Frazer Posted November 27, 2020 Author Share Posted November 27, 2020 Stopped by and checked it out today. No markings I saw on the blower or the forge, but both are in great shape! No cracks or damage to the firepot/pan, fully operational clinker breaker and ash dump, (the clinker breaker is a rotating ball and not the ball that moves up and down, but I don't see why that would be a problem), tuyere all looks good. The blower operates smoothly, spins very freely, and displaces lots of air. Looked at all the fan blades with a flashlight and while I couldn't see everything in there through the air intake, but all the blades looked fine and unbent. She's quite stout, going to need to bring some help to get her loaded in the trailer. The hood is just bolted on so that will be removed and I'll be putting a super sucker in it's place. She's going to stay there until I close on the house since he lives ~10 minutes from the new house and ~45 mins from where I am now. One less thing to store, pack up and need to move. Ended up paying $360 for it and he threw in a couple buckets of coal, not that I need more coal, but it'll get used. I would say it was a steal of a deal at that price. The guy selling it started smithing a while ago, did it for a while then took a break and decided he wanted to go with a gas forge when he starts up again. He was happy to get rid of it so I think he would have gone lower, but considering the price and condition of everything I'm happy. The anvil in the background he wants to keep. No markings on it at all that I saw, but it was tucked away in the corner with a bunch of other stuff. It was just a little guy, maybe 70-80 pounds just taking a guess looking at it. It looked to be maybe be cast? It was too corroded to do a good ball bearing test on. Anyway, he seemed like a nice guy and when I move I may have found someone else to forge with. A win win. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George N. M. Posted November 28, 2020 Share Posted November 28, 2020 Ya' done good on this one. I will bet that he will eventually regret giving up the coal forge. I find that there are things a coal forge will do that a gasser won't and vice versa. Don't trash the hood. Even if you don't use it it should go with the forge when it moves on from you. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frazer Posted November 28, 2020 Author Share Posted November 28, 2020 (edited) Well, fortunately we will live pretty close so he will still get to use it. Still, he may, but he seemed pretty relieved at the moment to be rid of it. He does a lot more woodworking now so he wanted to clear up space in his shed for those projects. I definitely wont be getting rid of the hood. I'm glad it's only bolted on and not riveted since I really didn't want to damage it in order to take it off. I am a fan of coal personally. I'll probably make a gas forge at some point as, like you said, they do have some benefits over coal. I just find coal does everything I need at this point so I really don't feel a big drive to make one and tune it and have one more thing to fiddle around with at the moment. Should I be lining this pan with clay once I get it set up? ---Other updates--- Used the knives to carve the Thanksgiving turkey this year. They will indeed cut. Watching one of Mark Aspery's videos I made some stag horn plates that will be put as a decorative backing behind a railing. The big one was just practice made from 2"x3/16" flat stock, the smaller ones are 1.5"x 3/16" and I haven't tapered down the section for the lower face yet. I'm going to wait until I get confirmation of how long they need to be before doing so. I also stopped by a known scrap pile and acquired ~20' of 1" square tubing (should be handy for hardy shanks and just generally speaking) and maybe 10-15" of 1" rebar. I don't usually mess around with rebar, but I have heard the larger stuff is sometimes a higher grade than the small stuff. Not sure that's true, but when offered it for free I can't really say no.. Finally I acquired this behemoth of a pipe wrench. I have no use for it whatsoever, but again, when offered for free I'm going to say yes. I bet this thing would be a couple hundred bucks to buy new. The thing is almost comically large. I just noticed I put the nut on wrong when I put it back together :facepalm: Edited November 28, 2020 by Frazer spelling Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted November 28, 2020 Share Posted November 28, 2020 No fooling Frazer, you're NOT supposed to have your nuts on the wrong side. Is that a 36" rigid? I pulled a 36 for 20 years breaking drill casing when pulling off a hole. WE had a 48" pipe wrench but nobody wanted to pick it up let alone use it so a 36 and cheater it was. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frazer Posted November 28, 2020 Author Share Posted November 28, 2020 It is 36", I don't see any branding on it. Just "Drop Forged" and "Made in Spain" on the hook jaw. That 48 incher must have been ridiculous. This one isn't crazy heavy, but I say that not after lugging it around and wrenching on it for 8 hours in less than ideal conditions. Pipe wrenches of this size I'm guessing are really intended for industrial applications and not for home gamers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted November 28, 2020 Share Posted November 28, 2020 Hook jaws are wear items, you change them when the teeth get dull or they slip. Nobody owning a 36 is just tugging and having the wrench slip off when you're in full blown pull your arms off pull is less fun than being one of the three stooges. The pipe wrenches hung on hooks on the leveling jacks of the drill rig we rarely lugged one farther than to and from the tool box. We mostly used 24s and that's more pipe wrench than most home owners will ever use. The 48 was bought by the office geologist who noticed the handles on the 36s were bending from using cheaters on them. He stopped by the operation to see how much better we liked it than the old bent up 36s so we sent him to get it out of the tool box. . . Two day later we had a $250 aluminum 48. Talk about bend the handle! An extra 12" of handle does NOT equate to a 4' cheater pipe. Office report writing geologists lack a field guy's perspective of what excessive force means. