jayco

Welcome to I F I Bonsaik! 10 months ago I became a member of this site.....Now I welcome you. Hope you enjoy your stay here as much as I have mine! James

Oh, by the way......the pulley I got was a keyed motor shaft pulley. The idler pulleys might be harder to find than I thought. Sorry about that! Good luck in your search. James

Welcome to IFI Hunterbow. I don't know what stores are available in your area, but here in Kentucky we have Tru-Value Hardware stores and Tractor Supply. Both carry an assortment of pulleys in several diameters and shaft sizes. I recently bought a 2 inch one at Tru- Valu for $4 and change.

Here's a belt driven blower I have. It's just a fan on a shaft.....in a cast iron housing. I don't use it much because it puts out air like a leaf blower. It has a 2 inch flat belt pulley on one side and the shaft extends through the other side to accept a pulley there also. When I do use this blower, I just use a washing machine motor and a v-belt on the flat pulley of the blower. I usually have the whole thing assembled on a piece of 2 x12, but for now it's just in storage.

I've had a couple of 'near ' accidents with those 'brown jersey' gloves. Seems to happen in cold weather...when I need the warmth on my hands. I've got one of those homemade bench grinders that's powered by an old washing machine motor. A fan belt connects the motor and grinder,....got that glove hung in the pulley once. My finger went all the way around the pulley before being thrown free. Yep.....that hurt! Good thing the belt wasn't really that tight! Got my coat tail caught in the belt of a corn elevator once. ( I know it's not a glove, but the principle is the same.) another time, one cold winter day......an alternator belt on a running car took a 'jersey' glove right off my hand. Probably lucky the glove didn't fit so tight!

The only unusual kind of tongs I use is an old pair of 'gas' pliers that I got at a flea market years ago.They're just so handy for holding punches and chisels while striking them with a hammer. Also handy for holding small bolts and rivets too. I've made several sets of flat jawed tongs and only use them occasionally I do use bolt tongs and v-bit tongs a lot. I bought a couple pair of 'duckbill' tongs years ago.....thinking I would like them. I don't guess I like them, since I almost never use them.

There are those awkward pieces of a certain size that I sometimes use a glove on the left( I'm right handed)hand to hold them at the anvil. Say....something in 1 inch round.....18 inches long. To me , that size is just a bit unwieldy with tongs...I prefer to use my my bare hand to hold that size, but after a couple heats, the end I'm holding starts to get a little hot to handle. You know how that residual heat is in a larger piece...you can quench it in water to cool, only to have the heat return seconds later. So in those kind of situations, I opt for a glove.

BIG.....usually, charcoal burns up pretty quick in the forge....expecially with a strong blast of air. Also,some coal is slow to ignite. I've never used anthracite, so I can't judge your coal...but I've heard from others that it's harder to use than bituminous types. You might try cranking really slow to allow the coal a chance to get hot enough to ignite. Let us know how it goes. James

Here's a link about used motor oil that not only would make you afraid to use it as quench, but make you afraid to be around a car.....period! It's PDF and 42 pages long...........but it seems to have the science of the subject. www.nature.nps.gov/hazardssafety/toxic/oilused.pdf

I had to pass on a nice Champion 400 blower-complete with stand,..that I found at flea market. The guy was asking $50 for it . Didn't have the money......OH WELL!!

According to Alabama's Project R.O.S.E. (recycled oil saves energy) website, Used Motor Oil: A Problem with a Solution,......."While an automobile is running,the motor oil collects dirt,heavy metal(lead,cadmium,zinc and barium) and other things. I also looked at some info from the American Petroleun Institute (API). I never quite figured out whether the so-called "contaminants" are supposed to come from the engine, the gasoline, or the additives that are put in the oil itself. The informatiion on this subject is somewhat contradictory. On the one hand,used motor oil is considered toxic(a hazardous waste), yet ,on the other hand,it can be re-refined into safe 'new' engine oil.....or it can even be burned in a 'properly designed' furnace to heat an office building.....or your home! After my web surfing on this subject ,that's all I came up with.

