thingmaker3

I use a propane weed burner, unless I'm showing off.

From a visual stanpoint, the thing does not have to be perfect. But it does have to have the illusion of perfection. It is not good enough until it looks good enough.

From a perfomrance standpoint, the thing does have to be within specs. "Good enough" has measurable parameters for performance.

When cutting 5/8" square mild steel, I can hot cut three pieces for every two my HF bandsaw chews through. For 5/16" square or smaller mild steel, I use a cold chisel.

The bandsaw is handy for precise cutting of several pieces simultaneously, such as a bundle of threaded rod.

people use non-stool steels

Constipated steels?:o

"Religious blade" in no way implies "Wiccan blade." I've only been Wiccan for twenty years or so, but I've never heard of a requirement for a silver blade. Sounds more like a Druid's sickle to me...

What about caulk?

There is a product called "Ospho" available at most hardware stores. It is phosphoric acid with some wetting agents.

Maybe send the IRS a bag of concrete chunks and a spare tire as their share?

Thank you, gentlemen. I'll try the soap when I get home. Rig is currently out behind one of the out-buildings, nearly a hundred feet from the house. No ignition source neraby. Rainy today. Nearest neighbor is over a qaurter-mile away.

I noticed some flames around the valve of my little acetylene tank. Am I more likely to have a bad flashback arrestor or a bad tank?

How do I check this? And if it is a bad tank, how do I safely get it back to my vendor?

Iain, have you tried the farrier supply place in Beaver Creek? They stock the good coal.

Something I recently learned: It does not have to BE symmetrical, it just has to provide the illusion of symmetry.

Grant, how many watts does that gizmo pull from the wall outlet?

I have a wife. If I even come close to running out of things to do, she finds more!:rolleyes:

Scale is simply Fe3O4, black iron oxide.

What ye got there is a matched & aligned top & bottom butcher with convenient handles! :D

I've never tried so thin a layer of fuel. Got to add it to my list of things to try! Thanks!

The metric is throwing me off... 20mm is less than an inch, is it not? 30mm just over an inch? We're talking a layer of charcoal (not metallurgical coke, but charcoal) about as thick as a man's thumb?:confused:

While an SCR-type light-dimmer or a rheostat might work fine & dandy on a "universal" motor, they don't do so good with an "induction" (aka "squirrel cage") motor. With an induction motor, there will be a fairly big range where the motor just sits there and gets hot. It is not good for motors to just sit there and get hot.

Speed controllers for induction motors are quite complicated, and therefore expensive.

Note also: some motors are "self-cooled" and must be run at full speed to avoid over-heating.

Thanks, Gaylan.
I'm still surprised that no one has asked why I use scroll jigs that can make a C-scroll that will touch.

Hey, Brian... why do you use scroll jigs that can make a C-scroll that will touch? I remember these jigs from the Tips & Tricks thread, but the "why" part is indeed an interesting question.

The byproduct is not so pure as one might think. The molten iron picks up a lot of stuff from the container, as well as from the ore.

http://forums.swordforum.com/showthread.php?t=53491

IIRC, Mr. Bennett had some copper in one of the runs he had anylized.

VERY dangerous stuff. Learn ALL of the safety precations before proceeding!

I have a question concerning this chart. Doesn't amperage also vary with efficiency? So could an electric motor produce more power ( in the form of HP) with less amps if the motor is more efficient since amperage is how much the motor is drawing?

"Horsepower" and "watts" are both measures of "power." "Power" is the rate at which energy is converted from one form to another. Electric motors will be anywhere from 20% efficient to 60% efficient, so 746 watts of electricity might get converted to a fifth hp or more than a half hp. (746 watts = 1 hp). Any electrical energy which does not get converted into mechanical energy gets converted into waste heat, waste noise, waste electromagnetism, and such.

The chart from Richter and Schwan's book is a good rule of thumb.

When shopping for anything that uses a motor should you base how strong the motor is based off of amp's? For instance I know that 230 is more efficient than 115, but uses half the amperage.

Power (in watts) is equal to voltage (in volts) multiplied by current (in amperes). 230 V is not actually "more efficient" than 115 V, but it does let us use smaller wires because we use half the current for the same power. Smaler wires means less weight and less cost.

And just to remind us how complicated life can get, any electric motor will draw more current when it bogs down. The "stall current" is the high current drawn by the motor when the shaft is unable to turn - this is used to calculate the artificially inflated "max hp" rating.

-Lee Cordochorea, IBEW Local 48

I don't know what they used for a practice target, but it seems to have been tougher than the spikes what broke off.

I don't think a hair-dryer will get hot enough to melt a brake drum...:confused:

Is it safe to leave a powersaw running while you're doing something else?

As a general rule of thumb, it is not safe to leave a power anything running unattended in one's shop. If you must perform additional tasks with the saw running, do so in the immediate vicinity of the saw.