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The siphon nozzles out of a torpedo heater work great. '?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>> mark

I don't think an XRF will test for carbon, so you'll still have to do a little sleuthing. mark

I buy all my refractory stuff at a local boiler repair place. There has to be a couple of those in your area. mark

Welcome to IFI neighbor. Are the white bass running yet? mark

Paint it blue again. mark

Biggundoctor, It may behoove you to take the cans in and swap them for an equal weight of cast aluminum. Cans produce a lot of dross and the alloy shrinks a lot when cast. mark

You guys covered most of this , but I'll add my .02 anyway. Casting lead is one thing, copper is usually swaged from solid. On top of copper being a pain to cast, any voids/casting defects could be an issue. A 9mm going 1200 fps out of a 1:12 barrel will be spinning 72,000 rpm. Not all that fast in the world of firearms, but a void will throw it off course and a defect could potentially come apart once it leaves the barrel. Plus you would still have to size it so you might as well swage it. Aluminum bronze over 10% starts to get brittle and even lower is still hard as a cob. How would you size it? You'll have the same issue with defects. Zinc is much easier to deal with. casting steel, really? Ap is one thing if you're talking about rifle rounds. There is an unlimited(for now) supply of perfectly legal surplus ap on the market. It's a different story when talking handgun rounds. ap handgun rounds are illegal to buy and sell in all 50 states. You can thank the media for that. Remember the teflon "cop killer" bullets? According to the media the teflon coating allowed it to magically squirt through kevlar. When in reality it merely saved wear and tear on the rifling. Not sure of the legality of manufacturing handgun ap for your own personal use. mark

I would use it like a pickaroon. :rolleyes: mark

If I took a hundred pound ingot of 95-5 copper/zinc to my scrappy, he would shoot it with the xrf and pay me for 95 pounds of copper and 5 pounds of zinc. He does the same when I carry a piece of mystery metal up to the counter to buy it. For example I was there a couple of days ago and grabbed a handful of "stainless" rod for pinning knife handles. When he shot them they were some alloy really high in nickel and going to cost $3 a pound instead of the normal $.75 so I didn't buy it. mark

That's beautiful. mark

Boiling at 572, wouldn't boric acid used alone be gone by the time you reached welding temps? mark

Yessir, I was using it yesterday until the neighbor showed up with some frosty cold barley pops to ring in the new year. Other than the forge itself being too small to do much ornamental work, I haven't had any problems at all. There's not much that can go wrong with a siphon nozzle, unless you leave it in the forge when your done and melt the o ring in it. In the winter I add a pint of diesel to 5 gallons of wmo so it will light easier. one page of wadded up newspaper is all it usually takes to get it burning on it's own. In the summer it will light with a just propane torch. Mark

They don't have blasters so they should be fine. Mark

the only positive thing i can say about my hf "anvil" is that it has a hardy hole. it now resides behind the shop in the weeds. i may put it in the front yard for decoration, but i would have to grind off the "china" first. mark

i get all my refractory needs at a local boiler repair shop. they easier to get along with than the refractory dealers and usually cheaper. plus any broken or partial bags of refractory can usually be had very cheap or free. mark

it is rather thin there, but i don't think anything fell off. i can still see the marks from the power hammer underneath. i do all my punching on a striking anvil. my english anvil has plenty of mass under it for hardy work, just not much flat area. mark

i thought i had sealed the deal on this one a few weeks ago, but at the last minute he had second thoughts. he called me back over the weekend and said he was willing to let it go. 100# trenton. other than a few inches of radius near the table it looks like it hasn't been used much. the rest of the edges are sharp with no chips. other than some slight pitting in the face it's almost perfect. cost me $2 a pound. he also has a 25# trenton that he will not part with yet. i offered him $3 a pound for it and would have gone higher. he said it was his mother's favorite.and that she would come back to haunt him if he sold it. i want to set it in my window sill :rolleyes: mark

i picked this one up a few days ago. a 5" columbian to match the little 2.5" one i already had. it was welded to a plate and the plate welded to a welding table. it took me longer to untangle the extension cord than it did to score the weld with a cutoff wheel and knock it off with chisel and hammer. haven't figured out how to get the table home yet. it weighs somewhere north of a 1000 pounds. i'm 6'4" and can't budge the corner of it. the fella just wanted it out of the garage of a house he's trying to sell. i also have a line on a 5" rock island vise. guy wants $50 for it. i'm going to try and pick it up for my brother. mark

those are exquisite. mark

around here they spray used motor oil on the gravel roads, at least they used to. my forge runs on oil. the occasional spill keeps the dust and weeds in check. if you're worried about the environment, veggie oil works just as well. mark

cider press? mark

i sure wanted to go, but couldn't make it. in the future don't be afraid to speak up and ask them to pull something out and sell it separate. mark

i have one standing upright, with an 1 1/2" plate welded to it. i use it mainly for hot cutting. with 2x4s wedged in and a log chain wrapped around it, finally quieted it down enough. mark

you could use it to make zamak. mark

very nice. mark