ianinsa

Thanks Bob, As Always you seem on top of the game! Have you ever thought of becoming a teacher? Work half day for about 200 days in a year and you get to impale half wits like myself with sharp barbs You know those too dense to take offence Best Regards Ian

Leverage, cam? yea, I like the way you think Ian

Been used a bit! Ian

Bob, My guys regularly surprize me one day incredably capable/conciensious/lateral thinking etc. etc. the next a slobering laxidasical moron. And never in any predictable order. Smart skilled and talented, but not always. So he says smiling," to cater for the off days" it should preferably be simple to operate! I am leaning towards something that I can clip onto my twister, and use the slide bed as a rail ala steady rest but with a clamp, unclamp rollerset. Jeff, Using the roll grovers principal for the chuck would work a treat, thanks. Ian

Thats really nice! even looks as if it would smell good too! How do you manage to combine the 'gently gently' of the wood with the 'forcy bashy' of the iron? Ian

Bob, In most respects you are so right!!!!!!! However, if you don't provide employment you can't get chipped when poor guys with hungry children mug(never hapened to me)burgle(been burgled 8 times)pinch your car(we've 'lost'16 cars)hijack you(twice). We have a large contingent of 'bakkie(pickup)brigade' that do what is called "wrought iron work" not an anvil nor forge in the bunch! But then they do 2 x 6 meter gates for US$200/300 fitted. Not my market and I can't compete yet somehow we have to generate income to employ people hence trying to find a way whilst exportin the 'real thing' and that market aint exactly chipper at present. We will probably even start rolling corregated iron by July just to generate cashflow! Ian

Great job, nice flowers! thanks for the pics! Ian

John, Sadly even a relatively cheap chinese machine could set you back say $20 000(on your factory floor) and if I make $0.3/kg with our interest rate at 14.5%(on a good day) if i did 8T a year I might just not be able to justify the spend. Ian

Hi Jeff, You have some nice knives on your website.I got a peice of that s/s down from JHB. It's yours if you want it(free of course).Egough for about 10 knives and it holds an edge well! Ian

In years gone by(90's) farmers in The Orange Free State used to do the self same thing to S280 Mercedes Benz cars. I used to wonder where they got that idea from? Ian

John, I've become quite good at making/copying machines to do certain processes I find that once I have it, we can create a market and then only can we afford to buy the like of Hebo's and their chinese copies............I would like to follow the same process with this product. Our market is quite small but if one gets up to say 8-10 tons a month then it's worth spending the big bucks. Ian

Sorry pics. fell off the bus! Ian

Thanks Michael, It's a 'spare' we intend to refurb for the next place.I recon about 80 tons metric of kit and about 20tons of components. And 20tons of assorted goodies bearings motors pistons etc.(wife describes thi as as "junk") We have this stuff in Abu Dhabi! Ian

These are some pictures of the shop standing mostly dormant in Johannesburg awaiting relocation some 600km to the coast! Having seen some sanppy things in other guys places I am aquiring a small farm near my new home to build a shop on. I need a building of about 800sqm(x9 for sqft I think) to house all the kit! I also have a container Full of new chinese equipment that we have to house. Ian

Michael, I'll do a topic on my old shop today! Ian

It's definitely rolled in a device like a twister and most likely done cold it's the swage/clamping/squeezing tool I am interested in. Ian

We twist tubes using a greased polished hard 420s/s mandril inside of tubes and pull it out after with a pneumatic piston as it gets quite tight during twisting. To create the ring effect we have modified a large pip[e cutter with "rounded wheels" and release one chuck so that the pipe can spin freely. I hope this is of interest and of use to some! Ian ps. our Homemade Twister twists 6meter lengths of up to 36mm solid bar "cold" and 1meter of 50mm bar "cold"

I picked this up in the middle East and other than using a large version of a modified pipe cutter I can't figure out how this is done easily? And it comes in long lengths! Ian

"But then again if you were serious you`d own a REAL welding machine" Bob, that's mean yet oh so true Ian

When I got divorced from my first wife my lawyer(a woman) got me to video the contence of my both mine and my wife's clothes/shoes (and bags) cubdoards and drawers then she put a value to them on an item by item basis.........wow! they equaled the crazy value she had put on the contence of the garages plus my clothes........... she kept her stuff and I kept mine! Good luck Ian

A freind of mine who had a wholly owned machine shop, had a fire. Years of soluble-oil etc. soaked in the concrete of the floor caused a mayor fire. the insurance adjustor added up the value of nuts and bolts(years of acumulation)in his stores at replacement value at trade price and told him that he was 70% underinsured!(the replacement value of new nuts,bolts bearings,motors etc.) was aprox.equal to his total sum assured)He too was a pack rat for goodies and gubins. Also he had valued his tools and equipment at his cost and not at current replacement value. The net result was they were only liable for 30% of the claim less the exsess. Unfortunately much of his equipment was financed. So now he has no shop of his own and large amount still due to the bank. We now specifically exclude incomplete goods, stores and books(replacement value is beserk) from our cover, and still I know that I am way underinsured(but what can you do?) I would just have to get my lawyers to argue that I intended to replace like for like i.e. 40year old anvil for 40year old anvil. I believe that they don't consider flea markets and pawn shops as valid vendors? Despite my contention that to me they are a major/invaluable source of tools! Ian

Many early weapons had 'inlay' the the smith would chisel a groove into the weapon then lay a wire(gold,silver,brass,etc.) into the groove, Then using a 'punch' beat the wire into the weapon. This incorporated the wire into the base metal without affection its properties much! I hope this helps? Ian