January 13, 201610 yr I let this get out of hand today. I think I had it in the fire to long ? It is part of a rake. And some of this is from a RR spike that was pitted real bad. The Brake Rotor forge works I just need to spend more time with it.
January 13, 201610 yr Too much heat for too long while exposed to oxygen. Seen a few parts come out of the heat treat ovens like that when the stainless foil had a hole in it.
January 13, 201610 yr Lesson #1 - Don't turn your back of your Fire. Don't keep looking into the Fire, it will hurt your eyes. Keep glancing at your piece. Lesson #2 - You now know how to Burn Steel. It will not be the last time. Lesson #3 - Have you named your child yet? You gave it birth rights, now it needs a name!! Neil
January 13, 201610 yr Keep it! Call it 'Bernie' and put it next to your forge to remind yourself to be more vigilant!
January 13, 201610 yr I wonder how old bernie will be when he gets a brother or sister :-) Anyway , get some shade 3 welding glasses. I got some 10$ clip ons from Amazon and use them from time to time to study my fire. They cut down on the brightness but more importantly they cut down or block infrared radiation and uv radiation so you dont kill your eyes by looking at the fire to long. DO NOT use standard sun glassed in the forge. read about this in more detail in the safety area and stop giving bad advise based on guesses not facts. Retna burn comes from Infra-red light and sun glasses no not filter for that, they cause the iris to open to allow more light in, letting in much more IR causing more IR damage, and that not cool to encourage that. Shade 3 does help. there are special filters that can be added to prescription glasses as a small fee to block out IR also.
January 14, 201610 yr Well your forge gets plenty hot that is good! Unless you were not paying attention I also believe that you very likely could have seen the very distinctive sparks that come from the fire when your piece is burning. And BTW I have burned stuff too from not paying enough attention so this is not a jab from that comment. But as you say experience should help a lot. One suggestion would be to burn another piece of steel intentionally. And watch above the fire for the telltale sparks When you pull it out it is like a sparkler. You can see those sparks coming from the fire while your piece is in it. You can see only a few sparks, early, if you pay attention... which tells you that your piece is VERY hot. But very likely not so hot that there is much damage. You might consider teaching yourself to recognize those sparks coming from the fire but without being able to see the piece actually beginning to burn. It is a good thing to be able to recognize in order to prevent burning stuff up but also in order to know right away when you have a very hot piece of metal. I think if you can learn how to know when you are almost there with your forge that will be a good thing. And in general I don't think a few sparks, caught early, doesn't do much damage. Others may know better. I am still learning. And different metal chemistry matters here. I am talking about mild steel. Others know way more than I about other steels / alloys. Not sure how you add air to your forge but you will be able to begin to learn how adding air and at what rate contributes to burning vs just heating. To have burning you need excess oxygen. So if you are adding air agressively you may be able to get things heated up but the excess O2 will cause more burning but could also carry some heat away. But to little air will not give you a hot forge any time soon if ever!. It will just be warm and burn coal and take a long time and be boring and annoying. So I think the trick is to heat up your coal with enough airflow to get it close to a white heat, in a big enough ball, with enough coal all around your piece, in a reasonable amount of time, to be able to make the coal around your steel very hot, then back off on air flow to zero or nearly so, and let the steel soak in that low excess O2 ball of white hot coal, but only a few seconds should be necessary... Then pull and hammer! If you can do that reliably you are in a great place. I welcome anyone's correction or challenge on the above. If you have a thicker piece of metal, put in cold, you may have to heat it up slowly, at least initially, in order to get the heat throughout. So some soak time in some lower heat might be necessary.
January 14, 201610 yr Author I did have the sparks, and now I am going to turn off my blower from time to time, the blower has a High and Low I keep it on low, but it still moves a lot of air.
January 15, 201610 yr Man u could cook burgers in seconds! I wonder if you only used coke whether it would actually taste good...??? Talk about a quick searing of a steak! at 2000+F I like my hand crank blower. You can get whatever amount of air needed from zero to max. And it becomes part of the tempo of forging. I kinda rock back and forth on the crank, it's not just an arm thing. No wasted fuel when you are hammering or whatever... I can forge if the power is off too. Ids the pic on the low setting or high setting?
January 22, 201610 yr Nice anvil! Once you see sparks flying out of the forge it is almost always to late, but sometimes it's alright depending on the size of steel and how much was burned. But hey, you got to learn somehow. Don't worry, pretty much everyone has experienced this and continue to. Littleblacksith
January 22, 201610 yr On 1/14/2016 at 8:06 AM, Thats Hot... said: I did have the sparks, and now I am going to turn off my blower from time to time, the blower has a High and Low I keep it on low, but it still moves a lot of air. Suggest you put in an air gate/blast gate that will slide back and forth to adjust the airflow.
February 4, 201610 yr On 1/13/2016 at 4:47 PM, Kevin_Olson said: Mod: I think Kevin_Olson was talking about actual clip-on #3 shades, not sunglasses. Amazon carries them; just search their site for "#3 clip on welding".
February 5, 201610 yr As Thomas Powers pointed out earlier in this thread..." Forge doesn't put out ultraviolet; arc welding does." That includes, MIG, TIG, stick and others. Shade 3 welding glasses (and any welding PPE optics) are primarily for UV shielding, not IR. Search the UVEX site (probably one of the most comprehensive industrial optics companies) for IR shielded glasses or goggles...there are very few. Make sure that if you want IR protection, it is clearly specified in the product.
February 5, 201610 yr The 3M flip up welding shade #3 clip-ons that I use specifically cover IR and mention uses like furnace viewing. I think most welding shades DO cover IR. But as arkie says, check the specs on the product. Do NOT weld with them if they do not. All forms of welding produce tons of IR.
February 5, 201610 yr Eric, good news that your flip-ups are IR filtered. Would you mind telling the brand, style and where you got them?
February 6, 201610 yr On 1/13/2016 at 1:35 AM, ausfire said: Keep it! Call it 'Bernie' and put it next to your forge to remind yourself to be more vigilant! Good god that was funny!
February 6, 201610 yr Gas welding, brazing, cutting goggles, glasses shields are IR shields. Molten steel isn't really bright enough to do a lot of harm but it sure puts out enough IR so that's what the glasses, etc. are designed to filter. Gold lenses are de-BOMB for gas or arc but darned are they fragile and EXPENSIVE. Frosty The Lucky.
February 8, 201610 yr arkie: they are 3M Protective Eyewear Infrared Welding Flip-Up Lens 40427-00000-10 Shade 3. I bought mine on amazon.
February 8, 201610 yr One thing we've discussed elsewhere is that if you're flipping back and forth from naked eye to shaded vision, it becomes harder to properly judge forging, welding, and burning temperatures by metal color. Pick one method and stick with it. (My son and I have Uvex safety goggles with #3 shade that we wear ALL the time when smithing. I considered the flip-ups, but I wanted something that gave us better protection from sparks, scale, etc.)
February 9, 201610 yr 6 hours ago, EricJergensen said: arkie: they are 3M Protective Eyewear Infrared Welding Flip-Up Lens 40427-00000-10 Shade 3. I bought mine on amazon. OK, thanks for the information. I'll look into it. The flip-ups would be better for me.
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