the forge has been doing great and i tried what Thomas Powers said about making the fire in the forge and that has worked very well.

it heats up in mear seconds.

photos might not come in until the 16th.

On August 15, 2017 at 2:19 PM, Matthew D said:

Don't ever quench them in water though or they may break. 

This is true for high-carbon steel, but it is ok to quench mild steel in water and still be safe.

JP

Of course A36 is often sold as "mild steel" and sometimes it has issues with being quenched.  Good practice to get used to either quenching tongs before they get hot enough to show colour or to just let them normalize, perhaps trading off pairs as needed.

I use welder clamping pliers. Got 2 different ends from tractor supply and they are longer so my had stays out the fire, my hand dont gramp or get blistered from rebar, and they adjust. They aint bad even for us poor broke folks that arent making anything worth selling yet.

On 8/16/2017 at 11:57 AM, Charles R. Stevens said:

To throw a wrench in the discussion, many of the folks badmouthing rebar will also recommend A36 as "good mild steel. They both suffer from the same issues, they are made to an engineering specification and not generally to a steel formula. Some rebar acualy will make exeptable hot work tools, but it's all mystery metal. 

I keep an eye out for mud flap hangers. They are square pieces of spring stock.  

Are you sure they are spring steel? When we buy them from our vendor they are super cheap comparatively to the springs we buy.

 That’s because the manufacturing processes and performance specs on springs are a lot higher than they are for a mudflap hanger. 

Secondly the OEM version is simply bent, wile the better ones have a coil in them. The most common failer is fatige at the bend nearest the truck.  

Anyway cut a peice and heat and quench

On 11/29/2017 at 10:46 AM, ryancrowe92 said:

I know some of you are probably angry or upset that I used compressed oxygen to get the fire going. but with out the diesel fuel I cant start my fires so I'm having to use laves and a little oxygen to get it started and that's  it. 

Newspaper and kindling. Although I do cheat a bit on that in a way. I have an old electric crock pot that I use to melt paraffin from old candles I buy cheap at garage sales.  I split scrap lumber into thin 5” long strips. I soak the strips in the melted paraffin until they no longer float. Dryer lint works as well, but I like the wood better. 

I take a page from the newspaper and place a small bit of crushed bituminous coal and two or three pieces of the thinner wood strips inside the newspaper. I wad the newspaper and other stuff into a loose ball. Over that I place about 5 or 6 of the paraffin-wood strips in a camp fire arrangement. Around the edge of that I place coal. I light the ball with a match or grill lighter and turn on my blower at a low setting.  In just a few minutes my forge is burning well.  No compressed O2, diesel, or gasoline needed.