T-Gold

Okay, so here's the deal. Recently I bought a Chinese inverter welder, set up for stick and TIG. So far the stick is pretty good -- I don't have anything in the same size range to compare it to, but it seems to work well. It was $200 and came with everything needed for stick and TIG except the regulator and gas bottle. Pretty good.

Ten-Hammers also recently had a problem with his MIG (a Miller) which necessitated sending it in for repairs. He's borrowing a Hobart right now, and he says it welds very well (testing is ongoing ). Hobart is made by Miller. Thus, my question is twofold.

1) Have you had any experience with inexpensive welders? Not the really, really awful 40amp ones, please. Stuff between $100 and $600, non-major brands, etc. is what I'm looking for.

2) For those who have used Hobarts, how were they? They really seem to be straddling the fence between cheap and expensive, and I'd like to know how well this is going for them and their customers

Thanks, guys.

Mine will be in the mail tomorrow (Monday) morning, Priority. Thanks for organizing this, Glenn.

Ian,

The tool you couldn't figure out in the armorer's shop is a rolling mill, used for rolling down wire or strip stock. My dad's got one that's very similar but a smaller model. Also, I think those funny curved swords are shamshirs. I could be wrong. Following along with your trip is awesome, keep up the good work!!

If you could get your hands on some cannonballs or something you could build a simple ball mill -- take a plastic barrel, mount it on rollers with a motor drive, put the coke and the cannonballs in, and keep an eye on it otherwise it will mill the coke down to powder!

Not to mention the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Fine Art, right Meco?

Didn't know you lived in KS... you should go hang out with Jr (Irnsrgn).

Pretty dang neat! I sure wouldn't waste that ladle on aluminum, since at those heats it would scale apart within a year or so, probably. Now to look for ladles for my own setup... :)

Next paycheck I get, I'll buy one of your babbitt hammers I'd love to see the lead melting equipment, there are a few things that I would like to cast out of lead and seeing someone else's setup is always good.

Hahaha, awesome centurion! Keep up the good work!

Lead can often be had from places that balance tires -- offer some beer for a five-gallon bucket full of wheel weights, or similar.

Pretty cool! You should be asking a lot more for the hammers, I'd say.

I second the 1/8. 1/4", I could probably use, but not many other people could. And I wouldn't like the weight :)

Woolridge, ironically, my hair is even longer than my girlfriend's so I can describe the process pretty well.

1) Tie off hair with rubberband somewhere on the back of the head.

2) Grab the end and twist it til it starts to kink.

3) Roll it around its own base. Should form a nice cylinder... maybe.

4) Stick the sticks through it. I usually use a rubber band to hold it together -- works a little better, and I don't have any 'manly' hair sticks... yet.

If you're really curious about how this works you could probably nail a piece of braided nylon rope to a board and try it.

I did a pair of these out of copper -- BIG hit. Don't forget to texture the shafts.

Ralph, heat rising. Top mounted burner means as hot exhaust flows up and out of the mouseholes it gets sucked into the burner -- side mounted it would have to flow down and around

Meco, glad you got it working! Now you can pound some iron :)

I scored two rotary-vane vacuum pumps today -- just the pumps, not the motors. These are exactly what I needed for a project that I'm doing, and they retail for $400 each or more.

They were in a dumpster, to be hauled away for scrap metal.

Same dumpster that I have gotten thousands and thousands of bucks worth of other vac equipment/misc from before.

Dumpster diving ROCKS! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Woah, Jr! Thanks! That answered a lot of lingering questions that I had.

From what I understand, joints between things like this that are intended to act as anvils need to either be through-welded or lapped to fit. I don't know the allowable tolerances, unfortunately. Don't suppose you might want to sell one? By the way, you may want to drill and tap before you do the cutting/welding if you're concerned about machinability.

If that wee wheel inside there is sharpened it would make an excellent letter opener. :)

I third what Thomas and Woolridge said. As I said, use a fan to blow the exhaust away -- don't mess with sealing the door, waste of time... and in general, it's best to bring burners in from the side, so that A) they don't huff their own exhaust (kinky!) and they don't get super super hot when you shut off the forge (chimney effect).

This kind of problem is typically caused by the burner "rebreathing" forge exhaust, in my experience. I've seen it on a variety of forges, in a variety of situations. My suggestion is to aim a desk fan so that it will blow the dragon's breath away from the burner intake. Good luck!

Looks like some kind of leather punch to me.

Also, a Reil burner can generally be relied upon to heat 300 cubic inches to forging heat or 250 to welding heat. Assuming you have a decent regulator, that is.

There are many smiths in MA... just gotta look. I know several myself, all the way from Hawaii!

I'm not much of a forge welder yet, but I'm starting off with faggot welds as described -- I like to test them by grinding or cutting off the "hinge" and putting the welded-on part in the vise and hitting the "original" bar. So far, so good... :)

Mr. H, lots of jewelry companies (such as Rio Grande) sell powered rolling mills that usually have 8" wide rollers. You may want to look into these... though they run around $8-10,000 apiece, if memory serves. If you need further help finding 'em I'll take a look around.

Very nice forge, Newlad! I think it's quite a piece of work. Looks just about professional I would probably have run it a bit differently, but that's me. I'm really enjoying following your progress on here, but could you please use a few periods in your posts? Reading them is leaving me breathless :)