Greenhorn from Misssissippi

[echofive]

Good morning everyone, my name is John.  I'm from Mississippi and I am new to blacksmithing. 

I built a crude forge just to play with.  My anvil is atrocious, it's very old but it's small, cast iron and looks to be of fairly poor quality, with one of the legs broken.  I am in the market for a good anvil if someone near Mississippi happens to see this and has a lead for me.  I'd appreciate an older anvil with a nice face, and am willing to pay a fair price for it but I've been looking for years and I know they are like hens teeth, so I am not opposed to modern anvils.  I've been in contact with a local gentleman about taking a weekend class to make some tools. 

As soon as I get myself a firepot, I'll be upgrading my current forge.  I have a Champion 140 blower and the gears look near mint, but the middle gear is frozen.  I soaked it in diesel for 2 days and PB blaster and put heat to the frozen shaft, but I can't get it to budge.  I'm thinking about long-soaking it in Evaporust to see if maybe that might loosen something up.  The housing was clean, and it wasn't full of rust.  Hopefully I am not breaking etiquette throwing all of my problems in my introduction post, but it seemed appropriate to include my current situation in the introduction.

I'm attaching a photo of my forge, don't judge me harshly it was an afternoon project pieced together from scrap I had laying around.  The steel squiggly below it is my first experimentation.  I'd appreciate any leads on gear.  I need everything.

I look forward to being part of the community, thank you for having me.

 

 

 

[Glenn]

TPAAAT - Applied Anvil Acquisition Technique to find an anvil or other tools.

Add more fuel to your fire.  Fuel does not make your fire hot, air makes your fire hot.  Uncouple your hair dryer from the forge and put a 3-4 inch air gap between the two.  Aim the hair dryer more directly for more air, less directly for less air.  This should give you unlimited air control.  

Have you contacted the Mississippi Forge Council, or the Gulf Coast Blacksmith Association, or other blacksmithing groups in your area ?

 

[Frazer]

Hello echofive, welcome aboard! If you haven't already, I suggest reading the info in the "Read This First" tab in the blue banner at the top of every page. It will help you get the most out of the site. One item in there is to add your general location to your profile as many people wont remember where you are from after leaving this thread.

It looks like you are on your way! I have couple observations with respect to the forge. I see you are using a hairdryer, nothing wrong with that I used one for a long time before I got tired of the noise. One thing about them is they put out way more air than you actually need for your forge. Judging from the sparks it looks like you're using charcoal which requires even less air than coal to keep going. All that excess air will burn more fuel than you need to and will produce an oxidizing flame which creates  more scale on the material than necessary.

The main ways people adjust the amount of air to their forges is to 1. adjust the distance between the blower and the opening of the pipe leading to the firepot (as suggested by Glenn) or 2. by using a air dump of some sort along the length of your pipe. This could be a ball valve or a gate-like system, that diverts some of the air away from the firepot. I think you'll see fewer fire fleas and have a more controlled burn once you tune your air a bit.

Is your forge a little BBQ grill? Is so that's exactly what I used for my first build. I suggest cutting yourself some access holes so you can put longer pieces of stock into the fire horizontally rather than at an angle.

[ThomasPowers]

What are you using for fuel?  If charcoal  it will be hard to get the right amount of air to it with a blowdrier---it puts out way too MUCH air.  (Makes you waste fuel, burn up metal and gives you heavy scale!)  People have been forging for over 3000 years using just a hole in the ground; nothing to be ashamed up with that forge.  If you are using charcoal adding clay/dirt/adobe/firebricks to it to make it a trough shape across  the tuyere area will allow you to stack the fuel higher but use less of it to do so.  The workpiece should go into the reducing or neutral zones of the fire  pretty much horizontally.

[JHCC]

Welcome! It looks like you're on the right track of asking questions and being open to answers. I don't have anything particularly to add to what's already been said, except that getting really familiar with the forum's Table of Contents is really useful for finding the info you want.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

2 hours ago, echofive said:

but the middle gear is frozen. 

Is that the gear on the fan shaft? Have you made sure there is no critter nest's behind the fan? Mud Dobbers are notorious for locking up the fan by building nest's behind it.

Have you tried loosening the fan shaft lash adjuster? If someone has gone King Kong on it that will lock it up tight.

 

[echofive]

3 hours ago, Glenn said:

 Have you contacted the Mississippi Forge Council, or the Gulf Coast Blacksmith Association, or other blacksmithing groups in your area ?

I haven't contacted any of the groups yet but I have spoken to a few people in the industry.  I wanted to take Lyle Wynn's class a few years go but couldn't afford it and now he isn't doing them anymore but I found someone that is offering weekend classes.

