(no subject)
I finally managed to get myself out to the garage to light up my forge today. The fact that I had a nice clean (mostly) garage and a shiny new punch waiting to be put to use overcame my stationary inertia. I'm so glad it did too.
I managed to solve two problems at the same time. The first one was the annoying habit of one of the jets on my forge to randomly and continually start coughing and sputtering. That bugged me; I'd have to close the valve on the propane tank, wait for the open flames to die down, and open it up again. The ambient heat ignited the gas so that wasn't too bad in that I didn't have to keep lighting it over and over, but it was still a pain.
The second problem was the metal being so bloody hard to work with. I thought for a while that perhaps the stuff I was using was just the wrong kind of metal, that it wouldn't get soft enough. Today I realized that I simply wasn't getting it hot enough.
I had had the valve on the tank open a fairly small amount, both to save gas and because I was worried about burning up the metal (when you heat iron or steel up too much, the carbon burns out of it), but finally, after enough of dealing with the cranky forge, I cranked it open good and wide. Wow: no more sputtering. And, the metal was getting much hotter and bright than before. Not enough to burn up, but definitely enough to be much more malleable. I feel much better; I was starting to get really frustrated the last couple times. Well, I'm learning.
I used the punch to make a couple of hanging holes in my plant hanger, which I recognize is never going to be very good (I really killed the 90 degree bend by adjusting it over and over and over) but is good as a practice piece. I also drew out a round shaft salvaged from a garage door roller into a thin squared off bar that I'm actually quite proud of. I'm going to draw it out even more, put a twist in it, put a nice bend in it, and make a curtain holdback. At least that's the current plan. We'll see how it goes.
I'm hoping I'll be able to keep this up through the winter. I suspect I will; the forge ought to be plenty hot.
I managed to solve two problems at the same time. The first one was the annoying habit of one of the jets on my forge to randomly and continually start coughing and sputtering. That bugged me; I'd have to close the valve on the propane tank, wait for the open flames to die down, and open it up again. The ambient heat ignited the gas so that wasn't too bad in that I didn't have to keep lighting it over and over, but it was still a pain.
The second problem was the metal being so bloody hard to work with. I thought for a while that perhaps the stuff I was using was just the wrong kind of metal, that it wouldn't get soft enough. Today I realized that I simply wasn't getting it hot enough.
I had had the valve on the tank open a fairly small amount, both to save gas and because I was worried about burning up the metal (when you heat iron or steel up too much, the carbon burns out of it), but finally, after enough of dealing with the cranky forge, I cranked it open good and wide. Wow: no more sputtering. And, the metal was getting much hotter and bright than before. Not enough to burn up, but definitely enough to be much more malleable. I feel much better; I was starting to get really frustrated the last couple times. Well, I'm learning.
I used the punch to make a couple of hanging holes in my plant hanger, which I recognize is never going to be very good (I really killed the 90 degree bend by adjusting it over and over and over) but is good as a practice piece. I also drew out a round shaft salvaged from a garage door roller into a thin squared off bar that I'm actually quite proud of. I'm going to draw it out even more, put a twist in it, put a nice bend in it, and make a curtain holdback. At least that's the current plan. We'll see how it goes.
I'm hoping I'll be able to keep this up through the winter. I suspect I will; the forge ought to be plenty hot.