BeaverDamForge

A guy lectured us on chemical safety at a cabinet/millwork shop, told us if we used laquer thinner without gloves at 10 AM it would be on our hands at lunchtime.

No mention of methyl alcohol being absorbed through the skin...

Actually exaust valves make excellent hot work tools. Yes they are small but for punches and decorative chisels they work very well. The Business end can, with some effort, be forged in to heat resistive shapes for molding. Cutting off the stem usually needs to be done with a grinder.

"Gears in automotive transmissions are usually made from a steel alloy that is later heat treated to be more resistant to fatigue, and then surface hardened to resist wear"

Doesn't say a thing on if thery are cast steel or forged steel---or cast and then forged---or not does it. Cast does not necessarily mean Cast iron. Especially as I don't know of any case hardening process for a material that already has so much carbon in it that it precipitates out as graphite.

Not sure what you mean by 'newer', stretch bolts have been in use since the '80s, Escorts had them.

Never seen a sodium filled intake valve, there would be little reason for such expense (intake valves don't need the cooling, they get cooled by the incoming air). The sodium filled exhaust valves are easy to spot, they have big stems since they are hollow. The real danger is not corrosiveness, but explosiveness. But even regular exhaust valves are high temp alloys, not much good to a smith.

You sure about that?

"Gears in automotive transmissions are usually made from a steel alloy that is later heat treated to be more resistant to fatigue, and then surface hardened to resist wear."
How to Rebuild and Modify Your ... - Google Book Search

Good chart here:
Gear materials, properties, and ... - Google Book Search

FYI: don't let anyone know you have that rail - those railroad companies can be soo posessive! They could charge you with theft believe it or not. The rails stay their property seemingly indefinitely (even though they have abandaoned it)

I'd think it's closer to coil spring spec. Steering arms and tie rods are not parts that flex in use (hopefully).

Anyone know the carbon content/alloys in the "3" or "w" shaped pieces of 1/2" stock you find around old track? I don't even know what function they play with the track, does anyone even know what I'm talking about?

If I had to guess I'd think they're something like track keys to hold track down, they're roughly shaped like the aforementioned letters, albeit they are a little elongated and misshapen on one side.

Where it's going here is pretty clear. Did you hear our glorious leader took at 500 people to the G-20 conferences in his entourage? Limos, helicopters, chefs, docs, etc. etc. Times aren't so tough on someone else's dime eh?

Frosty

Steering stabilizer? If you're talking about a sway (anti-roll) bar it's probably spring steel.

Try:
BP0002 Junk Yard and Rail Road Steels | Blueprints 000-100

I looked into this last year - you can find all kinds of info about solar furnaces, from the hillside of mirrors in France to guys with fresnel lenses out of big screen TVs. "Solar death ray" will find a bunch of mini versions that people use to burn up things (the pyros!) - one guy glued a bunch of old CDs to a piece of a satellite dish.

ETA: One guy made a plywood frame and mounted a bunch of mirrors to a truck chassis so he could move the whole array for sun tracking. If you did something like that you could just move the whole array away from the sun.

You're talking about heating in a crucible, I was thinking more of an oven. But will either get hot enough or will they start reflecting (reradiating?) too much heat?

The biggest thing is to protect your eyes. The sun is too bright to look at, never mind when it's magnified 100X.

And if you're getting dumber from the lead you won't realize it...

Any chance the 'M' is really a 'H'?

I had seen that, Thomas, and thanks for posting it!

I've also been told by a fairly experienced smith that they seem to be tougher than a straight carbon steel, so the analysis is nice to have (not that I'm an expert on steel analysis). :)

High speed steel was developed to retain it's hardness at red heat. It actually gets harder from 700* to 1000*. Annealing temp is 1600*. Hardening is done by preheating to 1550* throughout, then rapidly heating to 2350* before quenching in oil for large pieces. Pieces less than 1/2" may be air quenched. Temper at 1050*.

Thanks, been wondering about rail anchors!

At a demo I saw an anvil, clay, and wooden hammer set up for kids to experiment with. Seemed like a good way to let them get a feel for it.

... I built up my scaffolding with stair treads and cinderblocks ...

Thanks again for all the help
Jason

According to Elmer Roush, hardy tools should be made to fit a particular anvil, and marked (centerpunch) for orientation so you put them in the same way each time. IOW they should not be a sloppy fit.

Or you might try this approach:
http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f7/hotcut-hardy-10062/
You could modify those easily when you get a different anvil.

Five minutes. Did you really think you'd get a full half hour for free you *************! Oh, you wanted an argument? That's down the hall; this is abuse.

Opps better add a smiley in case someone isn't familiar with Python.

Not scolding really. It just seemed like a silly statement given the questions he was asking.

But if you want to be scolded, I can do that for free.

One good win at IITH at a Hammer-in and you will be hooked.

One of the funnest parts of blacksmithing, IMHO.

... if your guild meetings include wives, some items for the ladies are always welcome too!

So it's not a medieval toilet seat?

The frame may be pretty decent steel too. Anybody know?