Quenchcrack

I run my Whimper Baby at 12-15 psig. However, now that I have replaced the hearth, it heats a lot faster. I have not yet applied the ITC100 and I think that will make a big difference, too. Just remember, more pressure uses more gas per hour. Keep your refractories in prime shape to get the most out of it. By the way, I am at sea level and if you are at a higher elevation, your pressures will differ.

For odd shaped hardy holes, use a piece of 1" heavy wall square tubing.* Weld the tool to the tubing shank and heat it up to low red.* Tap the edges of the tubing so that it forms a parallelogram, or a diamond, full length.* Drop it into the hardy hole to make sure it has a snug fit.* When it cools it will slide in and out easily and the diamond shaped shank holds in oposite corners.* Needless to say, this won't work on 3/4" hardy holes.

The food grade of SS, usually an Austenitic SS like 304 (this is an 18-8 SS too), is non-magnetic. The Ferrtic grades, generally the 400 series, and Martensitic grades, also 400, are magnetic. After forging it, you will have created chromium carbides that will cause the steel to rust because too much of the protective chromium is tied up as carbides. Heat the piece to about 1850F, or as hot as you can get it, and quench it in water. This will not harden the piece as there is too little carbon and too much nickel to form martensite. The heating dissolves the carbides and the quenching prevents them from re-forming upon slow cooling. If you could determine it was 304L, the carbon would be low enough that you would not need to worry about the carbide formation.

Low carbon stainless, like 304L or similar, would not be difficult to work but I would suggest you gain some experience with mild steel. It can be forged and ground and polished to look as shiney as SS for a lot less effort and cost. Carbon steel can be kept rust free with a little oil or wax once in a while.

Welcome back, James!

Rsilver, hope you know we are not pickin' on you. We always appreciate info about smithing tools. Not too sure this one is a bargain but thanks for posting it.

If that hardie hole is 1", that anvil CAN'T be 17-5/8" long!!!! It is more like 9" long which means it CAN'T be 100 lbs. Very suspicious. They also have a 55# "steel" anvil and a 9# "Drop forged" anvil that look just like the cast iron ASO's sold at HF.

There are two types of steel common in the US: Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) and Electric Arc Furnace (EAF). The BOF starts with cast iron made in a blast furnace and blows oxygen through it to burn out the carbon. The EAF starts with recycled scrap and uses electricity to melt the scrap. After refining the metal, both types CAN be very clean. However, you will usually find that the EAF steel will have higher residual elements like copper, chromium, nickel, moly, etc. It can indeed be harder than the BOF steel. Or you may just have a dull twist drill.

Hmmmm....looks like a cast iron ASO.

Went to a farm fair in Milan, TN several years ago. Fellow had a similar bailing machine running off of a hit-and-miss steam engine. Sold those little hay bales for $2 each to city folks who didn't know you can buy a full sized bale for less than that. Maybe they were just too cute to pass up.

Keep in mind that the scrap dealers will rely on the product to determine which aluminum alloy you are selling. If you melt it all down and pour bubbly little ingots, expect the scrap dealer to either decline the purchase or pay you the minimum. Buy a can crusher instead.

Ptree, I bought a Coleman 5500 watt unit only because it had a Yamaha motor/generator. It starts on the third pull every time. New oil every 25 hours, though. It was used for 9 days straight after Hurricane Ike with no problems. I fill my tanks up with fuel in May and use that gasoline preservative religiously. If we get no storms, I just dump the fuel in my kid's car.

I would expect 4130, 4140 and 5160 to make very servicable drifts. I would probably normalize them first. This will give them some hardness but not enough to be brittle. If you Q&T them, you will probably just temper them down to pudding by repeated use.

Nice work. Do you loose much heat in the workpiece when you set up the hold down?

I would make sure I used ferritic stainless steel, the type used for heat-resisting applications.

Be still my throbbing heart! Lufkin is only about 2 hours from where I live! I have to check it out but if he is one of those folks who plans to retire on one big sale, forget it. It will rusted beyond use in a year or two in East Texas. I went to a flea market in Winne, TX, down on the coast. One of the permanent vendors had a BIG blower for sale but it was rusted up tight. No telling how long it laid there in the mud. If you want the best price for the stuff, you need to take care of it. BTW, Google Earth shows the place on Daniel McCall Drive next to I59 but SOUTH of Lufkin.

Normalizing is heating to a good red and allowing the part to cool in still air to room temperature.

I would go back to the foundry and ask them what they are using to degas the liquid aluminum. We made better castings than that in college! Tell them to try putting some potassim chloride on top of the metal in the ladle. You shouldn't have to put up with those gas pockets.

The Big Guy across the street said it is prone to virus attacks. Well, I am not a qualified geek but I do deep scan my computer regularly, maintain TWO firewalls, and I have not had a virus in 3 years. Eternal Vigilance!

I stumbled onto a real gem today. It is called Open Office and it is basically a knock off of MS Office. The download site is OpenOffice and the program is completely free. No strings attached but they do ask for a donation. It is fully compatible with MS Office; it will read any MS Office document and MS Office will read any Open Office document. If you are looking for a cost effective alternative to MS Office, this is a good choice. Or you can pay $400 for MS Office and help keep Bill Gates out of the Poor House.

When you do your cutting on the square billet, don't cut the end off of the piece that will be the top of the cross. Instead, make a thunderbird handle for a small ceremonial knife, complete with a guard, all from one piece!

Stan, let me second the recomendation of HWoolridge and invite you to visit the Houston Area Blacksmiths Association. Many of our members own small farms and ranches and might have use for some of your surplus items.

The man who stole my stuff was attending a birthday party at his grandmothers house down the street from me. He didn't live in my neighborhood. He put all my power tools beside grandmas house where he planned to have a friend bring a truck to load it up. For some reason, he put my demo tool bag inside the house, in the laundry room under a pile of laundry. Well, the neighbor across the street saw him taking my stuff and called the cops. They busted him sitting on grandmas porch. She did not know the tools were in the house until about a week later. She brought them down to my house and returned them. Nice lady.

Thanks, jb, I sent him an email and we will see if he responds.

My thanks to all who did the detective work. Michael made the hammer that was stolen from me last summer and I wanted to contact him about making another one. Fortunately, I recovered all my tools, including the hammer. Michael and I met in the Pub across the street years ago. He made me a hammer in exchange for a relief carving of his smithy. below. I recommend checking out his website as he is an accomplished smith and ironmaker.