jayco

There's a product called 'RoachProof' which is 99% boric acid. It does kill roaches.
I've never heard of using 20 Mule Team Borax to kill roaches.
I'm betting there's a considerable chemical difference between the two.

In spite of all the studies that indicate that virtually everything is hazardous, I feel that using ash/cinders for gravel or 'fill' is probably safe.
When I went to elementary school, we had a coal furnace for heat. There was always a big pile of cinders out back of the school.
No one thought about them being 'hazardous'.........of course that was the '60's.......and pre EPA days.....

One thing I have noticed over the years is that walnut trees and raspberries seem to thrive around old piles of coal and ash dumps........( perhaps that's caused by sulpher or phosphates in the coal/ash.....acting as fertlizer.)

RcRacer, welcome to Iforgeiron!

This is a great place to find metalworking information of all kinds. There are lots of friendly folks here too........If you have questions, just ask.

Enjoy!

Thanks for the tip, Steve.........going to jot that one down........:)

I have a wire wheel on an old bench grinder. I have a healthy 'fear' of it. It seems that the wire wheel likes to grab onto.......and throw! small objects that I try to clean up on it.
The speed is 1750 rpm.......none adjustable. I thought at first it was my 'technique', but I've tried every angle, pressure,.......with and without tongs or pliers to hold the objects.
The wire wheel continues to turn small objects into projectiles.

My solution is to reserve the wire wheel for larger,heavier objects and do my small 'cleanups' with the workpiece in my post vice and using a 3/8 electric drill with a small wire wheel attached..........much safer!.........and I'm all for SAFER!

My latest 'run-in' with flying stuff was actually yesterday;
I cut a 2 in. long piece of stock off on the hardy.......and didn't pay any attention to exactly where it went. ( After all, it was glowing orange at the time)
The stock I'd just shortened needed a little squaring up on the end, so I forgot about the 'drop'.

A short minute later I remembered the hot 'drop' and began to look for it. I've stepped on hot stuff before........not good for shoes or feet.
The little piece of quite hot metal had cooled to gray by now.......exactly the same color as all that scale around the anvil stump.......UH-OH!
I couldn't see it anywhere!

I carefully backed away from the anvil.......found my 'magnet on a stick'........and did a magnetic search of the area around the anvil. Nothing!

I didn't find the 'drop' until today.........lying on the stump....on the backside of the anvil.
I didn't think to look there.

Funny things happen.......and a lot of them seem to happen to me:)

Tom, good job on the tong/pliers.
The great thing about making your own is that you can 'tweak' them any time you want to (if they need it).
And yes.....I have tongs that I've made that have been 'tweaked' many times over the years.
I wind up using mine for pickup tongs more often than for actual scrolling.
they're handy for chasing small rivets and other small pieces down through the fire.
James

Coil and leaf spring........good for making punches, chisels, other tools
Brake drums or rotors.......good for making homemade firepots.
Axles.......good for hammers, hardy tools
Hood support rods.........good source of 1/4in. to 1/2 in. round stock for projects.
There's probably more, but that's a start :)

Welcome to Iforgeiron, mjollnir!
Looking at your anvil, it doesn't look that bad to me. I kinda go with the 'wear it smooth' philosophy.

I'd pick one area that is the least abused......sand a little if necessary........and use that small area for finish work. You can use the 'rough areas for heavier forging and smooth your work up on your 'smooth' area.

As you use it, the pits will wear smooth after a time.

Prayers sent your way, Finnr.....

I cut some sections of lawnmower blade(from 2 seperate blades) to make small flat pry bars for some carpenter buddies. They use them to pry baseboard and trim loose.

Any way, one piece heated, hammered, and sparked like mild steel.
The other heated,hammered and sparked like medium carbon steel.
I know that's not much help, except to say that they seem to vary a lot in carbon content.

Years ago, I found a champion cut-off hardy in a flea market junk box. It had hardly been used. It's only 2 in. tall, but is quite a good size, actually.

When I first started smithing, I followed the "bigger is better" philosophy and made myself one from leaf spring.......5 in. tall.
I seldom use that one.....it's kinda wobbly when I hammer down on it, though it fits the hardy hole.......it's just too tall.
Because of the extra height, I consider it to be more dangerous as well.

Belt height is a little too high for me. I prefer, as Finnr said, at about anvil height. For me, that's my arm hanging straight down,knuckles touching anvil or forge.
I view the forge as a big work table with a fire in the middle of it. I'm constantly laying down and picking up.......stock...tools.....moving solid fuel around....etc.
The thing is, I don't want to have to lean over to manipulate stock or tools, nor do I want to have to raise things up and off the forge either.

One way to test different heights would be to walk up to any likely table, counter, etc, and lay some objects on it........pick 'em up........lay 'em back down.......and see if the height seems comfortable to you. ( Bear in mind that you'll likely repeat these moves thousands of times in front of your forge.)

Hope this helps.....

billp, I have had 2 problems with homemade charcoal..........too wet to burn properly, due to being dowsed with water, or too many fines and ash in the charcoal clogging the air into the forge.

Either of these will cause me problems.

I use gloves when using welders and A/O torch. I keep a pair of gloves in the blacksmith shop, but use them only as a last resort.
For general forging I work bare handed. Rarely , I heat something in the forge that is too oddly shaped or heavy to be gripped with tongs.....after it has become too warm to handle barehanded, I will reluctantly use the gloves.

