First fire but then rain came.....

Stormy days that you thought would never end?

if you are burning charcoal you have way too much air!

I was burning wood to start.... anthracite , i’m in south Jersey and Im lucky tractor supply carries coal, can’t find other coal even in Philadelphia 

Someone at the Pennsylvania Artist-Blacksmith Association (the local ABANA affiliate) might be able to direct you to a local supplier; see http://www.pabasite.org/. There used to be a decent place in Camden, but that was a loooooooooooong time ago.

Your coal is in too large pieces, break it up to acorn or smaller and you'll get a much better fire. Smaller pieces have a greater surface to volume ratio making it easier to light. Being smaller means the open spaces between are smaller so the air blast is in better contact and  is consumed burning the coal so less free oxygen contacts your work. 

WAY too much air, even for wood. You don't want flames shooting out of the pile, you want it contained under a pile of coal which keeps ambient oxy off the steel and reflects IR back towards the center and insulates the fire. This gives you better heat control is much more economical but isn't so showy. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Slanwar- plenty of coal in eastern PA. Go to the PABA website John mentioned, you should be able to find the link to the Striker, our newsletter. Must be 4 or 5 coal suppliers in the area but you might need to head north or west. Berks Co around Reading, Lancaster Co, Lehigh Co S of Allentown, and Stroudsburg  all come to mind.

Steve

Closest one is in New Holland about 1:45 minutes away, I may go there today.

Wish my coal source was that close!...mine is 3 1/2 hrs. one way.

Slanwar I checked on google maps, There is a coal dealer on Quakertown which seems to be closest to you. I don't remember the name, just that there is a coal yard there that sells blacksmith coal.

Slanwar I just googled coal dealers in Quakertown, PA. It came up with about 6.

Thanks I will take a look, today I tried the anthracite and my blower must be too strong because I broke off a piece of metal soon I hammered (too hot) plus I had trouble to get closer because the heat and all this outside with a nice temperature of 58F, my blower is for computers but is so strong I use to clean the floor of my garage.

slanwar,

There are closer places with better coal.

One in Quarryville and one in Willow Street.

PM me if you need directions.

Dave

12 hours ago, slanwar said:

so strong I use to clean the floor

I would say you are right about too much air. You can make an air gate to control the amount of air blast.

How can I make an air gate? The blower fits in the pipe and I don’t even cover with tape.
 

For some reason when I post pictures using my phone they are sideways 

Just back it up and point it at the tuyere, adjust buy gap and aiming away

 

 

Slanwar- I'm in Quakertown, the best bet is just north in Coopersburg- Coopersburg Bagging. They bag and sell coal- that's it. Mostly anthracite, but they do a fair amount of bituminus from the Fisher mine up north of Rte 80- it's really good stuff. They don't always have it ready to just pickup, so I usually stop in and order a 1/2 pallet and they call me when it's ready. Best to call ahead. If you need the # PM me.

Steve

If you buy coal from TC, buy rice coal insted of walnut. They must have big walnuts were they bag it ;-)

 

I did that and that was a big difference, now I don't have any problems to start a fire using charcoal and coal, the only problem is my forge is outside and I can't see the heat color and so far I melted a few metal pieces.

Edited October 16, 20196 yr by Mod30
remove excessive quote.

Out on the prairies where they didn't have any shade or trees, they used to have a barrel propped up for them to stick the metal in to see the colour in the shaded interior. Used to forge using buffalo dung for fuel.  I bet you can come up with a way to shade your set up!  (I've forged using my body to cast shade on the anvil to tell the colour of the metal.)

How about a lean to blocking the sun made out of a tarp some rope and a couple of poles? It has worked for me.

Pnut

Edited October 15, 20196 yr by pnut

I forge shoes off the truck, you learn how the steel feels under the hammer

 

Did you take the pump out of the pipe and just aim it at it? I use a ball valve to adjust the airflow. I have a hose coming off the pump hooked to a ball valve on the tuyere pipe. It's has a pretty large range of adjustability. From just barely any air to blowing the fire out of the pot. 

Pnut

 

I bought a variable speed adjuster from amazon and works really good, cuts the speed from a full blow down to 50% 

Edited October 16, 20196 yr by Mod30
remove excessive quote.

That'll do it. Some pumps cool their motor by the amount of air entering the intake so if you slow down the motor they overheat. I'm not saying that is the kind of pump you have I'm just passing on some info 

Pnut