This past weekend I got together with Chad and Frankie to work on our forges, and boy they are coming together quite nicely!
This is Chad's forge all painted with my burner plumbing positioned, how we think it should go. After talking for awhile and getting all caught up on what we need to do still, we split up to start working on our individual components.
For me that was the plumbing.
I spread my supplies across Chad's workbench and started putting pieces together.
These propane jets consist of:
(For each assembly)
1x 1/4" to 3/8" brass compression fitting
1x 1/4" black pipe fitting turned on a lathe to fit the blower ID
1x 1/4" to 1/8" barb brass fitting that has been tapped to accept a MIG welding tip
1x MIG welding tip
Everyone's forges will need two of these, so I began assembly lining them.
I always wrapped two to three windings of tape to prevent gas from escaping later.
Meanwhile Frankie showed us what he has been hard at work on, and boy was that a lot.
Inlet pipes, burner pipes, and stainless steel flares for the end of our burners.
After we divided the parts amongst our selfs Frankie and Chad went to work on rolling reinforcement straps around the front and rear of the forge. But first Frankie had to grind off some welds that were in the way of the strapping.
I went back to my plumbing, more specifically the refrigeration tubing.
In the plans that we are roughly basing our forges on, the needle valve is connected to almost 90 degree bended copper tubing.
In order to get the best bend without collapsing the tube I used a spring which would give the walls support.
Like so.
I left the tubing longer when I cut it to give myself more leverage and will trim it to fit.
Like so.
Meanwhile I am getting showered by sparks from Chad as he was repairing a small component to one of the forges Frankie and Chad were working on.
Oxy/Acetalyne torch in one hand, MIG welding tip in the other. Yeah we have done this before.
Once
Once the strapping was bent, Frankie came back wit an angle grinder to trim the strapping to fit.
When making a forge, you do not want any seams where hot air could escape, and there was a small gap in the strapping, so Chad decided to hit it with oxy/acetalyne to relax the metal.
Another View.
Frankie gave a few raps of a hammer to close the gap.
All welded up, next up was my forge.
Next up we will have to find a way to mount the plumbing and line the forges with Kao wool, fire brick, and kiln shelf.
Not long now before we are ready to forge some Damascus!
I love these guys.
They have become some of my closest friends these past few months and I always look forward to meeting up with them and participating in their crazy antics.
Stay tuned to see whats up next for us!
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