territorialmillworks

We finished our 21' X 25' bldg this summer and finally got 'moved in'. My wife is the artist and I'm the craftsman so she gets the 'first' of everything that I make.

Lincoln tips are 1/4-28. I've run Tweco tapered tips side by side with straight tips and couldn't tell any difference. If you want, chuck a straight tip in a drill and run it against a flap sander = a Tweco tapered tips.

One more well wisher saying Happy Bday

Fe-wood, you are one lucky smith.....beside, 457 other viewers are grateful that it didn't happen them. Glad to know that you're OK

Kubiak, I'll have to defer to Phil and lostunderhood on specs simply because my daughter-in-law got me 4 heads about three years ago when she work for a sprinkler company. The real cost came this summer when I had to buy the special orange pvc pipe and fittings used in residential applications. Beyond spacing them equally, no science involved on this end...

My daughter, an arson investigator, called about a recent fire. A man had finally built his 'dream shop', a two story affair attached to his home and had just gotten his occupancy permit when it caught fire and burned up a life-time collection of tools and equipment. Origin cause determination was welding sparks. Seems he caught a rag on fire while welding, stomped it out and then threw it next to the wall and left the shop. Problem was, the rag wasn't out and the wall,insulated with fiberglass, was NOT covered with sheet rock. The rag flamed up, caught the kraft paper with asphalt backing on fire and destroyed all his equipment and the addition. Fortunately fire fighters contained the blaze to the shop area. Cori said the man was crying uncontrollably. When we built our new shop this summer, we installed fire sprinklers for $200 in materials. I also used 5/8" fire rated sheetrock and moved most all flammables to a vented metal cabinet outside. I also covered the wall behind the welding table with sheet metal to reflect sparks and cherries. Wanted to share that story so that we might all give our 'shops' a hard look towards fire prevention an hopefully learn from others' mistakes.......

OK...spent 30 minutes learning all about the molecular structure of turbine oil. Dad would be proud to know that I finally used my chemistry degree after all these years.....Will clean off the grease tomorrow and try some synthetic that I have on hand. As always...THX

I'm using multipurpose moly grease for wheel bearings and ball joints so that I can grease both the main shaft roller bearings and the UHMW guides. After 30-45 minutes. the friction builds up and that causes the travel to slow down which reduces the travel distance and then the timing goes away. The ram and guides still show grease on them. I give it a shot of WD40 and we're back running. Any ideas besides WD40 LOL

In a 110 V circuit, white is your neutral. In a 220 V circuit, white or red is used as the other leg. If you were to run a 220 circuit into your panel box, you would have to cover the white wire with black tape for code.

Richard, you live a very dangerous life. Live well, die well my friend.... My wife only wounded me when i tried something like that.

Not at all since I borrowed the ideas from others..........

Having only two hands, I finally stopped and made some veining tools. One is for the center vein and the other for the laterals. The lateral tool uses a 3/4" bolt for the anvil and can be swapped out for different shapes. I didn't have any tool steel the size that I needed so I turned down a cheap chisel on the lathe.

First of 8 promised for Christmas. Had to send cards with photo as they weren't going to be finished by the 25th.

Want to use the torch to 'blue' mild steel but can't seem to get the effect that I want. I've tried a brazing tip and cutting tip. Problem is that when I try to blue close to a previous spot, I loose the coloration. On small pieces, I just end up overheating and loose all the color. I've played with keeping the flame close to the surface and far from the surface. Do I need a rich or lean flame?? I know that this is simple enough but I just can't seem to get it right and do it consistently....Any ideas?? THX

What is with smithing that causes one little what-ever to lead to another jig/tool/die/tong? guess that's why we like it so much...least thats what i tell the wife.

Thx Grant for the clarification...knew it applied to the die/anvil but thought term applied more generally to the shape reflective a pig's snout. I now know that it is exclusive to the hammer. Worked in a quarry/mill (30 yrs ago), they referred to a reciprecating arm that travelled in a gibbway on a shaker as a sow's block.....might have been because this was Tennesee where most didn't have all their teeth and some had close set eyes. I now know that I should have said 'ram guide'. Never let ignorance keep you from showing your true intelligence. THX, Keith

Decided at the last minute to "make" christmas gifts, then work got in the way...well you get the picture. So now I need 80 leaves like today but the problem is I've never made leaves before and soon realized I'd never get them done by hand. So why not use the power hammer which I had just reassembled after moving. Soon realized I had to reprofile the drawing die but they still sucked. Then a bolt on the pitman arm backed out (good thing I had built guards!!) Then the newly profiled die came loose. In that time I made 20 leaves that were 'unimpressive'. Finally, I adjusted the spring tension and lowered the sow's block. At 9 pm, I gave it one more try ---PERFECTION in under 2 minutes. Ahhh, life is good and Santa will be on time !!!:)

Glenn, that is an outstanding idea !!!!! I actually have a piece of round stock that might just be big enough. Oh, I am going to be in so much trouble....think I'll go and wake her up right now !!!!

Got tired of always having to use a square when switching the chop saw back and forth from 45 and 90 deg settings. Tonight, I stopped and set the saw dead on 90 deg then I drilled the fence and base plate and inserted a split pin and then did the same for 45 deg. To move it between the two settings, I just use a pair of vicegrips to wiggle the pin out. Frustation came be a great motivator at times.

I'm now the proud owner of a 5 gallon bucket of 1.25" steel balls. They came out of an old ball mill used to crush ore for gold extraction from around 1950??? You're probably thinking the same thing that my wife said..Why would you bring them if you didn't have any use for them. So help me redeem myself in her eyes...she already said no to painting them for christmas tree ornaments......

thingmaker, I thought about alcohol lamp also but had no idea where to find one. Then again, a a 'metal worker', I should be able to 'make' one.

Need to punch a series of 1/4" and 3/8" square holes in 1/8" thick angle iron. Tried punching with square punch but then couldn't knock the plug out from the backside because of the thine material deforming. A round bolster was even worse. If I made a square bolster I don't think I could get it lined up with the punch and the work piece. I thought about making a handled punch and trying to do this on the power hammer.......appreciate any help.....

Square cuts in both directions !!

Using a striker cause I haven't figured out how to make a pilot light. Personally, I only use teflon tape on water. I've found that if you tighten a fitting with teflon and then back it off a little, it can lossen. If you do that with tape dope, it still holds. I use pipe dope that is approved for gas application.

For some items, I use a rosebud repeatedly which means its a pain to either turn the torch or the tanks off every time. Curious, I priced one of the attachments where you lay the torch in a cradle and it turns the gas off. 200 bucks. So I bought a couple reverse thread fittings, two HF valves, fabricated a handle and a mounting base and got a friend to crimp some barb fittings into an old hose. Not spring loaded but works great for $20. Wish I'd done this years ago.