Problem Solving

I've been using expensive short lengths of mild steel from True Value for the past 6 months. Where does one find cheap mild steel in the US?

just bought a blower at a flea market,its red and has the name Simplex and made in McQueeny,Tx.Does anyone know anything about them ?

So I am not a pro smith so dont be too harsh. I am learning fast but have much more to learn. I was making a candle holder and it turned out pretty nice but not nearly as precise as I wanted. I wish the legs were a bit more symetrical and a I think it is slightly, less than 1/8" off center. The way I did it is to take a square of 1/8th steel and round up the corners with a rounded hammer then flatten the center using a pipe larger than the prospective candles. Once done with the dish, I made the legs out of 1/4" square stock. I created a rat tail and then twisted and bent like a j-hook. Then I scrolled the other end a bit after rounding it off. After that I cheated …

Have anyone a plan how to bend large sircles with 30mm solid round iron.It must be 3 metres in diametre ?

Hello, , any and all steel ball jokes aside , I have acquired some balls from a job I did in Clarksdale Az. They where for a huge rotating mill that was very hot, a rock smasher for a"C-ment factree" About a 4 to 5 inch diameter Any clue to a standard type of steel? and thank you very much

hi all ,great site ,saw a pic of someones anvil and they used a motorcycle chain as a hold down tool ,couldn't see clear enough to see how it worked ,anybody seen this type of device ,cheers

Is there a place where I can purchase scissor jacks (lazy tongs, scissor extension thingy like on kookoo clocks) at various sizes. I am in need for various projects.

I need the product to use for layout on metal that is going to turn cherry red and still remain visible. For instance: I want to do a precise bend on red hot stainless steel stock over the anvil. Soap stone and scribe lines are not visible. What marker or pencil is visible when the material is heated with an oxy-acy torch? The finer that mark the better.

Have any of you ever made your own solar or motion lights? I want to make some for my shop, just not quite sure what is needed or where I can find info on what I would need to make them. I would appreciate any help!! -chris

Does anyone know of a good resource for forging a pair of box joint pliers? Peter Ross makes these but the only video I can find is so poor and erratic as to be useless. I have the general idea but this is a case where the details really matter. Thank you.

hi i am starting my first stock removeal knife and i dont know the difference between a Jeweler's Hand Saw and a copingsaw a need something that will cut out rounded shapes by hand i know i can file it but maybe a saw might be a little faster ?

I found an old tiller in the back of our garage and have been taking off the blades they are all stamped 365 EL, does anybody know what that means??? thanks a bunch for any assistance

Just wondering what's the best way to weld to things together with out a welder. Should I just heat both pieces up nice an hot an bang the xxxx out of them? I'm going to try an make an X out of two leaf springs.

I have some bars of tool steel, 1" round, that the labels have come off. Some are H13, the rest S1. Any method of telling the difference using only regular workshop equipment?

Gents, I was looking for a good reference book or a web site that features patterns that I can scale for different applications. I usually make my own back plates for door pulls and other surface mounts, nothing too fancy but sometimes I need somerthing a bit different. Fleurs are always challenging for me if I do them freehand, they come out looking a little one sided. When I use a template it works much better. I'm not much of a freehand artist. I'm ok with auto cad or a drawing board but the scaleing on the free hand stuff just escapes me. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks, Peter

In know this is kind of a stupid question but what's the best way for me to bring a rod to a point an make a pick out of it? I have a book that tells how but its hard to under stand.

I have a piece of 1/2" thick steel plate that I want to make a welding table out of. 2 sides are mill cut the other 2 sides are torch cut. I want to build a welding table using this plate as a top. What is the best way to cut this plate to size using limited small shop resources ? Has any one ever tried to cut 1/2" steel pate with a power hand saw and abrasive blade ? I have a good strong old industrial power hand saw. I should be able to jig it up and make a reasonably straight, square/clean cut with that se up. However have no Idea what to expect time wise. The only other option that I can think of using my available resources would be to set it in edge …

hey everyone well i was trying to forge a chisel(pic attached), from a 25mm dia round. the diameter of the top point of the cone is 5mm. the problem we are facing is while forming the conical profile, the material does not flow to the top and the tip does not form properly. we have provided a air vent in the top of the die. we are forging this piece on a screw forging press of 200tons capacity. please give your valuable advice as what solutions can be done to make this part properly. btw the material is 60Si7 or EN-45

I have what was a really nice clean Fisher before someone used it as a cutting torch table. The damage is limited to two areas. There is a narrow 3' long cut back near the hardy hole. There is damage along about one third of the length of one anvil edge. In the past I have made repairs to two anvils by welding after preheating to the mid 200's Deg F. This was about 20 years ago. At the time I had no way to accurately measure temperature so I heated them until water danced on the anvil face heated a while longer then welded. The repairs were successful. Now I will use temp-sticks unless there are other suggestions.. This is such a nice anvil that I want to av…

I have been trying to forge a pair of bolt head tongs using the champion method as described by Bill Epps and I have a problem. Every time I form the shoulders for the boss where the rivet goes cracks begin to appear in the radius of the shoulder. As I continue to draw out the jaw the cracks get worse, to the point it looks like the metal is crumbling almost like the crumb of bread. I have tried changing my materials around to no avail. My other thought was that the metal was bending at the shoulder while bellow the forging temperature of the metal because it is thin there. Yesterday I was very careful about both forging temperature and keeping the shoulder/boss from bend…

I've been making some copper beads using mild steel dies (hot rolled) in a guillotine tool and I'm a little surprised at how quick the top die is mushrooming. I'm hitting a lot harder on the one side because I'm drawing out some copper stock (the die has three different functions). Should I be using a different material? How do you deal with the mushroom effect? Is there any saving these dies, or do you just use them till they wear out? Sorry if this has been covered before, but I've turned up a blank in my searches.

My welders, a 220v stick, a 220v with gas MIG, a 110v flux core MIG, and a plaz all share the same steel cart. This makes quite a mess of leads with each having it's own ground and business lead. Does anyone foresee a problem cutting all the grounds short and grounding them to the cart and then use one long common ground cable? It would eliminate about half of the spagettii, but I wanted to make sure there wouldn't be a problem with the machines themselves. The plaz machines typically have a much smaller ground cable than a welder. My plaz only has about a 12 gauge wire; as does all but the biggest ones I have used. Is there any problem using a bigger ground? Can you have…

I have an order to build a couple hundred of balusters for a fence job. All I have to supply are the verticals - the rest is done by another contractor. The customer wants each end to resemble the attached drawing. With regard to tooling, I was thinking about cutting a piece of 3/4" 4140 lengthwise thru the center axis and 180 degrees apart, the result being two long tapered pieces which would then be welded to a spring die and used under the power hammer. The hot material would be fed in from the end and slowly spread as the bar moves into the die (I hope that description makes sense). In other words, the tool would essentially be a tapered fuller and impart a grad…

Hello everyone, i am trying to make metal spoons from 20 gauge mild steel, does this have to be anealed to form them. Thanks for your help. Sean.

where is a good place to get sander belts? i need the course grit ones but at my local homedepot (the only place in the area that even sells 1x30 belts they only sell them in 3 packs with a coarse, medium, and fine grit. i take forever to where out the medium and fine grit but i wear out the heavies in no time.