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I Forge Iron

My first forge!


Mark 1991

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Welcome aboard Mark, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the IFI gang live within visiting distance.

Nice expedient forge, well done.

You'll need a better air grate, that one will burn through probably first fire. Then a fire and some steel heating aught to about do it.

I already answered your intro post but was Forbidden.

Frosty The Lucky.

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Good job! I think you're going to fit right in here. Blacksmiths are pretty well known for improvising, making do and just generally liking to mess with stuff till we have something that works or come up with a good story about why it's really something else.

You like puns I trust. :ph34r:

Frosty The Lucky.

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Looks good, not to even mention its a first cutting and welding project.  I noticed you used exhaust pipe for your air inlet.  Are you taking precautions to make sure your fire doesn't go backwards?  For a fire grate on my forge I use some cast iron drain covers that fit 4" pipe.  I just lay it on the bottom and replace every couple of years.  That expanded metal won't last long.

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  Your tuyere might backfire if air starts to draw into it while you aren't cranking.  It's rather loud.  I usually see it happen when wetting the fire to control it, or wetting the coal to help it coke. Best solution for either situation is to make sure that the blower is going until all excess water (not soaked in) is steamed off.

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  TP:  Well, that provides an explanation for the phenomenon that I had not heard yet.  And what's more, it makes a lot more sense than steam going into the tuyere.

  Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're implying that the watering of the coal/coke in the fire creates steam, which creates a condition similar to that used to make producer gas.  This gas goes back through the tuyere and mixes with air there and in the blower.  When the mix is right for combustion, the live firepot is the ignition source and KABOOM!!!  The rafters have received their yearly cleaning, and hopefully the precious blower/bellows didn't grenade.

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used this bad boy for the first time today., did not acomplish much besides using a whole 17lb bag of charcole and burning the cap out of my self a couple of times. but I still manged to flatten out a couple of pics of rebarb in a failed attempt at making tongs lol

20150812_151458.jpg

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Tongs are not easy for some of us so don't feel bad about that. Or gettin burned for that matter, I burn myself almost every time I have my forge goin. Sometimes it's hot scale sometimes I just forget that a piece was in the fire 10 minutes earlier and I quickly remember when I pick it up. :) 

I like your forge, nice and simple, nothing like any of the ones I've built.

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