Jack Evers

On a perfectly smooth surface a roller is a roller. 1/8 inch as good as 3 inch. As the surface gets rougher (or dirtier - sweep up ahead), the roller should be bigger. 1" nominal as a minimum should be fine on concrete. maybe 2" on packed dirt. Mine was moved with motor attached and was top heavy. I used 1 inch as I recall, but had ropes from the top to prevent it tipping.

http://www.ehow.com/info_8487128_difference-between-hot-cold-chisels.html

I'm surprised it took that long. 30 KW is a bunch of energy.

I welded for a lot of years in an apartment or rental house using a 50' 230v extension cord run off either the dryer or range outlet. I still have that 50' cord that I can use if need be to get the machine out to the middle of the drive way if needed. (DSW). Like DSW, I have a long extension cord (100 ft) that can be plugged into a dryer or range outlet. Now I have a 6KW generator and can go anywhere with it, but still use the ex cord to reach vehicles that I can't get into the shop.. One of the ancillary costs to a high amperage machine is getting a 230 plug where you need it. If you're renting, it's not even possible, but an extension cord will work. A Lincoln 225 suggests a 50 amp circuit, Driers are typically 30 amp at 230 volts, but that still allows 180 amp welds (arc voltage is much lower than line voltage) or more. An electric range is more apt to be sized for 50 amps. Your dad can probably help with fabricating the cord. O/A for general welding can be quite expensive - refills on the small bottles are pushing $100.00 for both botttles $60+ on the A and 30+ on the O last I got. Hourly elec costs are less than running your dryer or electric range and an hour of arc time is a lot of time.

The tombstone is a 225-AC or 225-ac/dc Lincoln shaped much like a tombstone: http://www.lincolnelectric.com/en-us/equipment/stick-welders/pages/ac-225.aspx relatively inexpensive and durable. I bought mine in 1964' fan bearings are noisy now, but that's the only problem.

Thanks, I did play with some more compression and it helped. I'll play some more and probably call Sid. Trimming the slide would do it now, but I'd talk to Sid first.

Mine is the old style - SN 4174 about 1920.

I have 2-1/2 inches At 6:00 and both the toggle arms and the crosshead on the Pitman are at max adjustment to lower the hammer. Crosshead is at the bottom of the pittman - think I need to reverse it like you did.

I have acquired a 50 lb LG, done a few small jobs like draw out 3/8 by 1" steel for toe weighted horseshoes and seemed OK, but when I started to strike heavily on bigger stuff, the hammer was coming up far enough on up stroke to have the inner slide hit the flywheel. Upon trying to adjust, I believe the crosshead is upside down. The neck that slides over and clamps to the pittman is below the crosshead arms restricting how far I can adjust downward.Pictures I can find suggest but aren't real clear that this is upside down. I can take pics if nessesary, but any comments?

I bought the big brother to that forge (4" wider) at about that time - I still have it and use it along with two newer ones although I did convert it to a venturi. The forge is easy to reline if necessary. I don't recall the price. I'd say you got a good price on the anvil and the forge was a gift (or vice-versa).

I'd certainly say 3" is too small for a cattle brand - OK for a horse. My personal irons are about 3 wide by 3-1/2 tall (horse) and 4-1/2 wide by 5-1/2 tall (cow).

Same type story and I did see pictures. Dennis Manning was on the first two teams to compete in England (as well as several others). He has pictures of the first competition with Americans having tidy shoeing boxes while the Brits are mostly dropping their tools on the ground. A year later it was reversed. The Americans ha copied the Brits and they hd copied us.

My lady friend is an artist and notices the decorations. After traveling with me, she now even notices utility metalwork such as manhole covers and storm grates.

I believe 1981 and before pennies could be used to braze - I've done it. After 1981, pennies are mostly zinc. Fellow that taught me was asked what he charged for a pair of bar shoes. Twenty dollars and 2 cents with the 2 cents up front and in cash. Been a long time, Thomas, since I've thought of of the penny weld.

I can't speak for the old guys, but cost, availability and suitability all would play a part. It really doesn't take much, so cost might be minor.Two hundred years ago, I would guess that brass may have been more readily available than copper, while today, at least for me, there's always some copper wire or tubing around the shop and seldom any scrap brass in reasonable dimension. In addition for my shoe making, I may need to do some forging (shaping) after the joint is brazed. Copper has a bit higher melting point and makes this easier for me than brazing rod, which is the only brass that I've tried.

In my farrier practice, I often resort to brazing when the ambient temps are low as is my bottle level and I just can't get welding heats. I use copper (sometimes wire, often flattened tubing) since it's melting point - 1900 F - is much higher than braze rod. prepare the joint, add flux (often borax), heat in forge while watching for it to melt. Pull out and press (not hit) with a hammer face - the hammer just cools it quickly. With a copper braze it can be reheated to a red forging temp.

If I could get it close to home for under 50 cents, I buy a whole bunch.

At a large steel mill, I was once shown a machine they claimed could cold roll 2-1/2 inch plate into a 30 inch cylinder in a single pass. Yep, those things are possible. For my grad school research, I had a vessel of about those dimensions (30 inch I.D. rated at 3000 psi)., but don't know how it was formed. It cost over $3000 in the early 60's, close to $30,000 in today's dollars. That's the vessel, not the roller.

I'm a farrier more than a blacksmith - read that as 1" by 3/8" is heavy stock - My main hammers are in the two pound range, one at about 1-1/2 pounds. On a few occasions when I had wrist soreness (from driving 60 to 80 penny ring shank nails in post and rail fences) , I was using 4 pounders, mostly just picking them up and dropping them, not swinging them. An arm therapist told me that anvil height was a biggy and to not get lazy and just pull my anvil out onto the tailgate, but to put it on my stand. I believe it was good advice. By the way, I am 75 years old and have to be more careful than I used to be.

Years ago on a research project, we put out bids for a 30 inch I.D. pressure vessel to contain 3000 psi. The low bid was about half the next bid. When we checked, that bidder knew where to get a closure to fit the vessel, other bidders were planning to fabricate. Don't try to build from scratch if you can find something already built.

Diuralumin (and Aluminum) melt about 1200 F - Not suitable.

Hard to say from just those two dimensions,but my guess would be between 400 and 500. Pushing 600 is stretching things.

Hard to say from those two dimensions,but my guess would be between 400 and 500. Pushing 600 is stretching things.

To me, bad idea. Teflon tape will seal the threads, There is a special heavy yellow for natural gas (propane is similar to natural gas), but the regular white stuff should work. I've used it at a few thousand psi, you're working with a few 10's of psi. Not a big problem. Just use a soap solution to test the joints and have fun. Don't use oil.

Depends on the alloy, temperature and pressure and can occur quite quickly (as in minutes) with high strength steels, low temps, high acid concentrations and high pressure. At room temps and atmospheric pressure it is much slower, but NACE (National Assn of Corrosion Engineers), suggests only a four hour window between acid treating and starting to bake the hydrogen out.