Kerry D

LOL, sorry, the thought of pinching one hadn't even occurred to me. Mostly because I've had only moderate luck using sucker rod as a drift, and sucker rod is a lot tougher than that hex shaft. Sounded like an exercise in futility. The thought of using the the bearing centre as final shaping for the drift did occur to me though.

Maybe I got confused, but the hex shafting referenced was to be used as a drift for making the hex end of a combination wrench. Just as an FYI, there was no salvage about using the hex shafting. The combine header is still being used, the bearing was running rough so it got changed. The shafting is in good shape but, from experience, I know it dings easily. That's probably why they use such heavy shafting when other manufacturers use lighter pipe. Edit again: Maybe I misunderstood what you were getting at Charles. I had thought you were talking about using the shafting that the bearing came from to use as a drift.

Given how easily the shafting tends to ding up I don't think I would even consider that, especially considering that the shaft is still in use.

To the point about rounding a hex head fastner I agree, That's why I was looking at just a hex. I've also got a lot of 1 1/8 wrenches and sockets if it's in a bad enough spot that I figure I need the extra versatility. This is more about figuring out how I can repair something and what would be the simplest and quickest way. I'm wondering about maybe doing one with welding and one by forging. But finding a chunk of suitable bar stock that would be large enough for 1 1/8 might be a challenge locally. May have to let this project sit for a bit. Edit: That should read: "But finding a chunk of suitable bar stock that would be large enough for an 1 1/8 drift (or a drift that goes to that size) might be a challenge locally.

I'm looking at replacing a couple of hex ends on a pair of 1 1/8" wrenches, and am looking at two options, first is using a couple of worn out bearings made for a 1 1/8" hex shaft (likely from a JD, they love hex shafts). Second would be to make a hex or 12 point end. Honestly, I'm leaning toward welding on the bearing centres, heating it up to red and then welding and letting it cool in sand. I know that there are a lot of people on here with substantially more welding experience than me, does that sound like a decent plan, or am I better off making an end and saving myself the headache.

Does anyone know anything about these? It looks like a good unit (Government of Canada is selling as surplus, has been repaired, can't tell which controller it has) but I don't know much about them wrt approximate price, value as a tool etc.

Pretty much what everyone else has said, pull the valve and flush out the tank a few times. I haven't tried it with nitrogen when I've done it, that might have done a better job of washing out the aromatic. What I've done that I found works well for me is to drill a hole in the tank at the around the line I want to cut, mark my ring and cut the tank with a jigsaw. I get a nice clean cut, minimal sparks and as long as my blade is sharp I like to think it takes less time than if I had used a grinder. YMMV That said, I haven't worked much with the medium tanks, just the smaller tanks so I can't speak to wall thickness.

The bolded section fascinates me. The concept of creating structural members that could be directionally strengthened via layer welding is something that I've puzzled over how to do economically for quite some time. Combine that with the possibility of asteroid mining in about 100 years and this could be the way to go.

Wow, I got busy with my real work and lost track of this thread, but thank you all (especially Chuck_Steak) so much for the great information! I was actually looking to repair a dandelion digger that has worn away with use, so med carbon steel will work at least as well as high carbon steel. Now the challenge will be to find one that has lived out its usefulness on the haybine and is still in good enough shape to use as a part.

Well, if you're interested, and the parts man is right, these are the straw chopper blades off of a John Deere 9600 combine. There's a boat load of them so if you know any JD dealers or combine specialized mechanics you can likely get as many as you want. I'm a bit far from you to ship 'em ;)

I'm only going on what the parts man told me was made of, so you might be right but I'd hope he knows what he's talking about. I can try to forge it, but if it is T9 then I won't be able to work it as per spec, my fire control isn't good enough to soak at those temps consistently. But, like you said, I'll likely have as much as I want so that if it is actually something I can work with then I'll likely have a steady supply. edit: I posted this assuming that you were talking about the chopper blades, but if you were referring to the knife sections then that's about what I expected, something in the 1060 to 1080 range, forge weldable and reasonably nice to work with.