KYBOY

It is a good idea. You never know. Its a good idea to check up on people even if they say they know. My work place hired a guy once and he swore up and down he could weld stainless. After about two days on the job he came to me and asked "Which gas do I hook up to the TIG?" We had about three torch handles blowed out(gaskets) because of people running to high pressures. Im amazed someone didnt get hurt.

Kyboy, I don't mean to insult your intelligence, but you will need different tips for the acetalene than what you are using for propane. Nice punches and FREE gas bottles are always good!

I use a forge made from the bottom of a 55 gallon drum. The bottom is layered with clay/dirt and firebox is made from firebrick. Basically everything was free except for the tuyere. My forge is inside now with a hood I made but here is a pic of it firing outside and a pic of my counter weight ash dump and tuyere.

Jayco that big US23 flea market thing going on this weekend is where I found them. The guy that had one of them had two whole complete forges for sale. Large tables and pots. Blowers with stand. He wanted like $350 each for them though. Would have needed cleaning real bad too Im gonna look around this weekend and see if I can run across a post vise..

Well these follwed me home today. The larger of the two set me back $15 but I needed it. The smaller one I got for $3. Just had to dress the face a little.

Heres the mark on the larger one..

Now these were a gift from my cousin..Full to boot. Already had a small 122cf oxy tank but I can let the lease go now. I was burning propane but Ill go thru this freebie tank of acetalyne for now:p

No smithing related but I breed and sold beagles for a long time. Hunting and trial stock. I put a lot of time and money into my hounds and I priced accordingly. I always got calls like "Im looking for a real good dog in the $50 range"...My reply "They dont exist"...Their usual reply "Well I can buy one at the stocksale for that" My next reply " Well then the sale is open Saturdays, have fun"....I didnt get up at 4-5Am, 3-5 days a week and work dogs to give them away..
Ive sold few smithing items. Havent really tried. Folks seem to be happy with what Ive made them. Thats whats important I guess. If someone wants a wal-mart speacial. More power to em' ;)

That is an awesome anvil you scored there, John. By my calculations, that only works out to $.36/pound, far below what the "flea market tool experts" I encounter that decree "They go for $1.00 a pound, not a penny less".

Well me too. This evening I hardened a punch, started on a pair of tongs and annealed some old black diamond files to try and scratch a knife or two out of ..You know I didnt even think to pay attention to how much coal I used. I will tomorrow.

Do you go thru in an average day at the forge? Be it full time or just an evening of fun?

Thanks for the heads up. What do you suggest?? :)

I came across some old black diamonds(1.2 C%) at the flea market today. Bought two for .50 cents Im thinking of sandwiching some in a billit with 5160 for some knife stock. Anyone tried this? What do you think??

I have some 1" rebar (kinda hard to find and expensive too.) that I was making drags from. I cut of a piece today so I can make a 1" drift with it. Its the only 1" round stock I have right now. Its a good quailty rebar so it should work for a while.

Have you tried it yet?????

Thanks, I appreciate that.:)

Probably gettin' tired of looking at these but i made my first Spike Knife yesterday. Sorry for the off pic. Still needs a bit of finish work. Im out of finish grain sandpaper right now.

I like the design myself. A ferriers anvil would suit most of my work very well. Espically that oversized horn. Nice find. ..I just looked at the price. I expected them to be higher than that.

We always used pure Argon. Switching the liner in the mig gun line from a coiled liner to a teflon liner sure makes the fragile aluminum wire feed easier. Not nessasary but nice. I much prefer that to a spool gun for aluminum. I use to work for a company that made Aluminum Coal truck beds. "Coal Buckets" as we call them here in Ky..

75/25 for steel
100% argon for aluminum
Tri-Mix for stainless.

21 nice new raiload spikes came home with me today. 13 or 14 of the HC's..I can easily get more but this will do for now :p

I just sold my last batch of trap drags. Ive already told people that either the size of the material will get smaller for the same price or the price of the original size will go up by "X"%. Their choice. I dont expect to sell to many more to be honest. Trappers are a tight waded bunch by nature I know,Im one of them ;)

Well the old thing still does pretty good. Got pretty good rebound and the face aint to bad. Edges are rolled somewhat but hey it was free I was thinking of making a pritchel hole hardy plate as soon as I run across a suitable piece of steel.

Id say yea, when I got the anvil almost all of the hardy hole was gone. I completely rebuilt the anvil from the front of the hardy hole back. Its killing me not having the heel and pritchel hole :mad: The horn needs reworked too. Ive been looking for another anvil for a while but no luck. This one is doing ok for now.

Thanks, I was sure happy to find it. I just picked up that rounding hammer last week. The two peen hammers I made from 3lb sledges, Im sure you can see that. I got a couple other oddball hammers hanging up around. Like a straight peen headed tim smiths hammer that comes in handy from time to time.

Picked up this pretty nice flatter at the flea market for $12 About time I found something useful ;)

I just cleaned mine out yesterday after making some squirrel cookers.