Nobody Special Posted May 16, 2013 Share Posted May 16, 2013 http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/37237-roasting/ http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/37236-ore/ So, sitting in the backyard, happy full of waffle house porkchops, sipping a cold one, and watching the side of my burn barrel glow as I roast about 10 gallons of hematite I picked up in North Georgia. Major iron mining area up until the War xxxxxxxxx. Then some XXXX named Grant or something apparantly burned the mining areas near Atlanta to the ground. Probably a pewter caster or something and got jealous....... Getting it ready for a first time solo iron bloom. Next step, let it cool, and bust it up tommorow. I'll post pics for that too so you can see how this part turns out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Esposito Posted May 16, 2013 Share Posted May 16, 2013 I'm excited to see how this turns out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobody Special Posted May 17, 2013 Author Share Posted May 17, 2013 http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/37293-roastingfire1/ http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/37292-postroast/ One's from last night while roasting, the other is after roasting. Mostly very friable. Lightweight, breaks apart easy, even just using your hands.. Turned about the color of a brick. Some of it when it breaks still dark in the center, and has metallic glints. Don't think it got hot enough to be melty in places, but who knows. Some of it definitely didn't roast enough, probably needed stirring while roasting. That little bit I'll do again. Got a few vids on my youtube channel, benbaker1976. More to follow as smelt goes further. Tickled pink that it worked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobody Special Posted May 19, 2013 Author Share Posted May 19, 2013 Busted up the roasted ore after work today with my two youngest. They had fun, and make great strikers. Also a lot of fun to impress them by taking a small boulder size rock and twisting it apart with your bare hands! http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/37302-crushing001/ http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/37303-crushing002/ http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/37304-crushing003/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobody Special Posted May 27, 2013 Author Share Posted May 27, 2013 Update - making charcoal. Charcoal, charcoal and more charcoal. 100 lbs ish so far. Maybe enough to do a bloom by tuesday/wednesday? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobody Special Posted May 28, 2013 Author Share Posted May 28, 2013 http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/37315-etowah-furnace/ More charcoal for the bloom today, fishing, fed chickens and rabbits, libations for the fallen. Fishing area was at old Etowah blast furnace. Inspiring. Around 70 ft. tall. This one could put out about 9 tons of pig iron in its heyday. All that's left of the biggest iron working area in the south around civil war era. Rest is buried under a lake now. On leave til Friday. Hopefully, bloom this week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Coke Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 Greetings Ben, Thanx for the picture... I have always been amazed what our for fathers were able to accomplish with so little... Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doc Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 How many pounds of ore do you have? How tall and what diameter will your furnace be? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monstermetal Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 There is a accomplished smith in Oregon named Jack Frost, careful you you might hurt his feelings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 There is a accomplished smith in Oregon named Jack Frost, careful you you might hurt his feelings. Funny thing Larry: When I was only in Alaska a few years there was a Jack Frost lived up my street a couple blocks, we kept getting each other's mail. He's a known radio character in Anchorage. I don't know how you'd hurt his feelings , a good 40 years on radio and you grow extra thick hide. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 Get a face shield on the kiddo's!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobody Special Posted May 30, 2013 Author Share Posted May 30, 2013 In order-ish, I didn't know of Jack Frost, just making a christmas song reference, I had about 75 lbs of ore before roasting, not sure now, feels lighter. Thinking about 3 ft tall and maybe around 16 inches i.d. for the furnace. My kids do more dangerous things before breakfast than I do in a year, but I made sure to give them pieces that were maybe almost as tough as coke. Very crumbly. And then 15 minutes later, caught them 20 ft up a very much not load bearing tree when I turned my back. Finally finished the charcoal today. Around 80 gallsons. Start building the furnace tommorow I think. Pics to follow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted May 30, 2013 Share Posted May 30, 2013 I did a lot of crazy stuff when younger too---and I have the scars, multiple tetanus shots and summers spent NOT having fun till I healed up. I have tried to teach my kids to live dangerously in as safe a manner as possible. That was ok but the next time might not be. Best to have their own safety equipment and get them used to wearing it. (we got them so well trained on seatbelts they would remind *us* to buckle up!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doc Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 I don't think you've got enough charcoal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobody Special Posted May 31, 2013 Author Share Posted May 31, 2013 I don't think you've got enough charcoal. A lot of hardwood in mine, oak and pecan. 