David Gaddis

By installing a generously thick gasket between both shell of the air blowing chamber may give you all the clearance you may need. I did this on two blower rebuild projects this spring with good results. This repair instruction came from Charles Johnson, a blacksmith resident in Mena, Ark. Carry on

Do both! Buy some and make some. When you use someone else's stuff it give you a starting point. Then cutting out your own gives some more parts of personality. There are lots of things to be learned here. Such as keeping your plasma unit in tip top alignment, as well as holding your torch properly while passing over or next to a previous cut. Sounds simple un til you cut out a hundred petals and leaves. Cutting out the leaves is only part of the tricks...when assembling you find out just how much metal is really needed and what is not required. The store-bought ones are great to work with but you will not be learning "why" to shape a petal a certain way. And removing the small amount of slag stuff from a properly set up plasma does not take too long. But it does take a few minutes. Some of my friends think hiring a cnc waterjet to cut multiple layers of the same outline is "the" way to go, especially when cutting copper roses. In a few weeks I will know. But this is for certain, if you desire different shaped leaves for your project the personal plasma is a nice tool to use. If you want to do it differently you may go back to a sharp cold chisel. Carry on

I have now learned that springs and s hooks do a nice job holding the plate from jumping all over. Carry on

4 inches wide may prove to be a tad bit narrow. Problem is easy to solve by adding strips to both long sides. Of course vee groove the edges and properly weld. BTW I would have installed my hardy prior to laminating to bottom piece. Consider adding some braces between the leg bottoms to help reduce springing. Enjoy! CARRY ON

Just grind it off, but be safe about that...using good grinding practices. If you are afraid of the particals install a fan to help blow away the airborn stuff. DO not breath chrome or zinc in any form. Be glad you have a source of free material. Carry on

Things to consider Welding the slab onto another nice thick wide piece, say max width as the piece and yet about 15 or so inches long. That would allow the triangular stand to have a bit longer stance while the bottom piece could allow the back legs to be a little behind the main striking area. Use a very good material to make your drift from..like H13. You should be able to make the drifting of the hole in two heats. When driving the drift into the 3" piece it is very important to align your drift so that it will pass straight through another properly drifted hole of the same dimension. That will help reduce "smearing" as the drift makes its way through. Allow enough radius on the corners of your drift. Weld your legs on the stand about 8 or 9 degrees off vertical...MAX. Use very large feet with 3/4 holes for mounting. 6 in diameter and not square. You will learn why soon enough if you pick it up. Make the finished height max 28 inches, but 25 is better. That allows for striking height to match top tools placed onto worked piece that is placed on top of bottom tools. Any way you look at it your sledge will be landing quite high in the air. A hardened anvil is not a necessity. Many good striking anvils are made of A36...which helps keep the rebound from that "missed" strike from returning to the hammer operator! Yes to the oil and sand! The oil does not flow so quickly into the sand either, so go slow here, and fully weld up the hole. No leaking should the stand be turned over when transporting. ENJOY! carry on

How about doing a rebound test...before and after...heat treatment. Many of us are very interested in your project. It has been well constructed. BTW....1045, according to some info....does not like welding. So now time will tell. Carry on

Very nice video indeed. Looking forward to seeing you back on this side of the pond...where we eagerly await to give you more training in Southern talking styles.. Of course we are kidding...well maybe Carry on

What kind of bait are you using ?

The quick way of figuring will bring the cost about to near $635, including the extra rods that you will now have in inventory, but with absolutely no accounting for labor. Starting about 4:30 am and maybe finishing at 10:00 pm...with the possibility of some incompatibilities when welding...Nooooooo Waaaayyyy! Apply ALL that money to a good piece of equiptment. Go on a road trip to somewhere to pick it up..ready to go to work. Waste not one more cent on that project. But the funny thing about this subject is: I still go through the same computations every few months. Answers return to the same situation. Carry on

Yep...You did a very nice job on those pieces..and putting them into one stake. Keep it up and Carry on

The other day I was down in Baton Rouge to visit OldnRusty. There is a pleasure for anyone to go by an visit and see some of the things that are going on. And there are some examples of gates with other fixtures as examples hung up to look at too. But one of the things Dan has is something many of us would like to have in our shops. He has a great big poster that has examples of blacksmiths work, pictures and drawings, and descriptions. His poster is about the size of one of those "picture show" posters about the movie that would be showing. No, it was not in color, but black and white, similar to something that may have been used in the 20's 30's etc. So what I am getting at is locating such posters as that. I see that the gallery has exhibited some photos similar to old world posters. Carry on

I have worked around a lot of other machinery that is 1/16 undersized on the shafting. It was never known by anyone I was around as to the reasoning for undersizsed shafting. Perhaps someone will chime in here. Carry on

