habu68

Another point about cutting tanks, Don't use an Oxy/fuel torch as they a have a tendency to accumulate unburned fuel inside the tank while cutting; the resulting explosion can wake up folks for several miles. There are ways of doing it safely but I don't feel qualified to explain it to some one else. I purge mine with C02 and fill with water and then use a plasma cutter (no Fuel just spark and air) The 4 1/2 inch grinder works well too.

has anyone here tried oxygen lance cutting? Also called thermal lance? Thermal lance - Wikipedia it sound like it would be easy enough to set up. using small dia black pipe.

Phil, I think I found my Twin brother, separated at birth. Does NI3, Lead Azide; and Charcoal, sulfur, and saltpeter mean anything to you? Then there is gun cotton, cordite and primacord.

supports for the copper kettle and cooling coils for the still....BOG

Image:CWForge.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia note the end for end reversal of the two halves of the great bellows U.S. Regulars Civil War Archive Main Page TRAVELING FORGE DISCUSSION - Home these folks are in the process of building one from original plans. TRAVELING FORGE DISCUSSION - Diagram for the bellows - colorized the plan for the bellows

If you are welding up an anvil out of track, you might want to look at the unusual anvil we found a few months back on E-bay. It was 3 anvils/swage blocks welded together. A really slick design and would also increase the mass of the anvil. 3 Horned Anvil - Blacksmith Photo Gallery

While working at Rock Ledge Ranch historic site, on the edge of The Garden of the Gods park in Colorado springs, My master smith and I were working in the smithy at the far end of the complex. Andy was also the Ranch director and had strict rules on the use of cell phones during open hours at the site. In the middle of our demo his cell phone rang. It was Elizabeth our very proper young Victorian staff member in the Rock ledge house. She calmly explained that there was a fire in the smoke house. Andy responded with "yes you're cooking in there today." "No Andy" she said sweetly "the smoke house is on fire" We looked up to see 30ft flames above the Rock Ledge Historic house, silhouetting the golden leaves of the fall oak trees that surrounded the house and rose into the natural landscape of the Garden of the Gods Park. we were later told that the garden had not been touched by fire in 150 years since the Ute Indians burned it to drive off the Arapaho Tribes living there at the time. It was also a high fire danger summer and fires were burning over many parts of Colorado. It looked like the Keystone cops. 200 yard dash from the smithy to the smoke house , finding and rolling out the fire hose wrong way round, manning the hose and nozzle, we managed to get the fire out just as the fire department arrived. Lesson learned. Saw dust behind lath and plaster in a wood frame building may have been the period correct way to build a smoke house but it will no longer meet code.

My younger brother, is a high school drop out, he just went to work for a company that he has been supplying parts to for 5 years. The company makes a large line of protective waterproof covers for phones, I-pods, blackberries and laptops and the like. In his first month on the job he has done a proof of product for a material change that will save the company over 5 million dollars and increase their production capacity to 5 times the current out-put using the same molds. Politically he is an out-cast with the boys with lamb skins, but the owner of the company is a hunting buddy from high school and his landlord for the last 12 years. Right now he is golden. :p

Chuck If you want to pick out a few samples of various RR steels here are a few pic's from my stash that the local rail repair yard keeps on hand for me. followed me home - Blacksmith Photo Gallery Followed me home - Blacksmith Photo Gallery http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/data/500/medium/PICT0058.JPG

I found this looking through Jr's link Re: Gandy Dancer - Trains.com Forums and thought it worth sharing.... Re: Gandy Dancer From snopes.com: "According to Charles Albi, director of the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden, "Gandydancer" most likely comes from the Gandy Manufacturing Company of Chicago. They made many of the tools track workers used to lay rails." At least snopes credits a source, which guarantees nothing other than someone else provided the information and therefore snopes is abdicating blame in case of error. I suggest someone who thinks it's important -- not me -- ask Mr. Albi where he got his info. I'll bet he read it on one of the cut-and-paste sites tree68 pointed out, as this version of the fairy tale has been repeated often enough to where it has morphed into a belief. Although I have heard Gandy Mfg. still exists in a secret location in a Chicago suburb, and Elvis works there driving a lift truck. Thankyouverymuch. Pop Z It just shows that we all have opinions and bellybuttons and not to take either to seriously. Re: moose muffins, 'round here their called elk raisins. (the're good though)

