dan_m

I finished a stand for my 100# Peter Wright today, exactly the same as one I built a couple weeks ago for a 300# Hay Budden, just different dimensions. Both anvils rang loudly before, and now they are noticeably quieter than my (unmounted) Vulcan. No need for magnets or chains or whatever if you've got good, solid connections and built in vibration absorption. The frames are 2x2 square tubing with 1/8" walls, filled with sand and oil. I got the oil trick from Brian, it adds weight and prevents the tubing from rusting from the inside. There's 3" of hardwood bolted to the frames, I cut up the countertop drop from when we installed our kitchen. The anvils are secured to the wood with lag bolts, with a layer of silicone in between. I used close to half a tube per anvil to ensure a continuous layer since the bottoms are rough, and just scraped the excess from the sides after tightening it down. I also put a layer of caulk everywhere the holddowns contact the anvil. The feet are 3/8" plate bolted to the slab, with a piece of 1/4" thick, 70A durometer rubber between the steel and concrete. Here's the one I finished today: Here's the one for the bigger anvil: I like the holddown arrangement better in the first set of pictures, but the Hay Budden doesn't have the flat along the edges like the Peter Wright. I still ended up having to grind the flats even today though to get better contact, so if I ever redo the Hay Budden stand I'll probably add some flats to the feet. Also, here's a similar stand I made for my post vise: Same methods as the anvil stands—oil/sand filled, caulk under the mounting plate, and rubber under the feet. I didn't go with the tripod stand for this because it seemed like the legs would be in the way, so I used some heavy steel from the scrapyard. The plates are 7/8" thick, and the tubing is 4x4 with 3/8" walls. I think the stand is probably heavier than the vise.

I have a pair of redwings that I like, but might try keens when they eventually wear out. I didn't know they made a steel toe boot, but my hiking boots from them are probably the most comfortable pair of shoes I've ever owned. Regardless of what shoe I'm wearing, I use WalkFit insoles and they make a tremendous difference. They aren't squishy "comfort" insoles, but rigid arch supports. They're only $20, and come with low, medium, and high inserts to fit different size arches. Target carries them now so you don't have to pay shipping. They take a couple weeks to get used to (you have to wear them only for an hour or so at a time at first because your arch will get sore), but once your feet get use to them you'll never be without them.

Now that's some narrow-mindedness right there, jeez. Ironquake, may as well give it a try and see how it works out, you never know what you'll come up with.

BigCotton, are you averse to using a propane preheat because of the cost, or do you just want to see if you can do it? I used to use wood to preheat my WO casting furnace, it worked well enough but the cost of a little propane is now worth it to me to avoid the hassle. I use Colin Peck's style of burner, just pushing atmosphere through a tube and having the oil drip into the air stream at the outlet. It works great, but as someone mentioned earlier in this post, it for the most part only has one setting - high. I tried a few years ago to use my burner in a tube forge, but had no success. I think it could work though...that was when I was still preheating with wood, and I don't think the small volume of the forge allowed me to get it hot enough with the little wood I could fit in there. The oil would ignite, but then start burning incompletely and pool on the bottom, then burst into a giant flame, and kept repeating itself that way. I currently have no interest in running a forge on oil, so I won't be messing around with it, but I'm pretty sure that method could work with some tweaking and scaling down of the burner (my furnace is probably upwards of 2000 cubic inches). I'd imagine that changing the area of the outlet (your forges opening/s) while in use might give you some capability to stabilize the burner at a lower-than-max setting. Matt, have you tried this style of burner before? I'm not familiar with the various names you used to describe the burners in some of your posts.

You need a kiln (not an oven or forge) if you are using the investment casting/lost wax process. Green sand molds don't need to be heated. I wrote a post that is pinned at the top of the foundry & casting section, you should read through it if this is something you're interested in pursuing. There is a lot of basic info on the process and equipment, and at the end there is a list of good reference books on both investment and sand casting. I would highly suggest picking up a few books on the subject before you try this, it's quite a bit more involved than it might seem, and very hazardous.

I've never tried wax before a clear coat, but would assume you'd get a terrible bond as that's the sort of stuff you want to try to remove before coating it. If you want to to be darker, gun bluing works well under a clear coat. I use Oxpho from Brownells and can get anything from blue to gray to black depending on how much you apply.

