The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop It's more than just Hot Air!

I’m referring to that wood burner I’ve got in the barn. Anyone that knows me is familiar with
the phase, “don’t throw it away, give it to Graham.” So label me a hoarder if you will but
whatever I keep I got a purpose in mind for it somewhere down the line. And that’s why I
saved the steel T-bar from the last three Chamberlin garage door openers that I installed.
Having spent a good portion of my life standing over a welding table taught me early on the
value of starting a fabrication with clean steel. The problem with that T-bar is, it’s Powder Coated!
See, I had this roaring fire going in the stove and so I buried those Powder Coated bars
deep into the coals and 10 minutes later all that was left of that plastic was white ash. A few
minutes at the wire brush and……nice clean steel, ready to weld.
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/162074585
You don’t want to put any heat-treated steel in there, ‘lessen you want to anneal it.
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/162074587
But results are great, beats trying to heat it with a OA torch or waste your time with a stripper.
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/162074588
Of course it might be a little hard to fit the side of your trailer in there to strip it.
Denny G

Great tip Denny, and a nice looking stove.
I heat my shop with an Army Cannon Heater #20. Wood in the spring and fall and coal in the winter.
A good coal fire is good when you have to weld some cast iron. I nestle the part into the coal until I get the right color then drop it on the bench and weld the repair, then right back into the coal until the part is evenly hot. It will air cool with out any chance of cracking.

I was surprised to see the color on the bar from just a wood
fire that's only sucking air. I would have thought that it
needed some forced air and coke to get the steel that hot.
And the surprise was that it only took about 10 min. Think I'm
gonna move the anvil a little closer to the fire now that I
know how well that works and see if adding a little blower
will get it up to forging temps, I'm only a few hundred degrees
away from that now.
But, the primary goal was to find a quick way to remove the
Powder Coat from small parts. I've got some nice square
tubing that came from exercise equipment that is heavily
coated, I gonna see how stripping that turns out next.
The barrel stoves seem to be able to take quite a bit of heat
and still stay in one piece. I brought a single one over from
my old place that I burned every winter for 27 years. And
it's still solid.
That "27" number keeps popping up in my life. Must have some
significance. I was at my old house for 27 years, I worked at
the accelerator lab for 27 years, I'm asking for another 27
years so I can make it to the big 100.

Denny G

Speaking of annealing/heat treating- - - -Here's an old gunsmiths' trick I learned in a blacksmithing seminar some time ago. When heat treating a piece of oil-hardening drill rod, etc., heat the part cherry red, quench it in an oil bath with lots of stirring/agitation, then put the part in a shallow pan with some 30 weight non-detergent motor oil. Use a Propane torch to light off the oil and let it burn away, then repeat the process a second time. The burning oil "draws" the metal to the proper temperature to make it tough, not brittle like the heat/quench procedure does. After tempering, bury the part in a pile of sand for a slow cool-down.
Jerry

Denny;

Sounds like a good technique. I would caution you to make sure you have good ventilation. Most of it probably goes up the chimney, but any time you talk about burning paint/coatings I get nervous about toxic fumes. I have no idea whats in powder coating but you can't be too careful

Oh it's going right out the flu which empties about 35 feet up
outside the barn.

Lots of heat treat/tempering info on the net. I think there
are more Blacksmithing forums than there are car forums. But
since you brought up the subject, this isn't a bad way to heat
treat a part that you might make in the lathe or mill. I had
a nice Grieve 12x18x12 electric Heat Treat oven for a while a
few years back but it was only on loan and it got sucked back
into his shop when my nephew started his new job. Then he left
it at that shop when he quit.
http://www.grievecorp.com/catalog/Furnaces/Bench-Furnaces/Bench-Furnace.html

dg