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I Forge Iron

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    South Australia
  • Interests
    I am a most reluctant blacksmith, although I enjoy the challenge and sense of achievement once I get started on a project. The work I do is mostly centered around vintage machinery, forging and machining the more complex replacement parts that the average collector or museum volunteer cannot replicate.
    I started working metal early, from the age of 10 earning pocket money by welding, running a lathe and fabricating for a local engineer doing all the "off the street" repair jobs and "fit and finish" work when they were busy.
    More at home with a plasma cutter than a hot-cut hardie.

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  1. shade 5 is the standard for 20-40 amps. Do you have a cut/grind or off setting for the auto helmet, that should be a shade 5 or 6 (when it does not auto darken) the shade 3 safety welding glasses are for working around the area without looking at the arc from a close distance. Say if you have an offsider or are running an CNC or automated cutter at low power.
  2. from memory, if you are looking at #40 from tsubaki the load rating is about 350kg, their hollow pin version would be about half of that. I seriously doubt that two chains connected with torqued bolts through a track cleat would move at all. Incidentally the photos above are assembled incorrectly, the track should not span the inner link, it is an extra friction point making the chain harder to drive and it will wear the contacting surfaces as the chain rolls on and off the sprockets, it should be one pin over and spanning the outer link so it is locked solid with the link. I still think cutting a short thread on a long bolt and using a nylock nut and some loctite through a hollow pin chain would be the best option if you are going down that path. I run a few machines with feeder chains, that is pairs or triple chains with slats bolted between them over a 1 or 2 metre width, the only time I have trouble with them out of square is if I pick up something solid and it levers the chain off one of the sprockets or it is completely worn out and badly adjusted and it jumps a tooth. The ones designed for really rough conditions use a double pitch link and axle covers to avoid stones, sticks, vines, string, wire, green crop, mud and slimy insect guts from building up around the axle and sprockets. The other issue you might have if you are working in soft powdery conditions is fine dust (not gritty but like talc powder) or mud getting in the chain links pivot bearing, attracting some moisture and rusting the chain solid when the machine is stored. Standard chain will not have a problem if it is lubed but it will look dirty sometimes. if you run it without any lube at all so it looks nice and wash it before you store it or keep it somewhere damp you may have a problem. Hope it works out. My post is a bit basic, sorry, I am pushed for time, I gotta slip out and sow some wheat. P.S. I could be cheeky and suggest looking a tracked dumper for inspiration
  3. the issue that I would be uncomfortable with is the extra movement in a chain made entirely of flexible links, part of keeping a chain on a cog is the fact that the inner link is a solid unit and the outer link is also a solid unit. the only movement is rotation around the pin that joins the two links. I have run your idea around in my head for several days and I still cant decide how much sideways movement it will have and if the chain will stay on the cogs. What I can say is, if the chain/track is tensioned with a solid tensioner and it does grab a tooth and climb up, something will bend, usually it is the shaft. Cutting clip grooves is possible, however they need to be the correct width and hardened. With a wide or worn groove, lateral pressure on the clip will bend it over and lever it off. If it was me I would prefer to use a pair of conveyor style chains and bolt or rivet the tracks on. Or increase the size of the chain and use a single chain with lugs on both sides of the link alternatively there is a chain called hollow pin that is designed for custom attachments. If you could find some that is a suitable size it would be possible to fit the tracks with the existing design using a long bolt and nylock nut perhaps. I have a couple of machines that have bolt on attachments on hollow pin chain and they seem to work OK, I have never had to buy replacement chain so I have no idea how hard it is to get.
  4. BP energol HP 20 became castrol magna 2 this is a spindle oil castrol HL became castrol HL 68, I think it is magna 68 now but cant be sure. I dont deal with either company anymore.
  5. The guys I have worked with only use carbide tips for working with the chain in the ground, they ditch the worn TC chain after 12-16 small jobs. Everything else is done with standard chains and lots of sharpening and setting.
