Anachronist58

Those are certainly not pushers.  This is tough. Y'all have reaped every low hanging plum from that puntree...

Got a fellow mad at you Thomas? Sounds like he came prepackaged.  The noive. Tried to throw them so NO ONE could have them.  I wood like to move in next door to him!

Wow.  Prayers for you and all of your neighborhood. 

You and yours too, Iron Dragon...

Robert and Sheila Taylor

Love your fishy fish Scott, got it goin on!

Robert Taylor

Iron Dragon, I think that they are lovely rocks.

That is a great story indeed! Mrs. Taylor got a warning shot across the brow a few years back, 1% bloodflow in one her carotids.  All better now.  This Author has some Awesome fans!

Robert Taylor

It just now played for me...

Nor am I in the habit of lying, and I apologize for any impuning of your integrty. 

It is something my father still says to me when I tell him something "incredible", not as in "not credible".

Robert Taylor

Jerry, found six pics 1929, 121#, Sorceress proud on one side, Paragon stamped on the other...

I can PM to you the six full res (<2Mb) images if you would like...

Robert

Would you like risque pics of my 1906 157# Soderfors?

Uranium is where you find it.  Like in our newly drilled community well.

Thomas, I do not own any trinitite - yet...

Robert Taylor

Trevor84, your presentation is a bit technical for me: I will enjoy the challenge.  But let me just say, that my cervical vertebrae are growing spurs, which are impinging on my airway.  It has a tendency to make a me bit terse... Looking forward to grokking your setup...

Robert Taylor

The spirit of Blacksmithing lives on in the heart of the heart of the U.S., in Donley County, in the Texas Panhandle. A 1925ish 125# Soderfors Sorceress, to whom the People have been coming for decades, and still do, last I checked.  You have given a wonderful presentation, in my assessment...

I hope you run into Dan Hurd, he has claims on the Fraser...

Hey Mr. FlatLiner..

Robert Taylor

Who, Jerry!

Nice spread, Glenn! Not sure how much jasper will make it to the tumbler, I have a friend who could use some cabochons...

11 hours ago, Frosty said:

I kept one of his Autunite (yeah I looked up the spelling) crystals glowing away in my bedroom for years. Sure it's radioactive but not terribly.

Oh, you are one of THOSE guys! I have curated a collection of Atomic Age items, like the pre-Atomic Age Franciscan Ware, Fiesta Ware, "Magic Polunium" record cleaning brushes, lantern mantles, "special" vacuum tubes... then there are the ultra hot and very crumbly uranium samples¹, I feel like some kind of maniac, just owning it, and all perfectly legal, all are presumed to be lawful purchasers as per our liberties, but let this discussion be engaged in a private setting: TOS.

Back to the radio nucleotides, sic,  never assume my nonchalance for reckless behavior. I fear and respect my specimens, and seldom employ them to frighten people.  If anyone wants safe handling information, I will leave it to Admin to vett my qualifications.  Let me assert, though, that ANY inhalation or injestion is ill advised.

1 hour ago, Irondragon ForgeClay Works said:

We have geode's laying all over our place, some are as big as foot/soccer balls.

Iron Dragon, my Father still says, "First liar does not have a chance".

pictures, Pictures, PICTURES!

¹gift from a Brother, purchased from United Uranium dot lookitup.

Robert Taylor

Hey you guys (y'all ), I missed it too.  That is why I called him 42.  Had to come back with an edit to add the "Alex" part.  Sometimers, it's what's for who? 

Jerry, I have a small tumbler here at my place.  The low resolution on the pictures has washed out the color, but that mass is freshly broken.  I do not recall finding moss or rutilated, but it is strongly reported in this area.  When we were kids, Dad had the full setup. He had hand built a rock saw that used an aircraft landing gear cylinder and a hand poured 50# lead sphere for the feed mechanism.  He is 89 now, and we just got it back out and running after 30 years in mothballs...

I have begun the quest for the six lobe cut...  Rarely, about grapefruit size from this area... Yep, just  pull out a channel on the windward side, physics does the rest.

Scott, this one is from the same area, years ago. Cut with a skillsaw and hand lapped, the best of solid and hollow, I think... 

