Kardall Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 October 24th, 2015 - Saskatchewan CanadaFor the last few years I have lurked this site, I have read and I have dreamt. Well today, I got my coal in the forge I fixed up, and I have actually fired it and hit some metal!It has been about 6 months in the making to this stage, from organizing what I am going to need, securing products/base tools, and getting to it.I did a recording of my first day and put it on my youtube, so if you want, you can check it out The forge was sitting outside in the bushes on a farm here for over 40 years, and had rusted away in the middle of it, but there was enough steel around it that we could utilize something to bolt to it and make things work again.We took an older heavier gauge steel drum lid and cut a circle out of it. Then drilled through the center of it 5 times to where the blower intake was.Bolted everything together.As you can probably hear from the blower, it has some kind of rattle, and that's probably due to being well used and being left outside. We did manage to take the cover of the gearbox off, and the fan blade housing. It was clear and the gears were still really well greased, so I am not 100% sure on what the actual cause of it is. It does rattle, but not all the time, it just did it bad in the video cause it knew I was recording...The only tools I have right now, are a pair of vice grips, a really small ball pein hammer that is just far too small for what I am doing, but it is going to have to do until I can get a 2lb hammer or so.The anvil has no markings visible other than the markings from inspectors etc, that they all do, but I figure it's around 30-40lb anvil. There are a lot of chips around it, and I will probably be putting some pictures up to see if someone can help me out with it, if there's anything I should fix on it. The edges on the top seem pretty good in most parts so I think it'll be good for now. The base it is on is metal, and I wasn't happy with it. It isn't bolted to the ground (Is it going to hurt the vibration back into the work piece if I put it on the ground outside so it doesn't jump around?That piece I made, I am going to use it until I can actually make proper tools, but I have to get good at working with the coal forge. I have been researching it and I think I was doing it wrong. I burned through almost 1/3 of a 5lb bucket of coal. I think it was in too big of chunks, and I was just feeding the coal right into the fire, instead of converting it to coke first :/ But you live and learn.I was given two 5lb buckets from a friend who heats his house, so I know it's not the right stuff, but I think it'll help me get started and at least make the basic tools.If there is any questions or comments/suggestions please leave them here. I will be checking and updating this as I go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starlight Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 congrats! Keep going! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gote Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 That's the spirit. GratulationsGöte Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swedefiddle Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 Good Morning,There is an active Blacksmith Association in Saskatchewan. Western Canadian Blacksmith Guild, Main group is in the Saskatoon area and other members not in Saskatoon. If you put your location in your Avatar (it shows under your name), you will probably be surprised by someone close to where you live.Welcome to the Family. There is no Mother or Father, but there are a whole pile of siblings.Neil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 Welcome aboard, glad you delurked! Good job on the forge.Yeah, you need to break the coal up to say acorn size and observe the normal green coal method. Almost any coal can be forged with so long as it isn't too clinkery.You might want to save the spring stock for a while unless you have a LOT, it just isn't necessary for most things. You'll want a longer handle on the fire rake, you're going to burn the hair off your hands soon enough. Nice profile on it, you'll find the pointed end really helps clearing clinker from the fire.Oh, one thing you should do with the spring stock is make some cutoff tools. A hot chisel is a good beginner project and you'll use the heck out of one so make a few. for hot cutting and incising you want it long enough your hand isn't too close to hot steel or they're hard to hold steady.Kudos for finding a practical cutting tool to make from a RR spike! If you were to weld a spring steel bit into it it'd make a handy hot cut.Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kardall Posted October 25, 2015 Author Share Posted October 25, 2015 Ya, I am going to attach the rake to a stick or something. I worked on it for a little bit today, but I was really just trying to fix the bottom part of it so it was wider to curve around a dowel or something else later on.I have access to so much of that spring steel. This farmer that I got the forge/anvil from has a shed with probably 50-100 springs like that + misc. pieces from farm equipment over the years. It just sits there, so he said I can come take it when i need it yay I thought about the coal, making it smaller. I will try that next time. Right now I was trying to get some smaller pieces for starting up during the week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 26, 2015 Share Posted October 26, 2015 I think what he was getting at is that working spring is a lot more work than working mild or A36; free stock isn't free if you have to spend hours more working it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kardall Posted November 12, 2015 Author Share Posted November 12, 2015 Day 2 Oct. 25th, 2015 - This was me live streaming on Twitch and I started to just focus more on simple smoothing of the surface on the other tool at lower temps, and as well trying to get more practice into feeding the fire properly and keeping it rolling along as I work. It was interesting, not too much accomplished other than knowledge. Day 3 November 8th, 2015 - Big day. I wanted to start from scratch, working with smaller coal piece (helped immensely) and then make my first full fledged tool. I like to consider the first project as more of a learning experience on how to hit and finish and such, so it was time to actually make the first tool that I will use on a regular basis. So I made my poker/scraper combination tool. I took the coil that you see in the first video, and un-coiled half of it and then cut it off past the start of the "U" part of the spring (flat part in the