Old 5 to 6 ft satellite tv dishes are parabolic lenses with their focal point at the receiver pole. Since they are old technology they are a dime a dozen and have their own tracking devices. It would seem like a little tinfoil and some B/S engineering one could come up with a workable unit. Telescope builders have earth synchronous timers and gear units to track the sun.

With a grin like a 'possom eating beer caps I would suggest the Bluegrass solution to the "Name the Band " problem. The Random Bad Bluegrass Band Namer

Why take the risk. Get a Nighthawk CO gas detector with a digital read out and KNOW if you are gassing your self. KIDDE 900-0113 Nighthawk Carbon Monoxide (CO) Detector & Explosive Gas Alarm AC Plug-in Operated Model KN-COEG-3 Just remember you are only dead once. sorry personal peeve.

Dang I'd love to rummage through your tool shed. love this stuff

Here is one of several methods Forge-practice and Heat Treatment of ... - Google Book Search a Google book search of blacksmithing will lead you to many wonderful old out of print books that were instruction books for the old timers. Here on IFI is just a sample http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f7/free-blacksmithing-books-web-2032/ enjoy

From Utah Phillips a self proclaimed professional bum. (with words redacted to protect the innocent) MOOSE **** PIE ’ll tell ya about the worst job I ever had in my life. The worst job I ever had was workin’ for the Santa Fe Railroad, south of Las Vegas, Nevada. That’s the old Mormon Muddy Mission, you see. It’s way out in what the Navajos call "the boonies." Out in the desert. Now, the job was "Gandy Dancin.’" Now, Gandy Dancin’ used to be, in the old days, when the Irish were building the railroad. Of course, the first trans-continental railroad was built by Irish laborers, and they used these long-handled shovels called Irish banjos that were made by the Gandy Shovel Company of Chicago. Now, the Irish laborer would take the wide end of the shovel, when he could find it, and he would jam it in under a rail or a tie, and he would climb out on the long handle and do a little jig-step out there and that lever the tie up or the rail up and you push gravel in underneath it and tamp it down and that levels the road bed, see? That’s what Gandy Dancin’ is. Levelin’ the road bed, so the **** train doesn’t fall off as it goes by, which is just a big drag for everybody. Now, they don’t do Gandy Dancin’ the normal way anymore see, like in the old days. Now days they run three cars out on the line. They run a box car out there that’s a bunk car, you sleep in it. Got bunks in there, 18 inches apart. Then you got a tool car with your tamping irons and your tongs and your double jack hammers and your spikes and all of that equipment see, to do the job. And then you got a cook car. There’s no restaurants anyplace around, so you got a cook car. Pots and pans, and a coal or wood burning stove, and a long table down the middle to eat at. Only thing they don’t hire is a cook. That’s ‘cause they’re cheap. Rule is, that in that crew, they’re suppose to pick among their own members who’s gonna be the cook. Now, they don’t try to do it sensibly like draw lots or decide who the best cook is. What they do is they wait and find out who ***** and wines, and **** and moans the most about the cookin.’ And they say "Alright wise guy, you think you can do better, you get to be the cook." Well, that was me, see. Old alligator mouth. The new man on the crew and that was the worst food I’d ever had. I mean it was dog bottom pie and pheasant sweat, otter water, it comes out of an otter. It’s terrible, terrible stuff. Some people might think it’s a delicacy, but I thought it was garp. So, I complained and they said "OK wise guy, you get to be the cook." That made me mad, because I didn’t wanna cook. But I knew if anybody complained about my cookin,’ that they were gonna have to cook. Armed with that knowledge, I sallied forth over the muddy river. I was walkin’ around among the cheap grass and bunch grass there and I looked down, and there was just a **** of a big moose *** Biggest xxxx moose ***...that was a real steamer. I looked down at that meadow wafer and I said to myself "Self! I’m gonna bake up a big moose *** pie. ‘Cause if anybody complains about my cookin,’ they’re gonna have to cook." So I tipped that pasture pastry up on edge. I got my *** together, so to speak. And I started rollin’ it down toward the old cook car. I got it down there and leaned it up against the side. And I climbed up in the cook car and I baked up a *** of a big pie shell. And I baked that moose *** in it as slick as you please. And I crimped the edges with my thumbs. And laid strips of dough across it and garnished it with a sprig of parsley. A little paprika. It was beautiful. Poetry on a plate. And I served it for desert, waitin’ for the first hint of a complaint. Well, this giant dude come in, about 5 foot 40, I mean he was big. Throwed himself down like a fool on the stool. Picked up his fork, took a big bite of that moose **** pie. Well, he threw down his fork and he let out a beller, and he yelled "My God! That’s moose *** pie! ..... It’s good though." - Utah Phillips

