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Jack Evers

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Posts posted by Jack Evers

  1. Is this the magazine that was published in Georgetown, CA? I know one of the smithing magazines was published in my area, but it was closed/closing down about the time I moved up here, so I'm not terribly familiar with it.  If this is the correct publication, I may know how to get in touch with the owner.

    I believe it was, The owners name was Rob Edwards. I know he regularly served as a farrier for the Tevis Race, so he was likely in that area. I'll go look at my dusty archives and see if I come up with anything.

  2. I did a quick search and apparently the issues are digitized (1996-2001).

     

    Heres July 2001 in the section about a post vise with pictures (at bottom): http://www.anvilmag.com/smith/107f2.htm

     

    Go here for the rest of the issues: http://www.anvilmag.com/bi.htm

     

    EDIT: Nevermind. They only have part 1 up and viewable. I now see the problem. Wish I could help further.

     

     

    I had a lifetime subscription, and Rob sent me a username and password after it went digital, but that no longer seems to work either. It did a couple years ago, but no longer. Guess there is no longer any maintenance on the site.

  3. Used to work on oil rigs. One was in an area notable for herds of feral burros, A rig crew headed to town one night got a young burro blinded by the headlights, They jumped out and wrestled him into the back seat Once he could see again he was not kind to either them or the crew car. They were happy to get a door open and let him escape.

  4. You can use 1/2 in ch square or round al long as it is small stock and the reins arent too long. I use sucker rod almost exclusively and use them as forged they make nice springy tongs. You can get sicker rod as small as 5/8 I think I know I have had some 3/4 before. Most of mine is 7/8 or larger and I draw them under the power hammer. If you are going to use mild steel then make sure you leave them dimensionally a little taller than wide in the reins and that will give you a little more strength.

     

     

     You are correct. API (American Petroleum Institute) sucker rods are available in 1/8 inch increments from 5/8 to 1-1/8 inch diam, but 5/8 is not a common size. Very shallow wells. Likely 1000 feet or less.

  5. In reading these threads, I often think about my early kayaking days. I was in love with the traditional wooden paddle. Sleek, beautiful, a work of art. After breaking a couple in higher class rapids (at least an adrenaline boosting if not life threatening experience), I realized that I was paddling a fiberglass boat, perhaps a fiberglass paddle was OK. If your clients are willing and able to afford traditional joinery by all means give them what they want, but there is still the shop work, jigs and such, that you might as well do with a welder, and perhaps gifts and such or other useful works that are much appreciated even if welded. Yes, I can forge weld an aluminum bar shoe. I'd rather do it with O/A. One of my common Christmas things is a trivet made by forming three of a client's used horseshoes into spirals and welding them together into a trivet. Much appreciated even if close examination of the bottom side does show some arc welds.

  6. Don't quote me as an expert, but as long as the hardy shank isn't a press fit into the hardy hole, I wouldn't worry too much . I think much of the risk lies in hammering on a hardy that is a tight fit. That said, a 1" hardy hole in a 4' wide anvil does weaken it by 25%. I have shaped a bunch of cold horse shoes in the hardy hole W/O problem and that was on a fairly shallow heeled anvil.

  7. My 100A 220V machine requires a 30A circuit. I pulled #6 wire for a 50A circuit since I plan to upgrade my welder at some point. Phil

    Low-voltage Lighting and Lamp Cords 10 Amps 18 Gauge Extension Cords 13 Amps 16 Gauge Light Fixtures, Lamps, Lighting Runs 15 Amps 14 Gauge Receptacles, 110-volt Air Conditioners, Sump Pumps, Kitchen Appliances 20 Amps 12 Gauge Electric Clothes Dryers, 220-volt Window Air Conditioners, Built-in Ovens, Electric Water Heaters 30 Amps 10 Gauge Cook Tops 45 Amps 8 Gauge Electric Furnaces, Large Electric Heaters 60 Amps 6 Gauge Electric Furnaces, Large Electric Water Heaters, Sub Panels 80 Amps 4 Gauge Service Panels, Sub Panels 100 Amps 2 Gauge Service Entrance 150 Amps 1/0 Gauge Service Entrance 200 Amps 2/0 Gauge


    Power = amp*voltage Normal open circuit voltage on a buzz box is about 40 volts and will drop some as you weld. Assuming 40 volts though means 40 times welding amps equals 220 times line amps so line amps is about one sixth to one fifth of welding amps. To meet code with a 225 amp welder you would need about a 40 amp breaker and 6 gage wire although I ran a 225 lincoln for 20 years on a 30 amp circuit (8 gage wire). I rarely welded at more than 115 amps. Once I ran a 100 foot extension cord of 10 gage wire to repair a drain under my barn (now I use a generator) I got the weld, but every time I struck an arc, I could hear the fan in the welder slow down so I was not doing my equipment any favors. A 15 amp circuit isn't close, particularly with 12 or 14 gage wire.