Sometimes I wear a glove on the holding hand when punching a hole in a large piece

I have noticed that when punching a hole, barehanded, it is not quite so uncomfortable to face the palm of the hand toward the hot work instead of the back of the hand. My palm is less sensitive to the heat.

When I have a piece in the fire for a while and the 'holding ' end is beginning to be to hot to handle, I sprinkle water on the 'holding' end of the work.
This will often cool the metal enough you can grab it comfortably..........BUT!, if the piece is larger than, say, 1/2 in. round.........the water may only cool it on the outside, allowing the heat in the middle of the iron to soak back to the outside (where your hand is)very quickly. So that is definatly something to be careful about.

Worst of all, in my opinion, is to be wearing a wet glove, due to quenching or where you have been cooling metal with water........and be lulled into a false sense of security.........then you grab a piece of too hot metal with your wet glove and discover how quickly the wet glove will conduct the heat to your hand.
This is both quick and painful!

I've been burnt a few times.........thought I'd share...

Cross Pein, welcome to Iforgeiron.
Since there is so much information on this site, I suggest you look at the "lessons in metalworking" section on the front or opening page of this site. If you follow the links, there's all kinds of information on building forges, gathering tools, basic steps in forging, etc.

There are 3 search engines on the site........opening page,forums page, and gallery.
They will help you find things even faster....

And, if you have questions, just ask.....

Enjoy!

Pault17, one reason I get haphazard results from charcoal making is that I'm fresh out of good, air tight barrels. I have half a dozen, and they all leak a little air......sometimes allowing the charcoal to burn up.

There's a guy at the local flea market selling good barrels with lids and rings for $15 each.......might have to check him out soon.

The only trouble with buying the barrels is that they rust out rather quickly........at least after a few burns, anyway.

We had one day last week it was 80 deg. F...........50 today.....but that's not bad..........sunny and cool, but you can get outside and do stuff!

Come on.........SPRING!

Happy 36th James!

Dan, I wish I was 36! Try 53!

Divermike,I've been playing around with the copper, (of course a lot of it looks like practice!)

I need to post some pics of my copper adventures.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes, guys. It was a good day. I got to do a little in the shop, planted potatoes, make a new batch of charcoal,etc.

Just being able to get out and do normal things feels pretty good to me, after being restricted by doctor's orders for 6 weeks.

I've also been learning to weld a little with the O/A torch. I'm not good at it yet, but I can stick 2 pieces of mild steel together. More time and practice will improve that I hope.

Life is GOOD!...........James:)

On my batch of charcoal, I wound up with a 5 gal. bucket of good charcoal, a little ash, and enough half-charred wood to have a good start on the next batch.

There's still a lot of 'trial and error' involved in my charcoal making.

billp,welcome to Iforgeiron!
Funny you should mention charcoal,.......I have a batch cooking as I type.........in a 20 gal. washing machine tub.

It has a 1 in. hole in the bottom....where the agitator used to be........and I cover it with a barrel lid. I just light mine and wait till it's burning pretty good, put the lid on and place a little dirt around the bottom of the tub to seal that 1 in. hole.

For a couple hours after lighting, there's a lot of smoke.......thick sour smelling smoke.
I weight the lid down so the wind can't blow it off. I'll check it in the morning.
If the barrel/tub still feels hot, I'll wait a while longer before opening. Opening the lid while the fire is still smoldering will allow it to quickly start burning again.......wasting much of the charcoal.

I have opened the lid too early and had to pour water on it to put it out. I prefer not to do that if possible, since it takes the damp charcoal a while to dry out.

Hope you get a good bunch of charcoal!

Jerry, your'e in my thoughts and prayers. Get well soon.

James

Tom, that sidedraft flue looks good!
Looks like you were trying it with some paper to test the draw. If your's is anything like mine,(and I think it is), you will be amazed when you get the blower hooked up and build a coal fire.

Nice work, Tom

James

How do they work James?



Frosty

Works pretty good, Frosty.......considering that it is a small tool.

I tightened the bottom bolt as tight as I thought the little bolt would stand. I really didn't want that bolt to be a source of 'play' in the dies.

I keep the top die bolt snug, but still movable.
( I started to say 'hingeable', but I don't think that's a word!)

Although I made 1/4 in. round and approx. 3/8 in round on mine, I also feft room for a couple more shapes in the future.

These are just the shapes that seemed handy for ME. ( I've been shaping rivets with mine).

Tryin' it........yeah, that's where I saw Bill Epps' hinged fuller.
Thanks for the link.....

James

there was a b/p here (i think) that was made to neck down pipe,etc.but it had a larger dish and was radiused. jimmy

I remember seeing one by Bill Epps, kinda like you describe. I don't know where I saw it though. (I have a set of dies similar for my guilotine tool.)

And yes, RR spikes are small for this kind of tool........they were just so HANDY!

For more serious fullering/swaging, I will make a larger version with....say.....leaf spring as dies.

The dies in the pics are for 1/4 in. and 3/8 in. round stock.
James

Here's something I came up with the other day.
I'd always wanted to experiment with a hinged fuller, and came up with this design.
The top and bottom dies are RR spikes. The post is a 10in. piece of 1in. x 1/8 in. mild steel.

I could have drilled the holes and been more accurate I suppose, but I just punched them.........and it worked OK.

The bolts are 3/16 in.

I could have welded the bottom die in place easier than punching the holes, but using bolts allows me to change dies if I want without major effort.

This fuller is small, (for light work), so I'm already planning a larger one based on the same design!

Just thought I'd share.............