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I Forge Iron

First forge in this little one


brickman

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Excellent! My first two forges were rivet forges, and you can do a whole lot more in one than people think. My only suggestion would be to get yourself some kind of stand to support the weight of longer stock. You'll thank yourself.

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1 hour ago, JHCC said:

Excellent! My first two forges were rivet forges, and you can do a whole lot more in one than people think. My only suggestion would be to get yourself some kind of stand to support the weight of longer stock. You'll thank yourself.

yeah i have some i can steal from our barn that are old truck rims with tubing welded on and another piece of smaller tubing in it for height adjustment. they should work out

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On 4/8/2017 at 2:09 AM, Arkham said:

Good looking forge brickman. I had a chance to buy a rivet forge just like that, I seriously regret it now. 

my only gripe is that the top isnt very big and i'm still learning tomanage a fire, and while it doesnt burn through much coal sometimes i get annoyed at how little of the metal it heats

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37 minutes ago, PapaDooks said:

good point but then rivets aren't really all that big so could heat a fair few of them in that lil fire 

Yeah and a lot of my issue is still just me learning to control the fire well also. Once i get better at that, it wont be such a problem. For making smaller things this forge will be more than enough... Although you can bet i'm already brewing plans for one that will go in my not yet built shop.

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If you are sticking the steel down at an angle than the end will only get hot. the bar should be level, which makes it easier to heat up larger sections. You also must realize that with just a hand hammer you can only forge so much at a time. It wouldn't do much good if you heated up 8 inches of a bar when you can only really efficiently forge half or less of that 8 inches. I don't know if you are angling the stock, so this is just a suggestion/thought.

                                                                                                                       Littleblacksmith

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25 minutes ago, littleblacksmith said:

If you are sticking the steel down at an angle than the end will only get hot. the bar should be level, which makes it easier to heat up larger sections. You also must realize that with just a hand hammer you can only forge so much at a time. It wouldn't do much good if you heated up 8 inches of a bar when you can only really efficiently forge half or less of that 8 inches. I don't know if you are angling the stock, so this is just a suggestion/thought.

                                                                                                                       Littleblacksmith

Thanks for the tips, but no i'm not angling the stock. i just am having fire control issues, the coal is burning where i dont want it to sometimes, my hot spots move a bit.. I'm getting better at it but usually i only get ~3 inches of workable material at a time. And while i'm not great, i think my hammer control is pretty decent for a beginner and i can easily work 4-6 inches in a heating depending on what i'm trying to do.. 

Then again, i'm a noob and maybe wayyy off base with some of those assumptions.

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Try packing the coal down from the outside in with your shovel and stirring the center with your fire rake. This compacts the coal on the outside and makes it harder for air to flow through, while keeping the center opened a LITTLE makes a path for easier air flow and keeps your heart where you want it. NO don't excavate a tunnel, just keep the coke a little more open.

By stirring the center I don't mean like scrambling eggs I mean using the rake to keep the air grate clean by aiming it straight down. Think of a capital L with the foot pointed down and scrape the point back and forth.

NOT laying flat and  opening the whole dome so the blast can go where ever through the loose pieces.

Frosty The Lucky.

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3 hours ago, Frosty said:

Try packing the coal down from the outside in with your shovel and stirring the center with your fire rake. This compacts the coal on the outside and makes it harder for air to flow through, while keeping the center opened a LITTLE makes a path for easier air flow and keeps your heart where you want it. NO don't excavate a tunnel, just keep the coke a little more open.

By stirring the center I don't mean like scrambling eggs I mean using the rake to keep the air grate clean by aiming it straight down. Think of a capital L with the foot pointed down and scrape the point back and forth.

NOT laying flat and  opening the whole dome so the blast can go where ever through the loose pieces.

Frosty The Lucky.

that actually helps a lot, i will do that tomorrow when i light her up again. do you think you could maybe post some pics describing this process? i have a pretty good idea of what you mean and ill make those changes tomorrow to my fire technique

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3 hours ago, brickman said:

that actually helps a lot, i will do that tomorrow when i light her up again. do you think you could maybe post some pics describing this process? i have a pretty good idea of what you mean and ill make those changes tomorrow to my fire technique

I would but I don't burn coal, I'm a gas forge guy. :ph34r: Well, I have and know how to use coal it's just not very available here. My coal rake is in the house next to the wood stove.

A popular and effective fire rake is made by putting a point on a piece of stock 3/8" sq. or 1/2" rd. is plenty. Then draw it wide back a few inches, 3" is good but it's not critical. Now bend the widened section 90* to the shaft, a little curve inward is helpful. The point is poky so you can get into the air grate and pick clinker out. The widened section is like a hoe so you can move coke easily.

Just insert the point straight down into the dome and pick the clinker out of the grate. The action will break the breeze (forge coke) loose so air and flame can flow up through it more easily. If there's a really bright yellow clump down by your air grate pull it out of the fire it's a clinker! Clinkers are evil, tools of the devil! They look HOT because they're sucking the heat out of your fire so YOU don't get to use it.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

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