JLP Blacksmith Teaching Center.

[jlpservicesinc]

Frosty,  I discovered today that I did not tighten the pulley on the blower enough I had also greased the shaft so it would be easier to get apart years from now since it will live outside,  so it was slipping.  The wooddrift key was missing, so I decided to try it without one.  

Turns out when there was resistance the pulley would just slip. Grease and loose bolts were the problem..  I'm using those tapered socket 2 piece pulleys..   

This afternoon while there was still light I looked at it, and when I pulled the motor pulley, the blowers would just slip.. 

Problem solved.   I made a new key and then assembled and tightened the pulley correctly.

The variable burn and air rate is such:

16osi air shutter closed (air cfm 123) Oil min1.1 gph/max5.4gph. - 32osi 173 cfm , Min oil 1.5gph-7.6gph. 
16osi air shutter open (air cfm123) oil min 1.9gph/max9.2gph ,    32osi 173cfm, min oil 3gph-15.2gph.  

7.6gph x 138,000btu (#2 fuel oil)=1,048,800 btus per hour.. 

15.2gphx138000btu=2,097,600

I will try and fire it tomorrow on #2 fuel oil.   I've still got to do a lock rod for the burner adjustment..  It has a variable air rate and feeder rate built in, being designed to be controlled from an outside box. 

So in theory the burner and air source should be sufficient to melt cast iron. 

 

[jlpservicesinc]

Bull, Rojo, 

Bull, I still love to go and play in it..   hiking, snow shoeing, climbing,  Ice burging, etc, etc..  The farrier work is the worse part..  Normal farrier work is abusive, but you add in the cold temps, moisture, friction, below freezing tools and with each hoof it all just becomes less and less effienceint in an all ready heavy physically demanding job. 

 

People talk about blacksmithing as being hard, hot, heavy work..  They have no clue to what that really is..  Sure you can have predictable heavy, but what if at any given moment that load went from 15lbs to 1000lbs in an instant..  

Swinging a hammer is easy work..   someone just needs to take their time and work up to it. 

Simply the snow compounds everything..   I don't care if it's -14f with no snow.. add moisture.. argh.. 

Rojo, when I was skinny, the heat did not bother me..   I put on 20lbs over the last 18yrs and now I sweat a lot more.   

I love all the seasons. 

Forced into working in any condition outside the human norms has a tendency to take it's toll..  

My scuba diving season was from just after turkey day till april.  So all of it was winter scuba diving.  I ended up getting severe cold induced injury in my hands from all the exposure..  I literally have no blood flow in my hands when they get cold..    Couple that with all the injuries my left ring finger gets cold, my right ring finger and pointer gets cold. 

People say to me when I'm working that I love the summers heat and humidity..    LOL.. Not really, I mean yes but it's because I just think about how hard winters are and it makes it all the better..    NOt really..  but it helps keep me in my right mind. 

It's interesting to me "what happens from childhood, to teen ager, to adult"..    Society dictates a certain behavior (school, responsibilities, ownership, etc, etc)..  I've seen plenty of kids grow up now and it's intersting to me how it all takes place..  

[Bull Sigh]

Tucson is awesome from about mid-September to early May.  I've done lots of hiking and rock climbing in the area and love Mt. Lemmon, Cochise Stronghold, Saguaro NP, etc.  As a whole, AZ is one of my favorite states to visit.  So incredible.  I'm a desert rat at heart, but just can't take the heat anymore.  I'm making myself sound pretty lame here.  I used to be tougher, honest.

I'm guessing heat tolerance is a major factor for Tucson forges in the summer...

"The farrier work is the worse part.."

I've never done it at all.  I have tended horses when friends and family went on vacation, and have ridden quite a bit.  Most of that went well, but I have taken a couple of kicks and have been tossed off.  

"People say to me when I'm working that I love the summers heat and humidity.."

I grew up in a hot, humid area and worked outdoors.  Once I got out of school, I taught tech in LA and on the Gulf coast of TX, so I have endured the wet heat.  Being retired now, I can choose more often to be where the climate matches my clothes.  I have the gear and the knowledge to deal with nasty conditions, but stay clear when I can.  This summer, I worked in the heat 7 days a week and beat it by arriving before sunrise and bailing when it got nasty.  Retirement has been fun.

