Saugus Iron Works National Hisstoric Site

Errol, Fantastic Pix. You have a club to be proud of.

Typo at top of page 12 (bread?). ;)

Looks like it was a lot of fun. 8-)

Tim

-- "I've got more trophies than Wayne Gretsky and the Pope combined!" - Homer Simpson Website @

The pictures are fine, so far as they go, but I clicked on the link expecting to see the Saugus Iron Works furnace fired up. Therefore, I was disappointed.

Mike Mandaville

I don't know if the BIG furnace is ever fired or not. I suspect not but if I am able to get up there this Thursday for a further look around I will be sure to ask.

Either way I will post a follow up message here.

Errol

Don't believe it is. When I was there ~15 yrs ago, they said that after they'd restored the works, they used to "simulate" runs by burning tires on an iron grid over the top of the furnace, but stopped doing that due to complaints. The water powered machinery was working though. They were just running the power hammer on a piece of wood or brass (I forget which), they weren't hammering blooms, though they described it.

The only hot work we saw was a demo in the small side forge. Still have one of their handmade nails running around here somewhere...

I keep meaning to go back as well.

--Glenn Lyford

Went back up there today. The rangers say that the furnace was a "cosmetic" restoration not meant to be fired. If it could be fired It would take about three days to bring it up to temperature, consume tons of fuel, make a huge amount of noise and really p___ off the neighbors.

When the furnace was built the location was the edge of civilization. Hard to imagine now but that was one of the reasons that the site was selected. Of course there are those who say that the greater Boston area is still the edge of civilization.

More pictures to follow.

Errol Groff Instructor, Machine Tool Department H.H. Ellis Tech

860 774 8511 x1811

Errol,

Thanks for the follow up!

I don't hang around here as much as I used to, so I guess I almost missed it. By the way, I made a special trip to San Antonio last year, from Austin, just to purchase a couple of thirty gallon drums to make a cupola furnace myself. I still haven't built the furnace yet, although I did purchase a sand box recently, which can hold two hundred pounds of sand. Of course, this will be for my green sand.

There is a Yahoo group for cupola casters:

My local library has the book about the Saugus Ironworks which is sold at the Saugus Site. What I find to be more interesting though is Agricola's _Re De Metallica_, which demonstrates how to build bellows like those big seventeen-footers at the Saugus, and many, many other details.

Mike Mandaville Austin, Texas