Daryl

Being an Ag-mechanic I am familiar with your problem. I have bad news... if the knotter is worn out (and yes they are supposed to eventually wear out so the next, more expensive piece doesn't) then you will have to cowb oy up and but new. An old baler will have the same worn out parts as yours. Follow your manual closely and and pay attention to the timing on the baler, particulalry the stuffer. Yours should have timing marks scribed on the critical parts to help you. Good luck

On the subject of the quenching medium one will use, the number one most important thing to remember is consistency - do not not use one kind of oil this time and something else the next, you will not be familiar with either. Number two : Do not use old motor oil as it contains high amounts of sulphur - very bad for you. Number three: understand what is going on with your quenching medium when immersing hot metal into it. There are several stages of cooling when immersing hot metal - in our case it will normally be steel or iron. First is the rapid cooling stage - this is when the hot steel is first immersed in the quench. The steel will cool rapidly until the next stage. Vapour covering stage - at this point, the qunching medium has began to boil violently and has formed a barrier of vapour between the steel and the qunching medium, there is very little cooling at this stage due to the impeded transfer of heat from the steel to the quench. Last stage (there are many different terms used here and I won't use any) is the last rapid cooling stage - here the vapour barrier has lifted and the transfer of heat from the steel is occurring rapidly. The different quenches that can be used are plenty. Everyone has a favorite. What is most important is using a quench that can minimise the vapour covering stage and cool the material rapidly enough to retain the best qualities of your steel. For any tool work, I simply use mineral oil; this is my own personal favorite though I have been very impressed with the results some of my aquaintances have had with stuff they use.

Unicorn has it right, add more coal to bring the 'ball' higher up from the tuyre. If you are worried about coal consumption, cut two sections of railway iron to help crop in the sides of the fire. Place them sideways such that the flat bottom will be just off the vertical angle, this will narrow the amount of coal on the sides, yet allow the fire to be deep.

Any cast anvil, regardless of make, that has survived any appreciable number of years of use, is a good anvil. Because the quality of castings can vary even within the same pour, I would welcome any anvil that is in good shape and is older. I actually had a new anvil crumble below my strikes while doing a demonstration at a high school, the 100+ year old Arm & Hammer that I used right after still has clean edges!

There is no greater honour to a Blacksmith than to create a tribute to someone's life in iron. The cross is beautiful.

Preparing to forge weld using O/A torch would be the same as baking a cake with a bic lighter. Maybe it can be done - but it sure would be difficult.

Check out Manufacturers' Health & Safety Association

My family and I are thinking of you.

Unless you wish to kill yourself, don't even consider going there. The precious metals used in catalytic converters are catalysts, as the name implies. The noxious chemicals and elements expelled from the combustion engine bond with those same precious elements. These elements and chemicals start off with hydrogen sulfide (mix with water and make sulfuric acid in small amounts) and get worse from there on. I work with diesel engines which are now equipped with DPF (diesel particulate filter) systems. The warnings with those alone tell you to wash your hands immediately if you touch the insdie the of the filter, the gas versions are not much different.

My anvil (having two horns) is placed such that the position of the hardy hole is closest to the hand that holds my tongs - away from my hammer hand and lessening the risk of injury when cycling from the anvil to the cut-off hardy when it is placed in the hardy hole. This also puts the upsetting block toward me and the preanvil at the far side of my manvil face.

While I have not forged brass successfully, I have however, forged silicon bronze with excellent results. To those who have not forged bronze, there is a narrow range of malleability. Note than when founding (melting) brass has a higher tendency to want to separate without sufficient flux than does bronze. A common mistake is to constantly try different materials, including exotic and expensive metals. My suggestion is to first get good at the basics: forging techniques, hammering, fire, planning, etc. before wasting time and money on metals other than basic iron. Some of the really exotic materials (tool steels, for example) have so narrow a forging (mechanical working) range, that success only comes after much, much experience, patience and attention to detail. As the other fellows have noted, some of the gases produced from working 'other' materials can be harmful if not lethal. Mistakes of that nature are not habit forming. Frankly, I would save the brass in a pail, then take it to the scrap dealer to buy good silicon bronze or lots of steel.

