johnny99

Chris, what kind of shop are you in? Garage, etc... One thing I've been meaning to do in my shop, is to anchor pulleys centered, and running front to back a foot or so down from the ceiling. Then anchor a winch to the floor under the rear pulley, and hang a weighted hook off of another pulley rolling back and forth on the cable between the pulleys at the front and back. So that when I unwind the winch, the weight will cause the cable to sag until I can hook what ever I want to lift. Then when you take up slack with the winch it will tighten the cable between the pulleys lifting the load. Once the cable is tight, you can roll the load front to back on the middle pulley rolling on the cable. Just like the monorail, without the headknocking problems in a shop with a low ceiling. Or the cost of the I beam. (Note to self) Be sure your walls are strong enough to withstand the lateral load that this will put on them If your going to try it. The wife would probably be pretty annoyed to come home and discover that I had pulled down the house on myself while she was gone.

Evfreak, I have been tig welding for 15 years, and still don't consider myself a Tig weldor. So don't feel bad. I certainly wouldn't consider that a worthwhile intro to tig welding. more like familiarization with the machine. THat's the great thing about owning your own, all the practice you can stand. Yes your right non inverter =heavy (LOL). Inverter welders really are the standard these days. But when something breaks on one it can get expensive quick to replace a whole board. It usually pays in the long run to suck it up and by a miller.

Evfreek, Unless you are doing aluminum, or precision stainless or something, just buy yourself a tig torch&regulator off of e-bay. probably fourty bucks. Rent some argon, and plug it all into your portable stick welder. For noncritical ornamental stuff, there is nothing wrong with scratch start, and you certainly don't need square wave super hoopty whatever to weld pickets in. As far as dipping the tungsten, again your not talking about pressure vessels here. Who cares? Until your arc starts acting up, then you really do need to change it.

Went to work for every smith that would have me. Learned one style of doing something , then saw the same thing done a completely different way next time. Worked with a LOT of power hammers, rollers, presses. etc... and all kinds of different materials.

Like Rthibeau, I purchase new stock for the job.As part of the bid, I include atleast an extra stick of most things I purchase, not so much to supply my own steel at the client's expense, but to ensure I can finish the product at 2:30 in the morning when I'm desperately try to get it finished on time. this has allowed me to maintain a decent stock of what I call prototype material. For the design question, I do both. I design what I think looks good, Then put cost in the bid. But I also tend to push the flavor of the month in whatever steel I have if it doesn't affect the integrity of the job. For instance right now I am working heavily with 14G corten sheet. Because I have a lot of half sheets that were drops from A job I did.

Frostfly, to answer your questions in order. It's going to depend on the products you want, as stated before. However Personally, I would work with several shops to begin with. To see what styles suite your venue, Who is easy to work with and dependable etc. Certainly They would. As Mike said above, 50% mark up seems to be about standard around here. I would certainly be interested, if you are talking about wholesale. If you were thinking consignment, I would have to know a lot more about your venue, product list, clientel , etc... To make an informed decision. In general, I am not a big fan of consigning smaller work. Because you tend to pay twice. Once for the material, and again for the time to produce. to then have the vendor use your work as filler for his shelves in a location unsuited to the work, Or a million other problems. Not to say it can't work, I just haven't found it to be the best way to market. Please feel free to PM me if you wish to discuss it. Thanks John

Simmonds, you can make a jackshaft very easily by scrounging up an old motor that doesn't work, and stripping all the guts out of it. Whats left is a shaft, mounting brackets and bearings. CUt the casing in two, add a couple of pulleys and Bob's your uncle.

Simmonds, a Jackshaft is just an intermediate shaft set in it's own bearings running between the drive, and the driven pulleys. I.e. a belt goes from your motor pulley(A) to a pulley( which is key'd into the jackshaft. Motion is transfered through the free wheeling jackshaft to another key'd pulley© on the jackshaft, and from there through another belt to the driven pulley(D) on the hammer. In effect giving you four pulley's to adjust your speed with instead of just two. and avoiding such large jumps in pulley size.

Several years ago, my son who was about five decided to treat himself and his three year old sister to a full bottle of flinstones chewable candy (vitamins). after getting a call from my wife, and rushing to meet them at the hospital, where both the kids were having their stomachs pumped. The doctor told us that they were worried about, I kid you not. Iron poisoniing!

Just bend it double with a nice gentle radius. then it will be about five and a half feet long by two feet wide.

