robodog

Frosty, Thanks. I like your (Bealer's) formula. What do you do for soot? Just scrape out your chimney or something? Lamp black - it sounds kinda familiar, but can you buy lampblack? BTW, it is starting to harden - little by little. I think eventually, it'll be perfect - but at this rate it's gonna be at least three weeks total time.

I used this formula on a recent piece of work (except I omitted the Johnson's paste wax). I heated the piece in the oven at 500F and then applied a coat of the wax liberally. It looks great BUT it is not drying well. It has been three days now and it is still very tacky. Suggestions?

Tim, this is slick. Very nice work.

I'm in the market for a new (or used) torch with cutter head and ideally a rosebud tip too. I've been monitoring ebay and there seems to be two levels of quality - Victor and "Victory style". The Victors usually go for $300-$400 including gauges; the others are half the price. I see a couple Victor setups on Amazon for $260-$270. I don't want to waste my money on some cheapo junk that's going to fall apart. Nor do I want to waste my money on something that is built for professional use. I'm an amateur hobbyist. Advice? Are there some good non-Victor makes out there? Harris? Smith?

Firebug, Did you ever do the detailed article on this? I just poked around and couldn't find anything. I'm getting closer to building this myself but was planning on using 10" round stove pipe to connect to the horizontal piece. Would love to see more info on the specs etc. Thx, Roger

Very nice work.

Hi Connor, Don't try to take this as carry-on luggage. You will very likely run into problems with the TSA. Also, the overhead bins are not stressed to hold something like that and the closets are not necessarily available to passengers. If you must have it in Europe with you, you should crate it and ship it; but it will cost extra and will probably be expensive. I do this stuff for a living (flying) and I pass through security on a regular basis. They have a lot of leeway to be jerks and they tend to take advantage of that. European security folks are not much different. And flight attendants, the arbiters of cabin space, can also be very territorial. Best, Roger

A few weeks ago I asked about repairing the screwbox on a post vise. The threads of mine were totally mucked up - twisted and sticking out and unusable. Got some very good detailed answers on how to do it - based on removing the old ones that were brazed in and creating a new helix, which in turn gets brazed in place. Read that informative thread here. I'm a newbie and this project is definitely beyond my ability. I went to see my friend, the wizard Chuck. Chuck is an inventor of new things but with a passion for old ways. Chuck has a fantastic shop with many old machine tools, some that are belt driven, but all of them hum magnificently. With his help and direction, we fixed it, but we decided on a non-orthodox method. Still worthy, sturdy, and cheap. (Apologies in advance if the formatting is sloppy.) After inspecting the existing screw, we determined that there were effectively three options. It was so worn that the screw itself would need 1) some welding and turning work, 2) need to be turned down to a different thread count (meaning thinner and weaker thread), or 3) need to be replaced. The first option was way too time consuming. The second option would yield an inferior product. As to the third, we looked at Acme lead screws and nuts on McMaster Carr and figured it would cost almost $200 just for a nut and screw. The existing screw is (was) square thread - not Acme. That's when I remembered that I had an old screw and nut from a woodworker's vise that I'd been hanging onto for about 30 years. ( Hey - you never know… some day…) Square thread, to boot; and similar thread pitch - about 2" vs 2 1/4" on the old screw. So despite being a thinner stock 1 1/4" vs 1 1/2" we had the materials in hand and they seemed sturdy enough. The new nut is not as long - 2" - as the original screwbox and admittedly, this is more a pragmatic approach than a purist one. After cleaning up the vise and parts, the first thing we did was to get the old brazed thread out. First we picked some of it out with an old screwdriver and needle-nosed visegrips. Then we heated the screwbox red and hammered and picked out the rest. After that we filed and scraped and ground the inside of the screwbox to clean it up. Next came the existing cast iron nut. After cutting off the flange we threaded it onto the screw and chucked it in the lathe. Then we turned it down so that it would fit inside the screwbox. But the screwbox wasn't perfectly round so the the nut fit was a little irregular. The plan to secure the nut into the screwbox was to braze it in place with welding access from four holes drilled through the sidewall. We also drilled and tapped four small holes for setscrews to hold the nut in the proper position for the brazing operation. First we used some silver solder between the new nut and the old screwbox - brazed in from the top. Then we did the same at each of our 3/4" holes and finally filled the holes with brass rod. It ain't goin' nowhere. We stuck the whole thing in a bucket of ashes for a slow cool down, figuring that'd prevent the cast iron nut from cracking. Next comes the new screw. First thing we did was to cut the old worn out screw off from the turning knob. (We had previously removed the handle.) We used Chuck's old "Marvel No 1." electric hacksaw. Marvel did its magic on getting the new screw to the right length too, even though it was a harder steel. Then we ground the two parts to be welded back so that they were somewhat pointed or conical - giving room for the welding rod to get in and fill in. After that we took great care to ensure the two pieces were aligned and clamped securely on the table. The actual weld - done with five 7018 sticks - took several passes with cleaning and careful checking and a little bending to ensure alignment. Finally the grinding belt and the wire wheel to clean it up a bit. By now the screwbox was down to room temperature. All but one of the setscrews were welded in place and just broke off. After cleaning the flux off, we took the grinder to it and ground off the stubs of the setscrews and cleaned it up. After a few turns back and forth the new screw was worked into the screwbox and then all the way in and all the way out. A few other nicks near the vise jaws were filled with weld metal and ground/filed/brushed down to match the original tool. Here we reassembled it. She's ready to go back into use. And gave it all we had to see if we could break the new assembly. Solid as a rock. If you don't have a vise screw and nut laying around, a quick search on the web will yield several suppliers for this type of retrofit with a woodworking vise screw. Here are a few - I'm sure there are more available: Woodcraft Lie Nielsen Lie Nielsen 2 Roger

Yeah, I enjoyed the Saharan smithy too. The other video wouldn't work for me - seems to be gone already. (I don't speak German, so I'm not sure about that.) Thanks!

Yeah, Please repost them - I'm very curious.

Welcome Dave, From another newbie. You're gonna love this forum. Lots of good info and an extremely helpful bunch. Roger

Rowan welcome to IFI. I'm very new to the forum also, but I can tell you - it is one of the most honest, open, responsive forums I've ever seen. Not sure how you found it (I just stumbled into it), but I'm sure you'll get a lot out of your membership. Roger

ha ha - don't worry - it's not in its official home yet.

OK, so now I am looking at this arc welder that I inherited and trying to figure out what kind of a circuit it needs. There's no placard on it that says what amperage the circuit should be. Can you tell by the front labeling? Is this thing any good? (Remember, I'm just a novice newbie learner.) TIA, Roger

OK - advice heeded. Went to my local welding supply place and the regulators check out fine. Bought new hose with (B to A) adapters for the torch, which also checks out fine. Also bought the flashback arresters. Should be good to go. The store owner is looking for a welding head that will fit the torch (all I have is a cutting head). I'll leak test everything as I connect it. Now I'm looking for a welding class nearby. Thank you all, Roger