Zac9 Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 I'm looking to get into smelting, but I understand its dangerous and requires the proper equipment, education, and discipline. And before I even buy myself equipment, I need a safe place to put a smelting forge. I know I need to do it outside because of the Carbon Monoxide. However I don't know what or where to put a smelter at. A yard with grass or leaves just sounds hazardous because a yard would catch on fire, and I don't want to put it on concreate either because there could be water trapped in the concreate and I'm not looking to gamble with safety like that. Would I need a special tarp or matt to put under the forge and the ground around it, or maybe a certain table of some sort to put it on? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 First of all do you mean taking ore and turning it into metal---smelting. Or do you mean melting metal and casting items from it? Second; did you read the Read This First post to help use these forums effectively? Third; which of the 100+ countries that participate here are you in; some have different laws or availabilities of items that need to be taken into account. Also we are talking about doing a bloomery smelting run this summer at my place and you might be able to participate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George N. M. Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 I agree with Thomas. You need to do a bit more research on what you are planning so that you are using the proper terminology here. Otherwise, we may give erroneous answers because of misunderstanding the terms you are using. You are correct in being cautious about either melting or smelting. Both can be very dangerous if treated casually. And dangerous to the point of someone dying in a very bad way or being injured to the point of never fully recovering. Molten metal is an order of magnitude more hazardous that solid hot metal. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 Have you read through the pinned subjects, along with some of the posts in this section? One terminology that you have incorrect is calling the heating device a forge. What you will need to melt metal is a furnace. I would hate to see you spend a lot of money on a forge, which is used to heat steel so it can be hammered on an anvil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 Welcome aboard Zac, glad to have you. If you put your general location in the header you'll have a better chance of meeting up with a member living within visiting distance. I do NOT want to be hard on you but you don't know enough about the subject to ask answerable questions. We love helping folks but we have to be able to. So far the best advice I can offer is for you to do some reading before you jump onto a world wide forum and just asking. Honest you've mixed several crafts without getting part of one right. Calling melting metal, "smelting," is a common misuse of a word, coined by folks who don't know what they're talking about. Unfortunately once a person or group has been misusing a term long enough it becomes almost impossible to the right term accepted and used. Misusing terminology sort of a hot button among us. This forum has something like 50,000 members in last I heard around 150 countries around the world. It's tough enough for so many different cultures and languages to communicate without words being used at random for mysterious things. A number of us have been trying to get folks to use a more standardized jargon so we can talk without having to describe what we mean by every third word. A jargon is a trade language that lets us make easily understood statements, ask good questions and understand the answers. So, clarify what you're trying to ask us and we'll be more than happy to help as best as we can. Frosty The Lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 So Zac, Melting or Smelting? That controls which way the answers go that will actually help do it! (I've done both.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott NC Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 17 hours ago, ThomasPowers said: Also we are talking about doing a bloomery smelting run this summer at my place and you might be able to participate. Would you trust me to participate? 2x on what everyone trying to impress upon you. Safety is job one... You seem to understand that, now you need to learn the fundamentals and build from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 I'd check with Lee Sauder in VA; *lots* closer and a true expert in the field: leesauder.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott NC Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 Well rats. I had an ulterior motive for asking but I will check him out. I hope he doesn't refer me to you! Zac, where are youuuu? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 It's been a decade since I last did a smelting run so this next one is more like a "now how did we do that back then" run. I've got to try to get permission to collect goethite and magnetite locally too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott NC Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 I will pm you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zac9 Posted February 25, 2022 Author Share Posted February 25, 2022 22 hours ago, ThomasPowers said: First of all do you mean taking ore and turning it into metal---smelting. Or do you mean melting metal and casting items from it? Second; did you read the Read This First post to help use these forums effectively? Third; which of the 100+ countries that participate here are you in; some have different laws or availabilities of items that need to be taken into account. Also we are talking about doing a bloomery smelting run this summer at my place and you might be able to participate. 1. Melting is what I meant to say. 2. I have the Read This First post now. I found this cite while doing a google search with my question, and joined to ask my question and never even saw how big these forums actually were. I should have looked around more before blindly joining the site. 3. I live in the U.S. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott NC Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 4. Welcome here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 Yes the misuse of the term smelting seems to have grown with folks doing videos that actually don't know what they are talking about---and then spreading the misinformation around. (It's sort of a touchstone for me to show if someone knows what they are talking about!) Welcome; I'm originally from AR, but the NW corner; born in Fayetteville AR, both my father and I have our names in the sidewalks at U of A. For casting I suggest you look over the archives at backyardmetalcasting.com; I hope they are still there! Also see if you can find any of the Gingery books on building a foundry furnace and then using it to cast pieces that are made into metalworking equipment. I'm not big on the equipment part; but his casting is good. I generally do oil-sand casting using petrobond oil sand. Took a class in it out of hours at the U of A arts department back in the early 1980's BTW what alloy(s) do you want to cast? It's suggested you learn on the lower melting temp alloys before going on to the high temp stuff that take a whole other level of furnace building and *expensive* safety equipment---which turns out to be dead cheap compared to skimping on it and suffering life long damage to your self. I hope to make it to AR later this spring for my Grandfather's 97 (?) birthday; but that will be in the Fort Smith area, and to visit with my stepdaughter and grandkids in West Fork. (And to see the Shire Mint's new building out there!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted February 26, 2022 Share Posted February 26, 2022 Welcome from the Ozark mountains neighbor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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