ramsies11

well, i guess your right about that. as i do tend to be incorrect about somthings. but i guess what i should say is : the general population minus anyone with metalworking experience.

great work! as said before: trim them up a bit at the bottom! you can easily do this with a either a chopsaw or a hack saw. and after you do so, place the socket part back into the forge. the reason behind this is the blackening on the surface helps to prevent rust. another thing you can do is after theyre made and trimmed to your liking, heat them up, doesnt have to be red hot but hot enough to melt wax, and then have a large block of bees wax to seal them with. it is period correct and it is the best preventer of rust ive found. dont buy beeswax from walmart or crazy crow, they are too high for this, instead go to your local farmers market, and anyone who has hand dipped beeswax candles or fresh honey, talk to them, they will usually sell, and generally give cheap prices per pound go on and buy impure wax. its alot cheaper and it doesnt have to be pure to use for this method.

the outerspace bit is somthing i find neat, think of it gents, one day when the people of earth decide to colonate a different planet(and yes, we probably will, alot of money is going into extensive reaserch on an earth substitute for when we mess up this planet enough, we can move to another) but think of it lads! you need a building? while they are researching the planet for how we can colonize, we can "weld" houses and other structures WITHOUT ELECTRICITY and then just push them into new earth! oh how neat that will be! doing great by the way, though i havent to agree with frank "fusion welding" is a point in which two base metals are melted (or heated really hot and beaten) together. welding in the sense that everyone thinks of is where you have your base metals and then you intoduce a filler metal to them.

i know the steel toes are now a composite, lol, but steel toe is more recognizable than composite toe. and thank you for the praise. it is much apprieciated.

usually when i go to a rendezvous and a blacksmith lets me play with his toys, i get either snide remarks or people asking if i shoe horses. sometimes both. at which point i pick up small u shaped peices of metal and say nope i shoe flies! which is then followed by me telling an imaginary fly to "commere little buddy"

might sound a little stupid but, aluminum has this wonderous quality called passivation. it is where the metals first (very small mesurement of length) turns into aluminum oxide. (aluminum rust or alo for this post). the alo makes it difficult to weld, just as rusty steel is somewhat difficult to weld. and if your welding on somthing that has had a steel on it, after long periods of time, it causes a chemical reaction between the metals which causes it to rust like ferrous metals do. somthing else that needs to be considered is aluminum is a (compared to steel) pourus metal. over time it will soak up oils and such and make it very difficult for you to weld. itd be about a half inch long weld that youd have to stop and clean and then go again because the heat causes the oils to come up. i DONT know about this, but could you attempt to braze it?

i started when i was 10. it was about 2moths after i started smithing. my dad said if i could smith i could weld. he showed me a few beads and taught me how he was taught. he put down a 4x4" piece of plate and went all along the sides with a weld, then he told me to fill it in line by line, and make sure he checked it. when i finished the one side, he flipped it over and told me to do the same with the other side. then he flipped it back over and had me run lines the other direction. by the time it was done, wed used 2.5 boxes of rods and i had 3 beads high on each side. so far all i can successfully weld with is a stick. ive tried mig, and i cant do it worth a flyin fadoodle. went into our ffas welding class and when the instructor asked if i could weld, i said if he had a stick i could weld circles around the kids in there. he literally pulled one outta the closet and wiped off the dust. i set it and i did my plate and then the adjoining pieces. that teacher was so surprised he skipped over the intro class for me and stuck me in welding. now im under trailers and in tractors. dont know a thing about how they work, i just tell em to show me what to weld.

good to know we have someone who will teach the younger generation the correct way to weld. we have a welding instructor at the highschool who makes welds all over the place and lets his kids come in and weld in shorts, flip flops and tshirts.

i use a lil old powercon 220v portable stick welder. i plan on buying a miller 110/220v mig later on this year.

i like the thuroughness of the post. but shouldnt you also talk about brazing and soldering? along with the different welder types? as in a tig or mig? and i know this sounds completely self explanitory, but under the saftey section: ALWAYS: wear long pants (denium preferrably) wear LONG sleved shirt ( denium or a shirt that is specifically tagged for welding purposes) wear thick soled, leather steel toe boots. (leather and steel toes are a must. and i reccomend the steel toes that come with the arch protector in the tounge) make sure your lense is the correct lense for your welding type (ive seen men use lenses for O/A tanks to stick weld with) wear full leather gloves. no cloth is allowed here. NO EXCEPTIONS! (i also reccomend the ones that have the extra cuff length. leather only of course) NEVER: wear short pants or short sleeved shirts. wear a tennis shoe or even a hiking boot to do this. touch a weld barehanded before 5minutes have passed (might look cooled but it probably isnt) attempt light a cigarette off a fresh weld. (it is a dumb thing to do, i should know) weld when it is damp out, this only applies to when you operate your welder outside. unless you are in a real buiding with no moisture, then dont weld when wet.