  6. A one pass Vertical up is the hardest weld to do well. It is also THE weld a structural welder needs in their skillset. the tricky bit is using the weave at the bottom of the triangle to build a shelf for the liquid filler metal to sit on so that it can set AND controlling the temperature so that it will set before you get back to deposit the next layer. it sounds simple but it is a bit like reversing a trailer, once you push the heat a little too far you have lost control and it will drip down. Clamping some steel on the back as a heatsink will slow it down and what I call flaring the rod is another trick I sometimes use to cool the weld, you can see the liquid puddle (not slag) on the shelf taking longer to solidify on each weave and you think "uh-oh its about to go, its getting too hot" so you pull the rod up and away keeping the arc lit but not welding let it cool for a second or three then get back into it. http://www.wcwelding.com/vertical-stick-welding.html
  7. when the guys that do my line boring upgraded their bore welder to the new variable step technology from a crappy spiral welder I stopped welding the bores myself, it's not worth the extra time and effort (and cost). The machine also does skip welds and segment welds and calculates all the welding speeds for them. They run a full mobile shop with thermal lances and everything, so I dont have to chop the worn pins out. they carry 8-10 types of wire including nickel-bronze and inconel and if I can work in with some other businesses we share the travel costs, they usually visit our region once or twice a year.
  8. I think what you are referring to is an injector torch or an oxy-fuel handle that has an injector mixer. Designed to venturi the fuel into the flow of oxy. this is the harris injector mixer that fits the 43-2 handle for brazing, its a B-43, the catch is there are 6 mixers, all matched to a particular sized brazing tip. the standard high flow balanced pressure mixer is used for heating cutting torch heads come in both versions
  9. there is nothing like that available "off the shelf" nowadays Frosty. 0.2 psig is the standard spec low point for a LPG regulator, all manual adjustment. If you can find something different and point it out to me I stand to be corrected. cheers Yahoo
  10. I have not done much recently but I use tips with a recess. I cant adjust the gas pressure on the gauge it is always too high so I ignore the gauge and start from with the lowest I can get it to run and work my way up. You cant bury the primary flame in the work. there will be more general heating on a wider area, makes it harder to work without heatsinks. I think the problem with flame stability is to do with propanes flame velocity, it is about half of acetylene, as soon as you go rich it leaps off the end of the nozzle hence the lower pressures and recessed tips helping.
  11. All dissimilar metals have a potential electrical charge at their junction. Unfortunately Alessandro Volta has beaten you to the discovery by 222 years. However it took him 6 more years to build "the crown of cups" basically the first battery, then just a few weeks to have copper and zinc discs layered between damp cardboard soaked in salty water. Galvani was making frogs legs twitch with his metal strips and calling it animal electricity, got quite upset with Volta and his modern whackjob theory, it didn't end well for Galvani.
  12. No, my mum was taught in the German tradition so she is right at home with a knife of the size that Conan or Rambo would have hauled around and she is tall so she is not restricted by the bench height. I am making her sound like some warrior princess now, aren't I. She doesn't peel with a knife, she rarely cuts over the pan and we have always preserved a lot of fruit so she has a knife for that "in hand" work. You are right about her other knives being blunt, my dad could round the edge off a laser beam. I sharpen three of their knives and leave the rest. He uses an old Sheffield steel butter knife. I was thinking about it this morning, it is probably me. I grew up with a skinning knife in my hand. Earned a few bucks selling fox and rabbit skins as a child, probably 100 skins a week through winter, plus we butchered our own meat for 5 or 6 families. The shape and size of the smaller knife is very close to what I used then. I slice with the tip a lot, because it is sharp on my knives. It's gratifying to hear that I am not the only one who thinks about this stuff. The why would someone buy this particular knife question? I still like my bargain bin stainless steel cheapie, just not all the time.
  13. I gave my mother this style of knife with a 5 inch blade, she is not that keen about it, I think it is amazing. I can skin, debone and bias cut a chicken drumstick ready to stir fry in a few seconds or slice cherry tomatoes, all the fiddly stuff. It handles completely different to the longer blade. I'm tempted to bribe her with something shiny and get it back.
  14. Is that a 7 inch blade Rashelle? its a bit hard to tell the dimensions on a photo. The angle of the spine to the blade looks perfect. My knuckles hit the cutting board with western style chef knives so I have to cut over the edge of the bench. that bunka/santoku shape is so much better. I can almost squeeze a pencil between my fingers and the board. it looks great, I could stare at that for hours.
  15. not without justifiable reason, crush injuries are a nightmare, I tell people if they climb up on the piles of scrap they are banned from my property. I ask them to repeat what I just said so there is no confusion. aanndd....4 minutes later, for at least 30% of visitors I'm telling them to have a safe trip, dont ever come back. and I dont even run a business, its just my private stash!
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