When you are up to full speed, do you have any clues about summer comfort in your school building with a bunch of forges running at once?  The high ceiling and large room volume will surely help.  A fan and vent system would be great.

[jlpservicesinc]

The schools is basically east to west facing door wise.  The front shed dormer is the cool side so often in the summer heat you just open the door and there is a cooler breeze that comes thru.. 


With that solid fuel forges I hope will be the mainstay so there is not the crazy heat soak of gas forges. 

I also have a huge fan..  The building is R38 roof and R29 walls so it resists heat or cold from outside.   I was thinking about maybe some sort of geothermal cooling unit when I'm finally sorted an have time.   

I planned on it so have a couple of spots open in the frost wall for such things. 

Like everything,  it's time, money or both..  What I have learned from this project is it's all 3 on a regular basis..  they just swap positions  at will. 

I've been sidelined with the furnace project but feeling the need to get back onto the electrical.   Hauling around a 6awg extension cord 50ft long is getting old.. especially when you need the compressor, welder and metal lathe at the same time. 

[Bull Sigh]

"Like everything,  it's time, money or both..  What I have learned from this project is it's all 3 on a regular basis..  they just swap positions  at will."

Another t-shirt-able quote.

[Frosty]

Cold weather is much easier to deal with than hot, you can always put on another layer if you're cold but it you're too hot you can only take off so much. In either case humidity is NOT your friend.

Synthetic insulation is a big improvement though, it loses little of it's insulating properties when wet so sweating isn't as dangerous in sub zero temps.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Bull Sigh]

Agreed, Frosty.  I've dealt with -40F on winter climbs and stayed warm enough but not comfortable.  I've done many days of firewood work in the -10 to -20 range.  It was like Zipper Wars.  In the hot and humid zone, I'd wear minimal thin wool clothes and pour water on it.  And suffered.  I've passed out from heat exhaustion and it sucks bad.

[jlpservicesinc]

Just to be the odd person out..   During winter if you sweat you are dead..   So the way I have learned to deal with it is this. 

Start cold and stay cold..   In between jobs take off all outerwear and roll down all the windows to evaporate any sweat, then if there is time roll the windows up and turn the heat on to at least take the chill off. 

This is what is done between every stop.  Rinse and repeat up to 4 or 5 times a day.   4-5days a week.. 

Then add in everything is wet, icy and slippery..   Rasps clogg with frozed shaved hoof starting on the first hoof.   If you have 4 horse at 1 stop, by the time you get to the last horse even with cleaning rasps with a wire brush your working 4X harder or more for each rasp stroke that is less effective. 

There is a difference between having choices,, cut wood for 10min and then relax by the fire.  Sadly this is not the case.. 

It's production work and when you expect a 15lb foot and it turns into a 1000lb foot because the wind blew.. 

[Bull Sigh]

"Start cold and stay cold.. "

That's basically what I was getting at when I said "warm enough but not comfortable".  If you do technical waterfall ice climbs, after you complete the approach, you put on crampons and boulder at the base with just your liner gloves on, gripping ribs in the ice.  You hands will get cold-shocked, so you put your warm gloves back on and walk around to get blood flowing again.  Then boulder again in liners.  Then you are set to climb the steeps for a few hours because bouldering ice in liners will dilate your finger capillaries.

Harsh weather requires the right state of mind, but being fit and tough helps alot.  By the time it gets down to -10 F, I'm not the happiest camper around.

[jlpservicesinc]

Bull you are so right.  

 

Mindset. The right mindset is so important.  

You mentioning mindset really brings everything full circle. 

My mantra " you can do it".   

 

As ive gotten older and I feel this is one of those getting older things is this " do I want to do this"...

This question seems to present itself more and more.

I know I can still do x,y,z..  but do I really want to? 

 

Funniest thing is once I make the decision to do it I have a great time and feel better for it. 

