Gazz

I think some, if not most of this stuff comes from local industry, like the chain hoist. The power cord cut off is telling, as though those who discarded it did not want any liability to follow them. Several times now I have seen small piles of manual chain hoists there in various stages of disassembly. I guess they come from some place that services them or maybe some outfit that just beats the snot out of them. I used to salvage the chain from them and then sell it to the local used tool place but sadly they are closing up shop. One time I was at the scrap yard and there was a LARGE pile of measuring devices - vernier calipers, height gauges and other similar tools, some that I did not recognize but sadly just dumped from a truck and pushed into a bigger pile by a dozer and most were bent and twisted beyond salvage. Those came from a used machinery dealer that closed up shop. Yes, its tough as the maker green part of me and the hoarder part of me wants to save it all but its just not practical. I do keep my eye out for bits of wrought iron but have not found any lately. And yes, that is exactly what the local yard charges me, .20 cents a pound.

Another great day at the scrap yard! Three Jorgensen "pony" pipe clamps, a Stanley drill press vise, a large galvanized turnbuckle (I have no idea what I'll ever do with it), a pick head, a large mill bastard smooth cut file that is still sharp, bunch of small stuff like screwdrivers, surform tools etc. and the big prize, a CM lodestar 1/2 ton electric chain hoist with the trolley! The power cable had been cut so there was doubt as to whether it would work or not but I figured the trolley and the chain and hook were worth something to me so I took the chance. Later in the evening, I wired up a power cord to it and plugged it in (110-120VAC) and what do know, it works! Now I really have to hang the I-beam from the rafters in the shop. A great haul for $30! I drove by there yesterday and had to avert my eyes and keep driving otherwise my shop will be seriously choked with good stuff.

Interesting! Thanks for that info!

I forget where I found this but it sure looked like some kind of firepot. I did gift it to my mechanic who is younger and wants to create his own pile of interesting and perhaps never used stuff like I have done. Does anybody recognize this beauty?

I think I have a device that holds and puts a slight curve into the lead file. I haven't seen it in years but do recall that it had a feature at one end to hold the tapered tang of the file. I'll see if I can find it. Good dealon the drill press!

I think they were/are called lead floats. When I was in high school the metal shop had a lead sprayer that would spray molten lead much like a paint sprayer. It left a fairly rough surface which was then smoothed with the float. I think filing stone with one would kill it in short order.

The problem with the shaper is that it was buried under several lathe beds. All I could see was its bottom and did notice that the table was gone. The pulley I got was actually from an Atlas lathe but it appears to be the same as what is on my Atlas shaper. When I got my shaper, the motor and drive pulley jack shaft system was missing and the previous owner had mounted a 3 phase gear motor so it was a single slow speed. I did fabricate a new jack shaft but lacked the correct pulley that would mate to the step pulley on the main drive shaft. I did tug a bit on the shaper to see if I could dislodge it from the pile but no luck and I do not climb on the pile although I want to. In the past, I could get one of the workers to come over with the big claw and drag stuff out for me but I now hesitate to ask as I feel my access to the yard is somewhat tenuous. Years ago, I could shop there with no problem and they would help me with heavy stuff if I needed it. Then one day I went to shop and they said sorry, the insurance company would no longer allow pickers. I eventually was able to gain access again after several years of bringing them stuff but I wonder where my status as a picker stands. In fact I did get yelled at during my last rip there. There is one guy there who likes to rag on me about anything he can and this time he told me I had to leave as he said I had been there to long. I do bring the lady that runs the scale chocolates now and then and next time I think I'm going to bring some donuts for the crew. And the reason for being there "to Long" is that a guy came in with pickup truck loaded with lots of rusty stuff including a bunch of old steel tool boxes. I helped him unload and that is where most of the good stuff came from. I was hoping for some real serious treasure in the boxes but they were filled with mostly old bolts, odd hardware and nails.

A bit bummed about the hatchet. I thought I could carve it down into a small combat type ax and outlined what I wanted with chalk. The I proceeded to try and cut it with the gas ax but it would just melt away - very much like cast iron! Gave up on gas cutting and hit it with the angle grinder and was surprised at how soft it was. Sparks were bright orange with some feathering but it will be a poor working tool. Continued to grind on it figuring a display piece was okay.

