jawno

Looks like your getting some chatter while turning it. Maybe mount it to a fixture to hold it more solid. Try turning down the feed and speed. Aren't cymbals usually spun? Might look up metal spinning on the web. Lots of info about techniques online and you apparently have a lathe which is the expensive part. i think you're going to have a hard time eliminating chatter with a disc that big and thin. A backing plate would help though. Good luck. If you've made them this way before then maybe it is do-able.

I have a question about this. Why do you cut the tips off the mig tips? How much should I cut off? Just enough to get me a flat end? Or more? Won't the length need to be adjusted anyway? Why not try it out as is? How do I tell when I've cut it too short?
I'm still trying to get a high pressure regulator and gauge but have most all of the fittings assembled now (still need the flashback suppressor).

Hey, Rusty, great poem.
Can't help much with the other stuff. The landlady used to say "An idea without a plan for how to accomplish it is just a dream."

Seems like the pulley system would be very simple for people instead of dealing with the complexities of gear drive. More affordable too. Just saying. It seems you were right on the verge of having a marketable project and now you've been hobbled for seven months trying to get the gear drive working. Of course I don't know a lot about this stuff so maybe a pulley drive isn't as practical as it sounds.
Good luck anyway. Now that you have a mill, things should go much easier.

I calculated mine to be about 230 cubic inches so a two burner should be plenty.

Great guide. I'm in the process of making a gas forge right now. The brake drum forge just wasn't cutting it. I'm thinking I might use your burner design for the new one. It'll be a two burner forge. Not sure how many cubic inches yet but bigger than your brick pile forge.

I have found a good indicator of knowledge is howw many posts the person has made. Doesn't always work that way of course but generally someone with over a thousand posts would have left the site if their information was always being corrected. Notice of course by my number of posts that I'm a complete noob at this.

I use a program called irfanview. It will resize any pic to fit the screen and turn it into a wallpaper. Sometimes there is a little distortion if it has to change size a lot but generally very tolerable. It should still be a free download. I change my wallpaper every day. Nice pic, by the way.

Thanks phil, colleen, everyone, for your replies. i'm gonna get started on making something along those lines next weekend.
Jeremy, that picture is priceless. LOL
Tim, now there's some philosophy. Just what this thread needed. I hadn't really noticed Jakes floor. It just blows me away though how he can take some worthless piece of junk he finds abandoned out in the forest and turn it into a real work of art. Like making parts from an old chain. I never would have seen the possibilities. I guess you make do with what you have available.

I have tarps for walls on my I-beam shop building. The hay bale idea sounds like a good idea to me. Just make sure it doesn't get anywhere near the fire or poof, no shop, mad dad. good luck. The weather here has been unseasonably warm lately so woking outside hasn't been too bad. I picked up some insulated coveralls for six bucks last summer at a thrift store. Just like new.

John, no offense to you as I'm sure you're correct but when I just did a search for slitters sizes, the results returned only one thread. This one. Perhaps if I'd included geometry the search would have been more successful but I'm not real impressed with this search engine. I did find your reply useful and interesting though which is why I searched in the first place.

I could put this in a new thread but this one has been kinda idle lately so I thought

maybe this would wake it up again.
I'm a noob at this forgery stuff. I tried making some horseheads after seeing the

technique here in another thread. When I got to where I wanted to do the eyes I had a

bit of a problem. I'd been holding the work in one hand and hammering it with the other

and all of a sudden I needed to hold a punch too. I was reminded of Jake and his

"stomach vise". It would have come in real handy for a third hand. So I was wondering

what you folks do when you need a third hand? Do you call over your assistant or do you

have some tool like a stomach vise that you use to help you position things? Any good

ideas on how I could go about making a "stomach vise"? I can conjure up a few images

but not sure how practical any of the designs are.
I probably should have put this in another thread because it doesn't have much to do

with the philosophy of forging but I thought you would all understand what I was

talking about when I mention a "stomach vise".

My apologies to Randy. It was a dragonfly not a scorpion.

