 ft from the nearest water supply. We spent 5 hrs putting that one out! Another time someone put an old PVC cement can (half full) in our burn pile. It blew a pin sized hole in the side of the can, shooting a 2 ft. flame out of the side. Unfortunately, the pressure inside the can built up faster than the flame released it. The result...boooooooooooooooooof! It blew little pieces of burning cement all over the yard, including the trampoline. The trampoline is now retired. Now that I said I have never burned anything with a forge fire, I will probably burn the barn down tomorrow. Untill then I will remain, The kidsmith, Dave Custer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rthibeau Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 Very entertaining thread.......apparently no serious injuries or deaths have occurred, so luck must be in abundance out there. All I can contribute is one small incident where my work table got set on fire from welding. It has a wood frame under the plate steel. A stool was under the edge of the table, the sparks caught the cushion on fire, and the cushion set the framework on fire. Didn't notice it until the flames came up over the edge of the table and I stood there trying to comprehend how in heck the plate steel was burning. By the time I realized what was going on, the wood was burning pretty well. Had to completely dismantle the table and turn the frame upside down to extinguish it. Replaced one 2x4 support and reassembled it. Not a very productive day all said and done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KYBOY Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 No real fire issues but my body looks like a road map from welding and torch burns. I was up on a jenie lift once welding a 12" water pipe. A Miller 250 bobcat with 100' leads I made just for this job. I was welding a release valve on top of the pipe. Had the root weld finished and was starting the cap weld. I couldent get behind the valve so I had my 7018 bent at a 90% angle to weld the backside. Well I was leaned up and across the pipe when the genie lift shifted with me. The bent 7018 went around the valve and the crook went down inside my helmit I head a sizzle, smelled burnt hide and fell back in the lift. I was dazed for a bit when my prep man said "Dude, your heads burnt bad " The rod(fresh off the weld) had sizzled a line starting just above one eyebrow, across my hairline, ending back on my scalp...Dang that hurt:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 I know a smith who burned down his shop. He was trying to oil quench a blade in a plastic bucket with too little oil for the job so he had it tilted and the oil caught on fire and melted through the bucket and ran over the floor and burnt the place up. He had just finished restoring a blacker triphammer too that was ruined in the fire. I take this as a cautionary tale myself! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjbrash Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 Well, when I was 7, a friend and I torched about 3 acres of grassland in a suburb north of Pittsburgh Pa. This was back about 45 years ago. Due to trauma, I don't remember very much. Or is that selective amnesia? Bob Brashear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hammerkid Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 When my shop wasno done while i was workin in the front yard i caught the grass on fire quite often . I caught a rag on fire in my shop the other day when i was using the hot cut the the metal landed on the rag . Here about a month ago I was liting the forge and was putting coal on the burning paper and it was just smoking then it caught up super fast and burned a eye borrow , and one side od my hair on my head (which had just got cut and had jel in it ). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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