Hello from Arizona

[tinbender]

Having read allot of the different metal working sites for the past couple of years I find myself here for hours at a time. There must be some blacksmith in my blood to get so much enjoyment seeing things others' thought and effort produced

background- 26 years commercial HVAC and 12 years as owner. Pretty well outfitted shop. Nonferrous small foundry construction and experience. Some back issues and an altercation with a poisonous reptile required that I close the business. I am fortunate that my wife works in ultrasound with the pay and benefits that go with it.

Plans- The forced air LP burner setup on the foundry furnace is going on a forge to play with for now. I have 110 gallons of waste oil to build a burner for. Power hammer designs have caught my eye. General metalwork is my joy and blade smithing may soon be.

I absolutely appreciate the effort you folks here have put toward sharing knowledge that is hard to come by unless you work with hot metal all day every day. I have not seen anything else close....good job.

Dave

[triw]

Welcome to the site Dave I live over the hill in Cottonwood. There is a blacksmithing club and a bladesmithing club here in Arizona. Give me a shout and I will get information to you. William

[Bentiron1946]

Sorry to hear about your back and loss of work but hey now you can start a new career in blacksmithing. Welcome to IFI!:cool:

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard Dave, glad to have ya.

Bummer about the back and venom issues, it's never a good thing to be knocked down.

You'll discover a lot of the basic principles that apply to sheet metal apply to smithing as well though the scale and effect are different. Looking that is.

How large is the melting furnace? It may not be a particularly practical size for a forge, melters are usually much larger than a forging furnace and burners are scaled to the volume.

Frosty

Edited January 12, 2009 by Frosty
Misspelled my name! <blush>

[tinbender]

Thanks william,

It may be a good idea to see some of the smiths here and pickup some ideas. I need to have a go at some of the blueprints to have a notion of what to look for when watching someone that knows what they are doing.

Dave

[tinbender]

chicken one day, feathers the next. A chance to try something new might be a good thing.

thanks
Dave

[tinbender]

Let's see Frosty, the foundry was built a while ago from the burner/blower of a 100,000 btu LP boiler I replaced on an electrician buddies house. Size is 10" dia. x 18" internal with 6" home brew refractory. Running 11" water column it has reached brass and copper melting temperatures. I could add my name to the list of people that will buy commercial cast refractory mix next time. Thought about useing the furnace for a verticle forge for now....nah too much fun building new firebox. Tons of detailed burner information, not so much for the body. I'll poke around somemore and see if there is one that catches my eye. It doesn't help not having a good idea of how large to go but don't mind building another if too small.

Thanks Dave

[Frosty]

It's about 1400 cu/in volume now which is quite a bit for 100,000 BTUs, especially if it's a heavy hard refractory liner. Copper melts around 1980f which is okay for general forging of mild steel but won't weld and isn't nearly enough for genuine wrought.

I agree, buying refractory is way better than trying to make it yourself. If you want to use castables use a hard high temp, preferably 3,000f+ phosphate or phosphate bonded in the fire itself and insulate with an outer layer, either insulating castable or ceramic blanket. A phosphate refractory won't be damaged by welding flux.

Once you decide how much volume and what the shape is it's pretty easy to determine what size and how many burners to use.

Frosty

[tinbender]

Thanks Frosty,

Very helpful.

Dave