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frazer Posted November 28, 2020 Author Share Posted November 28, 2020 Were the 36" ones steel? I feel like a 36" steel wrench with a cheater > 48" aluminum wrench with a cheater. Not that I have any experience as a field guy, other than interning with a mechanical contractor for a summer, but I do know that a lot of tools are used and abused in the field. There's no way you're bending the handle on this thing without using a cheater. . or tying the end of the handle to your truck and giving it a little 8 cylinder mechanical advantage. I don't care how strong you are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted November 28, 2020 Share Posted November 28, 2020 Yes, Rigid pipe wrenches are forged steel. Sure we got better torque on the Rigid, 48" forged aluminum wrench with a cheater and it broke the joint just fine. We bent it though and after a bit the cheater would slip off when we pulled. Rolling on the ground with a 4' length of 2 1/2" pipe is less fun to do than watch. First day fail. Never bent a 36" steel wrench, a 24" wouldn't open enough to fit casing so we didn't need to cheat often. We did have to break a stubborn N rod joint and put the 4' cheater on a 24 and snapped the hook jaw first pull. Yeah we were strong, all we did 6/10s was twist drill rod, pull the cat head rope and break pipe by pulling on wrenches. I was the weak guy and could pull in excess of 150lbs. with either arm. I couldn't press that much with both but I could pull it. It took a couple tries but a light bulb came on. Companies selling stuff list the shipping weight so Amazon it was. a Rigid 36" steel pipe wrench only weighs 18.89 lbs. Hmmm, Amazon says the 48" weighs 1kg, 2.2lbs. I must've been a real sissy driller! Amazon lists a 60" Rigid as weighing 51.25lbs. Neat, the 48" aluminum pipe wrench is cheaper now than it was then. Bet it wouldn't hold up any better though. I have a 24" and smaller now. I retired from drilling if I need to twist big pipe I'm calling someone to do it for me. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlpservicesinc Posted November 28, 2020 Share Posted November 28, 2020 Frazer, I actually thought you had your own thread, but goes to show you.. Just stumbled across this one. Nice work on the holder and hatchets.. That is a great present. I figured i'd just catch up some. So the knives look great too. ON the forge I hope it still has some clay in it.. That mode uses what is known as a ducks nest with that round ring.. At least from the photo I had seen that is what I looks like. A lot of those hoods had another piece of sheet metal way down low.. You might find bolt holes for that sheet in the front and round the side.. Nice job on the stag horns.. Moving from hard cold to soft coal can be a challenge when first starting out but once a person has a decent forging sense it all falls in place pretty quickly. Nice work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted November 28, 2020 Share Posted November 28, 2020 My pipe wrench story was from when I was in the oil patch as a logging geologist. One day I look out of my window and they have a large wrench on a mud pump with 10' of cheater and 4 roughnecks bouncing up and down on the cheater. Tool Pusher didn't want to stop for regular maintenance on the mud pump and welded the piston in the cylinder. (Lots of stories about "short cuts make long delays" in the oil patch!) I have a large broken handle Rigid pipe wrench; fished it out of the trash pit. Works fine for me even without a couple more feet of handle... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frazer Posted November 28, 2020 Author Share Posted November 28, 2020 Jennifer, Thanks! I want to do a wrapped and welded version like you have shown in your recent videos, I just have to find some free time to do so. When I was there the pan was not clayed at all. I don't think the guy used it very many times so luckily nothing happened. Once I get it in the shop I'll be sure to clay it. Now that I'm used to the smithing coal I like it a lot more than anthracite. It's only about 8 cents more per pound (20c vs 12c) so it really isn't that much more money. I drove back out today and picked up 10 more 50# bags. My Sentra was riding a little low after loading up the trunk haha. TP, I always knew that expression as "Haste makes waste", I suppose the sentiment is the same, maybe a few nuanced differences. I took a little closer look at the wrench today and on the handle I saw IFT stamped on the handle. Closest thing I could find online was International Flow Technologies, but that could just be a coincidence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlpservicesinc Posted November 28, 2020 Share Posted November 28, 2020 I've used wood, charcoal, hard coal, gas and soft coal. Out of them all I prefer soft coal for nearly all things.. If money or time/storage wasn't a problem charcoal would be my choice. Nice on giving it a go on the butterfly hatchet. I do prefer it.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frazer Posted December 3, 2020 Author Share Posted December 3, 2020 Nothing all too exciting, but I made an eyelet, finally got around to making a bottom swage.. I've been putting that off for way too long. Having made it I wish I hadn't gone quite so deep with the 5/8 round, but I realized that a little too late. I also made myself some more tongs. They're heavier than all my previous ones as, for the most part, they are for holding thicker stock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlpservicesinc Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 You have a wonderful eye.. that eyelet is fantastic.. I still struggle with getting a clean transition at the weld seam scarf.