    That first part was a table that didn't make it through the IFI forum editor. Here's the link

    http://electrical.about.com/od/wiringcircuitry/a/electwiresizes.htm
  8. Here, I buy from a couple of welding shops and it's pricey. If I have much to get, a 60 mile drive to the city will about cut my price in half, but I need to be getting a fair amount to justify the drive. No one in this area has ever charged me to cut 20 ft pieces in half tho. In fact the last I got, I said "I'll be cutting 5 ft pieces so make sure to cut the 10's accurately" and he went ahead and cut five foot pieces at no extra charge.

  9. Wow, those photos bring back memories, I worked with Rajasthani blacksmiths in 2002, they are called "Gaduliya Lohar" which roughly translates as "Cart Iron" (Lohar=Iron) as they are renounded for travelling with decorated iron carts. They have the most amazing history- there is a synopsis of it on my website http://www.colleendupon.co.uk/Research-_The_Gaduliya_Lohar.html

     

    Ironman, it is not just the entire family, they are a whole tribe or blacksmiths, some are still nomadic. I have seen a child of 8 striking, totally amazing! Every family member, mothers fathers sons daughters cousins uncles etc are very skilled!! I remember we did a lot of cold chiseling their to cut shapes out of sheet!!!

     

    I would love to return one day to see them. They felt very sorry for me then as I was a 30 year old woman with no children and in India, that was seen as very sad as their society is very family centred. I'd love them to meet my daughter now to show them I'm not a sad person anymore!! They were also horrified to hear about eating cows in the West!!!

    Interesting about the cows - Their neighbor, Nepal, has a way around it. In 1997, I visited both, India, where even a "hamburger" was ground chicken and Nepal. where I had no problem getting a steak. It was water buffalo rather than beef, but suited me and kept their conscience clear - it wasn't cow meat.

  10. So I grabbed 3 of the big ones, pretty sure i pulled something i my hand when i pulled them out of the scrap bin, they were in the bottom! They are sitting in the back of my car, which im pretty sure didn't like it too much on the drive back.

    Ill grab a picture later for the curious.

    3.5 in diam equals almost 3 pounds per inch of length (actually 2.7 pounds) or 32 pounds per foot. Close to 100 pounds there.

  11. Actually I a a huge advocate of any wantabe smith leaerning how metal moves and this is a really fine example someone doing just that,,How wdid this steel get into those shapees? Wot tools did it take to make it move as it did.....Fine piece thank you for sharing!


    Some years back I made a display board for the viewers of a farrier's forging and horseshoeing competition . No art intended, I just said (in a poster) there are a limited number of operations in forging: bending, upsetting, drawing,punching, welding, brazing and twisting. Then using six inch pieces of 3/4 by 1/4 I just bent one over, drew one out to about 10 inches long, upset one to about 3 inches of 3/4 by 1/2, took two and forge welded the ends together, then bent them into a circle and brazed the other ends together and punched nail holes in another. I said that for shoers the twisting wasn't really used until the end of the day and I made a corkscrew of the last piece. These were all on a display board with emphasis that all had started as straight six inch pieces of 3/4 by 1/4 and such a piece was also displayed.
  12. I just finished a somewhat similar project - my better half saw a picture of some jump cups (support for the rails in horse jumping competition) that she liked. No real forging, just some complex bends on 3/8" stock. She wanted 16 (8 pair). Asked if we should order at about 20 bucks a pair with shipping or have me make them. I said about $2 each for material, the first two pair would take about an hour each, the next six pair about an hour total. Time estimate was about right - I was getting good at the end. Another 8 pair would be fast. The only jig I used was a section of 6 inch channel to form the cup. They were identically similar.

  13. Adjustable anvil stands are impractical but I think ideal anvil height can move up or down with the work and the tools used.Fifty years ago when I was a farrier doing all cold shoeing my anvil was higher. I wasn't hitting anything more than an inch above the face. As I moved into hot work and had punches and drifts, etc that were 8 or 10 inches or more long in order to keep my hand above the hot steel, my anvil got lowered and is now at knuckle height. Sounds like much of your present work is near the anvil face and a somewhat "high" anvil wouldn't be terrible, might even help. Another consideration is to keep shoulder, wrist, hammer and elbow in line. Don't let the hammer head move in to where you're twisting your wrist and forearm and moving the elbow out to strike.

  14. Frank, They're now Heller Red Tang - don't think there was any change but the name. Many years ago Simonds bought Heller so they have owned the name a long time and I guess decided to market it again.

    Several years back I went out to our local frontier theme park (It's in conjunction with our old territorial prison where Butch Cassiday was a guest) to shoe their draft horses. I was making the shoes for crowd enjoyment but with 1-1/4 by 1/2 steel I do like to have a striker so I went to the park Blacksmith shop to see if anyone would like to strike and the smith was happy to send his helper. They were of course always getting asked about shoes and were clueless so this was a chance to at least learn a little.about making and applying shoes. Enough to answer some questions. I remember though how astonished the helper was when I started to hot rasp. I explained that I went through about a rasp a week in my normal work so I always had a supply of used rasps for hot work. Didn't feel my Makita electric hot rasp was appropriate in a frontier park. Besides, I was working a long way from electricity.

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