southernforge

At 500 it is a bargain, jump on it!

Excellent!

Before you invest money in anything, join a local blacksmithing group and try out equipment that other folks have. That way you will have a better feeling for what type of forges and equipment works for you.

Sorry, I don't understand your posting. :-(

Since we don't know what state or country you live in, makes it difficult to provide advice.

You could take it to your local blacksmith meetings and get help in forge welding it, depending on your location.

It looks like a good purchase to me, I don't see anything offhand to be concerned about.

In Junior High science class we would magnetize stuff, then unmagnetize by tapping it against the table. The teacher said that rapping it against the table unaligned the molecules. Before you try anything with electricity, you might wish to try rapping a hammer against the table to see if that works.

Traditional.... a wood fire, a flat rock for an anvil, a smaller rock tied to a stick with gut for a hammer, and either animal skins or bare for clothing, and of course only using meterites or bog iron for materials, and scratching feas and other crawling livestock during breaks.

Excellent! Thank you for sharing.

Either you are using rivets that are too long for your application, or you are not hitting them squarely in the center for your initial blows.

Anybody got a link to Hofi's giant corkscrew sculpture? Phil

Rich has a good point. Go for it.

Im sure the company i bought the forge from would love to know they had been building the hoods 8inch flu collar wrong for 20 years..

Glenn you are doing a fine job, as is.

Unfortunately, the time to ask about flue size is before the chimney is built. As others have said, your chimney flue is too small, all other suggestions is the attempt to get around that.

Looks great, congratulations!

Looks good. If you don't snap it up quickly, someone else will.

While not the ideal sander for knifemaking, it still has a 2" wide belt and would do the job. Its just that a longer belt would stay cooler longer and wear better, and allow for interchangeable attachments. It would be fine for starting out, and as some have said, you could later turn around and likely resell it for a higher price, thus helping pay for another grinder.

Welcome to the forum.

.....because rr spikes don't really hold a blade as well as i would like or at least mine don't...Tim

I guess things have changed since I was in school. I was taught that the experimental method included a few more steps and in a slightly different order.

1) Review previous literature on a subject
2) Based upon the previous research and observations, derive an unanswered question.
3) Turn the question into a theory.
4) Convert the theory into a negative hypothesis
5) Design a research tool that may disprove the negative hypothesis.
6) Determine what statistics that you will use to analyze the data, keeping in mind both Type I and Type II errors (thus multivariate statistics being preferred to use of multiple statistical tests).
7) Perform the experiment in a reproducible manner, and collect the data.
8) Analyze the data using only the statistics previously identified (and not throw more statistics at the data until your point is proved, which is using statistics to lie).
9) Interpret the data, discuss it, and identify unanswered questions that will lead to future research.

What the professor said was that instead of following this scientific method, researchers instead:
- read literature
- come up with a theory
- design a research tool
- collect data
- use technology to throw massive statistical tests at the data until they find one that supports their theory (this last point the professor's main objection)

I remember a professor who once spent a three hour session explaining that science is defined by the scientific method, and that since researchers don't follow the scientific method, therefor there is no such thing as science. He further stated that researchers mistake the use of technology for science, therefor we should more accurately refer to the researchers as technologists rather than scientists.

There are books on making traditional wooden toys like trucks and such, but it would require time and woodworking tools. Homemade toys for kids tend to be made of wood rather than iron.

Redundant packaging has nothing to do with returns.

I sorta did, in that those needs are not my concern. The excess packaging is.

I'm not sure it's a conscious need from the customer. I think its laziness on the part of the reseller. This has created an expectation that is unnecessary. I don't know about you but I have had a damaged item put in another box and shipped to me. Looked fine when I signed for it... As I said in my OP, why do I need a bag to put a perfectly good bag of chip in? I'm not sure you understand my peeve or your question....