My neighbor has the same Grizzly saw, just a size up, and recently we moved it from his shop on the second floor to mine. He was tired of dragging stock upstairs to cut and then back down and into another building to weld it, so now it lives in my shop in trade for him getting to use my platen table. It's saved me so much time already it's ridiculous. I second all of Randy's praises, only problem is the miter gauge on this one is off so we set the angle manually, it's still way easier than adjusting the clamp though. We also put a salvaged 10' roller conveyor behind it, makes things even better if you've got the space. I love the table Randy! Did you forge the legs on your press or the hammer?

It's amazing how many people don't realize this. Most paint/clearcoat/whatever has detailed surface prep instructions on the container, but they often go ignored. It only makes sense to follow the manufacturer's recommendations, you've already bought their product and it's in their best interest to have it work as well as possible so that you'll buy more. Removing loose scale and rust is obvious, but thoroughly degreasing with acetone or something similar is just as important. Wire wheels and flap discs are generally contaminated with grease unless brand new (just like how you don't use ones for stainless on other steels), so using them as a final surface prep doesn't cut it. I always wipe with acetone immediately before I put any paint or clearcoat on things. Your fingerprints and your gloves are greasy, and if you cleaned something yesterday and want to coat it today, there's going to be a very fine layer of dust on it if it's sitting in your shop.

Ditto! I use my 4.5" Metabo with a wire wheel, Makitas w/o clutches get the other discs. A few years ago I had a 4.5" wire wheel on an unclutched grinder catch my sweatshirt pocket, felt like I was punched in the stomach by a gorilla and when I got up I had to use a knife to cut my shirt off of the wheel. Fortunately that grinder had a paddle/deadman's switch, which is now the only type I'll use. Glad you're alright Larry, that was awful close...

Do not put those in your forge. Here's a link to the wikipedia article on hexavalent chromium: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexavalent_chromium I'm sure she wants those wrenches because they were her fathers, so it's probably no good suggesting the use of similar, unplated tools. I've never looked into it but maybe someone will know of a chemical method to remove the plating, which would probably be your best bet if you're set on doing this job. If she was alright with it you could grind off the plating, outdoors, wearing a respirator, but honestly I would just turn down the job. Chrome is really really nasty stuff, and exposure to it as dust or fumes is not worth whatever you will be paid.

Buying a quality bi-metal blade will help, you generally get what you pay for with that stuff. But if you're running the saw at 3000 RPM it will just be a more expensive blade that you ruin. I'm assuming this a vertical bandsaw for woodworking...if so, and you bought it primarily for cutting metal, just sell it and buy a used horizontal bandsaw or a portaband. As far as manufacturers go, there are a number of good ones, Lenox, Starrett etc, but I would just order the size you need on McMaster, they don't specify a manufacturer but won't send you junk. A variable pitch blade is always nice for general purpose work.

I use GoDaddy for purchasing domains, it's extremely straightforward if you go to their site. You'll end up paying for three separate things at the same time: the domain, the hosting, and an email account. It's not very expensive, and definitely worth the small investment to have a dedicated .com site as well as an info@yourbusiness.com email address. I always laugh when I see someone like a lawyer with an @yahoo email, I think it's incredibly unprofessional. I'll be setting up the site for my shop in the next few months, but for my other business I use wix.com to build the site. It's a flash template editor, and although it costs $9/month or so to have your hosting server pull the site from their server, it was worth it for me and I'll be using it for my shop site as well. After spending hours and hours teaching myself HTML, the result was still lackluster, and if you go the HTML route your site will always have a pretty standard, boring look unless you become extremely proficient. I spent about 6 hours and built our site from scratch using one of the templates, you can see it here: http://phillydogschool.com. And yes, you should keep all of your receipts. It won't matter unless you get audited, but if you do they'll want to see proof of everything. If you lose or fail to get a receipt you can still write the purchase off as an expense, but if you're audited and can't prove you bought it then it probably won't count.

