rthibeau

Dodge, no offense, but you look old for the USMC. Do your dress mess whites still fit???

Not knives, but could be.

If you have the AR plate, use it; otherwise any flat spring steel wide enough should work well for your application. Avoid the rocks, the moving things in the water are what you're after.

For myself and other veterans, thanks to Sandpile and Hillybillysmith for their comments. It's people like you I feel proud to have spent my time in the Army for.

Sure like your knives, Bill. The red, white, and blue spacers are a really nice addition.

Now that's a real nice knife. Selling or keeping?

Well, I just couldn't pass this up. I'm firmly in the Old Hickory camp, so to speak. I have about a dozen of them, from the paring knife to the butcher, to the skinner. Some almost 100 years old and still good tools. An Old hickory and a whetstone and you can cut almost anything. They take a better edge than any SS knife even if you do have to sharpen them every now and again. All the high priced foreign and fancy brands can go somewhere else. When you want a knife in the kitchen, Old Hickory is the ticket.

well, as the saying goes, back to the drawing board. Thanks for everyone's input.

I'm thinking on putting in my shop a steel I-beam overhead from one end to the other and using a trolley with chain hoist to pick up and move stuff that's heavier than I can lift by myself. Presently, I'm using a gantry style construction of 4" OD square tube, legs and cross beam, 10' wide. I know that will take at least 2 tons and not bend or flex. I have to move the whole thing to use it on the other end of the shop, which is not easy. The setup I'm thinking of would be about 28' long with the 4" square tube (dismantling the present one) at each end for the legs, I could put a temporary support one third of the way in from either end when necessary. My question is: how much weight will a 28' long run of 3.5" I-beam take? an 18' run? and a 10' run?

A blacksmith once told me to look out the window before you quote a price to the customer. That was to see what kind of vehicle he had driven up in - a Rolls Royce or beat up VW.

neat project, nice work.

A friend of mine told me decades ago, "build it twice as big and twice as far back into the woods", referring to my first "shop" building that I had planned. His advice was right then and still is now. No matter how well you think you've got it figured out - "build it twice as big and twice as far back into the woods".

where's the link???

My wife wants an arbor built, so I said I had to get the metal for it - another opportunity to browse the scrap yard. I think there's an arbor in some of that sucker rod, but there is a bunch of punches, drifts, hardy tools and who knows what else; plus a tool stand in the I-beam, hooks and sign brackets in the rebar, stock stands on the brake rotors, and on and on....

I'll sketch out a diagram to get the initial form down, but it's at the forge where it's really decided. Some days the metal almost forms itself and I just go with it. I'll photograph the end product for future reference.

Must be the frogs connection....same as FrogValley - depends on who I'm talking with. Usually I refer to it as the shop because I do all kinds of stuff there. My wife calls it something else, but we don't need to go there...:)

Thanks for all the information and suggestions. The square tubing and square pickets is because this job is to replace an existing railing with one of the same design and style. I think it will be easier to convince the customer to have round pickets and use solid bar, either square or flat. Then it's just straight drilling. Traditional is not the focus on this one.

If your roof is wood, a Class A chimney kit is the safest and probably the easiest. A metal roof might take a double chimney with proper clearances. A 10" chimney is good although a 12" might give a better draft with a shorter chimney height - rule of thumb is top of stack 2' above roofing within 8' radius. Depends on prevailing winds and chimney orientation to them. If the roof shelters the chimney from the wind, it needs to be higher. My trusses are 24" on center, the stovepipe goes in the middle between two, and I have a piece of sheet metal attached to each truss on the side to reflect heat. Works good. Standard flashing to prevent leaks in the roof and brace the chimney. Most would agree with Irnsgn that a side draft is better than a hood.

Here's where my swage block stand would be...if I had a swage block...:)

So, what did you end up doing to fix the problem?

sandpile: "splitting the fullered ends of the stakes and doing a suicide joint". I'm not familiar with that procedure, could you elaborate please?

I apologize for not being clearer. The holes are to put the 1/2" square pickets through, so they should be..1/2" square plus a touch. The holes will be in 1" square tubing - if I hot punch the tube distorts. My thought is to drill 1/2" holes and then heat and drift them square. Is there a better way?

I need to punch holes in 1" square tube to mount 1/2" square pickets. What is the best way to do this? There will be four pieces of the square tubing to be pierced with 16 holes each for a decorative railing.

Obviously you have to be able to afford the thing in question before you spend the money. If it is out of your price range then it really doesn't fall into the "what a deal" category. I meant that if you had the money to spend, and you believed it was in fact a "great deal", then either for yourself or to resell, get it. Either way works in the long run.

If it's a really really great deal - no, you take it even if you don't need it, you can always move it on. If it gets to be a good deal, eh...who knows. If the bidding gets high enough, it's not a good deal, not even a deal.. you let it walk. But if the moon is right, the weather's nice, there's money in your pocket....and it's a really neat thing...and the wife is not there..:)