thingmaker3

You can demonstrate this to yourself with a simple excercise. Get a quarter inch or so square or round piece of steel and file some notches in it every half inch or so along the length. Heat to yellow, let it sit at temp for a bit, and quench. Put the steel in a vice with the last 1/2" sticking out and break it off. Heat the remaining steel again but only to orange. Quench & break off the next 1/2". Keep going this way, and keep track of which pieces were which. Look at the broken surfaces - a magnifier or one of those cheap pocket microscopes come in handy here. The above excercise will work with plain carbon steels and low alloy steels.

If one can get a steady supply of free vegetable oil, (or bacon grease or transmission fluid or whatever) then one can change it out frequently. If one must buy vegetable oil, the commerial quenchants make more sense as they are cheaper in the long run. Also, I've never heard of bears, dogs, or mice trying to eat the commercial stuff. Now and again critters will try to get into the organics.

One should never strike a hard tool with another hard tool. Chips can fly off and imbed themselves in flesh. This is why the struck end of chisels & punches are left softer. Since you won't be striking any part of your hammer with another hard tool, your hammer need not be differentially hardened.

Another trick using a coal-fire is called a "muffle." Find a pipe or tube just big enough to accommodate your work & build your fire around and over the pipe. This helps diffuse the heat as well as slowing down the heating rate.

5160 is a very forgiving steel. Folk have quenched in all manner of oils from Parks #50 to transmission fluid to bacon fat to caneloupe. I personally have had acceptable results with vegetable oil, vegetable shortning, motor oil, and transmission fluid. I've had mixed results with water. For superior results, go with a commercial quenching oil - they don't break down over time like the organics or automotive fluids. The commercial stuff is made to endure the heat.

Just out of curiosity... How many of you give the government a zero interest loan (you get a refund), and how many get a zero interest loan from the government (you pay them at tax time)?

Heat it more slowly. If using solid fuel, place it higher in the fire & go slower on the blower. If using gas, throttle back on the BTUs. Pay attention. Be patient. It may not be rocket science or brain surgery, but it IS art & craft. Be involved.

Feh. A true Jedi need no handle. Move the head with you mind! But since I'm no Jedi, I like a cubit plus two spans. Or two cubits minus a palm. You choose.

I'm with Gunsmithmaker. Got my slake tub for free from the same guy I buy malt extract from. I can paint it any color I want if I ever get tired of green. If I felt the need to go with wood, I'd try Craigslist. Or the local wineries.

Looks to me like the top chamber inflates on both the upstroke and downstroke of the lower movable flat. If such is the case, it would combine the advantages of an Oriental box bellows with a European double-lunger. Where is the intake on this thing?

Anybody know when he's coming to the PNW?

S-wave? Not heard of that one before. Where can I go learn more about the S-wave? Sorry to hear about your chisel. Do you know what kind of steel it was and what temperature it was at? (And what temperatures it was forged at?) The lion's share of quench cracks are from overheated steel.

Wrench! I forgot about the wrench for the out-of-production tamper-resistant flow sensor back in '04.

Well, THAT one certainly is, Mr. M!

Not just you. Time gets away from us all. Congrats on the hammer. Looks like a very nice one!

Needed a scoop. Didn't have a scoop. Had a 5/8" square of mild steel a couple feet long. Half an hour later had a scoop and some nail-in hooks. Needed a gate latch the hound couldn't operate. Made a gate latch and some key-chain fobs. Needed a doggie barrier for the van. Needed a lid-lifter for the dutch oven and a tripod for the fire-pit. Needed... oh, you get the idea. Hammer On!! B)

Glenn, is that 3x ID or 3x OD?

A link is only as strong as it's weakest chain.

If one uses an old ATX supply, one must short the PWR_ON pin to ground for the thing to work. That's pin 14 if one has a 20 pin connector, or pin 16 if one has a 24 pin connector.

I just hang my cords on hooks. Hooks are easy to forge, even for a hack like me. Has any one here experienced this firsthand \as apposed to having heard about it?

Quite right about universal motors, Grant. Your train transformer puts out DC, though. (That's why toy trains can go in reverse.) Some car motors are universal and some are not. But yes, a universal motor does not need DC.

Not a myth. BUT... we need to define "too-small-gage." If there's no way for the cable to cool off readily, (very tightly coiled in a bucket, for example) then try not to exceed: 5 Amps for AWG 16 cable 8 Amps for AWG 14 cable 13 Amps for AWG 12 cable If the exension cord is in air, or is not tightly coiled, go ahead and push up to the rated limit for the cord. How long would it take to melt the insulation? Well, how long does it take to heat a random piece of iron to welding temp? Depends on a lot of factors. See also "coin shrinking." Said technique is used in industry to shrink-fit some items.

I'm not by any means the world's best electrician, but they did give me a liscense. And I've not quite been studying electronics for three full decades. So I could be mistaken here. The "six foot rule" for cords is minimum, not maximum. Said rule is for appliance cords, not extension cords. Said rule is only a recomendation, not a real rule. The "interesting properties of a coil" apply to a single conductor, not to extension cords. Extension cords specifically negate the interesting properties by creating them in equal and opposite polarity. Run an internet search on "Maxwell's equations" and "Faraday's law of induction" if you want to know more.

Use one of these on the output of a transformer. Hook each of the the "~" to the transformer output, and the "+" and "-" to the motor http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G14531 http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/FWB-256/25_A_600_PIV_BRIDGE_RECTIFIER/-/1.html Not good enough by itself for most things, but just fine for a DC motor. If you put an ordinary light dimmer on the transformer input, you can control the speed of the DC motor.

A transformer by itself won't be enough. Output from the transformer is alternating current. A six amp battery charger should work.