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frazer Posted December 3, 2020 Author Share Posted December 3, 2020 I may have left the scarfed end a little long and cut it off just above that seam Without measuring out where to upset the bar it was not seamless and of constant thickness at the very tip of the weld. I'm sure it's possible to do, but I expected I was going to have trouble there. For whatever reason, the first time I try to make something always seems to go better than the second, or third.. or sometimes fourth time I try to make it again. So I'm going to call it beginners luck on this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlpservicesinc Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 If you make it to small diameter, you can just upset that area to gain back the size.. In one of the videos I show this techique. It's also a good way to test the weld.. Oh it was in the Ichi kagi video. It is funny you should mention the first one being the best.. Thats great.. Why is that.. Less stress maybe.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frazer Posted December 3, 2020 Author Share Posted December 3, 2020 This'n was 5/16, so I would consider that to be pretty small, I might try that on the next one just to see what happens.. I almost wish the threaded end was a bit longer so I could bolt the other side of it. The threads are pretty shallow for just screwing it into the wood like I had initially planned. If I had to guess I would say it has something to do with not over thinking it, just thinking about what you're trying to do and less about the steps you're following to get there. So you end up just kind of shooting from the hip and moving the material around 'til you're happy with it. Or perhaps, it's a memory bias of some sort, AKA what you actually did vs what you think you did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlpservicesinc Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyGoatLady Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 Really nice work! I would comment more, but my phone is about to die so I wanted to get a comment in real quick befor it does! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wirerabbit Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 Looking great Frazer. Nice find on the forge. I'm looking forward to seeing some more of your work out of that new forge! I don't know about you, Frazer, but I'm getting mighty cold down here in Texas. It has only dropped to 27 deg. once this week and I feel like the world is ending. Forging certainly has for me. T Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frazer Posted December 3, 2020 Author Share Posted December 3, 2020 Thanks Chellie (please pardon me if i spelled that wrong..). No worries, I'm always glad to see you pop in Thanks Taylor, I'm excited to get that thing moved in and set up at the new place. Also I hear you, it's been in the 30s here and working more or less outside I'm always in my insulated coveralls. Once I get hammering I stay pretty warm, but starting up can be a cold business haha. Pro tips (both of which I learned here) a clothes iron works well to warm up the anvil face so it sucks less heat out of your piece, and warm up the reins of your tongs above the fire before you get started. I'm looking forward to having walls though, it's usually just the wind that gets me. I still get in the shop for at least 4 hours a day (weekdays) rain, snow or shine. I wouldn't know what do to with my afternoon/evenings without a little hammer time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 Well our thermonuclear heater was on the fritz yesterday and we had to keep a fire in the woodstove all day; but today it looks to be working again and it will be in the 80's degF in the main room by the time I get home from work. Now it's supposed to get back in the high 50's degF next week; nice forging weather for these parts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonnskij Posted December 4, 2020 Share Posted December 4, 2020 I recently got one of those same pipe wrenches. Same situation too. Don't know what to do with it, but hey it was free! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frazer Posted December 4, 2020 Author Share Posted December 4, 2020 TP, my Ma heats her place exclusively with wood in the winter. It's impressive how much heat a nice CI woodstove will put out. I'll have a fireplace soon, but I'm already looking into inserts for it to up the heating capability (of the house). I'd love to put one in the garage too. Just to keep that a little warmer, but after looking at the cost to install the exhaust for the forge... Yea, I think adding a second chimney (albeit a smaller one) is going to be a down the road sort of affair. Bonnskij, can't argue with free! Worst case scenario in the event of a zombie apocalypse I have a blunt swinging instrument to defend the homestead with when I run out of ammo... and the katana breaks.. Best case scenario, if I ever need to twist 1/2" sq. cold for some reason (I'm sure it could probably twist more than that, I'm just throwing that number out there), I have just the thing. I'll find some excuse to use it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted December 4, 2020 Share Posted December 4, 2020 34 minutes ago, Bonnskij said: I recently got one of those same pipe wrenches. Same situation too. Don't know what to do with it Trimontasaurus Not a trimont but can be a Saurus none the less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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