yahoo2

It takes me 2 or 3 tries before i get things right, it usually goes prototype mark1, upgrade mk2, production model mk3. If I get beyond mk5 and there are still faults, its in the bin, I don't have that much patience. I thought at some stage you might modify the die with a more rounded fullering shape on the top half of the rail so you can fuller and flatten in the same heat or you could make some drop-in depth limit gauges that stop the dies from closing and keep things even as you work down to a size. Plenty of possibilities with a bit of lateral thinking.

Frosty started a topic on >ribbon burners back in 2009, the guy from pine ridge burners posted a nice cutaway photo of his ceramic burner. the only venturi style model I can think of is Dudley Giberson's (Joppa glass)

I 100% agree with backwoods, reduce the leverage on the ram head and guide rail by shortening the die length, stitch welding a plate on one end of the rails will stiffen the web up and build it with a good solid flat attachment to the base. it will work as it is for pressing thin pieces while everything is square and the dies are wide and flat. But once the log splitter bends or tears something it will never be the same, unless your repair skills are first rate. A few tweaks on the Mk2 dies and it should be trouble free for years.

in copper braid roughly 0.098 Ohms plus 0.02 ohms for the extra plug in the line. So you are looking at around 12% loss minimum over what you have back at the wall socket. 8 gauge will be 0.063 Ohms (wire only) for 100 ft. 12 gauge 0.15 Ohms for 100ft obviously a 10 foot cord would have a 3% loss because the loss of the socket connection is still the same even though the cable loss has dropped to 1%. There is a calculation for inductance losses but it is not relevant for one off jobs.

Looks like the right decision, no trip hazard and much cleaner at ground level. some nice lines and proportions. I have to admit, I like the look of the two rails superimposed in the first photo, could almost pass for 30's deco, might have to sketch something for the scrapbook as a reminder.

You guys are so 20th century, what's next, paper mache. The top secret skunkworks here have come up with a carbon fibre base and my mum is crochet-ing the top plate from spider webs, it's stronger than steel you know! and environmentally friendly.

I notice that your doesn't have the optional flexijaw tm split level turning jaw fitted like mine have. wanna swap? :)

would it be cost effective (or even possible) to make your own disposable clay graphite crucibles? Maybe slip-coat the inside chamber with something to get a few more heats out of them? I have used an arbor press to mold slightly moist porous materials then bisc fired it in a kiln for a couple of jobs where I needed ceramic parts. I'm pretty sure I gently mixed the powders then steamed the mixture in a bucket (lid on) before loading the mold.... 50 times :wacko: ended up with 35 good ones from the batch. It may not work with graphite powder, alumina oxide and clay, graphite is pretty slippery stuff.

For me it was the debt that was making me moody and irritable, or more specifically the lack of control I had over my own business. I got help to restructure my loans, downsize and reduce my costs and free up some time to do some contract work for a couple of years. I am a lot calmer now that I I am not fighting with the bank's idiot accountants every two weeks.

The best description of a shoot hook I can give is a cross between a long handled trenching shovel and a debarking spud, it has a v shaped blade that is razor sharp. Sorta like a giant white asparagus cutter.

I have the white hot to stone cold in under 50 blows technique down to a fine art, if anyone wants some tips on that :huh: I heard on the grapevine that "the moon" gnaws on steel offcuts while he is forging and spits out slivers of perfectly layered damascus.

the modern language translation would be "to set up" meaning preparation beforehand or get ready. but as with most things it is never that simple, we set rivets to fix or fasten them so I guess upset "before set" is forming the head of the rivet.

The beauty of a bandsaw is that it doesn't matter how slow it cuts because you are not standing there watching it. Something like this is cheap but it still works, a bit of spray lube, keep the blade tension and guide rollers properly adjusted and a clean with a magnetic metal wand to keep the metal swarf away from the blade guides and don't run it in top gear and it will cut almost anything with no hassle at all. I have even cut shims accurate to within 5 thou with some fiddling around on a friends cheapie. this one is about $350 in Oz you can still mitre cut smaller diameter and shorter lengths without a lot of shop space. If you are looking at secondhand power hacksaws......well, I wouldn't. You need an experienced eye to spot a good one that is not worn, damaged or just a lemon that never worked and just jammed and snapped blades. 9 out of 10 I come across are "scrap only", the spare blades, electric motor and vice are handy at $20 but that is about it, you need to be close to an old industrial town to find any good quality ones.

when I used to watch someone that had heats that went on forever, I noticed he used a sort of rolling motion with his tongs. the work would just touch on the edge of the anvil to hold it steady then as the hammer came down he would lift the handle end of the tongs so the work laid flat just for the instant the hammer hit. The other thing that makes a huge difference is the wind. Any moving air will strip the heat away very fast.

I get this sort of thing all the time, I was looking at a hay stooking fork and noticed that the centre tine is angled on its profile compared to the other two, I think it is to stop that one from flexing and breaking but have no idea why that should happen. My dad talks about using a shoot hook to stop trees from regrowing in newly cleared land, so I know that they snip the fresh shoots off below the ground but I would not recognize one if I saw it, nor could I use one, manufacture or sharpen one without something to copy. A lot of the books I have, assume some basic practical knowledge that has disappeared from our lives. But then again, I get some funny looks when somebody asks for a can opener and I hand them this. Would be interesting to see a sapping hack being used.

