Metalsmith21

I would not recommend Cactus shadows. they have a huge drug problem had a brother who went there for 2 years before my parents would let him transfer. kids dropping dead from OD'ing every other week.

Troll? you wound me sire. No ive just been working my butt to the bone making sure everyone has what they need for the holidays. driving a truck around the country keeping folks happy making sure there is food and toys on the shelves at the stores. haven't had any time for hot iron much less the fountain of knowledge. glad to be back.

Ive seen "youtube videos" of some people melting zinc or sheet/cast aluminum in old cast iron skillets, pans, etc. Is that a good idea? Its probably better than a soup can.

Did you try using a metal cutting/drilling lubercant? When was the last time the bits were sharpend? And yes it does take quite a while to drill through metal, much longer than it is for wood.

Depends on if its an aferican or eroupean swallow, welcome to your new fun addiction, pack a lunch and a cold drink!

Turns out the nerves in my left hand dont function properly. and the natural instinct to pull away from something extreamly hot doesnt work... a spot on my hand felt a little warm but this is arizona in the sun, didnt think much of it until i smelled burning hair

Got the forge fired up for the first time the other day. The hard wood charcoal did the trick to get my all coke forge to start. hearing about the gloved dangers i did the not so smart thing and started beating some rebar flat. And one of the red hot impuritys jumped off the metal and landed on the back of my hand burning all the hair off of it and leaving a nice 1/4 inch deep searing burn mark also. Lesson learned, gloves on my tong hand!

Best way to deal with birds up in tge rafters is to screw/nail some wood cut at a 45 degree angle about as wide as the rafter and secure it in place, workes well for my covered patio at home

Awesome, i appericate the ideas, and ill have to see if i can find the books menrioned. Thanks everyone

Sorry i wasnt more clear but i was looking for anything "artistic" reguardless of scale. Personaly i have planned to make some trinkets that can be held in ones hand no bigger than a dictonary. But im cirious what the rest of the community has done. playing with molten aluminum has got my attention currently, im just looking for insperation, for non industrual items. Anything from paper weights to 10 meters/feet tall ssculpuures.

For the most part i was hopeing to pick the brains of the awesome community for casting aluminum items. And i do know of the soda can vs cast alum auto parts argument.

What kind of artistic castings have you done? Ive got some ideas, but would it be better to carve them out of wood to prototype/ make a sand mold of?

Getting a trained guard dog is a good start. Honestly i fall in that crowd of shoot em, hurt em. But in the sue cental of america, where some slimy lawer will fight for a crimianl, is no better than the criminal them self, whatd really put a stop to thivery, and illegals... would be to start taking fingers and hands like in some forign countries.

The high in phoenix, az yesterday on the 17th was 96 degrees! What happened to spring? Too early to be this hot!

A descripton would help. Also there is a search function to look for tang and files.