besserheimerphat Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 Well, I took a blacksmithing class and was hooked so now I'm working on putting together my own "shop." I've been lurking here for several months and now that I'm getting close I figured it was time to join the community. I've got a cute little anvil - an 84 pounder - and built an anvil stand out of rough-cut 4x4 fence posts that I had to replace when they got blown over in a wind storm. I've also got a forge nearly built out of a 40 lb propane tank and using a 3/4" T-Rex burner from HybridBurners.com. All that's left is to weld the burner holder onto the tank and get some ITC-100 or similar to coat my 2" of Kaowool and I'll be ready to start banging metal. I figure the first order of business is a set of tongs, followed by punches, cutters and more tongs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 Welcome aboard, glad to have you. If you've been lurking a few months you should know what I'm going to say next. Right? If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many IFI members live within visiting distance. If you make your anvil stand with the 4x4s on end it'll be much more efficient than laying flat. Keep enough ceramic blanket, kiln shelf or whatever you're using for floor to make a movable partition in your forge. A 40lb. tank is pretty large for a single 3/4" burner you might need to adjust the volume. Start by making your punches, chisels, etc. use longer lengths of stock and you can do it without tongs. Tongs are a little advanced for a beginning project and you'll need some basic tools anyway so save them for a bit later. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
besserheimerphat Posted January 3, 2016 Author Share Posted January 3, 2016 3 hours ago, Frosty said: Welcome aboard, glad to have you. If you've been lurking a few months you should know what I'm going to say next. Right? If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many IFI members live within visiting distance. If you make your anvil stand with the 4x4s on end it'll be much more efficient than laying flat. Keep enough ceramic blanket, kiln shelf or whatever you're using for floor to make a movable partition in your forge. A 40lb. tank is pretty large for a single 3/4" burner you might need to adjust the volume. Start by making your punches, chisels, etc. use longer lengths of stock and you can do it without tongs. Tongs are a little advanced for a beginning project and you'll need some basic tools anyway so save them for a bit later. Frosty The Lucky. Location added I also added a photo of my anvil stand below. I was originally planning to use a 20 lb tank for my forge, but my wife was going to make it to the town with free salvage tanks before I could so I asked her to grab a tank for me. I said to get one the same size as what's under our grill, and the 40 pounder is what she came home with... I was a little worried about the volume as well given the burner I had bought, even with 2" of Kaowool and IR coating (about 650 cubic inches), but I put the burner close enough to the front of the forge that I can fill up the back with extra insulation to start and have plenty of space to eventually add a second burner. I have read great things about the 3/4" T-Rex burner (reviewed here by Ron Reil, where he says the output is closer to his 1-1/4" Mini-Mongo burner) so we'll see. Thanks for the tip on the order of projects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 Don't sweat it's to shrink the volume, enlarging it not so. Rex make's burners, better than mine but mine are easy to make and cost in the $10.00 ea. range. Okay, that's not a plug, the one you bought will work fine. Ron tends to be enthusiastic reviewing burner designs other than his. He's a good guy. Nice anvil stand, the only suggestion I'd make is to raise the top band an inch or two to form a lip so you don't have to do anything fancy to keep your anvil put. The space between the feet is a handy place to set hand tools you're using. Putting hammer rack on the stand is good too. The anvil is where you're going to use your hammers so being able to hand a couple few you're using on that job right on the side of the stand is handy. I hang my tongs from the forge for the same reason though my anvil stand has a tong rack on the far side I almost always reach for the forge tong rack. Once you become proficient you'll start speeding up and believe me efficient blacksmithing means going fast. NOT rushing, going fast. Do your planning while the piece is heating, it's too late to think about what to do once you've pulled it from the fire. One aspect of going fast is picking up tongs, hammers, etc. you dropped rather than take time to hang them up. Learn to drop them in a safe convenient place so you don't trip over them and don't have to hunt. You can pick them up and hang them while the piece heats and you think about your next step. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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