Marc1

That sounds a lot like Warren Buffett "The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything."

Is your forge a venturi burner or ribbon?

Considering that I had a Japanese step mother and have two japanese sisters ... i do understand a little bit too.

An easy job if you want to preserve the original bolt. Build up the bolt end with your welder. Take to someone that has a lathe and can turn a thread. Job done.

On the so called muscle memory, that is just an expression, of course no one thinks that muscles have memory. However picture this scenario. You are holding a bow and want to hit a target with your arrow. From previous experience you know how to hold the bow, what tension on the string, the wind on your face and on the bushes and the other many variables that will allow you to hit that target. Or do you? When it comes to hammer techniques, it is apparently simple to isolate the few different things that are necessary to achieve a good result and avoid injury. Or so we think. In the case of the bow and the arrow, the complexity and the number of the variables is so high that there is no way to think about each of them separately to think yourself into a hit. So ... you don't. The Japanese say to let your soul fly with the arrow. Kokoro. The indivisible 'mind-soul-spirit' As for the muscle ... when we train at an early age, we develop a larger number of cells not only bigger muscle cells. when we stop training, the cells diminish in size but do not disappear. They are there waiting for the activity to resume. Does the cell know how big it was previously? No one knows. The capacity of our senses to detect data and elaborate it into information necessary for a task is incredibly more complex than just, hold the hammer in this way and hit the iron in this other way. The more complex the information necessary the more magic the result. I always wonder at the capacity of the eye to determine the size of a drill bit or the thickness of stock. How can I, by simply looking at a bolt, know that it is 12mm metric and not 1/2" imperial? I don't "know" ... I just know. There are many things that we don't know. "I only know, that I know nothing" S ...

Are we still talking about people?

Notice the age, fitness level and clothes of the workers. Absence of gloves, dust mask hearing protection or any other protection. The presenter talks about dust protection but i see none. The method for turning the wheel is an OHS nightmare. To load the stones on the 300x300mm beams, before 1950 they used crow bars instead of the winch https://youtu.be/Xkvmnp8ca6Y

We have yet to have that happen. There is talks to pay out the houses that burned down and not allow to rebuild. Have yet to see how this pans out. i would like to see those decision makers that allowed building in dangerous areas go to gaol. California must be the worst possible state to live in if you need to work for a living and you are not a politician . Sorry mate for the insurance scam. Eventually someone will step in to plug the vacuum, at what price it remains to be seen. I read that some of you have gone to Lloyds for insurance but paying 5k plus a year. Move to Texas or Colorado? God bless

Best way to celebrate Australia day, watching the Australian open. Ozy Ozy Ozy, Oy Oy Oy Happy Australia day to all !

It does both, but as far as I know the colour indicate the density. There is white that is single or double density, yellow is double density. I believe there is pink that is triple density and green that is oil free to use on oxygen lines. I, however, have a roll of pink 'teflon' sealant and it does not feel triple at all

Prices in Sydney are for 45KG bottles $120 for the gas and $35 rent per year ... 9 KG bottles are $16 for the gas, no rental and you can pick them up at any servo. There is a slightly smaller rate for the big cylinder gas if you commit to exchange every month and penalties if you cancel. Freezing can be overcome with a manifold and multiple bottles all open at the same time. Keeping the bottle at 45 degree angle with the opening up is another way to increase the exchange surface. Is it true that a ribbon burner with a blower uses less gas?

Sigs ... it used to be the case here too. Now with the "environment" in the way, LPG in 9kg bottles is the cheapest. All the others need to pay rent on the cylinder and subscribe for a monthly refill or exchange regardless of how much you used and the prices are just absurd. You pay more for a refill of a 40 kg bottle per kilo then for a refill of a 9 kg. And if you dare to want a large tank to refill by a tanker in bulk ... wow!! ... better sit down. You have to hand over a copy of your mortgage, blood test and ancestry tree explain why and how, rules about location, OHS for the driver who is wrapped in cotton wool and silk gloves etc.

What I'm going to say may sound weird to some. When I am forging, at first I do think of the hammer and the hand and the swing, but soon enough I am just watching the hot iron and think in the effect I expect rather than how to ... sort of shortcutting the arm and the hammer, if that makes sense, as a remote control. May be I'm getting too old

It is with plastic washers. You can improvise cutting out a plastic milk bottle I suppose.

Years ago I bought a MIG that was on special, last of its kind ... I mean last of the transformer MIG, no electronics. Weighs a ton and can weld a structural I beam with ease. But i couldn't get it to weld consistently. The wire feed seemed to have a mind of its own. Until I discovered the reason. The wire is pushed by a little motor and you regulate the tension via a spring, however for this precarious arrangement to work you need to keep tension behind the pulling wheels with a bit of friction on the spool. My machine missed a part. A plastic ring on the shaft held in place by a pin and keeping the wire under tension and stopping the spool from continue to roll when you start and stop welding. As soon as I added the ring, the wire feed worked as it should.