middle). When it was straightened out, it was about 14-16" long so I had a enough room on both ends to make one tool instead of the planned two. The spring is kind of narrow, so I didn't want to make it any narrower as I have big hands and anything smaller that I would have to use might get uncomfortable to hold. I chose this because though if I made two, I could make a handle (fold it over or loop with flattened end @45 degrees for push/pull motions) I just wanted a simple tool since I don't have anywhere to hang them while working at the moment, so one tool that does both jobs is all I needed for right now I started by tapering one end to the point where it would go into the holes where the air comes out and go down about 1/2 an inch to clear blockages, and then smoothed it out so it was more rounded instead of 4-sided. Then I took the other end and about 3-4" of it, and flattened it out with the face of the hammer until it had a solid flat surface, then used the cross pein and tried to hit along perpendicular to the flat part, and try to spread it out. My first mistake was not working from the end in. I should have. Going from the inner part and working out was kind of difficult since the end of the piece was still round and not flat on the anvil. So every time I hit it, it bounced around a lot. After the 2nd heat I was done the inner part, and 3rd and 4th heats were making the end the same thickness, straightening it out and making it a little smoother. Then I bent it at a 90 degree angle right where it goes round, and the last 1 / 8" of the tip, I bent into a tiny crook at a slight angle so it acted like a 'scoop' so pieces would be stuck on the flat face of the scraper rather than rolling off the tip. It works pretty good actually. I am satisfied. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrDarkNebulah Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 Im just starting out and i have a similar problem with the whole coal thing, but Im using charcoal. Ive burnt through a third of an eight pound bag in just a few hours. How do I keep the charcoal lasting longer? Ive been planning on lowering the amount of air going into the forge with a light dimmer switch. Would that help? Is there anything else i should do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kardall Posted November 13, 2015 Author Share Posted November 13, 2015 I am by no means a pro as is probably apparent. But... I had a nylon bag lying around from a trade show, and I put some of the bigger pieces in, and then hit it lightly with a hammer to break them down into smaller pieces. I found that putting the smaller pieces around, packed in better and kept the heat in longer as it burned. I then did not have to turn the blower as much as I used to, which meant that the oxygen was getting to the work piece, but more of the heat was staying inside the firepot area, and not escaping out the top. The dimmer switch, I have seen people do that, and the other design I saw was just a valve that opened/closed or slid into the opening of the tube to restrict the flow of air. That works too. I am kind of lucky, as I have a hand crank blower, but also unlucky as if I want lots of air for some reason, then I have to crank it for a while HAHA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kardall Posted November 30, 2015 Author Share Posted November 30, 2015 (edited) So yesterday was fail at smithing, but today I got something done. I got that Blower hooked up with some help from my father (He is better at electrical than I am). Video of it running etc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzR4Y8M9_lw Edited November 30, 2015 by Kardall Change of Video Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kardall Posted December 5, 2015 Author Share Posted December 5, 2015 @the iron dwarf I remember seeing a post about you giving ideas on a blower setup to connect to the forge with an air flow control valve of sorts. Any way you could enlighten me on that with a link of some sort on how it was made? Right now, I am considering just using an aluminum dryer vent and put an angle piece of tin from an evestrough to connect to the actual forge. It sticks out about 6-8" away from the forge, so I can't imagine the heat itself is an issue, just any sparks so I don't want to use plastic. Right now, I need to figure out how to control it, and I don't want to put a dimmer switch on this blower right now, as I don't think the motor will like it very much (Would rather not burn it out as I am told I can do). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the iron dwarf Posted December 5, 2015 Share Posted December 5, 2015 I just use a ball valve on blowers that are ok with it, you can use one also to bleed off excess air, am late now so will reply more when home from work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John B Posted December 5, 2015 Share Posted December 5, 2015 Here is a picture of a simple slide valve and ash dump ready to be mounted for a bottom blast hearth. The far hole at the extreme right on this picture I use as a stop by inserting a nut and bolt through (not necessary if size worked out correctly. The inner of the hole on the right is to allow a small amount of air to pass as when we are using coke, if all air is shut off, then fire will go out, nott needed if using coal or charcoal. SLIDE VALVE ASSEMBLY comprising Front/Back plate 100mm 6mm 100mm 2 off Spacers 20mm 6mm 100mm 2 off Slide 80mm 6mm 200mm 1 off Shims to allow slide to operate freely 20mm To suit Drinks can flattened and cut, or card 100mm 2 off Also pictured here is a simple ratchet type handle, easy to work, adjust and repeatable. Hope this is of some use to someone, any further information needed, please ask. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kardall Posted December 7, 2015 Author Share Posted December 7, 2015 ahhh I see now. Not sure which one would work but... I could always experiment with a wood air flow for now until I have actually figured everything out (cheaper). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easilyconfused Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 I used to be in Saskatoon. The guild if really good up there and they put on a beginner class at the Saskatoon Western Development Museum that you should look into. It will give you a leg up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kardall Posted December 7, 2015 Author Share Posted December 7, 2015 Ya I saw that on the net, and it's booked all the time HAH. I'll have to wait until the next one comes around ;s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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