bigjohn

Mark, I would advise " Do NOT rely on dimensions written by an architect on a big piece of vellum". When houses are under construction , dimensions change. Always, always did I mention always verify field dimensions before installation day. You would be amazed what 1/4 of 1 inch can do to your world. And I never did get around to building a handrail stretcher/shrinker. All the best with your project. Big John

How much for the turtle?

Will not trade my W. F. Wells A-7 band saw for anything......... built in 1978 and torture tested in my shop since 1998. It will not die. I've turned the chop saw into a doorstop. It's nice to clamp up a bunch of stock and go weld a while or forge at the power hammer. Bi-metal blades with a 10-14 variable tooth pitch cut nearly everything well. Choose wisely.

Sam, the Garonite is available at Garonproducts.com It was available locally till the business closed. They make really outstanding stuff.

If you have a big stock pile just go ahead and bore a cannon tube to fire them. That's how we ended up with cannons that fire 1" ball bearings, golf balls, baseballs and for some odd reason spheres that were 2 5/8" in dia. Haven't found a stash of bowling balls yet......... still looking.

The best product I've used to set railings is called Garonite, it is a hydraulic cement. You can mix it thin enough to pour in to small openings. Heating the lead to get it out works best for me. If the mounts are far apart then you may have to drill and chisel them out. Lead is nice and soft and has a low melting point so it should be easy to accomplish this feat. Try not to band on the stone so much , it may rattle the mortar loose. Good Luck and be patient

I've used abrasives from Klingspor since 1996. They are a great company. Most of their supply is made in Germany. They ship to your door very quickly and there is no minimum order. I've used Norton, Sait, Black and Decker and HF and stuff from TSC plus many other brands trying to find just the right combination of value for cost. Klingspor has come out on top every time. I'd go with the grinding rocks for welds then finish with the fiber discs. Happy Grinding

The best paint remover I've seen if you have the cash is called "Aircraft Remover" it is expensive but it works like crazy and DON'T repeat DO NOT get any on your skin it kind of feels like you are on fire. Not that that happened to me or anything..............gotta love chemical burns. Keep the water hose nearby just in case. If you are not environmentally conscious. You could try brake drum cleaner, it's relatively expensive as well and not as easily controlled. As far as free steel there is no such thing ,it all has a price one way or the other.

If you are on a budget, oh yeah you are an artist. Silly me. Don't always assume that the local welding supply has the best deals on welding electrodes. Frequently, Home Depot and Lowe's stores have decent quality electrodes and for some bizarre reason do not seem to be affected by steel prices. Nexair in Memphis,TN increases prices at the slightest increase in steel prices. I would also recommend 6011's and 7018's in a 3/32" size if you are going to practice a while. Happy Welding

I'm absolutely positive Monel and all it's alloys has been banned in Australia. Luckily for you,we have a certified Monel reclamation center right smack in the middle of our building in Tennessee. It is the only authorized facility of it's kind. To avoid being prosecuted, you can turn it in under amnesty. Honest ,we won't say as word to anyone. Monel makes great hardware for ovens. We've made several pizza ovens and used Monel for the door hardware and locking mechanisms. Good Luck with your projects.

Hey Frosty, what's with all that green stuff on the forge it looks suspiciously similar to paint. I'm pretty sure there is a rule somewhere that has outlawed paint in blacksmith's shops. All tooling and materials should be a uniform rust color. Nice looking setup even with the paint.

I'll vote for the Miller 251 as well. I had an older model 250 and upgraded to the 251 about 4 years ago. I build a lot of stuff around here. It has done really well. I'm pretty rough on the guns though, replaced two of those. Miller doesn't make the greatest mig guns. Tregaskiss makes a better one IMO.

