arkie

Coal can be found in grades (or ranks) from the softest to hardest, not necessarily in discreet, separate grades depending on environment of deposition and the grade of metamorphism. Lowest is lignite, highest is meta-anthracite. Here is a neat chart showing the types of coal and BTU values. Credit to Stanley P. Schweinfurth - "An introduction to coal quality", US Geological Survey, Professional Paper 1625-F

DHarris, glad the "new" Vinita coal is working for you. Thanks for the feedback. At least you don't have to break it up any longer!

Back when Sears would honor the warranties, I bought my son a torque wrench for Christmas. It was the mechanical kind, not a digital. First time he used it to check the torque on his alloy car wheels (within the stated range of the wrench), apparently the mechanism broke and wouldn't read the torque. He took it to the Sears store and they refused to replace it...reason: "We won't replace a tool with moving parts"....gimme a break!!!!!!!!! (no pun intended, Frosty). Said right on the box that it was guaranteed...guess not. That was the last time I will ever buy a Sears or Craftsman tool.

A friend of mine, who lived in the hot, humid Piney Woods of E. Texas raised Siberian Huskies (that's what he called them...). In the hot sweltering summer heat, they didn't fare well with the thick coats. He had several plastic kiddie pools in which he would put blocks of ice in the water. Those lasted quite a while and the huskies loved it!!

I was talking to an old fella once as he was whittling on a piece of wood. He had a brand spanking new Craftsman 3 blade pocket knife with about a 3" blade. I asked him how he liked carving with his pocket knife, and he said he loved it. "Just got it replaced", he said. I asked why. Seems that he had taken it into the Sears store (this was back when they honored the warranties) with the main blade only about 1/8" wide at the handle, tapered down to about 1/16" at the point after probably a hundreds of sharpenings. "Worn out..." he told them. They replaced his knife with an exact replacement! Ahhh, the good old days....

Frosty, ain't NO WAY I would do it that way! When I bought my bulk coal at the mine, it was dumped by loader into my pickup bed. At home, I spread a tarp under the tailgate and shovel the coal into 20 gal. plastic trash cans about tailgate high. THAT is much more fun..., and the tarp catches all the spillage.... The trash cans hold about 100# and move around easily with a hand truck. D, when you have a chance to burn some of that Utah coal, let us know how it worked for you.

Where did you get your ton of coal? You're gonna have fun unloading that bag!! Was it the Vinita $225/ton stuff?

Jen, have you tried the 50-50 mix of ATF and acetone? It's a proven, tried and true loosen-upper.

Condolences sent your way, Steve. Now, pain free, may she rest in peace.

Or tell the worm that "it's raining, go close the V-door" Or a favorite trick the roughnecks played on the new mudloggers was to pitch red bricks down the hole and see what happened when the mudlogger got the ground up bricks in the cuttings samples. Thomas Powers may have had that pulled on him once.......

I popped in my local big box store last week and in a big display at the entrance was a big stack of Advantech 4'x8' sheet lumber. Price: $71. A short while back it was $25/sheet.

With respect to 7018 DC rods, the use of rods coming from a new sealed can or rod oven at the prescribed temperature is commonly a requirement for code structural welding. For everyday welding, the rods don't have to adhere to the requirements for code work. They do however, need to be kept in a dry environment.

Bantou, you described me to a "T"

Jen, I wish I had your predicament with the equipment!!!!! I recognize and respect your problems. BTW, that old Champion post drill is a beauty! Looks stouter than a Missouri mule. (even if I live in Arkansas...)

Good news Randy. There seems to be a lot of anecdotal incidents of medications being "mis-prescribed" by "top notch doctors" lately.....

Jen, nice finds on the saw and DP. Since you will be having a number of students, I would recommend putting the extra stuff in a storage...never know if or who/when you might need some or all of them. After your school is established, you could then get rid of the stuff absolutely not needed. Never know, a student or two might need a piece of the stored stuff. I know storage can get expensive, but you are a creative solution finder!

JHCC, you can't to wrong with the Drill Doctor. I've had one for years, use it all the time and highly recommend it. I have the 500X which will do up to 1/2" bits, split point and dual angles; 118* or 135*. The next one up is the 750X and tends to run about $40 more than the 500X. Main advantage of the 750X is for larger bits, 3/4". On Amazon, they are about $100 and $135 respectively. I think the 500X is fine for just about 90% of the DIY crowd.

There are two basic types of 7018 rods. 7018 for DC; 7018AC for the AC machines. Each "will" run on the other machines, but poorly. I too, like to use old electrodes for the metal in them. I strip the flux off with a wire wheel on my bench grinder and use them for all kinds of things around the shop.

One problem one can run into when drilling metal with too little pressure and too fast rotation is work hardening. I have on occasion been drilling by hand or with a drill press, gotten lazy and let up on the pressure. I have had mild steel actually work harden on me, where it was extremely difficult to drill whereas if I had done it properly, the mild steel would have drilled like putty (so to speak...). There is a myriad of information on the entrynet about proper pressure and RPM's when drilling metal...might be worth taking some time to do some research.

JHCC, just starting out, practicing with old rods as you stated you have read, is not a good idea. The old rods will not let you see how the bead is supposed to look and weld like a new rod would. The fluxes on the rods were designed and engineered to perform in a certain manner to produce a proper weld. The flux on old rods has degraded to various levels and will not protect the weld and produce a proper weld. If you want to practice stick welding in a proper manner, take the leap and buy new rods of whatever type you will be using. You can develop some bad habits trying to perfect your welding by using old rods and then when you decide to weld something important with new rods, it will be a whole new learning experience.

My two cents, for what it's worth on the hammer....Estwings are top quality hammers, but the all steel handle adds a lot of weight where you don't need it; on the handle. Every time the raise the hammer to strike, you are lifting dead weight in the handle. You probably have half the weight of the hammer tied up in the handle. And you will probably soon tire of the rubber grip as well. Wooden handles are much lighter and easier on the hands, wrists and elbows.

We bought our first new home in 1972. Unbeknownst to me, it had aluminum wiring. I had assumed wrongly that it was copper, since the builder was a top notch builder. After being in the house for a couple of years, I noticed that a table lamp had begun to flicker frequently. I changed bulbs; still flickered. Checked the plug and the wall outlet was very warm! Alert!!! I removed the cover, pulled the receptacle and noticed the neutral white insulation was burnt!! Well, that ain't no good!!! It was then that I found that the house was wired with aluminum. After reading up on the aluminum wiring, I methodically went through the entire house, removed each and every switch and receptacle, pulled the wires out of the clam connectors, cleaned and deoxed and wrapped each connection tightly around the screw terminal. In the next 30 or so years, I only had one or two receptacles or switches get slightly warm (I religiously checked all them every so often). Makes one a little bit nervous living with aluminum wiring. The we had our next house built with copper wiring, needless to say.

Randy, thoughts and prayers to you, Debi and the families...

Tool steel is pretty hard untreated. No need to heat treat it. After several strikes on hot steel pieces or double-strikes 'cause the first one wasn't deep enough, the temper probably will be gone. My touchmarks are just coil spring with the design, no heat treatment, and they have been working for me for years.

Well, I'm not a farmer, but I've dug a lot of holes and trenches!!! LOL