welder19

I like the texture, it gives it a wood grain look, I might just have to try that on my next batch of cross's. welder19

You can, it just may not hold up too long, depending on what type of clay you have in your area, but all clays come out of the ground so you might get lucky and find a high refrectory clay in your yard but you will have to test/experiment with it to find out. Some but not all kitty litter is bentonite clay and it is good for use in molding sand for metal casting but will not hold up to forging temps not for too long any way, and when using it, it should be ground up to a fine powder. welder19

Your basic fireclays are really cheap any how, not worth trying to dig your own, the last bag of EPK I bought, which is a kaolin clay with a much higher temp resistance than most basic fireclay's, cost me I think around $10-$11 for a 50lb bag. welder19

Welcome and thankyou for your service. It does not matter which branch of the military you serve for Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, Coast Gaurd, FBI, DEA, etc. etc., they are all equally important and nessecary and don't let anyone tell you otherwise, and besides the Navy has one of if not the most elite and highly trained soldiers in the military, the Navy Seals, so no matter what it is you do in the Navy or any other branch of the service hold your head high and be proud because you still have all the love and support of your fellow americans...minus a few spinless, clueless and only informed by the media, individuales who think our boys are the enemy, but fear not they are still vastly out numbered. If you want to learn blacksmithing or knife making you found the right place, some of the best in the world are members here and have great patients for us novice and beginer smiths. welder19

Sounds like you made an excellent deal and may have some more tools to come, good job! that's the way it's done. welder19

It is better anyway to line it with some clay, you should be able to pick up a generic bag of fire clay for $8-$15 depending on the quality, quanity and the store you by it from. If you have a ceramics/pottery supply house locally then that is the place to go, they will have a large selection of high temp clays. welder19

They make bands that go around your upper forearm to reduce the strain on the tendons which will help reduce the amount of pain you get in you elbow and forearm, but if you already have a considerable amount of damage it will take a long time to heal but if you go and see a physical therapist they can get you set up with exercises that will help with recovery as well as build strength where needed to help prevent further damage down the road. I know this because I did enough damage to mine that required me to have surgery a couple years ago, and that wasn't fun so if you can avoid getting that bad, you'll be doing yourself a huge favor. welder19

Thank's for sharing and for making me jealous. welder19

The perlite is used for insulation in refractory and does not have a real high temp rating, it's not needed for a solid fuel forge and if you can get kaolin it is a much more durable clay than bentonite, otherwise sounds like like a fine design. welder19

That guy has more anvils, cones, swage blocks etc. than any one person I'ev ever seen, he always has a few items at a time listed on ebay, and it is always very nice stuff but of coarse it always comes with a collectors price tag. I would like to know where he comes up with all this blacksmithing stuff of this quality. welder19

Very nice!! welder19

It wouldn't be worth $15,000 if it was made out of gold. welder19

Never heard of it but I am definately going to try it out. For a penetrant oil I have yet to find any thing that will beat Kroil, which is also very expensive but so are the parts that I am normaly trying to free up. Even if Gibbs doesn't out perform Kroil as a penetrant it sounds like it might just be the best rust inhibitor on the market, I'm gonna find out any way. Thanks for the link. welder19

I prefer either Walter Zip Cut or Norton, I have found them to be far more superior than most. welder19

Cool! I have a friend who owns a junkyard as well and he has been asking me for about a year to build him some junkyard mascots, I just havn't had any really good ideas yet. welder19

Very nice press and nice looking shop also. welder19

I think it is mainly a matter of prefference or what you learned on, however I have both a coal and propane forge because if you just need to do something quick then a gas forge is the way to go but when I'm forging all day I prefer coal. welder19

I'm not sure what the max speed rating would be on the belt it's self but most beltsanders that I have used are 1400-1500 ft/min max speed. If you bought new belts then they may have a max speed on the package but if not I'm sure you could contact the co. and they could tell you, espeacially if they are a high quality belt. welder19

If all you have is the one length of 7" then get an old oxygen cyl. or a piece of heavy wall pipe, cut it to length and then fill with lead, if you can melt it and pour it in that would be best, I have done this for several projects, mostly bases for different things, it works great and lead is the heavier than anything else so the weight really adds up fast. welder19

Nver heard of it, but that was a great score, does it work? welder19

All of our service men and women are always in my prayers but I will surely add your son to the list. welder19

Very nice! Brewing beer or do you use them for something else? welder19

If you have that blower already, then for the price of it I would sell it take the money and buy a nice forge blower with airgate. That is way too much blower for a forge, probably even with it turned down, but none the less it's still overkill, you only need a fraction of that air. welder19

What's wrong with a jack or cylinder? Hydraulics are the best way to opperate a press, if you are against them then what did you have in mind for your press mechanism? You could build a screw press or an arbor press but I don't see why you would want to power either of them with an elec. motor. What are you wanting the press for? forging or just a shop press? Try searching on google for homemade presses or something similar, then you may get a better idea of what you want to build or atleast get a better understanding of different style presses welder19

There is a time and place for learning and a job like that isn't either....nor does it even come close to meeting the description or definition of a weld. welder19