Sam, that's good news.....he's been in my thoughts and prayers as well. James

I've had rusty metal and tons of coal in the back yard for a long time. Guess that makes me a lifetime addict! What's even worse, I've noticed on days when I not smithing.....and happen to walk by the shop, that I'm drawn in to the smell of the doused coke from the last fire! The aroma tells me "Time to hammer some iron"!

My dad always had a little forge here on the farm, in a back corner of the barn. He didn't do a lot with it, but he did occasionally "beat out" a hoe, axe, or straighten something that got bent. He even welded some rings for harness once. He used the shop to make quick repairs on the farm. When I was 12 or so, I would build a fire once in a while and mangle some piece of metal. Of course I didn't have any idea what I was doing, but it sure was fun. I remember one of my great uncles telling me that "They used to make everything in the blacksmith's shop at one time." That was just amazing to me to learn that. I would find old hand-forged tools and marvel at the skill it must have took to make it. (I still marvel at some of the things I find.) In '70 or thereabouts, dad got our first Lincoln 225 arc welder. Neither of us had ever welded with arc. He tried it ,but soon decided I should try it. I took to arc welding fairly well, so I became the family arc welder. Before finishing high-school, I had rediscovered the public library and read all the blacksmithing books they had.By that time ,smithing had become an addiction I suppose. James

Sam...you've done a really good job on that forge! I was looking at the cinder breaker......is there an extra handle under there? Please explain how it works. James

RILL...a narrow, shallow incision in soil, caused by erosion.

You might find a MOLE.

seed....sub mitted by my seven year old grandson.

I've got cows to FEED.

M Brothers,I saw in your post that you 'threw some gas in it'. Your safety is your own business of course, but please be careful! Throwing gas,diesel, or any other petroleum product on a fire or something you intend to burn can be very dangerous! To be totally honest, when I was younger, I used to do stuff like that too......but I was lucky I guess. Other people I've known were not so lucky. One guy I know tried to refill the gas tank on an old farm tractor........with the engine running...........spilled some on his t-shirt and some on the engine.The spilled gas ignited. His stomach, chest, and neck are one massive scar. An older guy in the community took a can of gas to burn a brush pile......they found him later with burns over 85% of his body. He never regained conscienceless, but died a few weeks later. My buddy who has worked in a body-shop for 20 years,spilled some gas on his flannel shirt one morning and made the mistake of lighting his A/O torch. That one resulted in skin grafts and months of agonizing pain. So.....I don't use gasoline to start fires. I didn't mean to come down so heavy on you. Just......PLEASE BE CAREFUL! James

Do a good DEED.

Norpus :A small clay jar found in Egyptian tombs. Wow! This is getting hard!

GULF of Mexico.

6 inches is stove pipe size......might make a great top for a 55 gal. drum/pot belly style shop stove.

Thanks Thomas....your post kinda cleared up my question about the origin of charcoal 'fleas'. We had an old barn that fell here on the farm 8 months ago.There have been a lot of broken posts and timbers to deal with in the cleanup. But, on the bright side....I've extinguished a lot of fires and made a lot of charcoal from the scraps. I raked up and shoveled up a lot of charcoal in the past few months......nearly all hardwood, too. I've had as many as 30 5 gal. buckets on hand at times. But........even months later.........the extinguished charcoal in the bottom of the buckets is still damp!Just the other day I tried welding with some......which didn't seem to burn really hot as I had hoped, and wound up having to spread it out in the sun to dry! I'm planning to try an indirect retort when I get time.(fire under the barrel....and a pipe from top of barrel dirrecting the smoke and volitile gases back into the fire. This is supposed to be more effecient and get rid of the smoke.I'm gonna try it when I can.......and try to post some pics of the results. James