For the first two or three years starting out in this business. I was limited to using a Lincoln sp-100 mig welder. That little unit made large quantities of ladder racks and bumpers. It also put enough cash in the war chest to buy a much bigger unit. I was very pleased with it's performance. I've switched over to Miller welders all around the shop. Sadly that Lincoln was stolen from the old shop eight or nine years ago....... Be sure it comes with a gas solenoid for shielding. I wouldn't bother with flux cored wire. Happy Welding

At last count around the shop, I had eighteen 80 cu ft. cylinders. They were all purchased at auctions and estate sales and the two I started with were purchased new. It has been very nice to have on hand extra gases for different jobs. The 80 cu ft. bottles are really nice to take on site and easier to move around generally.

I have a ridiculous amount of D2 in the shop. I've made the best chisels and some really great hammers out of it. The only problem with 2 of the hammers, they have developed longitudinal cracks. The chisels hold an edge like crazy. It does tend to be like a molten lava cake when you get it just a bit too hot. Cracks on the outside and oozes on the inside, it's really bizarre stuff to forge. It is a monkey to heat treat as well, I take all my D2 to a friends shop he has all the ovens for that stuff, he owns a spring manufacturing plant.

Well, I normally don't open up on Sunday, my day off and I'll be going back through there in July with a much larger vehicle. I hate asking people on their day off to work, doesn't matter how far I traveled. I guess I should have called ahead.

If you are looking for coal I could sell off some when I go pick up my next load. You are pretty close to me and I have friends who live in Atoka just down the street from you. I'm running really low so it shouldn't be far off. if you can wait a bit.

OK after driving over the speed limit...........just a bit, from Reynosa Mexico to Lufkin Texas salivating at the thought of pawing through a junk stash. I arrived 30 minutes before closing time, maybe I would stay in Lufkin overnight and search in the next morning before heading home. NOPE Paul Nerren's is CLOSED on TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY. Guess I'll have to go back in July on my way back to MX.

I got a small bit of slag down a pocket and it stuck to the screen of my treo 650 cell phone. I wondered why I didn't get any calls all week. I finally pulled it out to check it. A call came in while I was looking at it and right where the slag hit, is the touch screen button for "ignore". The hot metal shrunk the screen just enough to put pressure on the button. Good thing it didn't hit answer so everyone would hear me cussing in the shop.

I always keep 149 spare anvils on hand...........his wife must loooooooove him......

That is most assuredly a world class walnut cracking machine. You could mail it to me and I'll send a pound of walnuts in return.

I hope you have a great trip. I haven't been to that particular part of the world ... yet. I will get around there before long.. My heart is stuck in Mexico for the time being.. I've been on mission trips since 2000 and would not trade those experiences for anything.. I work mainly with deaf ministries to build neighborhood schools for the kids. I teach blacksmithing to the older kids. I'm heading down near the end of February to forge two sets of gates for a mission in Reynosa. If anyone is interested in going , I'll be driving from Memphis to Harlingen TX. It's about a 16 hour drive. Just email me and I can go into specifics I work closely with Isaiah 55 Ministries. I have a small version of my shop on site and I take tools down when I go. I go about two or three times a year and stay from a week up to two months some times. I always go to serve others but, I am always the one who ends up being served. And, the food is absolutely fantastic.... that's actually the real reason I go.

We have Irish Setters running around but when the hammering starts they all run and hide. our guard cats hang around but it is very hard to get arc burn when they are asleep. About two years ago, one of the cats jumped off the tool cabinet and on top of the wood burning stove, it was lit at the time. Cat will not go near stove anymore.

I'm thinking mine will be large enough 32' x 70'. Converted from a church built in 1956, burned down once under suspicious circumstances. Should have it complete by mid August. It'll take a few months to fill this one up. Last one was 10' x 12'.

I just finished a large railing 560' in length, the steel was $22,640. The price of steel is not going to go down, it may level off for about an hour or so. The thing is no matter how much I raise prices, my customers are still wanting product and services. The price of steel is just a part of doing business, same as the $7,900 worth of fuel my rig has eaten in 9 months. That good old American greed will take us all down, some much sooner than others. Until then I'll keep banging on iron and charging what I think will pay my bills.