There are probably fifty ways to make a simple cheep mushroom stake. Go to http://www.armourarchive.org/ And do a search those guy's are nuts for mushroom stakes.

Same here.

Yes, it will blow up in your face!! DON"T do it. Use high temp castible refractory if you want to do that.

David, I'd skip the sawzall if I were you and stick to the cutoff wheels. All it would take with a reciprocating saw is one tooth to snag, and you will be looking at a silver dollar sized chunk cracked out of your forge pan. Ask me how I know.

In my neighborhood there are certain item's they wont actually pick up, but they will let you take them to the dropoff point. Which happens to be the city vehical maintenance yard. Row's and rows of bicycles, lawnmowers, truck axles, leafsprings,etc. that they used to let you take, last year they stopped though because someone hurt themselves climbing in a dumpster. Oh, well!!

Sure Ian, all the time. It's called mokume.

With out a doubt, New edge of the anvil. I actually use this as a text book when teaching basic blacksmithing. Having said that, I recommend you absorb every bit of info on the subject you can. Check out the online sources above, use the library's loan system.Join your local abana/blacksmith group. They usually have a library of their own w/ a good selection of books and videos. go to a good book store and stand there for a couple of hours reading. Also make every attempt to watch some one else doing what your interested in. It is quicker to have someone show you the right way to do something, than to have to figure it out for your self when you are first starting out.

Fred, are you talking about electro discharge machining, or electro etching like the knife makers use to mark their blades?

Apprentice man do a search on electrolitic (sp?) rust removal. Basically you submerge the iron in a water soda solution, and run a weak electrical current through it. Sort of electroplating in reverse. It's supposed to work great. Removing every bit of rust and no metal at all.

Apprenticeman, Good find. It's a 100# tank holds about 24 gallons of LPG. around here I pay about $45.00 to have one filled at the welding place. If your not working all day everyday, one tank will last you a long time. without even frosting up.

Paul, the easiest way, is to use murriatic acid. about three bucks for a gallon. use a five gallon bucket w/lid and mix one to one with water. ( remember, acid into water. Not water into acid when mixing). Just submege your small parts for a couple of minutes and it will disolve off all of the galvi. Make sure to do it outside as it does produce fumes. It will become weeker with use. WHen it stops working, neutralize w/baking soda.

Have you tried twisting it cold? You should be able to put atleast 2 full twists in 3' of 1/2" sq. solid by hand without to much problem. clamp it horizontally in the vise on one end, and use a Long handle on the twisting wrench.

If you want to actually buy a set of plans, look on e-bay for "Roarty roller". But there is nothing critical about them. stronger is better, up to a point. but to roll tube, channel , angle ,etc. you will probably need access to a lathe to turn wheels with a profile in them. Hope this helps john

Hi, Jmercier. Nice finds. Around here I could sell that cone mandrel for enough to make a nice down payment on a hammer. If not just outrite swap it for one. I, don't know why either. It's not like they are that usefull for modern blacksmithing. Mostly end up being a really expensive coat rack. But everyone seems to think they need one.

HeHeHe. Ok. First off I generaly don't think of auto salvage as stock. More like an easy source of precision engeneered machines that can be reconfigured. So here is an abreviated list of some things that I have either built, or seen built out of car parts. 1. welder out of alternator. (both stick and tig) 2. compressor. a. A.C. pump mounted under hood and run of car motor, usually run to storage tank. b. compression tester w/gauge cut of coupled to air hose through a one way valve. unscrew one plug,screw in tester ,start engine and instant compressor. Although the air will have gas fumes, oil, and exhaust in it. c. Small 4 cylinder engine modified as a comressor, run of a v-6 as a trailer mounted compressor. 3. engine and driveshaft used as old fashioned line shaft. 4. Power hammer ( tire hammer , etc..) 5. Twister from tranny. 6. twister from flywheel ( both manual, and using modified starter motor.) 7. Scroll bender from flywheel. 8. powered roller from old steering box, and rear axles from a front wheel drive car. 9. tumbler from old tires hung on line shaft. 10. weld positioner table from axle. 11. trailer from axle, and chassis, truck bed. 12. brake drum forge. 13. power hacksaw from rack&pinion steering unit and axle. 14. lumber mill from whole vehicle. ( driven by motor, tires as bandsaw wheels etc.) 15. portabenders from jacks. I'm sure I could think of more but those are off the top of my head. Hope this helps. John