Stopped at the scrap yard again on Friday hoping to find a piece of sheet steel before I bought new from the bandits down the road. Ended up with three sledge hammers with handles, a hatchet with handle, a small steel tool or tackle box thing filled with about 10 pounds of twist drills from smaller than 1/8" to as large as 7/8", a fuller with no handle, two 1/2" chain hooks, a brass water pump (I think a boat bilge pump) that needs a motor, big bundle of bicycle and chainsaw chain, small adjustable wrench, a nice round drift and some punches and other small tools. Also got a pulley off an 7" Atlas shaper that will fit on mine. All for $20.00. Didn't really need any of it but my hoarder instincts got the best of me. I got sort of yelled at this time for being there to long but there was so much to pick through! Sorry, no pictures but I'm sure you have all seen this stuff before.

Nice! I wouldn't paint it though - I like the experienced look.

I typically clean these by heating them until red with the rosebud torch or just put in the big campfire. I will also cook some vinegar in them too. I would never choose aluminum for cookware in fact I passed up a nice pile of commercial quality aluminum skillets of various sizes at the scrap yard yesterday. I may have a lid that fits and if not I would make one from sheet steel. Then again, one may show up at the scrap yard!

Okay, here is a picture from the side and of the bottom. So it is marked with a 3 (3 quarts?) and is 10" wide and about 4" deep. I've also added pics of another dutch oven type pot that I also scored at the scrap yard a couple of weeks ago. This one has the lid and is sort of unusual in shape and also has a round bottom and is 9" in diameter and 6" deep. I need to clean it a bit more before I cook anything in it, both of them actually. I did see a video on youtube where a guy takes a chicken stuffed with pineapple puts it in a large skillet and then packs oil soaked seasoned salt around it - lots of it - places the skillet on a pile of sticks and then piles more sticks on top. Lights it up and lets it burn out. The salt forms a shell that has to be cracked off and the bird inside looked really moist and delicious. Thinking of trying it with a pork butt but no pineapple although it might be interesting. I have a hard time making myself not go to the scrap yard everyday - I am sure there are many treasures that go through there and I keep hoping to find a little giant there someday.

I converted an old Sears band saw to cut metal by using a jack shaft and several pulleys to get the speed down. It worked okay but slow on stuff like 1/4" plate and was just fine on aluminum and brass. I bought a Delta saw with the gear box that is designed to be both metal and wood cutting and sold the Sears. Wish I had kept it and set it it up just for wood. I stopped at the scrap yard on the way home from a Dr.s visit this morning and got a nice haul of 4" square tubing, some smaller square tubing, two pieces of formed channel, 2 pieces of schedule 40 aluminum tube or pipe, a bunch of small hand tools as somebody had just scraped his entire tool box! I took what I thought might be useful to me even though I already have that same stuff. A small hook and an old hand forged pintle (I think ). A nicely made steel shelf, a Wagner dutch oven thing missing its top and this interesting solid chunk of steel - sort of a stretched pyramid thing. Maybe useful as a hot cut once I weld a stub to it. The scrap yard is my favorite place to shop!

The bottom tool is a saw set. It's used to push the saw teeth either left or right from the center line of the cutting edge. Here's a video that explains their use;

The fork n' bottle opener.

Skyforge, I worked for Albert for 4 years 1(979-1983) and spent many days at that twisting machine. I would get a cart of double ended tapers, 50 or 100 or so and Albert would say twist them up how you like. I would sit there with the large oxy propane rosebud and a garden hose and do whatever came to mind . The twisted pieces would then go back on a cart and rolled over to whatever project he was working on and he would weave them into the piece. The Victoria and Albert screen comes to mind as well as numerous plant stands. Overall a great experience for me and I learned a lot.

My advice would be to get it running and stopping properly, give it a clear coat and leave it stock. This car will never be made again and it is an artifact of the past. Once it is chopped, channeled, frenched, lowered, supercharged and whatever, it is just another fantasy vehicle and you will never recover the money you sunk into it. If you want a ride that is a hot rod, buy one that somebody else already dumped his hard earned green backs into and let them take the loss.