Matt, if you read the post I wrote which is pinned at the top of the foundry/casting section, you'll find answers to most of your questions. A kitchen oven does not get nearly hot enough, and a torch will destroy your molds. You want coarse sand for the molds, not silica flour, the $2/bag stuff from home depot works fine. They need to be brought slowly up to 600 or so, then up to 1200-1250 for a sustained period of time so the temperature is even through to the middle. Get a pottery kiln for cheap off CL (<$100), it works fine though itneeds constant checking and adjusting. A kitchen oven will eventually melt out your wax, but will not vaporize the residue which will leave you with unusably porous casting. Plus it won't drive all the moisture out of the molds, so they will probably just blow apart anyway. Edit your profile to show your location, someone nearby might be willing to help you out. If you're close to Philadelphia I'd be glad to show you my setup.

This is only true if you have minimal assets aside from your shop. If someone sues you and your insurance doesn't cover it, as a SP your tools aren't the only thing that can disappear. A single member LLC only offers slightly more protection, as it is still very obvious from a courts perspective that you and the business are the same thing. Your personal assets are generally well protected behind a multi-member LLC, which can be as simple as getting a trusted friend or family member to agree to sign on for a small percentage of ownership.

I picked up this 300lb Hay Budden for $400. The face is in great condition, seems to have rarely been used. I got a good deal on this Hougen magnetic drill as well, figured it should pay for itself pretty quick in time saved hand drilling things after they are assembled. I'd never heard of the annular cutters it uses, but they are amazing. Much faster and more accurate than twist drills. It needs an adapter to fit a jacobs chuck for smaller holes though, since the cutters only seem to go down to 7/16".

I'd make a silicone rubber mold of the shell, then cast waxes and pour them in metal. I'd go with bronze as well, but if you do use scrap aluminum know that it will come out better if you melt down cast pieces (car wheels, bicycle cranks, etc) instead of extruded ones (like tubing). PlatSil 71-20 from Polytek is a good silicone to start out with if you've never done it before. You would need to get a cheap pottery kiln to burn out the wax. You could also sand cast it using the original shell as a pattern, but you'd still need some stuff you don't have yet and in my experience it's not nearly as forgiving of a process.

I've never done any work with glass, but when I was in school my bronze casting instructor had done some cast glass pieces before. He was fully against diy glass casting/annealing, while pro diy most everything else. Said he knew someone whose home-cast piece(made of beer bottles all from the same case) shattered violently while sitting on a pedestal in an art gallery months after it was finished. Again, I've got no experience with this and can't vouch for the validity of the story, but he was never one to BS.

^They do

I attached some pictures I thought you all might like, I think they are incredible. They were done by someone who moved into my building a few months ago. You can see a lot more pictures on her website here: http://staceyleewebber.com. She should offer lessons in patience....

No problem, thanks for the response. I didn't need to sand blast them, there are integral cups each with 3/8" holes, so plently of room to just scrape the crud off: I have Vactra #2 way oil that I used, it's ISO VG 68. It's just what I had around, should that work alright or is it too thick? I'm getting a motor and some flat belt pulleys this week, so it's not even running yet, I've just been cleaning it up and fixing a few things in the meantime. I can't feel any slop when I spin the shaft by hand though...do you think the quick drain from the front oil cup necessarily indicates wear to the point that it should be repaired, or can that still happen and the wear level not be excessive? Thanks!

Yesterday I was cleaning the Scranton hammer I'm fixing up and took the bearing cap blocks off the main shaft. Mine seems like this type of bearing—no babbitt inserts, the shaft just spins in machined grooves in the cast iron. The oil reservoirs on the cap blocks are pretty large, and when I filled them after putting it back together the rear one stayed mostly full while the front one emptied almost immediately. Any thoughts on whether this indicates the condition you are referring to? There doesn't seem to be any slop or play in the shaft and it spins well, but I don't have it hooked up to a motor yet so that's just spinning it by hand.

Put the bucket full of sand on its side in the back of your truck for a few days. Works great.

That's looks great, thanks for sharing. Does the oil just drip into the airstream?

Thanks Thomas, that's pretty cool. I picked up a book from a thrift store last year called Iron in the Pines, it's a narrative history the the old iron industry there. Still havent got around to reading it yet, but I'll move it up on my endless list.

One of te places I go mushroom hunting in the pine barrens in NJ has big hunks of bog ore lying all about, as well as a crumbling old furnace and lots of slag. I don't really have much interest in messing around with it, but I always find it amusing that metal even finds its way into my nature outings.