20 gallons was 45 lbs, final tally's around 85-90 gallons, so........got 180-200 lbs? Even if I'm wrong on the high end and have about 150, figured that would be enough. Most of the sites I've seen said to run til the bloom starts to block airflow from the tuyere, figured if I use all the ore great, if not, I'll take what I can get, ditto if I start to run out of fuel. Would have built the stack yesterday, but ran into a series of minor emergencies at the chicken farm. How much would you use for this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 well you can do your preheat with wood that will also start the charcoal pile in the bloomery; then 50:50 by weight if you're good at it or more charcoal than ore if you are still feeling your way around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobody Special Posted May 31, 2013 Author Share Posted May 31, 2013 I was looking a lot at the rockbridge bloomery site, they seem to say around 150 lbs and up for said amount of ore. I may actually be a little light on ore, not sure if the weight of their ore is before or after roasting. Planning on preheat with wood, Got a bunch of pine scraps, and some pecan cordwood I can bust up smaller. Bout an hour, then load with charcoal, turn on air around 20 minutes or so, start charging. They seem to have a lot of experience, so I was going to follow their guidelines, albeit modified some to fit the materials at hand. For example, I'm not set up to do a water cooled tuyere. Going with black pipe, but probably gonna try to set it up where the last couple of inches is ceramic to prevent melting. If it's not working well, then iron all the way. Their hollow air preheater's probably out for me too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobody Special Posted June 1, 2013 Author Share Posted June 1, 2013 Is it seasoned well? Some get a lot easier with seaoning, some get harder. Pecan and hickory are nightmarishly hard before they've sat a year or two. I use the semi-direct currently. Got really good charcoal with the indirect when it worked, but I kept messing with the system trying to get it right, and never quite got it. Inconsistent. I take a 55 gallon barrel, set it on blocks. Barrel has about 7 holes in the bottom, say two inches each. Start a fire in the bottom, toss in wood until full. Wood should be cut down to small pieces. Ideally no more than 5 or 6 inches square, but tell the truth, I often toss in cordwood I've busted down to kindling size with a maul, and accept that I'll end up with some leftovers that didn't char fully. Hardwood's denser/better by far than softwood, and you definitely want to use seasoned wood. Burn for about an hour after full with the lid propped open a couple of inches, smoke will go from white or brown and white to bluish black, often little to no smoke by time to cover. Then close lid, take off of blocks. Put blocks on lid, and tamp down around the edges with wet sand to make sure no oxygen gets in. (will shoot flames out bottom from overpressure of burning wood gas). Whack a few times with a piece of cordwood, wet down, and wait at least 8 hours. If, when you open it, it flames up, soak it down with the hose. Usually get around 30-40 percent yield. Very smoky at first, and not as efficient as the indirect method, but easy, and consistent. Especially easy if you burn several barrels at a time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doc Posted June 1, 2013 Share Posted June 1, 2013 Take a look at this site .It is much more current work from the same people who are on the rockbridge site. http://www.leesauder.com/smelting_research.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobody Special Posted June 2, 2013 Author Share Posted June 2, 2013 I will look doc, thanks! Would tonight but just staying up long enough to fire up the half of the furnace I got done today. The inevitable chicken based emergency came up before I could finish, and it's supposed to rain tommorow, possibly while I'm at work, so thought I'd fire what I had and harden it up some for what it's worth before the rain and try to cover it if I can tommorow. Here's some pics, rock and earth base. Built on a box-wire frame. About 14 inches i.d. at bottom, gonna be about 12 at the top, 30 inches tall, and tuyere is black pipe set at 10 inches, at around a 20 degree angle. Filled the slag hole while forming with a bit of log so that if it got stuck I could burn it out. Also a short video of the fire on my youtube channel, benbaker1976. http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/37333-furnace1/ http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/37334-furnace2/ http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/37335-furnace3/ http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/37336-furnace4/ http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/37337-furnace5/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted June 2, 2013 Share Posted June 2, 2013 Are you smoothing the inside as you go? Helps prevent bridging and a smoother flow of charcoal and ore down the throat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobody Special Posted June 2, 2013 Author Share Posted June 2, 2013 Smelt in progress!!!!!!!! Awesome! Pics to follow. Going well so far, although I think the tuyere's too small, had to unblock it by third charge of ore. Smoothed as best I could, but still pretty rough and tended to crack after it was fired. I think having the narrower mouth tapering to a wider base is making a big difference. About every 5 minutes or so, the ore/charcoal visibly drops a little. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobody Special Posted June 2, 2013 Author Share Posted June 2, 2013 Tuyere is definitely too small, unblocking at every charge now or it won't keep at yellow heat. Still, going well, and looks like I'll run out of ore before I run out of charcoal. About 1.5 hrs in, and used up about 3 gallons of ore out of the 8 or nine I have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobody Special Posted June 3, 2013 Author Share Posted June 3, 2013 So final results? Dunno, 30 lbs or so bloom. Not sure in some cases where slag ends and bloom begins. Wife's chicken customers showed up unannounced at exactly the climatic moment. Drove my dog insane, so had to deal with them. Struck the bloom too cold after they left, and broke it into pieces. Got some good bits left. Letting cool, and wait until tommorow to play with bits and pieces. Might have been more solid if I'd recycled slag more, but got a thunderstorm in the middle, and the thermal shock of the cold rain on the hot clay damaged the walls to the point where it was held together with duct tape, jb weld, and silly string, so only recycled once. Here's some pics. Also posted video on my youtube channel, benbaker1976. Thanks for help, advice, and comments! http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/37338-bloom1/ http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/37339-bloom2/ http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/37340-bloom3/ http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/37341-bloom4/ http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/37342-bloom5/ http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/37343-bloom6/ http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/37344-bloom7/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doc Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 Hey, Nobody, good show for your first attempt!!! It's hard to tell from your pics exactly what you've gotten. Try spark testing some of the bits you've got on a grinding wheel. Looks to me from the pics like you might have some high carbon stuff,iron and a goodly amount of slag. But as I said the pics may not tell the true story. Doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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