i like it. alot. i love how the hardy and pitchel holes are seperate. ive seen so many anvils where the back of them have boken off with a crack along the hardy and pitchel holes. is it solid under the hardy hole? and to help with ringing, attatch it to a wood stump and as glen said, sand is your friend. if you have a workshop, line the floors with a normal play sand or whatever is cheapest at the hardware store. and have WOODEN walls. wood will absorb the sound vibrations really well. because the inital stuff hurts your hearing, but people forget about the weaker sound vibrations bouncing off of steel walls. (or tin)

Joe DeLaRonde he has my vote hands down. when i get some money together i am going to go to one of his workshops.

i would place the co2 alarm above where you will be at most (above the anvil probably) i wouldnt put it TOO close to the forge because the draft system works, but some always rises up. but your work area looks really good. id put the alarm on the wall nearest to your anvil, and id have it about 1.5 feet above your head (not exact) this will give you time to smother the forge and get out to let the thing air out a bit.

the blower looks alot like my champion... before we lost the top to the gear box.

thank you guys, this is why i post my ideas here first, so we see all the little details. and yeah, i might just do a brick veneer on it as opposed to stone, or i might do real stone, i dont really know yet, and ill make sure to find that cast iron piping, thanks guys!

the tongs might of been old tongs from industrial revolution, if they came in a wide circle and then came down to hold stock, thats what they mightve been from. ive found 2 or 3 of em.

ive been taking a masonry class recently, and i plan on making a forge made of block (yes i realise the title says stone, im gettin there) i plan on making the sides and bottom of the forge from cement blocks, as well as the vent and everything. then i plan on grouting and then reinforcing the thing with rebar. then i plan on buying cultured stone and going over the whole thing with the stone, then i plan on buying industrial stength firebrick to line the pot of the forge, i also plan on using refractory cement to go down for the ash hole and to line the hole thats going to hold my steel pipe to attatch the blower to. the pipe on the blower is going to have threads so i can switch different diamiters for different blowers. i also plan on(yes i know alot of plans) having steel plates bolted to the bottom (.25") to make for a place to anchor bolt it in the foundation, im also going to keep 2 small holes in the legs, (about half block size) so i can move it with a forklift if i decide to move. what do yall think?

hmmm, the oddities, definatly involved in the world of bdsm, i once had a man ask me to make him a set of handcuffs, and these were the simple old ones with a padlock on each side is what he wanted, i said itll run about 200, he said hed pay and i casually asked "are these gonna be wall hangers or are they going to be used?" the man was flushed and i told him to say no more, ended up making it from 2 links of an old logging chain, i cheated by welding half links around the hinges and beating around them for a hammered look, i forged the actual shackled part, and i called a place and bought 2 small padlocks that worked off the same key for about 50 bucks for both. i ended up dropping the price for him to 150. he loved them. and i had one woman to make a device that nailed to a board that went around someones neck, got to mesure her and made it, this time i got a cheaper price on the lock. lol. and being a teenager ive had friends ask them to make them weapons, and i said okay, they wont be for anything but a wall hanger and when i ask for the design, i get this 5ft tall, 1 handed sword that has the blade come down to a hand gard, the blade was 2ft wide and he still wanted it light enough to swing with one arm, i backed out and always said id never make weapons again. untill i had a guy ask for a set of hand forged, usable steel nunchuks. the guy couldnt even swing the wooden ones very fast, so i quickly gave him a 300dollar estimate. and he declined. steve: ive yet to get a request for a chastity belt, but when i do, ill send em your way.

i agree with phil, as someone who cannot see the speed limit sign when i am driving without my goggles, i thank you. heres a question i been wanting to ask but my optomitrist knows nothing of metal work, could dark green tinted safty glasses work as a viable replacment for acetylene goggles? im concerned about the light and slag.

i know ibe cracked my finger tip in masonry from just how the mortar dries out my hands. there are multiple fixes to this, for both masons and metal workers. i always rinse my hands off in just water in 3 hr intervals at most. any less and it helps dry it out. always use bar soap. lotion may not sound manly, but youll carry a small bottle after your hand cracks. bag balm is a great moisturizer as well as an antiseptic (dont ask why but every time i was bit/ scratched by a wild animal, it was an hour of salty bacon and then a bandaid with bag balm) i know some of these may not sound good to yall, but it beats nursing a cracked fingertip.

i probably wont end up getting one untill after diving school, which is after i turn 18.

did you find this knife in canada?

well, we make frequent trips to memphis (actually tunnica because my mom and aunt love slots) and i found a guy who can supply me with my cast iron goods i need, its just i save about 40-60% on the item depending on what it is, dont get me wrong this is a small business, if im lucky ill clear 1k a year. so i didnt know whether i should get a tax id number or just bit the bullet on profit margins.

now, i have a welding business and my uncle since november has been my supplier of my cast goods, well, i need some cast goods and he has passed, his wife wont sell me anything i need but i did find this nice little place in memphis that will sell me what i need, my question was: i can get the stuff i need at wholesale price if i have a tax id number, if i get a tax id number, am i going to have to pay taxes on my business?