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jayco

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Everything posted by jayco

  1. Here's my question for the month: Since I recently had defibrillator/ pacemaker installed in my chest, I'm wondering.......does anyone out there have any experience with this situation? First thing after my surgery, my doctor informed me to stay away from electromagnetic fields.........that proximity to them could disrupt the unit in my chest. In short.....NO ARC WELDING! The Literature the hospital sent me home with said the same thing, but with the caveat that "If you have to arc weld, you can.......if you follow some simple safety rules." I'm getting a contradictory message here........."Yes you can" and "No you can't" I went for my checkup, today........saw my doctor, and also the company rep for the defibrillator I have. Apparently, at this time, I do not need the pace maker function.......that section of the implant is not activated. If my heart were to jump out of rthym again (it hasn't so far) I would get a high voltage shock to set things right again. My doc and the rep told me of a welding instructor (with a defibrillator) who manages to weld a little by keeping amperage at 130 or below, wearing dry shoes, heavy gloves, staying away from the generator/transformer as much as possible. Also important seems to be to keep the arc a minimum of 2 ft. from the unit in my left shoulder. I want to put here a disclaimer that "I AM NOT RECOMMENDING THAT ANYONE GOES OUT AN TRIES THIS TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS!" This is merely research on my part, and may be too dangerous to attempt. I also looked at a welding site that said that 'Arc welding with a defibrillator is doable if special precautions are taken.........so........... What do you guys think? Any experience with this? James
  2. Welcome to IFI........Enjoy! James
  3. I'd seen on the news where Bowling Green, Paducah, and Cadiz had seen damage from the high winds. In North East Ky, it seems we're all right so far. This is some bad stretch of weather!
  4. We used to have tall white pines in the yard and other places around the farm until the ice storm of 2006. We still have white pines on the farm, but a lot of them are still dying from having the tops broken out. After that ice storm, we cut all pines that could fall on the house, barns, shop, garage, etc. They do grow quickly and make nice shade, but they're absolutely vulnerable when covered in ice. I went out to town today and noticed a lot of broken white pines after this last ice storm.
  5. jayco

    I'm back!

    Steve, I was with j4jiron when he logged in the chat that night. I explained to him that the chat was not working properly. He understood perfectly. NO problem!:)
  6. First, welcome to IFI, Troy! One way to look at the problem would be to figure out what fuel is available to you. Coal, natural charcoal(not briquets), and gas are all good fuels and can be used for bladesmithing. Gas is convienient: Light it and go.....and the neighbors don't complain about the smoke. But, it can be costly. If you can find good coal locally, it makes a good economical fuel for forging. If you have access to plenty of scrap wood and can cook it in a barrel in the back yard, you can make your own charcoal to use. You can make solid fuel forges from lots of stuff besides brake drums......my main forge for 35 years was an old 20 in. truck rim with a little fire pot under it. There are plenty of ways to make coal/charcoal forges from ' found stuff; My 2 cents worth.......
  7. Jeff, the hold-down looks to be well designed and very versatile. You can't beat that! (I'll be making me one of those)..........Thanks for sharing!
  8. jayco

    I'm back!

