- Joined
- Sep 29, 2005
- Messages
- 580
When I first started knifemaking I wanted nothing to do with forging just something i didn't want to do. I just figured I'd buy damascus. Then I started talking to more and more customers and an ABS mastersmith and decided I'm going to jump head first into this knifemaking and decided to make a forge. Making things is another thing I had trouble with I didn't have the time I wanted to build it so I was going to buy them. That line of thinking can get expensive fast.
After getting started on building this I have no idea why I didn't want to try forging earlier. I haven't even received my insulation yet and I'm nine kinds of excited about this. I used Ray Roger's website and Indian George's tutorial. The only thing I couldn't find within a reasonable price was a blower. I looked at them on ebay, surplus houses, and what not and if they weren't trashed they were expensive (>$100) so I started looking at leaf blowers. This one is rated at 250 cfm and was 39 bucks at walmart and 30 at the local hardware store. I've got an extra gate valve lying around so I'll probably install it and a "t" between the blower and the adjusting valve incase I need to bleed off air to avoid too much backpressure on the blower. I cut 3.5 inches off the end and used a benzomatic to heat the black tip to make it fit over the nipple (the tube was more oval). Let me know what you think and if I should change something before I insulate it.
I didn't put the inlet at much of an angle my figuring was after 2" of insuwool and the coatings then it would line up with the top of insuwool enough to roll around the insulation. I maybe wrong but that's my figurin. Sorry for the rambling I'm just trying to waste time for the UPS man to show up with my order from Darren Ellis. edited to add a thanks for the guys who made the tutorials. I was also advised that the leaf blower may not be able to run continously that long something I hadn't thought of, so I searched ebay again for a blower looked in a few more spots and found what the actual name of the squirrel cage blower is called and that turned up a handful of cheaper blowers.
After getting started on building this I have no idea why I didn't want to try forging earlier. I haven't even received my insulation yet and I'm nine kinds of excited about this. I used Ray Roger's website and Indian George's tutorial. The only thing I couldn't find within a reasonable price was a blower. I looked at them on ebay, surplus houses, and what not and if they weren't trashed they were expensive (>$100) so I started looking at leaf blowers. This one is rated at 250 cfm and was 39 bucks at walmart and 30 at the local hardware store. I've got an extra gate valve lying around so I'll probably install it and a "t" between the blower and the adjusting valve incase I need to bleed off air to avoid too much backpressure on the blower. I cut 3.5 inches off the end and used a benzomatic to heat the black tip to make it fit over the nipple (the tube was more oval). Let me know what you think and if I should change something before I insulate it.
I didn't put the inlet at much of an angle my figuring was after 2" of insuwool and the coatings then it would line up with the top of insuwool enough to roll around the insulation. I maybe wrong but that's my figurin. Sorry for the rambling I'm just trying to waste time for the UPS man to show up with my order from Darren Ellis. edited to add a thanks for the guys who made the tutorials. I was also advised that the leaf blower may not be able to run continously that long something I hadn't thought of, so I searched ebay again for a blower looked in a few more spots and found what the actual name of the squirrel cage blower is called and that turned up a handful of cheaper blowers.