I have seen sources that refer to the shovel also, called an Irish Banjo, that was made by the Gandy Shovel Co. Here is one: Did you ever see a line of track workers hand shoveling roadbed material or ballast? Or, lifting ties to be spiked by prying them up with a shovel. In the early days of track laying the work was done by hand. Long lines of men with shovels did the work where now bulldozers or graders are used. This long line would look like a string of dancers. Ties were pried up with the shovels so spikers could drive and set spikes to hold the rails. The track worker “danced” on the shovel handle to do this. The handles on these shovels were 56

I believe that the large hammer in the center is a Rail road spike hammer, the sender shape allows for striking close to the rail.

figure 28 is a copy of LEONARDO DA VINCI's file cuting machine.

Irnrgn, Mark sent me some additional photos of the Cats head hammer in an e-mail it is a Heller brothers hammer and appears to be steel, it has a few chips around the edges and not as beat up as I first thought Mark would you mind posting the additional links here?

The problem is that pipe threads are tapered and you must re-tap the bell from the back side in order to thread the nipple.

What I've done so far is a supply pipe of 2" electrical conduit reduced with a 2 to a 1.25 with a black pipe bell reducer and a black pipe nipple. It will be easy enough to buy a few 1.25 inch to 1, 3/4 and 1/2 inch reducers. My plan, once I get a size, is to through tap a reducer so I can screw a pipe into the back side of the reducer with the larger diameter becoming the water jacket. with a Tee giving access to the water tank. ( I know clear as mud) when i get there I'll post pics. the nice thing about the bellows is that you can very the blast by placing a weight on the top of the bellows.

The cats head hammer, I have been told, by Frank Turley if I remember right, is a farrier's Turning hammer. It is a compact wide hammer with with a tight center of gravity, much like Master Hofi's hammer. The one I used was about 1 1/2 maybe 2 lbs on a short handle, it gave me good control on the small work I did for demo's and I could swing it all day. They are not real common, though the one in the picture above seems to a little rough on the hammer face.

The one in the front of the 5" mark I believe is a cats head hammer. If you would like to sell it I would be interested, I used one an historical park that I demoed at and really liked it, I have been looking for one ever since. Habu68z@yahoo.com

My younger brother is a Tool and die maker and owns a small molding company (up to 350 tons), I helped out at the plant for a couple of years while he was getting up and running. he just recently closed his plant to go to work for one of his customers, and is currently working on the mold design for the 4th generation I-phone. He has done all right for a kid that flunked out of high school and went to work clipping parts at a plastics plant. An example of a couple of his customers: KONG Pet Toys - Legendary Strength, Quality, and Performance One of his first mold designs as an apprentice tool maker OtterBox.com | Waterproof Boxes, Waterproof Cases Tooling and molding for his major customer for the last few years.