First solid fuel forge fab.

[Sly]

That looks amazing Bean.

engh well I got used to drinking about a gallon a half of liquid a day being a soldier and the habits of pushing myself beyond the stress limits sticked too, when i get tired I swing harder and faster. If I get tired and push through it I just become stronger after and my stamina resets. It depends on my work too most of my work past the past year has been folding massive bloom chunks, which is like trying to draw a 4-5 lb block of blade steel by myself. I  also have some issues with not being able to crash... (bad thing kept from the army is that I am always in an adrenal state) I sleep but I dont really sleep, im still alert and the actual point of exhaustion is what lets me actually recover and refresh. So In a way forging has been good therapy for me but I also have to account for my bodies needs which is an extreme amount of protein, calcium, the sugar gets burned and the hydration is a must for me.

I had to force the breaks in otherwise I just wouldn't stop, given I forge in such a state I try to also compensate with food and liquid, I try to drink a veggie smoothy, take my vitamins ect and load up on the calcium, worked stretches in and everything else I could think of. while others might not need that much sugar or go crazy I would still say: get what your body needs.

but oh man being able to actually get real sleep is so worth it, I just dont feel the same the weeks I dont get to forge, mentally or physically.

[Shabumi]

Seems like you know what your body needs. I have to deal with people where I work who have the Idiocracy mindset. Water is the stuff in the toilet and if something has got electrolytes it must be good, no matter what else is in it (it's what people crave). That's why I try to steer people away from Gatorade as their only hydration source.

I understand what it's like to have to force myself to stop to eat/drink. I usually push through work until it's done, to the point of being too hungry to eat. That's where I use beer or a high sugar content drink to jumpstart my metabolism until I can eat something more substantial. I don't like the way I feel when I have to do that, so I try to prevent it instead of correct it.

[Bean07]

I never drank so much water and had a few beers too, we started early (6am) in the steel fabrication workshop due to every day in my first week back being over 40c,that was also the same last week on holidays too, I also put on average about 4-6hrs in my shed working on my forge after a hot work day, it gets tougher when we get older ( 56 ) but I have to say theirs no one in our workshop that works as hard as ive always done,I have a two litre bottle of cold water in my shed bar fridge that I refill daily ATM.as always it is great looking at all things from others prospective s cheers again Shabumi, Sly and all here.

[Silo house Dan!]

On 1/4/2019 at 9:42 PM, Marc1 said:

Nice firepot, 12mm (1/2") thick? wow, good one.

OMG I have been looking for days trying to find such a link.. TY TY TY!!

[Silo house Dan!]

On 1/5/2019 at 12:17 AM, Charles R. Stevens said:

A bullet grate would raise the heart of the fire to table hight. 

whats a billet grate?

 

[Buzzkill]

A good way to think of it is a pipe cap, threaded side down, with a hole drilled in the top.  The hole is for the air to pass through.  The dome shape of the cap then encourages ash and solid impurities (clinker) to form in a doughnut shape around the cap while leaving the air outlet open.  Periodically the doughnut shaped clinker mass can be relatively easily fished out with your fire rake or other such tool and discarded.