48willys

Dave Hammer, Do you know if they sell smaller batches of coal at Green Valley Coal Co. I go through Summersville sometimes and would love to just stop and get like 100lbs just to try it.

I thought I would post a update on how this came out. I almost messed it up big time when I got the area of the crack to hot, and after all that I still had a pin hole. But the wood stove ashes did the job because it stayed together. So we fixed the pin hole with a little epoxy and put everything together, and so far its holding good after running it alittle but its hard to tell what it will do after some time.

Lincoln Idealarc 250 AC/DC Sweet welder, just wish my power supply was heavy enough to the shop to run it.( yea didn't think that out to well) Lincoln Bobcat 225G AC/DC gas powered W/60 foot leads. Portable, fully adjustable power range, my go to welder for heavy stuff and outside welding. Millermatic 35 Mig. Old one but still welds great, sadly I'm told major parts are no longer available for it...... great for thin stuff though. Campbell Housefeild flux core welder, works ok and got me by for a few years and was cheap enough but I don't get it out much unless I have a small project that has to be welded outside in the wind. Oh and a GOOD self darkening helmet, best money I ever spent. Whatever you get, one will probably never be enough.lol :D

As haveing little cast practice I have done this before and it did work. But let me explain, I did this on a aluminum cut plat for my anvil. The mold was almost filled and then I ran out when filling the hardy shank, so instead of starting over I just melted a little more and finished. On to the problem, though it worked on this, a cut plate only uses the shank to keep it from moveing and really has little force on the shank itself,.You can see a line of what looks like dross between the first and 2nd pour in the casting and I'm sure it would snap right off with any hard use. You are always better off melting more than you need and haveing a few ingot molds ready to pour the extra in. Besides the the bad castings you will get from doing two pours I'm not really sure what kind of safety problems you run into doing it.

Picked up a Miller Bobcat 225g this week. Been looking for a while for a gas powered one, It sure will be nice not getting that surprise when I look at the power bill,lol :D

I worked on it a little over the weekend and got it welded back together. I cheated though, did it with the stick welder.It looks like it came out well and the jaws are lined up now. I guess it's just a matter of testing it and see how it holds up.

As best I can tell, I think its wrought iron. I can see a grain to the metal on the outside and it looks like the jaws might have been forge welded to the body. The odd thing is the break, it looks like a very tight cristal structure. I'm going to try saveing it, Ill have to stick weld it back together though,I still cant forge weld very well at all.

At least it was only my spare vise. Anyway I picked up a 6'' vise a while back and started cleaning it up and getting it fixed up for a spare. Well I found while cleaning on it that it had been through a fire just because of the scale all over it and some of the layers that are starting to come apart. Well I thought it would be fine for a backup so I kept going at it. I found that the jaws were not coming together right, so looking at I could tell the arm had a slight bow in it. Here’s how I broke it, well I thought I would just try to tweak it back cold since it seemed soft enough and it didn't really need much. I hit it twice with an 8lb hammer and I snapped it in half . The screw box hasn't a lot of life left in it, but my biggest concern is, is it even safe to use? I can fix the arm but if it’s that fragile I might get a hot piece of metal in it and it might let go from the leg side. Is it worth saving?

Looks nice.I'v played around with it a little,did a ajustable wrench to get it broke free.Now you got me itching to derust some stuff .I found that PH plus for pools most of the time is Sodium Carbonate,but don't just take my word for it read the label and make sure it has written on it 100% Sodium Carbonate.

I'm helping my dad fix his Oliver standard 80.It had froze before he got it so the base of the radiator has a crack in it.Since parts are rare on the east coast our best option is to fix it.On to the metal working,I'v never done much brazing so I though I would get some ideas.Just a run down of my plan,drill holes at the end of each crack,preheat on the forge and braze with ox-ac torch,and bury in wood stove ashes over night to cool it slowly. Any suggestions for what brazing rod to use,flux,plain,ect?Also,how hot should I preheat?Picture below of what I'm working with

Thanks for all the help.I went out and checked and it is a 5" cyl. I'm going to rework it with a push foot on the ram and the wedge at the end of the I-beam.That way I can make a quick change 4 way and maybe a 6 way that can be slipped over the wedge and locked with a pin.

I didn't go out and check but I think it is a 5" cylinder.If I did build a 4 way, what would be the least amount of material for the wedges(measureing from the cutting edge to the back)?I'm thinking of like 8" of 1" steel,do you think thats too much or not enough?

I got to looking at some pictures of some industrial wood splitters and it has me wanting to build one of those 6 or 8 way wedges for our wood splitter. Our hyd splitter is more than big enough to handle it, but also it brings up the problem of building something like this that won't bend if we get something too hard in it. Anyway just was trying to find someone that has built one of these and might have some ideas (or plans) for a strong one. Also what would be the best angle to cut the wedges at so they don't jam?

You can try it, but I really don't think that the recoil will take it to well. You might be changing the rope and spring to often. The crank won't be balanced so you would need to make a shaft, but that might not be bad if you can use an old flywheel as a swage to make the taper on the shaft. You might just try it and work the bugs out as you go. Also you might be thinking this way already, but I would start with the largest flywheel you can easily find like from 11-16 hp motor.

A idea I have and haven't tryed yet. I'm going to make a bracket that can be put on the little woodstove and keep about 5 gal of water warm while I'm working.But I try to not quench much of my work,mostly it gets used to wet the coal. Maybe you could use something like this to melt the ice and keep you a little warmer.

I just thought of someing cheep and safe.I can use vinyl and sew in some flaps at the top for vents.From useing it in the past, most of that stuff won't burn without a open flame and will only get holes burn't through.The reason I worry about breathing is the shop gets alot of misture on the floor at times and I would rather not have that getting trapped under the cover.

I forgot about the welding blankets like that,a little pricey for the 8x8 though, might shop around. Thanks

I was going to make a cover to keep the dust and dirt out of my welder when I'm not using it,so I bought some heavy canvas (canvas because I wanted something that would let some air through and moisture out).Then I got to thinking that canvas isn't very flame retardant, like grinder sparks could set it on fire. Would it be ok to use the Borax trick with this or would something in the Borax corrode things in the welder?