Eggs over hard?

Robert Taylor

Welcome, 42, from the virtually extremest southwest corner of the U S of A...

Were you to sign every post with "Alex", I reckon that would do the trick...

Robert Taylor

Yes Frosty, my younger brother has no idea yet concerning the value of the jasper that I left exposed in that hole, but he will get the picture when he begins to saw and polish the some of the 20# of material sitting in his garage. It is highly sought after.  His revelation may indeed inspire a June trip, just to retrieve the wonderful mass that I left exposed for whomever might next stumble upon what I left exposed. He has a fine lapidary setup, but has yet to run any of this material through the slice and polish...

Frosty, WIP pics of the smithing process would have been grand, but as it was, we were all thumbs and it was dark.  Forging in the barbecue was an alien concept for Brother John - he has 18 patents, last count, and I struggle to outshine him.

Thunder eggs, geodes, I prefer the latter.

TW, old Alfred Packer was always stewing over something...

JHCC, I am always up for a grilling in this neighborhood...

Robert Taylor

Scott, we did quite well.  We did some very tedious work for the first two days, with modest results.  Day three was a whopper...  Will get some pics once I get a chance. Geodes:

The jasper I left behind:

Uh, Steve, sorry, we barbecued our Hamburgers over the campfire. The Hamburgers certainly tasted like barbeque.

After dinner, I reconfigured the "barbecue pit" into a wind powered forge...

Went on a four day rockhounding trip with my brother.  One of the last minute things I needed was a fresh blade for my 12" bowhack, the used blade on the top is used as a template guide:

So I made two 1/8" Ø carbide tools: a shallow angle center punch, and a  spade drill ground off-hand (twice). 1/8" has ALWAYS been too small for me to grind off-hand, and requires a perfect square edged diamond wheel.  Did not have one of those either - this was the morning of a 10:00 a.m. pick up, so I did what I could...

So, we get thoroughly out to the middle of nowhere, and I find that I have too much blade behind the hole for the saw camlock to close..  I have my two pound engineer hammer, an my 1" x 4" x 4" camp anvil, and supper is over, and the evening camp blaze is rolling HOT. I demo the "classic" wind driven forge, Brother John brings out his sheet metal snips, and in minutes, we easily sheared the offending excess...

We quenched in a coffee cup of water, and drew a temper over the fire. More fiddley details upon request...

Robert Taylor

Why, thank you, eseeman! At the onset of the search, I had scant hope of success...

On 3/13/2022 at 6:16 PM, Aframe said:

Any help would be appreciated.

I see that there was a 3 week lag in the initial response - that happens sometimes...

Aframe, it is a good bet that what you have is a Templeton and Kenly (probably a military supplier for Simplex) RP3A-1 10,000 psi Pump.  I would venture that your ram is also rated at 10,000 psi.  Note that there is only one way in, and one way out.  That strongly suggests that the ram return is an internal spring mechanism.

I have more to say, but only upon request.  I spent an hour tracing the product back from that unreadable label, and shape of the valve knob, and the tail mount casting. I enjoy this kind of sluething...

Robert Taylor

Man, that is ugly.  I have buttered and ground in exhaust flares before. Enjoyed the Hero treatment more than being paid what I charged for the job...

Robert Taylor

10 hours ago, Randy Griffin said:

Actually, I think that is called ghosting. It’s caused by the harmonics of the tool. In this case a saw.

Randy you have it.  I have seen this pattern thousands of times in many different materials...

As to microfiche, every now and again I pull up something that was "lost forever".  May we only remember that which can be therapudic, cathartic, edifying, or necessary...

Robert Taylor

On 3/30/2022 at 1:02 AM, Wetsuit29 said:

Pads like these?

Thrust bearings, Very tedious.

BTW, you are what you drink….

I was a monster for a spell, then a rockstar, now just coffee[...]

Yes, but smaller each than your micrometer thimbal, five pieces each in a housing, and for radial load (on a shaft ø).

Funny, I call my Sheila Admiral, and I was in the Army (did once have a retired navy chief for a boss). Glad to hear you weathered the storm. Sgt Alvin York?

Nice pink rock.

Robert and Sheila Taylor