Built my first Jabod ( pictures included

[Enewguy]

So I decided to try building a Jabod today. I had a 4x4 piece of 3/4" plywood in the shop. Threw that on the ole saw horses, screwed on 2x4s then some scrap car siding (tongue and groove). Where I'm at in Kansas there's always a breeze or wind so I left about a half inch Gap on the ends so I could slide some plywood in just Incase the to block the wind off. Put a hard fire brick in the middle. Took the tractor to the pasture and brought back some clay/dirt. Dumped it in, shaped it and packed it down some.  Using an air mattress inflator and 1/2 inch pipe and floor flange. The flame was going.

After it ran for an hour or so, I pulled back on the pipe about an inch or so. I just wanted to keep the heat directly off it.

The MAJOR lesson I learned today is not to put one side of a pair of tongs in the forge after hot punching it.and walk up to the garage to get a pack of smokes from the truck....Oops. when I came back I had  a big sparkler show coming out of the fire and a half a tong.

All said and done, I really had a fun day.

I even made a small quench tank out of an old fire extinguisher. It was out of date since 2004. 

[Enewguy]

I'm using anthracite. It seems to have a very distinct smell when burning. A bit like galvanized metal. Is that normal?

I work for the d.o.t and on occasion we have to replace guardrail that's been hit. We usually use a blow torch to cut it up small enough to haul it off. Even though you avoid breathing in the fumes you do occasionally smell it.

[Enewguy]

Can someone explain air flow/supply with a side blast JABOD. as in when to have the flow on and off. 

I built another fire in mine tonight, I think I might be leaving the air on at the wrong time. Even when placing my work piece the proper way like in the diagram, 

It will get really hot really fast. Like sparkling hot if I'm not careful. I thought it was because I was using rather smaller stock 3/8 round. But a friend gave me a RR spike today so I decided to mess around with it. yes I know the whole argument about messing with them (mixed metal) but that's not the info I'm after right now. With in 2 minutes tops it was starting to throw Sparks. And cook off.

So my question is, should the flow be turned on when the work piece is out of the fire ball? To keep the fire going. Could it be because I'm using half inch pipe instead of 3/4? It was what was on hand last weekend.

 

Does the fire look right The first is with air on, the second is with it off.

Thanks again

[Frosty]

Fire looks good figure out how to put less air into it once you have a good sweet spot going.

Coal has a lot of associated elements and minerals in it though the strongest smell is usually sulfur, phosphorus is common too. If you're smelling galvy (zinc) then you have galvanized steel too close to the fire, whether it's the air supply, fire tools, maybe nuts and bolts or wire. Uh MAYBE that piece of threaded rod? Is there any white lacy smoke floating around?

I torched a lot of guardrail when I worked for DOT myself, didn't kill any of us but isn't good for you. Keep out of the smoke, stand with a breeze to your side, it'll carry it away better.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Enewguy]

The all thread isn't even warm, it was just a convenient flat place to set it down. Also is stainless. I use it to put through the center of a roll of barbwire to hold with the 3 point in the tractor.

 

I was kinda thinking along those lines frosty, that I need to put in a waste gate for some of the air flow. The flames in the pic look awful aggressive. 

I'm thinking about changing to to 3/4 with a 45 elbow and a ball valve on it.

As for the smell, maybe it is suffer I'm smelling isn't any galvanized in there of my doing. No there's not any zink smoke. I looked specifically for that. Once it gets going, there's not much smoke at all. Not that I can see anyhow.