Ingersoll-Rand. The best at any price low or high. Low air consumption per revolution, long lasting (always keep all air tools oiled), and simply can not be beat (no apologies to any other maker). I also work at a heavy truck dealership where the I-R tools easily beat out all competitors in performance. Best of all, they also are not the most expensive. Win-win.

Where do you live? If you are near an agricultural area, consider looking for grain auger pipe. They come in sizes ranging from five inch diameter up to over fourteen. You can put one inside ther other for insulating purposes. The pipe also varies in gauge thickness - so a cautionary note on how heavy it may get for long lengths is needed as well as a suitable means of supporting it. I currently have an eighteen foot long length of eleven inch diameter three-sixteenth wall (or so) - salvage from someone else's misfortune while the auger was in transport.

I side with Rich Hale and fionnbharr, and then some. Too many times I see newcomers to this Craft, and look in wonder and amazement at the enthusiasm and creativity, and loathe the more often than not, complete lack of dedication. Anything worth learning takes time and patience, Blacksmithing is no exception. Surely, power hammers, dies and what-not will add to the ease of certain tasks; yet they do NOT, ever, EVER qualify as experience and wisdom at the anvil. I hammer very long and very hard. I do not have problems with my shoulders, arms, hands or back. I was fortunate to have passed down to me, effective techniques and the correct methods of hammering, and I readily offer help to anyone who visits my forge and is willing to learn. I do not wish to sound arrogant or whatever, though I must stress to everyone, that correct techniques are of critical importance; and if you do not wish to seek out and learn the right stuff, I have trouble justifying to myself a reason to instruct or give advice any further. Learn the basics, remember them, build on them, they are the base from which you stand. You can never go wrong.

I have two smaller swage blocks of differing design as well as a 24" tall cone. All sit idly until I do some production work, then I simply can not do without them. All are small enough they can still be carried (slowly) across the shop when I set up stations, though they are big enough they don't move around much. Made stands for them all, got them somewhere............

My first experience with metallurgical/foundry coke: Light small coal fire, get hot. Add coke. Beautiful low blue-white flame. Need more air - pump bellows. Flame appears to get low - still blue-white, add more coke. Seems pretty hot - flame gates low, add coke, pump bellows. Add coke, pump bellows (getting tired). Fire is a beautiful blue-white flame all across the space over the firepot - seems to sink before my very eyes. ????? Add more coke, pump bellows. Firepot falls through bottom of forge on to floor. Flame pattern through the firepot had turned the upper edge of the firepot so hot, the weight of the bottom stretched it down and separated. Now, make lumps smaller and build the fire with one part coke to two parts coal - very nice fire.

Hot-dip galvanising has many benefits for particular works. However, the more intricate the piece, the less likely the galvanise will be able to effectively coat the smaller crevices and sharp indentations. I have tried some roses in hot-dip with mixed results (not the fault of the people doing the galvanise), and those that turned out faired well. After galvanise, it is important to use an etching primer to aid adhesion of the subsequent paint; simply throwing tremclad on will not turn out well in a few years. . I hope this helps.

Save for being a Jardine, mine is an identical twenty-five pounder, including the v-groove cut for the belt. I use a flat belt on mine. I am pretty happy with mine, as even before I bolted it to the floor, two hours of use and it only moved a couple of inches.

Welcome. I apprenticed for Blacksmith (Kovac) here in Canada under a Croat. He grew up in your neck of the woods and left when it still known as Yugoslavia. He went to an industrial trade school in Krasic to learn his Blacksmith trade, and did part of his apprenticeship helping out the military doing horseshoeing to go along with his regular duties. You might wish to contact people in Krasic to see if there might be documents left or even better someone to learn from. Boge

