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Will this work, asking for a friend.


Deimos

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I was using 300mm Gedore Wolfjaws, but those or only able to hold very thin steel (maybe 2mm at max, or round/square bars. The plus side is that the handles on them are very thick (could be almost 12mm thick) so I may be able to draw them out or weld a longer piece on them. For now I just ordered some 500mm flat tongs (got it right that time ;)). 

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For flat stock; tongs grab and hold the size where their jaws are parallel; larger or smaller and they are only grabbing at one point, (back of the jaw if the stock is larger and front of the jaw if the stock is smaller). If it's only grabbing at one point you have  pivot not a hold!  I demonstrate this to students by taking COLD outsized  steel and pairs of tongs and showing them how it can flip around and lay on the back of your hand---unpleasant when hot!

You can fit your tongs to your work by heating them and sizing the bits; or just have a range of tongs.

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Yes, that is what I was having trouble with, I had to use a lot of strength to keep the piece from pivoting. Combine that with the rather short reins and really struggle to hold a short piece of steel (that was also rather thick). Will at least try to make the reins about 10cm longer. From what I remember for the tongs we used a school, those reins where bend in such a way that they where about parallel when you held a something in the jaw (and crossing each other when you hold them with nothing in the jaw), is this normal? Or up to the user to decide.

Edit: saw a post about tong terminology, as if it was meant to be, thanks Thomas

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For the short while; can you add pipe pieces to your reins to make them longer and fit the jaws to the size of stock?

I like my reins to be spaced slightly and fit into my hands when holding something---I want to be able to squeeze a little if necessary but not to trap skin between steel when I'm hammering!

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The only pipe I have laying around is 33,7mm, unless I try copper pipe, I believe I have some 12mm or 15mm left in the pile. I wonder what the idea behind my wolf jaw tongs was then, because those only fit into my hand (barely) when they are empty (and I have pretty big hands)

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I found that yesterday conveniently enough, I see their is an intro blacksmithing course tomorrow starting so I'm going to see if I can get myself into that. Looks like he is teaching it so good opportunity to learn some stuff while I get my tools and gear sorted out.

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So, just before it started snowing.... I fired up the forge again to give my new 500mm flat tongs a shot.

 

As suggested I turned the air intake to 11 and it made a huge difference. Still not able to really burn metal but it get hot a lot faster. If I hold the piece directly into the flame I get up to a very bright yellow, but that is as much as I get out of it.

 

20210116_170110.jpg.b233187c3b1e503641febe61fc6d6ac3.jpg20210116_170134.jpg.1f680f6288b7706022d404ce4fd9e326.jpg

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On 1/13/2021 at 8:00 PM, swedefiddle said:

Front Step Forge, Shaun Cunningham

It's not strictly on topic but I wanted to touch on this, I ended up taking the course over the weekend and he is incredibly friendly and knowledgeable. I've signed up for the next one too, didn't strictly help my forge heat but man did it educate me on a lot of basics around technique.

 

Really appreciate you pointing me in that direction Swede.  Deimos, that looks great.

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On 1/16/2021 at 10:10 AM, Deimos said:

As suggested I turned the air intake to 11 and it made a huge difference. Still not able to really burn metal but it get hot a lot faster. If I hold the piece directly into the flame I get up to a very bright yellow, but that is as much as I get out of it.

To me it looks like you may have gone just a little too far with the choke opening.  The flame in picture on the left has a purple hue to it, which is an indication of a fuel lean (oxidizing) flame.  It also appears to have blown off the end of the burner, but that may just mean you're running a little bit more pressure than needed before the forge gets hot.

It looks like your setup is outdoors.  Keep in mind that sunlight tends to affect our perception of colors a bit.  The picture on the right shows a forge easily hot enough to forge weld high carbon steel, and probably hot enough to weld mild steel.  Indoors I'd bet that the forge interior would appear lemon yellow to white.  You've got plenty of heat for smashing steel anyway.

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Ok, so it should not be to blue or purple. Got it, I just gave it more air until the flame changed shape. I do not quite understand what you mean with "blown the end of the burner" Could you explain that again? 

The interior of the forge is indeed lime yellow, I think my main problem (after watching a Joey van der Steeg video) is that I have my anvil to far away from the fire. It takes me a good 5 to 8 seconds to get there and start hammering. (Fire is outside and anvil is inside) Mainly because my anvil stand was not quite ready, it was just standing loose on 2 sleepers. Yesterday I got some more steel so I can make a band around them to hold the anvil in place and move it around. 

Edited by Mod30
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The flame color should be a good "medium blue" when it's neutral.  Somewhere Mikey has shown a picture of a "perfect flame," but I don't remember where it is at the moment.  If the flame is light blue or has a green tint to it that's an indication of a fuel rich burn.

In the picture on the left it appears as though combustion is happening at the opposing wall from the burner rather than at the end of the burner tube.  That's what I mean by blown off the burner.  Sometimes that's just due to the speed of the fuel/air mix being faster than the rate of combustion.  After the fuel mix leaves the burner it will begin to slow, and when it hits the opposite wall it slows significantly so combustion can take place there.  It's not uncommon to see the flame "jump" back and forth between the end of the burner and the opposite wall.  Ideally complete combustion will occur before the flame reaches any other surface.  You can try turning down the pressure until the forge begins to glow to see if that helps with the issue.  Regardless, once the forge interior temperature exceeds the ignition temperature for the fuel air mix, combustion will happen at the end of the burner anyway.  If the fuel stream is aligned properly within the mixing tube and there are no other reasons for the flame to lift off the burner this really isn't much of an issue.  With the temperatures you seem to be getting I'm guessing it's just a little too much pressure when the forge is cold.

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Thank you for the explanation, at the moment I am running it at 0.1 mpa. First time I fired it up I had it all the way to 0,4 mpa (about half of what the valve can regulate) and it gave me a flame of about a meter outside of the forge. Maybe this valve is a bit overkill for the size of burner I am using.

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