Welding Tips and Tricks

Superiorwelding wrote:I could not wait for my book to come, so we took a trip down to the Library and they had all of the Foxfire books. There is a lot of information here!

Ain't that something?

So much information in such a small space... and put together by high-school students, no less!

Steve S

Man i really need to go dig those books out, hopefully my pops still knows where they are. I have to work a shutdown day at a steel mill Saturday so maybe I can dig them out Sunday that is if the work doesn't roll over to Sunday.

Started building one myself recently.



Ceramic wool insulation etc. Will be set up for propane and also have a digital pyrometer installed. My neighbors would not like me if I used coal and propane is just easier for me to get and store. Also got some satanite to coat the ceramic wool with to keep the airborn fibers to a minimum. The burner should also work well for some rather instantaneous preheat on some larger aluminum weldments I get roped into from time to time.



It will have a floor in it made out of firebrick or castable refractory as well. Says I can make a floor of bentonite clay, which I still have leftover from my well drilling days so may try that first.

TamJeff,
Looks nice! Now I got to get off my butt and get back at mine! I like the preheat idea as well. That would be easier than using the torch.
-Jonathan

It would be best to do some type of replaceable floor like fire brick. The borax used for forge welding will ruin kaowool pretty quick. I will with fire brick too but if you can easily replace it its not a big deal.

You might want to check out http://www.metalartistforum.com and http://www.metalmeet.com

A guy named Saign Chastain has a good set of videos on forge welding on Vimeo https://vimeo.com/album/2523264

I only joined Metal Meet recently so I don't know my way around there yet, but I think that they actually hold a blacksmith meetup in OH annually.

The guys over at MAF are really helpful for all things blacksmithing and metal art in general.

Bill

tradetek,
Thanks for that info! Unfortunately I have been so busy I have not had time to go out and make more pieces for the forges. I do however have a another idea for blower and have been slowly gathering pieces/parts for the forges. I believe I have almost all material for the a coal fired forge set aside. I will get back to this, just don't know when. I will look at these websites when I get a few mins to breath. Thanks again.
-Jonathan

BTW, the cheapest fire brick that I found was at a local landscape stone supply "store". They had both the traditional brick style in addition to the flat style and they were only like $2 each.

I don't fire mine up very often so I don't actually have the bricks put together in a permanent way, I just stack them to create a box with a small crack in the back (no pun intended) and use a "weed burner" torch from HF pointed directly into the opening. The torch without the piezo starter is the best one for forges because it has slots cut into the nozzle to create a bit of a venturi effect. You can also find info on youtube and the www by googling "venturi forge" to see methods of building a permanent pipe based venturi burner.

Bill

Bill
Can you get some pictures up sometime?
-Jonathan

Surprisingly, I can't find a picture of it from the last time I had the bricks out.

I do have a Sketchup model of a bigger version I have planned, I plan to wrap the edges with angle iron to hold it together with some long bolts/all-thread to hold it all together.



This is the HF torch that I use: http://www.harborfreight.com/propane-to ... y4E2SQ2wuU

The monster sounds like a jet engine when you have it full open.

Bill

What I have right now looks basically like the one in this youtube video: [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... zpOFfE_1bQ[/youtube]

The main difference is that my bricks are just placed in position when I set it up and I don't use a fixed burner, I just point the weed burner torch into the front of the forge. An top or side mounted torch that was centered would definitely work better, but I've just been heating up 3/8" rod for forming so far.

Bill

Another think to consider might be a Chili Forge, I purchased one of these years ago and really like it. These are very well insulated small forges that run on LP. The combination of their burner design and insulation makes for a very even heat without hotspots in the forge chamber. The LP usage really isn't too bad if you hook it up to a big tank as opposed to paying BBQ grill tank fill prices.

http://www.chileforge.com/

-- Pete

I use this simple one to heat treat steel for now. They're soft fire bricks cemented together so that they are not so fragile. I've made a few things with it but I don't intend to do any forge welding. My neighbors would not dig the hammering and I've had about enough of that myself.



I've messed around with steel and heat since I was about 10 yrs old, I think. I knew a man who built muzzle loader rifles, and he was always heat treating bits and pieces in simple little forges like the one pictured above.

Superiorwelding wrote:Does anyone have any good plans for a coal forge? Looking through my scrap, I have a couple pieces of 1/4" plate for a bottom and pipe for the fire pot. From there all I have is the internet and a few books. Info or pictures would be great. Thanks
-Jonathan

May I suggest stagesmith.com

The guy there, Ernie Liemkuhler (I probably butchered the spelling of his last name, but he is use to it by now) has many and varied interests, including building his own anvils and forges.

JustJim