Before I forget I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas.
I've fired up my new forge a couple times now (I'm a weekender) and am really enjoying it.
I enjoy seeing your projects. They give me inspiration. Beth, love the gate and colleen, love the flowers, and Randy's scorpion as well.
Bryan, Jake, John B, Rusty and all, the greatest of luck with your projects.,
To all, A Happy New Year

Thanks all for your replies. This site is a great resource for information. And yes, it was the posts from Bryan and John B in the other thread I was referrring to when I asked the question. Again, I appreciate the clarification.

I was reading on another thread that you shouldn't use a cold chisel on hot metal. The respondent said he was gonna make the cold chisel into a hot chisel first. I didn't want to pollute that thread with off topic discussion but my curiosity was piqued. I'm wondering if anyone could please tell me why you shouldn't use a cold chisel on hot metal and how do I turn my cold chisel into a hot chisel.

Happened to be in a bookstore the other day with some time to waste. I happened to come into the art section and the first book that popped out at me was the Artists Way. A very serendipitous occaision for me. I had to have it after hearing of it here . So now I have a copy and have just began to read it.
Jake, I think my favorite piece of yours was the cross on the coffin that few will ever see. That was a terrific piece to me and I am not a religious person. Thanks for showing it to us.

Bryan, I don't like to get anywhere near metal at minus 40 degrees, and I don't usually spend much time in the shop when it gets below 20 degrees.
We have the FFA (Future Farmers of America) out here in the West. Its similar to 4H I believe. I have a friend whose kids raised piglets into hogs and then sold them at auctiion.
Lets see if I can get these pics loaded. Hands, mid morning (dirty). The right is kinda blurry. Not used to taking left handed pics.

We use springs for bending copper tubing. The ID of the spring is just big enough the copper tube can slide inside of it. The spring is strong enough to keep the tube from kinking and collapsing because it supports it all the way around. These are long springs so they surround the tube for several inches on either side of the bend. After bending just slide the spring back off the tube and you've got a perfect bend on the copper tube. This only works for small diameters up to about 3/8" max, at least thats what sizes came in the spring kit. The more complex the bend the harder to get the spring off but I think it could be done this way.

Jeremy, My bad. I seem to be mixing my characters here. I was referring to Jakes friend in Fairbanks, Brian. My apologies to you.

Now where is that picture of myhand?

Sorry not much from me on the philosophical end of things.

I started reading this thread back in July and then it disappeared off my radar for some reason until a couple weeks ago when I found it again. It had grown to thirty seven pages. took me two weeks to read it and by the time I was done it was forty one pages and still going. I think the fact that I read it all says a lot about how interesting of a thread it is. It could almost be distilled into a book. the only thing missing is the happy or tragic conclusion where Beth learns to weld (or doesn't) and Jake finds the gothic symbiosis in the metal (or doesn't). I must say this has been most entertaining and am looking on with baited breath for the next chapter. Will Jeremy get the forge going? Will John be crowned the true oracle of iron? Only those who read I forge iron will ever know.
Great read, I wish all you the best, except for maybe the "count" who would wither under the praise. good luck.
Please keep this most entertaining read going. I must say I've learned a lot through your trials and tribulations. I simply MUST fire up my forge now and learn what the iron has to say to me.

I was wondering which team won. Well they all were winners in my book but I guess the judges must have selected a best table. I left right after the tables were set out for display and photography with the teams. Missed the auction. I liked the team in the Southwest corner. They had their prints right out front on a table so I could kind of follow what it was they were trying to make. The other teams all had their designs at the back where I couldn't see them.
Thanks for the video. I missed that part I think. Must have been Thursday or Friday? I didn't get there till Saturday. It reminds me of when the next team over had three hammers going driving the wedge through a part. I thought that was all very entertaining. That team in the video certainly had the most freeform of the designs. The next team South had an unusual design too that I couldn't figure out until it all came together. The team in the Southeast had a great table but more of a traditional design in my opinion.
By the way, a bit off topic, but I love the bowls you make.

I thought there might be some buzz here about last weekends event. seems pretty quiet. I just wanted to say I had a great time. First time I've attended an event of this nature. I overheard some people talking about this site so I know there were members in attendance.
I've been lurking here for about six months now.
Have a good one,
Jawno