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I Forge Iron

What did you do in the shop today?


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I appreciate the critique. Cracks show up while I'm working on other areas. I definitely need to radius the texturing hammer soon. Always seem to forget until I need it now.

I'm a better bowl turner than blacksmith, but I'm working on it.

Jim, absolutely! I'll bring lunch. Hopefully next week.

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As the weather improves in my parts, it is time to start some forestry work. Today I've made a stump vise to make chainsaw sharpening a little easier.
There is also a tree felling video on my Youtube channel. Everyone interested is invited to take a look :)

There is also a tree felling video 

 

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Finally finished my table legs. I think they are a little spindly and think the scrolls need turned in not out, but hey the customer is always right. Getting the angles was a pain in the behind, bent them about 20x it seems. Did not want 90* cuase it seems if they were pitched out just a little they would be more stable. 

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Well,  today was one of those days.. really it started yesterday.. Where the metal just does not want to move where you want it to.. No matter the prodding..  It just won't move where you want it. 

I started a new hot cut hardie build for the Refflinghaus and after 4 hrs I ended up with this.. It's decent but no matter how I heat it, or hit it. the bottom section would just not upset.. 

The problem I have is forging that size material of 3/4"X 3.00 X8.00 all by my lonesome..  I had to drag out and spend some alone time with the 9lbs hammer and when I say  some time about 1.5hrs.   I've been forging a few hours a day for the last 4 so actually feel pretty good tonight though both wrists are sore and my arms are fatigued, but its what I expected. 

Part of the problem is I loath working that large of material by myself..  Getting the 3/4" upset to the 1.25 needed for the base and then pull the shank out of it.. Well, 

Tomorrow They will feel all the better for it..  

finish and heat treat tomorrow. 

 

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JLP, looks pretty darn good to me. I wish I could do so well. Perhaps someday.

I think we are all the greatest critics of our own work since we are the most familiar with all the little mistakes/imperfections made along the way. But of course you already know that I'm sure haha.

 

I finally finished my scissors. Sorry for the potato-vision.

 

I have also made steady progress on the knife for my brother.

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Went out today and cut my propane forge in half!

Literally... dropped down in burner pipe size to 1" as suggested, and it seemed to heat up faster, hotter. So, to finalize the process, I cut the forge in half to drop the volume it has to heat... as well as minimize wasted space. Got tired of my work piece handle getting too hot and red. And my tongs being too short otherwise!

It was a good-ish plan I think that I started with. Just wasnt practical.

Got the first refractory coat curing now. Going to add another in the next few days just to ensure a good coat.

Oh, and welded on a front "cover" of sorts top and bottom of the front opening for further heat retention.

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Finished welding up the metal parts to the new gas forge. I ended up going with hinges made from RR spikes and 1" black pipe. The bottom of the pipe is squared off to register on the spikes as open, shut, or half open. The shafts of the spikes are rounded off about 1" from the head, to allow the squared section to turn.

Front view, all doors shut:

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All doors open:

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Doors half open:

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Ribbon burner port and hinge:

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One side open:

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Inside face of burner block:

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Gap between forge shell and doors, to allow for hard refractory face on the forge-facing sides of the doors:

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The whole thing is mounted on my existing forge cart, at the other end from the brackets that hold my helium tank forge. Both forges simply drop in place, so I can store them both on the cart and remove whichever one I'm not actually using at the moment.

 

 

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Here's a little video of the hinges in action. Note the gentle birdsong, which is to be found in far too few blacksmithing videos.

 

Next steps are to line with ceramic wool (which I already have) and cast the hard refractory flame face (which I will need to buy).

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WelshJ; My father used to say that "*all* engineering equations had to have a $ in them".  As he was an engineer, became high level management and taught engineering when he retired I figure he knew what he was talking about.

I also like the saying: "In every project there comes a time to shoot the engineers and start production". 

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Thomas, being an engineer, I resemble those remarks. While I agree with your father, I would argue that a better saying is "In every project there comes a time when common sense must take over"

Here's a long winded story about that  -I once was involved in designing a decholorination system for a rural elementary school whose septic system discharged  (a maximum of 800 gallons a day) into a swamp, that ended in a creek that went into the Chesapeake Bay, so the Department of Environmental Quality got involved. Since the school treated its discharge by going through a green sand filter and then chlorinating the effluent, the chlorine had to be taken out - problem is, when you dechlorinate, the dissolved oxygen goes to zero or near abouts, so it had to be aerated. Well, there wasn't enough elavation for an aeration ladder, so we decided to bubble air into the effluent to transfer the oxygen back into it.  We assumed a 2% transfer rate and calculated the amount of air we needed for that tremendous load of 800 gallons.  We found the right air pump - a Whisper 950 aquarium air pump.  The State said we needed redundancy, so we specified two, and then said we needed a weatherproof housing - so, we put them in a rural mailbox (the large one) with  holes drilled through the bottom for the hoses.  The State mumbled a bit  about our design, but ultimately had to approve it as it met their regs.  It worked well, and was tested monthly to make sure it was meeting the oxygen levels required.  I remembering looking at the drawings we had to provide with a PE stamp that had the overhead, side and front of a mailbox and aquarium air pumps on them - still puts a smile on my face when I think about it.

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Decided to put some handles on the forge doors. They stick out a bit, but I’m planning to add a shelf in front of the door anyway; that should help. 

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I tried a couple of other versions, but then I realized that they would either (A) not work well or (B) probably get too hot from the dragon's breath.

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^ I like that JHCC! Well thought out, and well done.

Got my forge fired up today after re-lining it.

It's not much, and not exactly ingeniously done... but it's technically the first thing I've ever forged.

New pull handle for the forge shed door.

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Hey, thats pretty awesome..  Well done. 

There are a few videos on forging finial. (pronounced  Fin-E-el)   I don't have any videos on it alone but the peening video shows how to move metal only in one direction. 

the hinge video does show forging a Finial but there are so many examples and shapes. 

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It's raining enough to stop me from working outside, so I'll share something I did the other day. I moved my anvil from it's stand of sand filled nesting tire rims to a stand I made specifically for it from some scrap lumber. Used some gate hook bolts to hold it together and to make hammer holders on either side.

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Yeah I'm out in the elements for now. I have everything put up right now, Tess and Mariah have decided to visit on and off for the last few weeks, with Tess's cold cousin popping in now and then. Which is why I decided to spend some time to make a stand for the anvil instead of nesting the rims in the proper order for the right height. The rims were nice to find the right height for my anvil. Depending on how I nested them together I could vary the height of the anvil face from 24" to 36"

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