[Bull Sigh]

"My mantra "you can do it". "

I'm going to re-watch Deuce Bigalow tonight.  

"As ive gotten older and I feel this is one of those getting older things is this " do I want to do this"..."

I hear that so clearly.  I'm so OCD, if I start something, I need to finish it.  I get so much inner peace by setting a goal that matters, then getting it done.

We should talk sometime about the range of classes you will teach.  I think there is a road trip in my future.

[Frosty]

I spent nearly 20 years as a field guy as an exploration driller for bridges and foundations. In most cases the best time to drill a bridge location on a river is winter when the ice is thick enough to hold the drill. I spent about 3/4 of my field time tenting in the wilds in winter. 

First, "warm and cold" are feelings. Temperature is a number on a measuring device. Two very different things. More people in Alaska die from exposure at temps between 60-40f. Chill factor is an indication of how quickly the air can lower your temperature. It works both ways, ovens with fans in them are using the exact same principle of stripping air off the surface replacing it with hotter or colder air. 

"Stay cold" couldn't work for us, you couldn't get warm so trying to stay cold was an application for a Darwin Award. Meals were cans heated in a bucket of boiling water, they won't explode in boiling water. Do NOT heat a sealed can over anything, that is another Darwin Award application!! The ONLY time I was warm was in my sleeping bag, an 14 lb. second or third generation hollowfill, expedition mountaineering mummy rated to -100f and frankly too warm. At -45f I had to keep it partly unzipped with a flannel shirt over the opening to keep from sweating myself wet. Never NEVER keep your clothes in the bag with you! They WILL absorb moisture from your breath and lose insulating properties. I kept mine under my bag on my 3 foam pad, bed.

Wake up warm and toasty, unzip my bag after rolling off my clothes and laying them next to me, stand up naked and let the blast of extreme cold hit my bare skin then get dressed standing in my bag. You can dress REALLY fast with a little motivation. 

The cold blast jump starts the metabolism, the short exposure to open ambient temp freeze dries any residual moisture from your clothes and last step was sitting on my cooler to put on dry wool socks and cold boots. My parka and Refridgeware hung in the entry outside the tent proper to stay dry.

If your head and feet are warm you're warm. Dry is warm and layers, you can adjust layers but not one thick one. Once we got moving on the drill rig my parka came off and hung out of any water spray but not in the cab. My Helly Hanssen rain coat and bibs went on and I was good for the day. Grunden is good cold weather rain gear I don't see Hellys much anymore. The rain gear worn by crew on "Deadliest Catch" won't stiffen and crack in extreme cold. 

Wind and rain is the worst. rain gear won't really keep you dry as much as keep the cold water and evaporation on the outside and the warm wet on the inside. Wool and hollowfill retains most of it's insulating properties when wet but you have to keep the wind off. Even a light breeze is a killer. 

Okay, that's probably more than enough Frosty old memories ramble for a while. I'm sure something else will come up later though.

Frosty The Lucky.

[jlpservicesinc]

Bull, love the Deuce..    All those movies were fun.. 

I was thinking about your ice climbing and climbing exploits while out doing the horses.

Your climbing sounds amazing.  I never got involved with ice climbing.. Though I was always fascinated by it.  Did you ever do any staged climbing? 

OCD yikes..  I get it,    It's like the furnace..  or this whole project. 

I stay very focused until I run into an obstacle to finishing it.  Then I shift focus to something else..  If I'm lucky and parts are needed I'm able to find something else on the same project to focus on while waiting for parts. and the parts arrive before switching projects.  If I switch projects and the parts arrive, I just put them on the shelf, till I get back to it. 

My largest problem now is getting started.  Once started I'll go till I run into something. 

I am not a journey person, persay..   I am very much goal and finish-line-oriented. When people say slow down and smell the flowers, I'm like I don't have time for that.. Just getter done.  There is plenty of time for smelling flowers later. 

I'm more of a putterer now vs outright machine.   Well at least when working on things..  I still love to forge metal and see exactly how the metal moves with each hit. 

I have hundreds of projects currently and have to confess it's a little to much.. 