I would say avoid specialty rods for vertical down welds with quickset fluxes and you should be fine. As long as the flux can be flicked away to a thin layer as you move to the anvil. There may be a small amount of oxidized and set flux right at the tip, I would remove that with some wire cutters and crush the rest nice and fine and dry it in the oven. I am interested to see how you go with the iron powder rods. I have lots of them that have got wet and the flux is crumbling off.

With a propane torch or oxy/propane with a neutral flame the inner cone is colder than the second luminous cone is the hottest area and the third blue area is the leftover gas mixing with the surrounding air and burning. One of the mistakes i made when I first used a Oxy propane cutting torch after learning with an acetylene rig was holding the torch too close while I was preheating the cut, the inner cone is a bit larger due to the slower burn rate of propane so I was trying to heat with the cooler part of the flame. The blue colour is ionisation so it is not the same thing as blue (seriously hot) from black body radiation. Nor is it the same blue as the bright blue or violet in a nuclear reactor pool called the Cherenkov effect, which is totally unnerving.

It sounds like the weld is scalloping on you, this is where the bottom half of the cut starts to lag back and wander around. I make sure there are no flow restrictions, things like badly crimped hose connections or half blocked flashback arrestors (I take them off). I usually have two tips that put out a perfect shaped flame so I can swap one out on the go, I start a job like this with at least half full cylinders. Umm, what else. I use a little jig that looks like a sled that clamps to the neck of the torch to hold it rock steady and I sometimes tack weld a piece of steel parallel to the cut mark as a guide for the sled to run along. Sometimes you have to lift the back of the torch and have a slight undercut angle, marking the line on the top with a thin angle grinder blade or a centre punch can help with restarting a cut. If the oxidised slag is not coming cleanly out the bottom of the cut and it cools inside the cutting channel you are in trouble, it is very hard to come back and re-cut it to fix the problem when it's 3 inches down and surrounded by slag. If something goes wrong (like a bit of rubbish gets on the tip) you don't just soldier on and hope it comes good, stop and fix it. On the trickier cuts I preheat with a fan forced diesel heater but then the welding gloves burst into flames every time I touch the block of steel and that can be quite distracting :unsure: Spatterguard helps the sled slide smoothly along the top. That's about all I can think of ATM.

Yep, you make a very good point there, I could never see the value in calculating and forging to length when it was easier to trim the ends of the piece afterwards. Now I see it as good practice because there have been times when I have needed that skill on a more complex job when I have had to finish the ends first. I should have a go at the bend then upset version myself, now that I have watched the video half a dozen times it doesn't look as tricky as I thought. And forming a cone, I haven't tried that yet.

If you are looking for maximum strength from a hidden weld and bevel it out or employ a deep penetration welding technique so that the weld is through the whole profile, there is a risk of a blowout of molten metal on the front surface. The way around this would be to notch a piece of plate so that it can be placed against the topside of the rail and base plate while you weld on the other side, it will control molten metal by drawing heat away and setting it before it it comes right through. first pass, weld half, reposition the plate weld the other half, crank the heat up for the second pass, stand back and look smug :)

impact driver Wikipedia I use a paste made with fine sharp sand or glass to make the bit grip the head of the screw. If you are talking about bolts or studs with a hex or allen key head that is a different story

All the old machinery I work on have corners that are welded Mark Aspery has a video called "forge welded square corner on a flat bar" that explains it pretty clearly, more oblique or acute angles just takes a bit more tweaking of the angles and material upset to get it right. He also does a bend and upset technique in the video "upset corners for the national grill" I have not tried this with an unradiused bend as I am usually trying to avoid cracks forming and I am more confident with an upset curve.

source http://www.fluidynenz.250x.com/May09b/calandies.html this photo is a filtered and dried wood gas flame taken at night (not visible in daylight due to light pollution) the gain in energy produced from removing the large chain molecules, water and fine particles that absorb energy from the reactions is massive. The flame may be blue and technically hot but there is not a lot of intensity here due to the large area that the flame front needs to mix with air to burn (compared to an oxy/acetylene flame that is clearly visible in daylight and fed pressurized oxygen) and there is almost no radiant heat like you get in a cooler but more intense fire like a forced induction burner or forge.

Well, if you REALLY want it, then go back for round two and have another go after buttering him up. What is he going to do , call the cops and have you arrested for visiting his shop twice? That's one of the lessons I learned far to late in life "don't die wondering what might have been" ( especially where women are concerned, I aint no George Clooney in the looks department) Some days it feels like people line up to say no to you when you want something. If that doesn't work, start asking every person you see if they know of anyone with some old blacksmiths gear, you will probably end up with a shed-load of fantastic tools and that is worth far more than an anvil IMO I offered to swap some steel and a days labor to someone to fix his old stone shed for a wheelwrights plate, he turned me down because it wasn't cash, I guess if I offer him $320 for the plate he will take it. Then he will pay a contractor $3000 to fix the shed, makes no sense to me. I'm a bit put out that he cant see that its a good deal, but, hey, I'm not going to get ulcers over it, that's just the way it is. I will probably get the plate or another one like it, I keep the steel and spend an easy day fishing instead of slaving my guts out welding support purlins in the hot sun. win win for me :) (and hopefully a big snapper to cook for a few friends)

Using flea market price negotiation in a retail store is a bit crude. if someone has put the time and effort in to running a shop they expect to make at least a margin on their stock, you really need to put the feelers out and see if they are receptive to offers or deals before you hit them between the eyes with a "take it or leave it " offer.