A mig machine is by far the best unit for a beginner. Many will make smart remarks about being a "real" welder would use such-and-such machine or type. Just get a quality machine instead of one of those el cheapo (HF, etc) types. FOr most small stuff the Lincoln or MIller units are fabulous. I think the Lincoln model is #175. Of course I have all differing types tig-mig-stick in both name brands and large capacity. For most DIY guys at home the smaller unit is good enough. Please use the gas type instead of the flux-wire only. You will thank us later for that. The smaller units are fine with 10 pound wire too where I use very large spools. CO2 gas is more economical and mixed gas produces a prettier weld... And get a good welding helmet. Carry on

That tool must go! It's usage removes the reason for fellowship. Now your visitors and friends must resort to holding cold beverages and such. What a shame. Putting people out of work. Carry on

My very first experience smithing started with Dan! It seems like it was yesterday! Man-oh-man! What some great stories there. If anyone wants a true adventure of friendship a stop by his shop will help. My plans are to see him again in a few days...if business permits. And maybe I can do something for him. Thanks for the inspiration OldAndRusty David Gaddis Carry on

I have brazed a whole lot years ago. Then a few weekes ago I showed one of our younger smiths the technique as we repaired transmission supports for a Champion Blower. I told him that he was not likely to ever see that process ever done again in his life. Now you have excited me about using copper, and then brazing to making a repair joint. Perhaps I miunderstood your operation. Many of us here would be delighted to see some pics of such a weld...if possible. That could make a delightful demo to our forge council too. Please try to do some pics...even if on something insignificant. Thanks in advance. David gaddis Carry on

We have welded 4140/50 and 5160 a lot years ago. An old friend and neighbor was very familiar with the operations led in aour instructions. Pre-heat until spit would sizzle and run off the item (about 400 degrees F) and commence to weld...properly. Not too much heat yet without being too cold either....as the pre-heating requires different settings than welding cold steel. Keep warm until finished..then air cool...not with air blasts. Everything we worked with doing that was successful. Welding cold sometimes worked and other times did not. The parts we welded were root rakes for large dozers that made contact with strong oak stumps very often. Many of the "tines" or fingers were 1-1/2 to 2 inches thick. When they wore thin we scabbed spring steel to the sides of the fingers. Sometime we used motor grader blades, other time we used large industrial spring material. The idea was to work it hot and let it cool down easy. Welding was not enough heat to get the piece warm enough so the pre-heat allowed the dissimilat metals to work well. Carry on

Brian often times uses old breaker bits from air hammers or other construction hammers. It seems that the metal is similar to S7 in characteristics. So you make a stem to fit your anvil first. Then when very hot it is collapsed upon itself and looking a bit like a squashed mellon. With a little flatter and striker work the edges are repaired to a sharp vertical line. Then the flatter is used to re-surface the top. Of course that means to repeat the whole process on all 6 sides plus the top. The only different thing going on now is the slug of metal is becomming darker so plannishing replaces heavy metal moving. Some people would take two opposing sides to grind their favorite edge. An example here is very sharp edges, then an easy radius set, followed by a well generous radius set. That gives three differing setups all on one stem. When making these yourself remember that S7 must be within its forging temperature range. Oh yeah, make the stem tall enough so that you can easily access it. An example here is like making a ball, hitting into the edge and then down to the top of the edge. Carry on

You are up on the internet waaayyy too late. Get to bed so you can cut on those eyeball while rested! And you project loos good as Lyle's. So now I guess we need to visit the patent office to see who owns what? Nooo Nevermind! Carry on

Where I live scrap that has been out in the weather that long is completely rusted through. Can you say H-O-T and H-U-M-I-D at the same time...all the time. Carry on

What you see is a good repair of standard issue part as available. What are they? ACME threaded lead screw with a single thread instead of two or three parallel threads...with a store bought ACME nut that has been retrofitted to fit the "box". The draw back for the repair is its slow operation. The good part though is it is quite strong in the gripping action...maybe even stronger than the jaws should allow. Be carefull when putting extreme tightening proceedures here...or you may have the vice jaws shatter or crack. Enjoy. I have seen several of these done like this in the past...before I started blacksmithing. I even repaired one just like this myself 35 years ago...the same way except with hex nut! Carry on

We all down here in Mississippi wish you the best in your new found profession. The honor that we owe you is immesurable for the ones like yourself have given the world your best. Please continue to make everyone proud of you...everyday. And remember...God does watch over you. CARRY ON , friend!

Since I had an Abdominal Aorta Aneurizm 6 months ago ...in two days...I too am blessed to have a re-start. Powers above are allowing me to continue now onto a better path. Helping others is more highly positioned in my agenda, now too. Glad you are on the mends. Carry on...but at a slower pace..

One of those artsy things to me...I like them....but I do not know why Carry on