Frosty, how long ago was that?  sounds like you had it figured out..   Did you learn this from others or pick up on things as you went? 

Farrier work is about expectations and the failure of those expectations.   People have very little concern or thoughts to what will make the job easier/safer for the farrier.    They also expect you to train their horse for behaviors they themselves create.   I have multiple stories every week of such things..    Every new customer has the same problems. Every new customer. 

So what this means is, one needs to arrive at the job with no pre-thoughts as to what might or might not take place.  Simply be in the moment at every instant and try to keep the person from creating more problems till the job is over. 

Oftentimes, I will hold the horses myself while working on them,  again because people can be the problem. 

Why I mention this is simply because there is no real way to prepare for what will be.    Physical output goes from 0% to 110% or more in a matter of seconds..  Not minutes.. seconds. 

I used to wear a heart rate monitor, and my normal beats are in the 50-60 range while doing normal stuff..  With horses, it spikes up to 140-150 bpm within a few seconds of work.   Perfect opportunity for a heart attack or stroke.. 

Thursday, I had 3 stops.. about 30minutes from each other.. 2 horses at each stop.  First horses the owners are great and the horses were in and dry but it was kind of a colder raw day so one of the horses (a mustang) was antzy..  Means more time and phyiscal output.   The donky stood perfectly. 

2nd stop the horses were outside in the snow (which now means I have to clean each hoof of snow/ice before I can work. And if they figit and pull their hoof back, it will mean having to clean it again to get rid of the snow and ice. (wear and tear).. This and the fact that with each hoof the rasp becomes less effective..   This type of thing is outside one's control.. 

onto the last job I dressed to start cold knowing I will get hot but its a short visit.. Maybe 20minutes total..  Wind was blowing about 25-35 on a high spot.. First horse was perfect.. 8minutes done.. 2nd horse took about 15min to catch.. 10min to trim.  that time standing there waiting for the person to catch the horse was brutal. 

Not only did I start to sweat from the first horse..  Now I'm being buffeted by cold breeze that was not planned for.  

Again, it's complexity that is beyond control..  As is all of it. 

People are complicated, and this trickle-down effect rests sorely on the farrier.  

[Frosty]

2 hours ago, jlpservicesinc said:

Frosty, how long ago was that?  sounds like you had it figured out..   Did you learn this from others or pick up on things as you went? 

I transferred off the drill crew around 1996, retired in 06 and have lived here since 72. 

Alaska, winters especially, is always a potential survival situation, if you don't listen to the old timers your Darwin Award chances go up. I also grew up in S. Cal. spending a lot of time in the Mojave desert and foothills. Either on horseback or motorcycle. A summer day in the Mojave can kill you just as quickly as a winter day in the arctic. One of the big differences being dangerous animals up here are big and easily seen and smelled. Unlike a tree scorpion, ground wasp nest, and rattle snakes (IF you're not paying attention) and so on.

So yeah, both. I listen to others and pay attention to what's going on. Probably one reason I'm such a strong believer in cause and effect. I wonder what'll happen if I do This? is a way of life. Better, "I'll hold your beer and watch." I'm also not fond of surprises so I tend to analyze things in sometimes ridiculous detail. 

At a level everything is connected and if you look deeply you start to notice. It gives you a head start when figuring out new stuff, look for the parts you know and understand and imagine what the combination will or can do. 

Reading is just another source of connected details.

Makes life interesting and safer.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

[Rojo Pedro]

You guys are wrong. I will take the heat any day...

Heat is merely uncomfortable (if you are climatized)

Cold hurts. 

[Ridgeway Forge Studio]

You are all wrong. No one ever complained about 73 degrees and sunny. 

[Bull Sigh]

"Did you ever do any staged climbing?"

By that, do you mean training with repeats of hard routes?  I lived in MI for over 20 years, which is not a climber's mecca.  We had to run laps on the few local routes, climbing up and down to work the endurance side.  And we had to travel often.  

