Everything Else

I have acquired a dc variable speed motor from a treadmill that I will be using on my KMG grinder. I can make it work by using the whole control panel, which includes several programs, etc., and might make an interesting conversation piece,but - I'd rather just have a reostat to control the speed and junk what is not necessary. I'm not an electrical engineer, so I don't want to start messing with something I know nothing about and screw it up. Anyone out there who has already invented the wheel that could help me out? Feel free to reply directly to [email protected]

About a month ago, I decided to sell my xbox360. I set up a deal with a classmate. I would sell the whole system for 205 dollars. (About half the value) On the night before the sell, I give the console a quick check to see if there was anything wrong with it. I had never had any problems before: It had run like a charm. So I meet this guy in the morning. He asks before he takes it: Whats the warranty on this thing? I say: There is still 6 months left on the microsoft warranty. You can send it in for a free repair if you have any problems. The transaction is completed. He has my number in case anything comes up immediately. First Week: Reports no problems, except for …

Today is Veteran's day in the U.S. Have you thanked a vet today? Happy Birthday Marines! Semper Fidelis since 10 November 1775 Thank You Veterans!:DDan

I found this picture recently while looking at Dennis's website. I thought you guys might get a kick out of it. The only blacksmith friendly presidential candidate I'm aware of! :P

Okay, if anyone here does graphics, post a signature that you made or a smaller image. Give it a name and about when you made it and why. Here's Mine: Nequinox I made it about one month ago. I made for myself and for a siggy contest on another forum, took second.

Hello from Scandinavia! It’ just Johan from Sweden and I just would like to share with u some information about last months big Blacksmith meeting in Sweden. This was the fours time we did meet in Granbergsdal in V

We have about run the course on four letter words, so let's kick it up to five letters Change one letter of the last word posted (by me at the bottom) and see who gets stuck and can't continue! Rules remain the same: 1. You cannot add letters. 2. No foreign words. 3. Change only one letter. 4. Remember, this is a family forum, so keep it clean. Only use words that you wouldn't mind explaining to your 7 year old grandaughter. ---------------------------------------------------------------- STARTING WORD -Quest ----------------------------------------------------------------

I was trying to find what it says on the back of the IFI T-shirt, but I can't seem to find it anywhere. Anyone have a link?

I was thinking about the previous monthly project, the railroad spike one. Just thinking about all the abandoned railroad track in this area, I was wondering if anyone knows about the legality of picking up old iron from near the tracks. Say, if I went for a walk down the tracks and picked up anything that was just laying loose. Any comments/suggestions?

Thinking about setting up a carbon arc light for demo's and such that run a bit past daylight. Also thinking about a sterling engine to run it, but that's another topic. Is anyone here a fan of the technology? Seems as if 1870 is a good a time period as any to settle on. I know I can get carbon's from theatre supply shops (as some projectors are still run off carbon arc lamps). Still quite a bit of research to do, but seems to fit in with my current plans. So anyone here have any ideas? Anyone into lamp(lantern) design? anyone actually seen one of these in use?

Well folks, at 8:20 tonight I became the father of a healthy baby boy, 7lbs 6oz and just shy of 21 inches!!! I finally got kicked out of the hospital (wouldn't let me stay the night because the rooms are semi-private) and a bit to excited to sleep, so I figured I would start spreading the news!!! I guess this means that my forging time might be cut down a bit now, but I am certain the trade off will be worth it. Besides its almost winter, gonna have to turn my thought to the indoors soon anyways. Be back once I get some free time again..mabey 20 years or so:D

From Snopes.com If you are going to pass something along?, Let it be THIS! To whom it all concerns: Just a word to the wise. E-mail petitions are NOT acceptable to Congress or any other municipality. To be acceptable, petitions m ust have a signed signature and full address. Same with "prayer chains" -- be wary. Almost all e-mails that ask you to add your name and forward on to others are similar to that mass letter years ago that asked people to send business cards to the little kid in Florida who wanted to break the Guinness Book of Records for the most cards All it was, and all this type of e-mail is, is to get names and "cookie" tracking info for telema…

I laughed my rollocks off watching this..... It's only the first fifteen seconds of the trailer. I'd like to know how many mistakes you guys spot. Honestly I creased up over it Rambo Is Back And Still Xxxxxx Off video APOLOGIES FOR "BAD" WORD IN LINK, NOT MY FAULT :(