Good points about welding Frosty. Welding with the new inverters full of helping programs has never been easier. The downside being that the welds may not stand up to a strength test. If you are building a balcony railing, that could be a problem. If you are making a trinket to sell in the local market may be not so much. Ha ha, I have fun writing, and hackpoetry is part of the fun. For the sake of the english only readers, ... poem like lyrics, don't need to make sense, just rime. Mastropiero is a fictional character whose full name is Johan Sebastian Mastropiero, a musician of dubious character and horrible production, a bit like the Bard of Asterisks. An "Endecha" is a dirge. "Jabato" means valiant, but is also the hero of a spanish comic book from the sixties. A bit of a play of words may be a bit obscure. "Ya no hay pájaro en el nido" ... no more food in the larder. "Y si el sastre no se arrima" If [Mr] Taylor does not come ... who will help me with the rhyme. Thank you to the anonymous translator, you did a swell job considering the challenge.

How do you like my improvised poetic license? Endechas de Mastropiero: Al quejarme del desastre me recuerdo de aquel maestre que jabato en su montura se largo de Extremadura Si el cangrejo está cocido ya no hay pájaro en el nido y si el sastre no se arrima quien me ayuda con la rima? Mastropiero lays: When I complain about the disaster, I remember that master who, in his sadness, ran away from Extremadura. If the crab is cooked, there is no bird in the nest and if the tailor does not get close, who helps me with the rhyme?

Well said. One of the most destructive statements, repeated at nauseam about a divisive, even when imaginary foe, is "The science is settled, there is no more debate" This gormless statement assumes full and complete knowledge and discards any potential for error or future discovery and only highlights the limitations of the author. "Eppur si muove" ... yes I believe he did say that, mumbled in his beard. Or so i was told If I am to be in a re-enactment I want to be the one that fires the cannon !! PS Who is this Robert you speak of? He complains about a crab or about his taylor ?

From a few machines that I repaired after decades of inactivity, they do look worse than they are most of the time. In this case the bonus is that you not only have a rep for the brand but also parts available if you need them. Much better than repairing an antique were you must make each part by yourself. i would take it on for sure. Don't go paying silly prices though, you are in for a long and uncertain adventure. That thing weights in 2 to 3 thousand pounds. It will cost you to move it to begin with. And all electrics, rubber, valves will most likely be perished. Best of luck and let us know how you go I believe a new 88 single piece like that one, would be costing close to $10k today. So if you pay $500 you have a bit of a buffer for parts and labour and time and engineering bits and pieces and transport and unknown and panadol etc

Ha ha ... "ultra-fastidiousness" a bit like a discriminating fussbudget ... Agree wholeheartedly. And I add that this persnickety over-delicate prunes, are always in the part time armchair hobby section of the out of print magazines. Bottom line and seriously now, if at all possible ... smithing, metal work, forge, weld or bang together has just one purpose, and that is to make things, possibly beautiful to your eyes, and hopefully useful for someone else. . If beautiful to other people's eyes, that is a bonus. How you achieve that? Such is for you to know. If you decide to trade-ition it to someone of significance to you, goodonya. (We really need a bigger variety of emoticons) And I don't intend to denigrate or dismiss those in the re-enactment side of things. I have no knowledge in such area, and in my ignorance regard it to be more in the histrionic arena, for what I have not one single bone in my haphazardly befuddled body.

I can see how the dictionary has betrayed you That flow chart is also a bit ambiguous. Here is an explanation that seems more thorough https://www.dailywritingtips.com/tradition-and-treason/

I was checking out some youtube posting about induction forges. Some seem very slow, others real fast, but unless you want to heat up only straight stock, the size of the induction coil seems to be the achilles heal of this thing ... not to mention the electricity bill. Try to fit a gate component or a scroll in that minute coil. I wonder if they make them bigger?

Heat is heat, but the manner of delivering it is different. Gas forge heats up the whole piece, coal forge can be made to heat just the part you want. An oxy torch can be even more precise. I think induction and oil forges are more suited to industrial applications then the one man workshop.

Thomas, why is cotton 'out' ? ( in the purist mind anyway) Is cotton clothing a modern invention? Only curious, Personally I find all that period obsession rather ludicrous. In my life experience, blacksmithing is a form of metalwork that can achieve through forging what modern metalworker can not. So really, what is important is to establish if a particular period technique, tool or material achieves a better result than it's substitute modern day. So, if you need to rivet a forged flat bar to another, is subjecting yourself to the torture of a hand driven drill a way to achieve a better result than drilling with an electric drill? And the same can be asked about cutting with a plasma cutter, measuring with a laser etc. Conversely, hot punching a hole is clearly a different way and sometimes better than drilling it out with a drill bit. Reminds me of those artist painters who make their own colours risking their life with poisons, in order to be period correct. Are those colours really better and noticeable in the end result? I don't know, but suspect that they are not. Not really. Tradition comes from the Latin 'trans' that means across, and 'dare' that means to give. Handing down to the next generation. It is Treason that has a common root with tradition because the traitor is handing over what he should not.

Perishable skill ... why didn't I think of that expression