I went to grad school in Colorado and took a series of elective classes that were run by Holubar.  You could take 4 in a year.  I took their rock climbing class, run by Michael Covington.  It was mediocre at best.  I also took backcountry skiing, kayaking and ice climbing.  Jeff Lowe taught the ice climbing and it was awesome.  Most of the class was top-roping but towards the end we got to do some leads on easier routes.  Year later, I took another class taught by Jeff in New Hampshire, run by EMS.  Even more awesome.  He was an American legend that I ran into in the back country a few times.  May he RIP.

Technical ice climbing has some similarities to climbing poor quality rock, except with ice, you have pointy things strapped to you, ready to poke holes in you and catch on things when you fall, breaking legs, etc. So it is prudent to be patient as you work up the grades and learn to assess the quality of the ice on-the-fly.  The best long ice routes I've done were in the Tetons, like the NE Snowfields route on Mt. Owen. 

For 4 decades, I was a "climb to live, live to climb" person.  I had good career progression, raised a family and did stuff that was "normal life" for many people, but I still managed to train for climbing 40 to 80 hours a week.  Once I got past 50 years old, I had to dial that back and train smarter.

"My largest problem now is getting started."

I can relate.  I'm dealing with it now to some degree by doing more pre-planning and setting fewer priorities. Almost everything I do takes longer than planned, costs more than the budget plan and has more hard knocks.  Getting old is a double-edged sword.  You have more experience to fall back on but there is less gas in the tank and strength somehow vanished.

"I have hundreds of projects currently and have to confess it's a little to much."

Hang tough.  Finishing the building and getting classes rolling will give you a huge emotional reset.  But my money says you will keep yourself over-busy.  That's what doers do.

"Probably one reason I'm such a strong believer in cause and effect. I wonder what'll happen if I do This? is a way of life."

I believe it is the only way to live.  One has to be able to look in the metaphorical mirror and have a balanced self-critical view.  For me, cause and effect produces evidence that has to be pulled into the logical process.  If I don't, I end up with too many similar failures, and life is too short to let that reality get in the way.  Most of my career was research in materials science and it was too easy to go off on fun tangents, where I'd get results but they were a sort of a drift in priority.  I had a mentor that helped my learn to stay focused on the main topic by writing status updates regularly.  That keeps the primary target right in front of your face.

[George N. M.]

Regarding heat and cold, the Swedes have an expression, "There is no bad weather, only bad clothing."  I've heard the same here in Wyoming except "clothing" is replaced with "gear."

When working in the cold I have found that the best thing to do is almost constantly be adjusting your layers, adding, subtracting, taking hats off or putting them on, zipping and unzipping, etc..  It can slow down how much work you can do in X amount of time but it is overall more efficient because you can work more comfortably and work longer.  Where folk get into trouble is when the get too focused on the job and forget or ignore the clothing adjustments.

Back in my geologist days I fantasized about spending a January on the beach.  Unfortunately, I wasn't specific enough in my fantasy because I was sent to sit on an oil well outside Beach, North Dakota for the month of January.  It never broke zero degrees Fahrenheit the whole month I was there.  Typically, it would get up to -10 or so during the day and go down to -20 to -25 at night.  We had to wrap heat tape and insulation around the propane tanks so that they would stay liquid and keep the heaters running.

When I got back to Laramie and it was in the +20s F. it felt like I didn't need a coat.  Laramie was the banana belt by comparison.

When you get up on the "high line" in North Dakota and Montana (Glendive, Harvre, Wolf Point, etc.) there isn't anything between you and the North Pole but a 3 wire fence.

[Frosty]

And Poutine, don't forget the poutine George!

There was a stand in the middle of the intersection of Burbank Blvd. Hollywood Way, just off Victory Blvd. Mapquest doesn't show the old intersection but Burbank Cal. has been changing since it was established. Anyway, the Coney Dog held a small space on an island in the center of the intersection. Their main menu item was hot dogs and fries.  They had about anything a person could want on a dog or fries and it's where I learned about "Wet Fries" my favorite was chili fries. A coleslaw dog was tasty but my favorite was the cheese kraut dog. Shredded cheddar PLEASE, never melted Cheese Whiz. <shudder> They'd happily put anything they had on a dog for you for $0.10 a scoop.