How do you hold your tongs? Does everyone use pretty much the same grip?......Or are there variations? The pictures show my grip. This way of holding tongs allows me to control the pressure of the bits on a piece of stock and also to control the release of that pressure. To open and close as you would a pair of shears or scissors. With my short,fat fingers this grip looks uncomfortable......but it's not really. My uncle was a power company lineman and showed me this many years ago.I now use this grip automatically.....without thinking about it. This is the only way of manipulating tongs I know of......but are there other ways? …

Happy birthday !! Sean

Any idea what this is? I'll post the full picture and answer on the gallery next week or when some one guesses; whichever comes first ;)

Hello. Today I had a rather wonderful day. I started off going to a family friend's house and making a wooden mockup for a copper firepit for a charity New Year's Eve Party I am doing the decor/design for, and got some good time with a friend and fellow craftsman, as well as some lovely bruises from flying fiberboard. I biked home, then I went to buy charcoal at Whole Foods Market, and found that they had a lovely discounted kind of charcoal. I'm not sure if it is a promotion or not, but it comes in orange paper bags instead of brown paper with drawings, and cost me $2 less per ten pound bag. I bought two as is my custom, and saved $4. I then went home smiling, and made …

Happy Birthday Andy, not sure I can remember when I was 20, here's wishing you many more to come.

Today I got interviewed by the local news station, TV-6. My wife works with the daughter of one of the main anchors, and I got a call asking if I was interested in an interview! The interviewer started out with a short interview outside the shop, then we went inside and I forged a medieval bodkin arrowhead, just to show a simple project from start to finish. It took about five times longer than it normally does, because she wanted to get each thing from a different angle so I had to wait for her to adjust the camera before doing something. But it worked, so it's all good. After that she did the bit that introduces the piece and the final monologue. For the final…

Are they fun or what!! Personally, I think they would make a great court-ordered punishment for misdemeanors. Or, for those really toughened repeat criminals, let them trade off a year in prison for a month of kidney stone.:o I just got back from a multi-hour visit to the ER for, what I found out was, a kidney stone. I can only say it truly created a tremendous amount of vaccuum

It's been a long time since I've posted or viewed the forum. It seems I've missed a lot of growth! Anyways, I had to have surgery on my left shoulder (tong shoulder) to repair a torn rotator cuff. I tore it in 3 places and had what they call a bucket-handle tear. The technical name for it is a Type 3 S.L.A.P. tear. It seems that when I do something, I do it right because I tore the snot out of it. So, after 10 months in pain, it's been repaired. And after 6 weeks in a sling, 4 weeks in physical therapy, and 4 weeks of light duty I'm BACK! I forged twice since Saturday and I feel great. I'm not 100% and still have to take it easy, but I'm back to feeding and min…

I am now an official resident of the State of Texas! Move in last week north of Houston in Cypress, TX. Garage is still full of toys to unpack and I will have to put a bunch of them in storage, but it is nice to be home again. Sorry but I just never took to living in NW Tennessee. Too much of that "Y'all not from 'round heah, ah yah?' balony. Now where did I put that English-Spanish Dictionary....?

It's good to let people know you're interested in blacksmithing. I was surprised to get a phone call from my regular UPS delivery man one Saturday. He had seen a seldom used, small forge sitting outside my garage and wanted to know if I had any blacksmithing tools I could sell him. He had read a lot of material on blacksmithing and wanted to start forging but couldn't find any equipment other than new (expensive) stuff. I, having 5 sons, had collected anvils over the years to supply each of them with one. I had two anvils left just gathering rust so I sold him his choice at a really good price for him and threw in two sets of tongs and a hot cut for the anvil. The …

It's not Christmas, it's not labor day, it's not anything but wednesday, just another day. Yet somewhere out there a good bunch of folks risk life and limb again in the pursuit of making a living for their families by riding that tram down that dark hole deep into the earth as they did yesterday and today and they will again tommorow so that we may have the coal that we burn in our forgefires. Sometimes some of them don't come back up again. When I buy more coal I always think of where it came from and how hard it was for someone to provide this for me. However much they earn for their labors it ain't enough. So for all you coal miners out there- YOU GUYS ROCK!!! …

How can I put links in the chat room? I can "click and drag"-----"copy and paste",----I can resize photos-----"address my photos",----but how do I get a "clickable" link? This is nothing major----I'd just like to show pics of old tools----things like that. Getting my computer skills(little bit at a time)-------any help GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!:confused: