sdalcher

Sam, Sounds like you have found your own little patch of heaven! I am envious, as I have to scrounge just about everything. Not that my scrounging abilities aren't stellar, but I spend more time looking for materials than I do working on the projects... Of course there is always that sense of accomplishment when you have $0 in a project because it was all scrounged:)

Beautiful blade Karl!

LOL, if only I had more money ;-)

Friday was one of those unbeliveable days! A local community has "Farmer's Pike Festival" evry Labor Day weekend. It is supposed to be a large free for all rummage sale. So I pack up the wife and kids and off we go. Turns out that just about every other house within a 5 mile radius is having a yard sale. Picked up 25lbs of misc drill bits for $6. Out of that were 26 taper shank drills in varying sizes, a dozen drills for the old Brace & bit, 1 drill for a manual post drill and about 100 other standard straight shank drills and a few reamers and taps. I bought a brandnew 100 lb propane tank for $40 (I have 5 20lb tanks and it seems like I have to go get refill every few weeks). I bought a brand new 1000 W generator for $20 (bought it for Mom who lives in Florida as I already have one). A brand new Nitrous Oxide tank for $20 (good trading stock). There were countless other deals that I just didn't have enough cash to buy i.e. a 4" post vise in on concrete set post for $50. All of this before I even get to the show. Upon arrival at the Farmers Pike Festival, it wasn't all that great, some nice things but prices were very high. Overall a great day though! Thanks Steve

Why not make an angle iron frame/stand to hold it all together? Then you dont have to worry about a joint. Thanks Steve

Our thoughts are with you and your family.

Nice score ApprenticeMan! By the way, how is the two wheeled life treating ya?

melting metal in a home foundry, backyard metalcasting, metal casting It is an awesome site, and has a lot of good basic knowledge and how-to. I dabble in foundry work also and it is a great complement to forging ability. There are many projects that take a little from both skillsets. I currently use a normally aspirated propane burner, a few nights ago I experimented with adding a blower to juice up the flame. I severly melted my furnace refractory in just a few minutes of playing around. I have been using this same furnace for over a year with very little degradation of the refractory till that fateful day :-) I am currently working on a waste vegetable oil burner, with a propane pre-heat built in. Propane is really great, but gets kind of expensive if you are forging/casting on a regular basis. Thanks Steve

Very nice find Habu!!

LOL, I was literally crying because I was laughing so hard!

jj, The week before my wife and I hit like 15 different sales and scored a big fat zero. A month earlier I went in to a local flea market and picked up 2 Mousehole anvils 90 lbs + or - for $95 and the other for $55 at two separate vendors. The $55 one was beat up pretty badly and had the rear feet broken off but is a mid 1800's near as I can tell. I won't use it but I will give it a safe home along with my Peter Wright and my other new Mousehole. Thanks Steve

I may have to try that. Just gotta find some abandoned copper:D

Rolled up on a yard sale today had a Pexto sheet metal brake and a Pexto sheet metal shear that had just sold for $150 for the pair :-( My karma was seriously screwed up! Went to another Yard sale guy had just sold an Atlas 6 inch lathe for $300 and another small geared head Jet lathe :-( The bright side is that I found a vise for my Atlas shaper for $5 and bought several 1/2 hp motors for 1$ each one of which was a geared reducing motor. Also picked up a like new clamping kit for my mill $20 and 30 lbs of bolts for $3. About 10 lbs of that 30 is all brass :-) Steve

I also use aluminum dryer vent and I created a reducer out of 14inch aluminum flashing to neck down into my tueyer. This allows a snug friction fit that I can pull with minimal effort when I hook up my electric blower. It took about 10 minutes to roll it and pop rivet it. Thanks Steve

I started out with an associates degree in tool and die making at Southern Illinois University(CTC). I have since added a few more degrees and teach at Ball State University now in an unrelated field. I always enjoyed working with my hands and have been building up my shop for the last decade. I nowhave am Atlas 10in lathe, Atlas 7in shaper, Jet vertical mill, stick welder, TIG welder and many more smaller machines that just make life easier (belt sanders, drill presses etc.) I actually made one of my belt sanders in high school, poured the castings and the whole 9 yards. I still use it after 20 years of service. Over the last year I have cobbled together a foundry furnace (propane) and am currently working on a Waste Vegetable Oil system. I thoroughly enjoy the challenges of a good project that require a multitude of skill sets. Thanks Steve

IMHO, WD40 is probably the all time worst oil to use around machinery.It does have its place as it will displace water and is so so as a penetrating oil for lightly stuck things. The biggest claim to fame is it is easy to use, just spray it on and the handy little straw is great for hitting small hard to reach areas. I own several vintage machines and absoltely will not allow WD40 around them as it is, IMHO great for creating surface rust. I am not sure what it is about it but I have noticed through the years that an object sprayed with WD40 is very prone to rusting whereas an object coated with say 3 in 1 oil tends to avoid rust. I will have to try the trans fluid on my anvils. Thanks Steve

Seems like it has been covered before, oh well good info and worth a Google search to see what others have used this on. Thanks Steve

I ran across a technique for removing heavy rust from steel and iron. It consists of filling a nonconductive container with water adding sodium carbonate (pool additive to raise PH) teaspoon per gallon of water. You then attach a battery charger (car variety) negative electrode to rusyed part and then attach positive electrode to a piece of scrap steel. Caution are to wear protective goggles, do not allow the + and - charged parts to touch, dont reach in the water while connected, etc and use in a well ventilated area as hydrodgen gas is a by product. Supposedly this process will not harm the base metal, no matter how long left in process. I have several old sets of tongs that I would like to treat. I picked ouy the rusyiest set and hooked them up. Witin 10 minutes I had bubbles forming. After a couple of hours there was already a noticeable difference, I can't wait to see what they look like in the morning. Steve

No, I am not that quick witted. I always think of great one liners and comebacks an hour or so after the fact. oh well...

I stopped by the local machine recycler/refurbisher (70+ year old man). I was looking for a trip hammer/power hammer. Found a power rivet hammer, I dont know if it would do any good or not? If anyone has expertise in that area let me know. Anyhow, as I was skulking around, ahem, I mean looking, I spied an old Atlas tabletop metal shaper. It was in pretty rough condition but appeared to all be there except the vise. I casually remarked on it to Bob. He replied that it worked and he was asking $200. I let it drop and looked around for another 15 minutes or so. later I asked what a shaper did, he replied that they were pretty much obsolete, etc and he would sell it for $150. SOLD!!! He plugged it up and it cycled though the power feed would not engage. It has been home now for 4 hours and is completely tore apart and I am in the process of scraping all the old layers of paint off. It will undoubtedly be done by the weekend and I will hopefully be able to post pictures soon. By the way the power feed gear is pretty worn and that is why she wouldn't engage. Steve