3 hours ago, Frazer said:

It looks like you are on your way!  Judging from the sparks it looks like you're using charcoal which requires even less air than coal to keep going. All that excess air will burn more fuel than you need to and will produce an oxidizing flame which creates  more scale on the material than necessary.Is your forge a little BBQ grill?

Yes, I used charcoal in that first test run, and that is my wife's hair dryer which I used as a temporary test.  She wasn't mad that I almost melted the cord in two when I dropped hot steel on it.  I am in contact with Laurel Machine & Foundry, trying to get a firepot, clinker breaker and ash dump from them, and when I can get my Champion blower fixed, I'll be rebuilding the whole thing.  The table is actually then end of an old water reservoir tank.  The stem and air inlet is drill pipe welded to an axle hub which was then bolted to the wheel.  It actually didn't work bad but burned through the charcoal very fast and without a firebox, the heat was spread out in multiple small hot spots instead of being concentrated.

1 hour ago, Irondragon ForgeClay Works said:

Is that the gear on the fan shaft? Have you tried loosening the fan shaft lash adjuster? If someone has gone King Kong on it that will lock it up tight.

In the above picture the gear that is frozen on mine is the bottom one.  I don't think it's the fanshaft gear, as the fanshaft will rock ever so slightly and the handle will also rock ever so slightly but the middle gear is rock solid.  I tried everything to get it unstuck, but have failed and I reallllly don't want to screw it up.  I've heard of people breaking their housings trying to disassemble, so I just took a break from it til I learn more.

Thanks to everyone who has replied, really appreciate you taking the time.

Edited March 26, 2021 by Mod30
Trim quote.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

OK so you are talking about the beveled gear (idler) that drives the bottom fan shaft gear. I would soak it a couple of days in a 50/50 mixture of acetone and automatic transmission fluid. Then try gently bumping it back & forth using a wood piece on the teeth. That has loosened many frozen parts for me. A picture of the gears might help. Here is a thread about restoring a 140 blower.

BTW You might want to edit (within 30 min.) your above post and trim down the quotes as outlined here. The quote feature

[Stash]

Hey Echo- welcome. If Laurel is still doing forgepots and fittings, you can't go wrong. I've been running one for a while now and love it. I've used a few different hand- crank blowers with it as I've acquired them, now I'm using a bathroom exhaust fan recycled from a renovation project. It's 110 cfm, and I moderate flow with a dump valve.

Steve

Steve

[ThomasPowers]

Last hand crank blower I resurrected I soaked the gears in plain ATF for about two months (it was a brand made to hold oil not a flow through one), and then started working them back in forth with a piece of wood, finally 1/2" shift, 1/4" shift, 1/2" shift and then 360 degree turn---turning it for a while will polish out the rust in the bearing/shaft as after all iron oxide is a lapping compound!

[echofive]

2 hours ago, Irondragon ForgeClay Works said:

OK so you are talking about the beveled gear (idler) that drives the bottom fan shaft gear. I would soak it a couple of days in a 50/50 mixture of acetone and automatic transmission fluid. Then try gently bumping it back & forth using a wood piece on the teeth. That has loosened many frozen parts for me.

 

1 hour ago, ThomasPowers said:

Last hand crank blower I resurrected I soaked the gears in plain ATF for about two months (it was a brand made to hold oil not a flow through one), and then started working them back in forth with a piece of wood, finally 1/2" shift, 1/4" shift, 1/2" shift and then 360 degree turn---turning it for a while will polish out the rust in the bearing/shaft as after all iron oxide is a lapping compound!

Thanks for the tips.  Last time I tried ATF and acetone was when I resurrected a Cummins 24V out of a wrecked 3/4 ton.  The problem I had then was that I couldn't get the acetone and atf to mix, it would just separate.  I remember seeing a project farm video where he compared it to other penetrating solutions, I'll have to see if I can dig it up.  I tried gently tapping the gear with a flathead but quickly realized that was a bad idea when it started marking the tooth.  I should have thought of using a wood block, that will be my next thing to try.  I found a working Champion 400 for $165 and I almost bought it but I'm trying not to just go crazy buying everything I see and I already have this 140 if I can get it freed up.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

The ATF I use is the old Dexron and it mixes well. I found it to be comparable to Kano Kroil but a lot less expensive. I put it in a pump oil can, shake it a little and liberally squirt it on a couple of times a day for a couple of days before trying to bump the gear.

[ThomasPowers]

With the intense daytime Sun and the altitude giving us cooler nights; I get a good regular thermal cycling to help get the atf into the bearings by putting things out where they will get "sun blasted" during the day.