It was a great place that had been grandfathered on that location longer than the major roads around it. I suppose when the owners retired their grandfather rights retired with them or they sold the rights THEN retired. The last time I grabbed a bag there was early July 1972.

Santoro's Submarines was on the other side of our building and made the best subs ever. It was in an alley, maybe 12' wide x 50-60' long and two stories high for storage and the owners apt. 

50 years ago LA was loaded with great little eateries like that, almost everywhere. Just ask at a local business for directions to where they ate or follow the walkers and look for the lines around lunch time.

Frosty The Lucky.

[jlpservicesinc]

Bull, staging is what I was referencing as camping on the side of your climb.      Spending the night..  

Sometimes it can be a cache of stuff put there to move on more..   

Frosty.  Ah the good ol days..  There was certainly something about it being more raw and interesting.  

On that.. Over the last few days I figured out the last part of the puzzle on the furnace.

That is a telesccoping air pipe section so I can move the burner without detaching all the plumbing. 


As for weather.. I all I have to do is play in it.. Snow adds challenges that don't happen any other time of the year..  Iceburg running,  swimming under the ice,  as Bull pointed out ice climbing..   

Lotta good times on the ice.   Different kind of skill building.. 

 

[jlpservicesinc]

For those that were questioning the square to round interface.

[jlpservicesinc]

Since i have dug in deep I figured I might as well dig into the gear tilt motor.. 

The inside is like brand new.  I can only guess that the assembly is in such shabby looking condition due to being outside on the ground for a lot of years. 

The casing had a tiny hole in the top from corrosion so clean it and filled it with epoxy. The output shaft ball bearing is pretty noisy but it spins freely and it's such a low rpm deal I'll leave it for now. 

The oil seal was in good shape. 

I cleaned all the bearings and packed them with grease for assembly and I'll fill the case with Redline heavy weight shock proof.   

I have cleaned the brake on the end and painted the assembly the same safety yellow as the blower cover.  The motor outside casing had a rust hole in the top so clean the rust and filled this with epoxy as well. 

I priced out new gear motor and brake assembly and it's near 2000.00.   

For fyi the blower is a 7" case with 5" gears and a 3" output/intake.. 

 

[jlpservicesinc]

Motor gear box cleaned and reassembled. 

Painted. Some protection for the loose wires that were sticking out and now should be good for a few more years of service. 

Taking care of things ,takes care of you. 

These old equipment are worth it. 

[Bull Sigh]

"Bull, staging is what I was referencing as camping on the side of your climb.      Spending the night..  

Sometimes it can be a cache of stuff put there to move on more.."

I have bivouac'ed on a few big routes and on big walls.  Bivies can be suffering multipliers but also get you very connected with the place you are visiting.  There is a book by Reinhold Messner called The Crystal Horizon that describes what I'm trying to say, in an amazing way.  It's a narrative of his solo climb of the N Ridge of Everest, but even more, it is about a journey of the soul.

A guy I've climbed with did a south-to-north traverse of the Sangre de Cristo range in southern Colorado.  I'd guess that a straight line distance from start to finish was about 70 miles.  He placed caches that were mostly food but also a bit of stove fuel, etc., at 3 places along the route, then stayed on the ridge line for the traverse.  It was epic.

--------------

What is left to do on the current project?

[jlpservicesinc]

Bull,  the book looks like a good read.   

All thats left is to clear the throat of the burner where the bricks lean in, put the tilt motor on and do a test firing. 

I lined the bottom with sand..    

 

The top will need to have a cover made with a vent hole to keep the heat in and give it a longer duration in the furnace itself.  

I need to move onto other projects so nearly all the work was to move it in a direction of preservation. I'll make a cover for it next spring/summer..   For the time being I'll move it out to the back 40, flip the furnace upside down to keep water out/ from freezing.   

I'll reach out to Windy Hill foundry and see what he's using for refractory and go from there.. I do know at some point I'll have to drill holes thru the body to install rods to secure the refractory in..  Currently it looks like they put a lip of 1/4" steel on top to keep all the bricks and such from falling out when tilted.