Anachronist58

Natenaaron - are those mill balls yours to do with as you please? If so, would you care to sell some to me? Robert Taylor

It's important to note that these assemblies are under extreme pressure, as they are used to react against a portion of the weight of a motor vehicle. The unit pictured herein expanded 12" and even the last inch had the power to amputate or maim. As mentioned above, all of that stored energy is going to release like a gunshot, any way it can, including sideways. As Frosty mentioned in reference to airbrake cans, no matter how many times you do something dangerous, it's always waiting for that moment of distraction or bad luck to Alter Your Life Forever. In Homage to The Lucky, don't let this become your White Birch (or Whale, if ye be Ahab). All that aside, I now use the HF $15 strut kit - and I am not willing to post the modification details here, as ignorance of the laws of stress fracture can get you killed or disfigured. Robert Taylor

TSA never seems to appreciate my prospecting bag, either.

We hold you in our thoughts and our prayers for a successful procedure and a speedy recovery...... Robert and Sheila Taylor

Heal quickly Sir.

Our prayers and condolences..... Robert and Sheila Taylor

MarcyOHH, let me first cast the clinkers and chicken bones upon the layout plate, to see what may portend - can't be too carefulstitious, eh?

CTaylor, that would darken the anvil face a bit would it? Couldn't hurt! The spectre of a slovenly Ogre haunts my smithy - the more I try to tidy up, the more cluttered it seems to become. Robert Taylor

Like Glenn said - FIND a reason to get started - get a claw hammer, a rock some coat hanger wire and SAFETY GLASSES. Get pounding. If you and the forge are meant for one-another your passion for the craft will call you out. Here I am using 6013 welding electrode, which may even be worked cold if you are driven enough to Just Strike the Iron! Robert Taylor

So Territorial, have you been successful? Robert.

Well then, John Boy, sounds like you are good to go. Given the scant amount of information that you have given the members here, there is no way you could have received better answers than those offered. As you have said, you have the experience and insight to proceed. And if you knacker it up, I just hope it was not some venerable treasure from bygone days. Robert Taylor

Leidenfrost effect.

Just another thought - Kant-Twist clamps do a trick job of overcoming that bevel if one is doing a lay-up.

The five I's would signify the month of May (1901) and ET would be the place of manufacture (possibly Etna, Pennsylvania? Or Edgar Thompson?). If anyone is more familiar than I am with rail markings, please correct me.

See how a simple hairpin corrects for the curvature of the rail's web, putting a monster grip on this swage anvil I am building. The top piece goes in the same way. Even a large 'cheap' vise has plenty of guts for 'moderate' to 'small' hot or cold work. Imagine how much fun I will have after I have put in some bevels, notches, holes, and radii! (This is just an example of what one may do with an unmodified piece of rail).

Carnegie 1901 - That is the Maker & the Date of Manufacture - One Hundred and Fifteen Years Old!! I would surely want THAT piece in front of my eyes and under my hammer. A couple of years ago, I picked up a piece of Carnegie 1906 60# at A & K in Stockton, California. Good luck with your project. I like what Charles Stevens said - Three to six work stations - I think I will try to to come back here with a photo.

Any way I can. 4130 steel; Mark with pipe cutter; hand power hacksaw; hog off mismatch with giant mill file, turn on 1934 Southbend, etc. A seasonal creek runs through the Smithy - is that old school or the situational paradigm? Fantastic Thread.

As much as I would love to (b)eat a dead horse (which is not true because I too bow to horses) I ordered a ton of Kimmel's nut from TSC Yesterday. The fellow was very helpful and said that sometimes "they" turn the goods away at the border of California. So now I don't have to pay till it actually shows up. Talk about customer service! One day those of us who use and or experiment with carbon will be compelled to move to a third world country (Idaho, New Mexico?) to continue our work. My carbon footprint is very small and I can't afford a scrubber. I have been mixing charcoal with coke and will do same with the anthracite.

I would find or fab a matching worm, and with the ten foot gear standing upright, the Wind would drive my iron ore crusher at a somewhat quicker pace than geologic time (quite faster than my current method). Naturally, the whole thing would have to be a kinetic sculpture, rotating ever-so-slowly to indicate the prevailing wind direction over the course of the day. Sadly I have to clock in in two hours, where we make rings, six feet in diameter, and they have no teeth!

For some reason the picture of my satisfying if not slaggy preliminary bloom failed to post:

Hello Jammer. That stuff looks a lot like Bog Iron ore. A very important source of Iron for centuries, and people are using it even to this day. It would make sense that it would become magnetic as heating, as that would convert the iron from its non-magnetic hydroxide phase. (I am not a chemist - strictly an inquisitive amateur) Wikipedia answers a number of your questions directly. Here at the mountain on which I make my home, the iron is quite different: It is free magnetic iron in a granite matrix. I crush the rocks and extract the iron with a magnet: This particular sample was test-fired through an air blast in a crude but adequate wooden crucible: Resulting in a satisfying if not slaggy preliminary bloom. The Wikipedia article also speaks about quartz crystals forming within bog iron I thank you for mentioning Lee Sauder - now I have a new resource to learn from. Robert Taylor

wonderful execution and presentation. I want one.

Very nice work, sir. Seems like he's alive with Whimsy.

Got Gamma? Beta, Alpha? Sorry, none of these will run a drill press, but they do have the power to make the wife angry if I leave them unshielded for too long - and that's a potential nuclear incident......