Gazz

A couple of things - I was using a wire wheel in a hand held angle grinder to remove paint off a steel cabinet. Lot of little stings in my legs as bits of the wire wheel came off but I thought nothing of it until I went to take my pants off at the end of the night. They were pinned to my legs! I had to pick the xxxx wires out with pliers so I could get undressed! One wire was so deep under my skin I left it there and it took years to dissolve. Stick welding out of position once a bit of weld splatter bounced into my ear right onto the eardrum. Just like having your ears pop when changing altitude. Went to eh docs and they did a ear wash as they said they could see the weld berry sitting there on the drum. All healed now. I know longer wear gloves when doing hot stuff other than arc welding. Hot chunks of this or that seem to find their way in down the back of the glove or hot stuff that finds the holes or thin spots in your gloves.

My town dump or transfer station has a rather large metal pile. Years ago we could pick through as we wished but then the price of scrap got so high they stopped letting us. I usually made some money every year selling old motorcycle parts, chainsaws and other stuff that folks would scrap. I brought home three rifles once, an anvil and a large arbor press (not all in the same visit). There always seems to be bits of bar stock, sheet and plate and iron pipe in the pile too. Since the price of scrap is so low now, it seems no one pays much mind if I pick through the stuff. I don't know where you live in NH but you might want to check your own local dump or transfer station.

Those pieces are torch cut and you are grinding on the slag most likely. That will give sparks that look like high carbon steel. Also, you really should not grind slag on your belt grinder unless you really like paying for and changing belts. The slag will chew the belts up quickly. Use a grinding disc or stone to get rid of slag and scale.

I think that is what was used in a laboratory to elevate beakers and flasks and such. You may have seen pictures of set ups where there are bunches of beakers, retorts, glass tubing and Bunsen burners while some guy in a lab coat writes notes on his clip board and bunches of colored liquid bubbles through the maze of glassware.

The last one looks similar to the kind of post a glass insulator would be mounted to. I have something similar in my piles of stuff but it is longer and threaded on one end and did come from some kind of electrical power pole.

I think your idea of setting it on the lower lip is good. Your suggestion to use firebrick and/or fire clay or maybe refractory cement to build up the rest is good. Thanks for the offer of the stump jumper pan Wayne but I'm a bit to far away

I was gifted this fire pot recently and while I have a gas forge to use, I think this might be useful. I have a square of 1/4" plate that I am thinking about cutting a hole in to drop the fire pot into but have not been able to come with a satisfactory solution on how to deal with the "dips" in the pot. These I am guessing, are there to allow long pieces of stock to move freely in and out of the fire and to keep them low in the hot spot. Do I cut and fabricate a similar trough in the pan? Do I make it so that there two surfaces meet flush so there is no edge to catch on? How were this type of fire pot mounted in the past? I should know this. I worked in a shop that had a large forge and the pan had this kind of opening in its lip but I don't recall how the fire pot mated up to it nor if the pot had the same features as this one. I know there was lots of refractory cement used.

That is an awesome hunk of grate there Gergely! I am not seeing the layered look that I expect to see with wrought iron though. Glenn, the 3.5" x 27" flat bar looks like it has plow bolt holes in it. That may mean it is edge stock for a snow plow or other plow type device and is likely a very tough wear resistant alloy.

There is a company that will sharpen files for short money. The process is more than a simple acid bath and I did read a thread on the Practical Machinist sight a few years ago about it.

If I found that in the woods and had to have a piece, I would drag my small torch set out there on a RAINY day when everything is well soaked and cut it. First I would determine how long it actually was as it might be moveable as it is.

One of those is a blowhorn stake - it's the one with the long round taper and a sort of half cone on the other end. A silver smith or copper smith tool but useful in a iron shop as well.

I have seen one that was made with a large worm gear (from an old elevator) mounted on an I beam. A chuck of sorts was mounted to the output shaft and was a welded steel affair using large socket head screws to hold the work piece. The tail stock was a large pipe vise that was mounted to a plate that had large bearings under the flange of the beam. This allowed the whole tail stock to move as the work piece became shorter during twisting. Work was placed in the twister hot and a rosebud torch was used to keep it hot and to concentrate heat where tighter twisting was desired. Quite capable of twisting 4" stock when at heat.

If you have a forge, an anvil and a hammer, try and make a knife like object out of one of them. Work the steel only when it is nice and hot, don't keep working it as the color goes out of it. If you can forge it in to a knife like shape, quench it in oil to see if it will harden and if it does, temper in your oven. Then you have a knife like tool.

I have a 20lb propane tank that I cut the top off of. Freezing doesn't hurt it just makes the water to hard to use quickly.

Daswulf, the brass worm gear and one of the worms could be put together to make an awesome twisting machine, that is if the worms match the gear.

I would not heat them. Soak in kroil or other penetrating oil and work them. They should have some amount of tension so that they maintain the desired setting. To loose is useless. Adjust them by opening them farther than required and tap one leg against the edge of your bench or whatever to close them to the setting you need.

The first link in this thread is dead so I can't be sure but is this work by the Bob Dylan? I'm impressed.

Did you folks see this? http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/40952-forging-a-shovel-from-rr-track/ Interesting how the rail is cut and also the final test of the shovel.

Old flatware was frequently made from brass or nickel silver - both copper alloys, and then plated. They can both be forged after they are annealed and are cool.

A shop I used to work in kept the coal outside and uncovered. Fires were started with crumpled newspaper dipped in used motor oil. There was never an issue with wet coal.

If it cuts easily with a kife, it is most likely lead. Try cutting it with your fingernail if you really want to know.

Take a regular old twist drill and grind it to drill a flat bottom hole. You have to start with a standard pointed drill first to locate the hole though. I do this all the time when drilling gun barrels to make threaded blind holes for sights. It allows that maximum amount of threads in an otherwise shallow hole.

Madwing, the "snips" you show in your picture appear to something made from Bernard parallel jaw pliers. They made a few different models but I am not sure if that is one of them and most likely a shop made adaptation.

If you can see your resource pile from space.