Albert Paley's twisting machine used an elevator worm drive with a v-belt reduction (small pulley to large pulley) from an electric motor but I do not know the hp of it - could have been as small as 5hp but I am guessing it was 10hp - so motor - v-belt - worm drive. Everything was twisted hot up to about 3" square. The big stuff went into the forge first to get hot and a garden hose and a oxy/propane rosebud torch were used to control the twist as well as the motor on the twister itself. Smaller stuff could be heated locally with the rosebud. The first chuck was a large 4 jaw lathe chuck which essentially exploded the first time the twister was used. Then a large Charles Parker machinist vise was tried which also came apart the first time it was used. Cast iron could not handle the load. The chuck that worked was welded up from heavy plate and had a square socket in the middle and used 3/4" cap screws and shims to hold the workpiece somewhat centered. The tail stock was a large pipe vise which had wheels to allow it to move as the twisted piece got shorter. I've never found any videos of it being used but I guess there is some film footage of it in operation out there. A Beaver pipe threading machine was tried first with one end of the workpiece clamped in the post vise and the other end in the beaver. That failure was spectacular as well the first time it was tried - the pipe threader was not fastened to the floor and it it just spun itself around smashing itself to bits.

My neighbor gave me a 8' length of that stuff and I know what I'm going to do with 4' of it. I'm going to replace the leading edge of my tractor bucket! Not so original I know. I've also cut some 6" chunks of it and will make some steel targets with them. I don't know how it will hold up though - .22 should be fine but centerfire stuff may rough on it. We'll see.

Without a tire bender or rolls used to bend the hard way, the quickest way to make a flat ring is to bend it hot around a form, like the oil drum mentioned. Best if you have a flat steel top welding or work table too. Clamp or tack weld your form to the table, heat as long a section of the bar stock as you can and when its good and red, clamp the end up tight to the form and flat on the table. Start bending the workpiece around and use light taps with the hammer to keep it flat. You will also need to move the clamp, or clamps to keep the hoop from pulling away from the form as the point of bending changes place. If you can only get a portion of the ring bent before you lose heat, unclamp and heat the remaining straight section. If your forge will not accept the workpiece now because of the bend you can continue heating in place with a torch. Also, make sure your clamps are preset so they can be quickly clamped. I've bent many hoops or rings this way and keep an assortment of old iron wheels or other steel/iron round things for bending around.

Das, I did the same with a GAST pump on a small Campbell Hausfeld compressor set up that I got at the dump. The CH pump and motor were bad but I had the GAST from a yard sale some years earlier. It took me a bit to get it mounted and plumbed but it worked great. I used it for running the plasma torch since the big compressor and the plasma torch share the only 220V outlet in the shop. It quit pumping air last fall and I am guessing that the pump has failed from the incredibly abrasive nature of the air in my shop. Somewhere I read that GAST pumps are for use only in areas where the air is dust free and clean so be aware of that. Fortunately, I have another GAST if I find that it is the pump that has gone bad but hopefully it just a leak in the plumbing.

The red one, what you call a small sledge is a drilling hammer. Used with star drills to make holes in stone. I guess you can hit whatever you want with it though.

I have a bunch of that stuff that I got from neighbor when he moved. One piece will become the replacement edge for tractor bucket and other pieces I am thinking of making steel targets out of them. They will be small, 5-6" square but will provide a challenge. Guillotine dies is a good idea and I'll have to use some for that.

Thanks for the advice BGD. I began the vise repair yesterday and tried MIG first. I preheated the part with the rosebud and put just a small puddle on the jaw, peened it and then tried to knock it off with a chisel and hammer. It wasn't going anywhere! So I continued my build up and peening and noticed that just the added weld material was getting red while the vise part remained dark. Tapped the added weld and it popped right off. Oh well, I was out about 10 minutes of my life but did learn something. Switched over to braze and added bits of steel rod which is working but I only had one fluxed brazing rod. I'll go to Tractor Supply today to see if they have any. Fortunately, the location of the repair is really not structural but is just a shelf for the replaceable vise jaw to sit. The missing chunk is a product of abuse.

I was going to use the ni-rod because I have it. I had also thought that I might put down a layer of ni-rod and then use 6011 or whaterver else I might have. I haven't run the stick welder in a few years since the MIG is quick and easy. And as I write this, I wonder about just using the MIG - I've welded up cast iron things with it before but do not know how durable they really are. I do plan on buying a needle scaler too.