arkie

Beg to differ....Kellys have a central hole, how else will the drilling fluid be pumped downhole on an O&G drilling rig? Some even have a cut-off valve. And, yes, they are square to fit into the kelly bushing.

WOW!! That thing will blow coal into earth orbit...watch out Elon Musk and your Starlink satellites!!!

alexandr, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, belated. Your beautiful snow photos, city and countryside, remind of one of my favorite movies, Dr. Zhivago.

Most propane bottles are only filled to about 80% capacity, allowing for headspace for liquid to gas expansion, this from several propane suppliers in our area. Even my 320 gal. home tank is filled to 80%-85% (I watch the fillups and read the gauge after they are finished). The metered propane fill is printed on the ticket from the driver and agrees with the percentage of the 320 gal. shown on the tank gauge. They put the smaller, i.e. 20# bottles on scales to watch the fillup. The "20 lb." size designation is the maximum fillable capacity. I only have my bottles filled at the propane supplier, not the exchange kiosks, which do "underfill" the containers.

Frosty, my wife had both knees replaced at age 60. Eighteen years later, they are still working fine, no squeeking and no zerk fittings needed. Deb will be fine!

Find some adapter fittings so you can use flex hose. Look for "compression to NPT threads". I found some on mscdirect but am not allowed to post a commercial link. Almost any plumbing supply house should have them as well.

TW, careful, you'll get Frosty going.....LOL

Thomas, as you go into Medicare, I highly recommend researching the Medicare Advantage plans available to you. Many have great coverage above what Medicare will pay, don't require referrals, have prescription plans and some have little or no premiums and copays. We've been on them (MA's) for years and wouldn't be without one.

Pat, there are indeed counterfeit Ken's Custom Iron tongs being sold out there. Others have fallen victim to the scam. It is my understanding that Ken and legal are trying to shut them down. I hope they prevail and succeed.

Well, I told Santa that I have been a VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY BAD BOY and the best I deserved for Christmas was a boxcar full of coal........never happened

Out in W. TX, where things are usually pretty flat along the road ROW's, copper thieves were fab'ing up double wheels on the rear tires of their PU trucks; an empty wheel on the outside. They would cut the copper phone lines, wind the end on the empty wheel and drive down the ROW, spooling the wire off the poles. Quick and dirty. They could get a LOT of wire on a wheel.

Note to those starting out using electrolysis for derusting. As 4575wcf mentioned, he was using his charger on "manual". Very important. The automatic chargers most prevalent these days have a sensing circuit that "looks" for a low voltage or dead battery. That circuitry won't work with electrolysis...one has to use a manual charger.

Randy, I did the same search and also got Farrell. If you look on google satellite view just NE of the town of Stigler and the muni airport, there is a strip mine. Don't know if it's still active or not. The McGirt case Twisted mentioned earlier must have a lot shut down.

I vote for the chainmaker's anvil, too. One would drape the weld over the round horn to refine the weld. I've seen similar anvils in several old videos.

It doesn't appear on the drawing, but Bob's firepot sides are 1/2" mild steel.

I think you'll be just fine with a firepot having 1/2" plate construction. The hot spot is directly above your tuyere and just a short distance from the outward tapering sides, so they won't get super hot. Their firepot looks identical to the ones Dave Custer (Fiery Furnace Forge) makes. His are 1/2" plate as well.

Since this thread has turned morbid, I'll add my two bits... Back when I lived in a BIG city, I worked in a 50 story building. The elevator rides down to the ground level took a while. There was a famous, elderly attorney working on our floor near the top. As the elevator descended for lunch, the old attorney, who had been listening to the elevator music with us for quite a while, commented "That music borders on 'funerality'". That was some 45 years ago and it's still burned in my memory! I need to see if that term is in the dictionary......

Rascal, you! When I looked at the emoji panel, I didn't see a smiley. Guess my old peepers missed it.....

I think we can agree to agree... :-) I think the emoji need a smiley face.

Frosty, that would have been an appropriate time to use the "quote" function...to prevent confusion, wouldn't you agree?.

Glenn, I love your version of cad...with cardboard. Works for me!!

Steve, how could simply posting anecdotal information about steel prices (post above) be considered "snarky"? From Merriam-Webster Dictionary, def. of "snarky": "Definition of snarky 1: CROTCHETY, SNAPPISH 2: sarcastic, impertinent, or irreverent in tone or mannersnarky lyrics

I've recently bought some bar stock and the price went up about 70%. The steel supplier told me some of his prices have gone up as much as 150% since late 2020. Price increases will vary according to the type of steel (mild); bar, rod, sheet, tubing, pipe, etc. One sheet purchase went up 350% as I recall. Look at this thread over on the welding web where some increases have been discussed: https://weldingweb.com/vbb/threads/712142-Recent-higher-steel-prices

To quote Bob Dylan...."The times they are 'a changin". Folks, we are just going to have to learn to live with it...for a long time. It's bigger than all of us...it's world wide . Too many gears in the works that just can't seem to mesh. Sorta like shooting a BB at a battleship. I hate to sound like a pessimist, but............

Look a few posts above with the ash dump handle highlighted...the ash bucket is at home under the forge. I removed it in the post just above for the picture of the ash dump.