For those of us who have been smithing for a while, we sometimes lose our appreciation for the effort we have put in to achieve the results we now have. Crowd control is as much being polite as it is setting rules. I believe it has already been mentioned, place your previous, larger examples of your work slightly farther away from your forging station, trinkets and smaller items closer; have a photo album of other previous work handy; businees cards (especially important); if someone says their grandfather or whatever was a Blacksmith, ask them if they had the opportunity to learn anything or at least ask them if they would like to turn the blower for you. Crowd control is not about corraling people like cattle, rather inviting and leading them to items and places mutually benficial. I have never had a shortage of helpers or spectators. It has been rare when aggressive people or unruly children have been a problem; asking them to leave will offend no one else in the crowd. Some demos that I attend regularly have familiar faces, bringing along extra relatives or friends (this I value the most). I have had on occasion, people showing up later with items from their farm or whatever, either asking for it to be identified or on occasion wondering if I was interested in purchasing Grandpa's anvil, tongs or whatever; even had a couple items given to me (of course, you make them something in gratitude). In the shop however, especially during public demonstrations, please do not allow parents to drop off their children so they can watch (read as you are now the babysitter). There is a difference between a young person being interested in what you do and actively watching, and some brat running amok in the shop. Inform those parents that any unruly children will be returned to their parents after being given three cans of Red Bull Cola, two packs of gum and one puppy!

Having recently purchased a sale bulk pack of grinding discs, and the results from that, I feel it important to advise everyone about the quality control of items that are not common name brands. Normally, the discs I purchase for my 8" Makita angle grinder were either Norton or Walter brand. These discs remove material very well, produce comparitively minimal dust, and last quite long. I happened across a bulk pack of ten grinding discs for a price that I felt may give me some cost savings (I, like everyone else, has to be vigilant for econoomy). The first disc I installed on the grinder was severely out of balance, even though visually it displayed no runout when turned on the grinder; the same for the next four in the pack. The fifth one only lasted about thirty seconds of light grinding before it suffered a catastrophic failure. When I first felt the disc starting to go, I had just pulled my finger from the trigger and was turning it away from my body when it let go. I now have several bruises on my legs and stomach, as well as a few dents and dings in the wall and cieling of my shop. Feeling that I may have been to blame, I examined the remaining discs in the pack - the media or particulate matter displayed cracks or hazing right on the surface. I have now destroyed the remaining discs with a hammer, to prevent the being salvaged by someone else. All this because I thought I saved 10%. . For those of you purchasing bargain 'stuff': caveat emptor.

Does she have children who play loud music, even if the vehicle is in the driveway? Does she ever entertain friends in the back yard with alcohol? (the point of this is that once you are outside the walls of your premises, you are in public, even though you are on your own property) Does she have flowers you are 'allergic' to? I am certain if you feel the complaint is frivolous, you would be able to pull a few of your own hat. However, this would be stooping to her level. Otherwise, Wooldridge has the correct approach. . I still have memories of the old Cheech and Chong movie where Chong's Harley Davidson was inside the house with the exhaust vented to his neighbor's roses.............

I am unsure what the expense would be in Oklahoma, though you might wish try taking it to a hydrojet or water-cutting facility. The water cutting process can be extremely accurate - as fine as .010" on a 4" depth cut or even better depending on the equipment. You pay for set-up time and the time it takes to cut; the finer the cut, the slower the process, the more it costs. Water cutting is used quite often now in work-hardening stels that require a hol to b bored and then susequently tapped for threads.

This is an opportunity for you to fine tune some skills, develop new ones and get some inventory set aside - all at your own pace (when you have the time). There will be times when the lights in the shop never burn at all, as well, there will be some good chances to spend some concentrated time at the anvil. The only pressure you feel is that which you place on yourself. Enjoy yourself, have fun; if you take life too seriously, you'll never get out alive.

Just go and ask for any of the old hay and manure tines (the old broken ones, not the new ones, as they are too expensive) that bolt to the tractor buckets. These make decent hammers and handled- tools. They don't require much hardening and accept a semi-hard to medium-soft temper with only mild deformation when the tool is not used for hot work. Like all higher carbon and alloy steels, plan you time forging well ahead, as you have a limited time to forge with, and above all, ensure that the entire thickness of the material has reached forging temperature; otherwise you will end up with internal cracks that will not show up until the tool is put to use.