eseemann

There is an ad on Ebay saying with this setup you can "Gold (1948 f), Silver (1763 f) and (2800 f) Black Sands can be melted/smelted in a Microwave Oven with the Fireclay Assay Crucible provided". I am no expert but trying to melt any metal in a microwave sounds like a you really want to use that home owner's insurance you have been paying on for so long. 

This is the full add text.

Macbruce,

I agree with you!

I was talking to the dep. to the top scientist where I worked in Huntsville Al (any one that knows the Rocket City knows that dep. to the Sr scientist is not a small thing) and as a young man he needed some boiled linseed oil. When he went to the local hardware store (long before Lowes or Home Depot) he found a can marked linseed oil. When he got home he saw that the can did not saw "boiled" so he thought about what to do and took out a pot, emptied the can in to the pot and turned on the stove.
A short time later, after the mad dash outside with the smoking pot of oil he sits down to the next task. How do I tell Mom or where am I going to spend the next 10 years of my life.

I am watching a thing on netflix called the re-inventors where two guys in Canada are taking some of the wackier stuff from the patent office and building them to see if they really could work. They were casting cannon balls from lead (not really accurate but its not like they would try casting iron) and one guy goes to drop a pickle sized slug of lead in to the pot and the lead flies.

They are in Canada and the winter is well under way. Seems they tried dropping near zero or sub-zero lead in to a pot of liquid lead with out warming it up. The only PPE eye ware he had on were aviator style shades. That saved one or more eyes.

This is why you need to be VERY careful when putting in cold lead in to a hot pot.

The guy's parka looked like he had taken a 1/2 load of bird shot.

Broomhead, 

I sent you a PM and thank you. Let me know next time you come though Madison Co and I can fix you up with some black walnut or knife handles.

I think I was wrong about these. These are ceramic briquettes, not lava, still cool looking.

Frank, I agree 100%. thing is I was trying to get the back iron "t" fitting up to brazing temp and I should have taken the mig tip out before trying that. At this time I have a wide open 3/16 or 1/4" copper tube (think ice maker hook up) that is being feed at 1 or 2 PSI from the regulator and a small shop vac to get up to hot enough to make the lava get to almost flow temp. I wonder if the added speed of a higher pressure and lower volume propane jet is better than a very low pressure lower speed flow like I have now. I am going to give it another shot in the next day or so. 

On the topic of copper, brass and bronze I saw a bronze pour demo last week and it was a bit like setting up for a fireworks show. Lots of fuzting over things that need to be done and a short time that is the pour and cooling the casting. The guy doing the demo was using what looked like 8 or so strand or 6-8 gauge wire, like for a ground or a main trunk and lead free solder. Came out really neat looking. The melt was done in a round furnace (think the guy from back yard metal casting) and a Ron Reil SA burner.

Yup Frosty you sure are right about that!!!!. My daughter asked if it was petrified dog droppings. The  briquettes were glowing with the same incandescence of steel that is sparking right before it melts. 

Funny thing about t-burners and Oxy/Acetylene brazing. If you are trying to braze the mig tip in to the "T" because you drilled the hole to big you can cut the copper pipe off with very little effort. So I was left with a copper pipe and no more mig tips. I attached a small shop vac and made a forced air burner out of it. I got to tell you it get HOT. I was able to make beer bottle glass melt in t goo and last night I wanted to see what it would do to lava briquettes like you use in a gas grill. They started melting together after about 10 min.

This sucker is hot!  

I have held the device used to make a bull to a steer when my Grandpa was still keeping cows. Yup, it would make an impression. 

Edison slept under his desk until his wife put a cot in his office and lab. 

I am watching the youtube videos now, good stuff, 35# is a good pick up and go weight. 

WoW, that is Neat-O with a capital "O"!!! how much does it weigh? I would like it just to put some steel under a hardy tool. What size are the hardy holes? 

Rock, that razor is epic. I think that this is what I would find in H R Giger's save kit. I hope the person that gets this has a teen aged daughter. This would be a good thing to be stropping with a boy comes to pick up his date. 

Looks really neat, what is the back, was that a tire iron in a past life?

I do not know many 16 year old folks that can afford that type of system. Sadly I think it may be some time until he can get that type of setup.

Iron Dwarf, I sense some Tom and Jerry in that plan, well done sir.

I do like the idea of putting thick packing grease on the underside so when they try to lift they can not get a hold.

Growing up in Miami there was a host of data that said a porch light discourages burglars. I know this because the only time someone came sniffing around the house at night was the one time the porch light was out.

I love motion sensor lights, the draw attention and I have seen where people have put them in at 3 or 4 times the needed wattage and it was like being under the light in an old movie.

Anything like lights an noise is good for discouraging most burglars. Crooks looking for a few bucks in scrap or a bike do not sound like hardened crime lords. One thing to never do is make it personal. All the gags with the pink paint (I would love if that were a real punishment like how Thai Police are forced to wear the Hello Kitty band of shame) but nothing are stupider than a bunch of humiliated adolescents. I have seen people using cameras to catch people stealing Netflix out of the mail box so if you want to try that fine. You need to make sure the camera is hidden so it will not get ripped off also. Do not use anything you want to keep for bait. Copper pipe and or wire is good bait.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE remember that any harmless punk can get a knife or (in some cases) a gun if they feel like that is the only way.

Do not let it escalate.

The comic strip "Order of the Stick" has a Dwarf that is a priest of Thor and views all trees as enemies. The reason is Thor strikes them with lightning all the time so they must be up to something.

Will do. 

Spanky, 

I would like to trade you for some of the flat bar. I have some 28" buzz saw blades (think old movie where Snidely Whiplash, the leading lady and a saw mil), some large cultivator tines I can cut up and some some discs that can be cut in to knives or used as an out door fire pit. The cultivator steel is REALLY hard, this weekend I was using a knife to to split black walnut (by batoning the wood) and the blade still could shave off small strips of wood from the log. All this stuff I got very cheap or free so if you need some blade steel (or a portable fire place) let me know. I can cut the tine steel for you.

You want to see "Bursty Sparks". I love that name, "Bursty Sparks" that sounds like a golden age or silver age funny book name.

Maby a side kick or cub reporter.

http://www.scrapmetaljunkie.com/241/the-spark-test-and-spark-testing-metals-2

Get Travis to spark test it at the shop. That will tell you a great deal about it.

I will be at another event this weekend but maybe next time. Travis and his group are good people.

Are you in/near Huntsville/Madison county? The Athens forge meet-up would be a good place to take the flatbar for advise in cutting it. Before you toss it (if you are close enough) I would like to take a crack at it for some of the steel in trade. I am in Madison County.