ThomasPowers

Well since you are working 4" stock it needs to be---oh wait a minute you are working 1/4" stock---it needs to be the right size for what YOU are doing. If you don't tell us that how should we know?

Eric; being a "good citizen,dad,and husband" is worth far more than if you had been a billionaire and not a "good citizen,dad,and husband".

Sounds more like it was set up for low pressure natural gas than propane as NG would have a large orifice and less air. As I recall my blower is rated at 150 cfm. I'll try to doublecheck that tonight

Very valid point; we're all alike in that we're all *different*!

Stewart; you forgot the "Paint it hot pink"--- and put it on my front lawn, just to annoy my next door neighbor... Perhaps with a pink flamingo mounted on it...

Have you looked into 52100, often found in ball bearings?

ILL a couple of the "Knives Points of Interest" books by Weyer one of the top knife photographers. Then go through and *look* at the pictures and figure out *why* they were arranged and lit the way they were for that specific blade.

I cut railroad rail a couple of times a year with my honking big angle grinder and have cut trolly rail with my 30" hack saw, (metal cutting bandsaw blade mounted in a bow saw frame, holes slightly closer that with a wood blade so the tension is greater, I like Sandvik frames myself) When cutting it by hacksaw remember to cut it from the bottom toward the work hardened top and let the last work hardened bit break off rather than saw off. Unfortunately the name I go by is my middle name not my first; even my Mother doesn't use my first name so when I get calls from people using my first name's diminutive I *know* they don't know me well enough to be using the diminutive! By odd coincidence my wife does not use her first name either and they both start with the same letter... As to "pretty" most of us like and admire "pretty" tools; however some of us figure that pretty results are more important than pretty tools and put the extra effort into *using* the tools as practice in making stuff is a big component of making pretty things. (and then you get the people who already make jaw dropping stuff and then go on to pretty up their equipment and shops; but as I told one friend complaining about *my* shop---"You spend more time each week *cleaning* your shop than I get to *use* mine!)

Now post election there are lots of abandoned election signs on the public right-away. The ones that look like a square C of about 1/8" wire make great roasters and toasters! Take a length and double it over from the middle, then leaving a 4" or so "handle", hot twist the length of it to about 4-6" from the "open" end. Then bend the legs out 90 deg and square and taper them, then bend them into a fork and you're done. I've worked an entire cub scout pack through making these before on a one by one basis. They then proved them in by cooking hot dogs and marshmallows. A lot of work on my point making sure they didn't do anything wrong; but the results were great! (And as you have already learned *practice* is the greatest way to improve your skills; especially when you are *trying* to improve!)

Well most of the ones like that I have seen have a faceted polygonal top where the cross bar sits and so you can pop it up and adjust it to a better position; *HOWEVER* it is a lot easier and faster in the long run to make your tooling sized so that you *don't* have to move the arm every time you switch tools

I found a wide blade for earthwork, fairly short---about 4-5' as I recall but with large square holes in it perfect for whaling away on with a sledge. One thing that really helps is to work on the stem at welding heat rather than the cool temp many folks work it at!

I've seen a lot of demos in my time and there are some folks who could make watching steel rust an entertaining and riveting thing and other that could be welding up a pattern welded gun barrel yet make it a dry, boring thing. A Master Smith may not be a good teacher in my opinion; but they need to know the craft thoroughly. As to apprenticeships I spent one year working with a swordmaker; 6 days a week in the shop, no pay; but I did get 2 meals a day with his family. Anything I made to sell; he put the price on it and took the shop's cut right off the top. At the end of the year I got married to a lady his wife had introduced me to and had kids to support and had to get a real job; but that year living off my savings in an ancient trailer was one of the high points in my life!

Actually we are doing solid phase welding no no molten metal is involved; but you need a clean surface to bond and the glop is borax and metal oxides that are molten. I'd suggest going with the simplest case as well: get some plain hot rolled mild steel (some cold rolled resists welding unless you grind the surface) I would go with sq stock and gently crown it. Remember to flux it when it's barely to glowing temp in a dark room---*before* it starts to scale much. And keep it well covered in the *top* of the fire and not down near the tuyere. Bring up the temp slow and steadily until the surface looks like butter melting in the sun and *tap* it together. Then wirebrush, flux, reheat and work over the weld with more force.

You follow the instructions you should be given when you buy the ITC100.

The annealing should release ALL stress; the normalizing is for grain refinement (for steels that profit from it)

Black pipe AKA gas pipe is proper for use with propane gas. Be sure the pipe dope you use is rated for propane as well.

Acetylene is the fuel that can "exothermically disassociate" even without the presence of oxygen. Mandatory to have flash back arrestors on Acetylene systems. Not needed on a propane system using ambient air.

Vermiculite is totally ok; it's the asbestos that is found along with it in some mines that causes trouble. Wikipedia: "Although not all vermiculite contains asbestos, some products were made with vermiculite that contained asbestos until the early 1990s. Vermiculite mines throughout the world are now regularly tested for it and are supposed to sell products that contain no asbestos. The former vermiculite mine in Libby, Montana, did have tremolite asbestos as well as winchite and richterite (both fibrous amphiboles) — in fact, it was formed underground through essentially the same geologic processes as the contaminants. A vermiculite mine in Virginia has also been found to be contaminated by asbestos."

Look on the blower, looks to me that there is a white flat cover for the intake that can be adjusted to cut air off or on. This type blower works better cutting the intake than the exhaust. How simple can the gas inlet be on a blown burner *excessively* *simple* as all it has to do is dump gas into the system the blower supplies the mixing energy. As I recall mine has the end of the gas inlet sealed and a small hole drilled across the pipe; no fancy alinements or orifice needed. This does need to fasten a propane line to the gas line protruding from the top elbow. I would solder a fitting to the one on the elbow and get a propane line with the matching fitting on it and a high pressure propane regulator---like a red hat---from your local propane company.

crane/dozer repair place

Can't figure out how you would mar a hammer handle slipping through two piece of smooth steel pipe like my rack uses. Can you explicate?

I take the ones that still feel sharp and put a golfball on the tang and use them till they get dull---rasping handles, Hot rasping steel, etc and then forge stuff out of the dull ones: Hatchets, working blades, rasptlesnakes, lizards

And galvanized metal usually sells for more than plain hot rolled steel. Call around asking for "plain hot rolled mild steel or A36" and remember steel is where you find it! I buy mine from a traditional Windmill repair and installation place. 50 miles closer than the nearest steel supply store and a LOT cheaper than the lumberyard has it and STILL more cheaper than buying short lengths at Holmes Despot! (and don't forget to tell them you can use rusty and undersized pieces---as a smith rust disappears when you forge it and mostly we are not concerned with exact sizes as we are changing that with the hammer anyway!)

For $50 it's worth it to have a dedicated hardy holder with horn! Need to know what kind of rod was used. If they used Ni then it's soft for the steel face but right for the cast iron body.

What temperature when you were twisting? Steels of different alloys move differently and so weak welds can shear during manipulation. Also (particularly in solid fuel forges) junk can accumulate in a fold make for inclusions and a weak or failed weld. And looking at that piece the first thought I had was that you had an overheated section in it...looked "crunchy" to me...