    Thanks for all the responses, guys, I much appreciate it! As far as the "quitting arc welding" is concerned, I have plenty of interesting options available to me. For one....I have a 27 year old son who is a good arc welder. I could just let him do what arc welding I need done. It might be a sneaky way to get him interested in blacksmithing And.....I need to hone up my skills as a forge welder and O/A welder anyway...... We'll see what develops. By the way, I really missed talking to you guys this past month. I love this site! James
  9. I think soy oil is just vegatable oil. Lots of knife guys use it as quench. It's also an ingredient in some finishes. And yes, veggie oil is a lot safer to use than used motor oil!
  10. I've been away from IFI for a while, and I thought I should explain a little. Nearly a month ago, I was working, but not feeling so well: Then I had computer problems: Then, IFI was off-line for a while: And then we had.......THE ICE STORM! No power for 4 days and nights. We were lucky about the power outage.......lots of folks are just now getting their power back on! If that wasn't enough trouble, Sunday night I began to feel really BAD and had to go to the ER. To make a long story short, I had to have my heart shocked back into rythym. The doctors installed a nice new defibrillator into my chest. Left the hospital Wednesday. I got home to discover that the computer was down! Talk about bad luck! A local computer guy fixed it just today. The good news is that I actually feel better than I did a month ago. I had a heart attack years ago, and open heart surgery 3 years ago,so I'm not totally surprised at having cardiac problems show up from time to time. My doctor tells me I will not be able to arc weld due to the electrical fields interfering with my new device........(I will be asking him more about this later) Hopefully, I will still be able to do some metal working.....I was slow and semi-retired even before this incident, so it might not be so much of a change for me LOL! I'm gonna brush up on my O/A welding.......just in case........I've already had my old shop books out looking for the information. You know what they say: "When one door closes, another one opens" James Flannery
  11. Welcome to Iforgeiron! (You can click on the ''User CP'' at the top of the page to make your general location a part of your posts) Believe it or not, it makes it a lot easier for folks to help if they know where you are. James
  12. Jr., keep posting. There are a lot more of us out here taking notes than you realize. You are a thick book of blacksmithing knowledge.......it would be a shame not to open that book! James
  13. A great bunch of pictures, Hollis! Thanks for sharing. About this "safety glasses not being period correct" thing......... Maybe we should try a new strategy.......and declare ourselves the 'New Blacksmiths" You know........the ones that demand adequate ventilation, avoid zinc fumes,.......and wear safety glasses! Think about it........no one expects Civil War re-enactments to be done with REAL bullets, do they? Just a thought.........James
  14. With much of the U.S. going into the 'deepfreeze'.....and the current hard times a lot of folks are seeing, It's a good idea to check on older folks, the sick, and the disabled in our communities. We should make sure they have food and heat. Folks on fixed incomes often face difficulty making ends meet toward the last of the month. Not enough money for medicine, heat, and food. If we cannot help them ourselves, we should notify local authorities. James
  15. The arrival of the seed catalogs is a sure sign that spring will eventually arrive in E. Ky. My wife does most of the seed catalog browsing, so I'm not sure what I'll be planting this year. In mid January, I'm always kicking myself for NOT cutting enough firewood back in september, when the weather was nice........ After half joking in a post about making "Bullwinkle" tongs.......I'm wondering if I really could make them.......the horns are the dilemna! 'dilemna?.......maybe I should learn to spell too...........:)
  16. cam7002, welcome to Iforgeiron! Soon you will be drooling over blacksmithing tools and picking up pieces of scrap iron along the highway. Like the rest of us, you will soon be addicted. Please use the User CP at the top of the page and post your general location. There might be other smiths near you. enjoy!
  17. Mitch, any dry wood would work. My reason for avoiding the pine knots is simply that they make for a mighty smoky fire. Oak should work fine, but it burns slower. I haven't tried oak in this way yet, but I imagine if you split it finer, or pile the wood higher on the forge, it would work much the same. With denser, slow burning woods, I would expect it to take a little longer to get a good heap of burning coals to forge with at startup. I have a good supply of very dry sassafras that I intend to experiment with as well. The white pine I've been using is very dry.....very light in weight....almost like balsa. Next time I try this, I'll try to get pictures.
  18. Yep, good stories and information, Adirondacker. There's a film I've seen on the 'documentary channel'.....called....."The Charcoal People of Brazil".............They may still be airing it, I'm not sure. Any way, the program depicts the making of charcoal in mud and brick domes about 5 ft. high. Pretty interesting and informative.
  19. Dick, welcome to Iforgeiron! If you have any questions, just ask... With your background, you may be able to answer some too. Good to have you here. Enjoy!
  20. Barnaby, welcome to Iforgeiron! The blacksmithing and bladesmithing classes will definately improve the learning curve for you. Just seeing a working smith at a working forge will save you from much trial and error. Check out the "Getting Started" and the "Lessons in Metalworking" sections on the opening page of IFI. Much good information there. Enjoy!
  21. James, you and yours and everyone else who is looking for employment will be in my thoughts and prayers as we enter into this new economic era.
  22. This is not really a trick, but I thought I'd pass it on anyway. Might come in handy for someone. Today I was preparing to forge some small pieces.(1/2 in. round.....6 in. long) and didn't need a large fire. I lit a fire with newspaper and small kindling. Because the shop was rather cool today, I just kept adding 1 in. x 1 in.x `12 in. long kindling to the fire. By the time I had gathered my stock, tongs, and proper hammer, etc, I looked at the fire and noticed that I had some NICE charcoal in there. Since I didn't need the large fire, and was only cranking the hand blower once in a while, the charcoal making on top of the forge pretty much kept up with my fuel needs. Now, I've tried things like this before, and usually there's too much smoke........the fire burns out and I'm left with a pile of burning sticks (which, by the way, will not heat metal properly.) The reason this worked was because the pine kindling was very dry, the bark was gone. The bark adds a lot of smoke and ash to the fire. As luck would have it, most of the wood had no knots........the resin in the knots makes for lots of smoke. Without the bark and resin, the fire did not smoke much. This wood charred quickly and easily........I was so surprised that I will have to do more experiments.
  23. I like a little primitive woodworking along with my metalworking. Kinda goes hand in hand. I have a shaving horse and drawing knives I use to shape handles and other things. Believe it or not, using a froe can be fun........once you catch on to how it works and can make the split run the way you want it to go in green wood. Of course, I like my chainsaws too. I made nearly all the cuts in building my new shed/shop with mine.
  24. bsiler, I'm pretty sure it was Glenn who did the B P on the expanded metal sifter. You might contact him....I think he has it on file somewhere. There are hundreds of B P's that are currently off line.......they may be returning soon. By the way, I still haven't found a good way to get a worth while amount of charcoal out of the pot bellied stove. Just too much air gets in there and burns up the wood. It's too far along in the winter to radically change things around, but before next winter, I might make a 55 gal. barrel stove for the shop.....with tight fitting dampers and door. For the time being, I will still try some of the great ideas from this thread. If any look promising, I will report on the success. James
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