LawnJockey

Maybe just keep it simple and do the final clean up with a 3/4 in chisel.  There are some reasonably priced wood handled ones where you could remove the handle and make a longer one out of a piece of broom stick.  You should be able to get it fairly round with that and then sand with thhe sand paper around something round, maybe even a wine bottle.

Take a look at Baileysonline.com.  They have a curved bark spud that might work, depending on what you are doing.  They used to have a real deal on slicks, I picked one up a few years back for like $35.00 from them.  Reading your post the first thing I though of was getting one of those and reshaping it.

Be careful.  I have one of those tall air compressors that have the compressor on top.  I tried getting it to the tailgate of my truck by hand and I let it get past the balance point and I ended up under it straddling it.  I was really lucky to just have some nasty bruises and scrapes rather than lacerations.

Another item that is helpful is buy a craigslist pallet jack and then sell it on craigslist for what you paid for it when you are done.  Many are rated to 5,500 lbs.  They can be easily found for around $125.

A few months back I had to move a 1,500 pound power hammer base and the forklift I rented to unload it broke down so I called a towing company and had them send a tilt bed tow truck over.  He tilted and extended the bed so it perfectly lined up with my trailer and then he winched the base on to the tilt bed.  Then he backed the truck as close to where it was going and carefully winched the base off the bed.  We used pipe rollers from there.  On some other heavy pieces we jacked the items up and built dollies under them.

In regards to painting galvanized generally it tends to have some oil on the surface of new material.  I have had luck using products from Sherrwin Williams but it should be the same from other vendors.  The first step is to etch the surface with a product made for doing this.  This will also remove any oil residue.  Next is a metal specific primer and then your top coats.  Buy all the products from the same vendor to make sure they are compatable.  

The comments on heating galvanized should be taken very seriously.  Many years ago I knew a young fabricator who thought he was immortal and he ignored those warnings.  He was real gogetter and in his mid 30s it caught up with him and almost killed him.  I don't think he ever regained his full health.

When cordless drills first came out that was a big one.  I agree with the tractor w/ loader but even further down that line are fork lift tines for the loader.  And then one of my all time favorites is the palm nailer, they have saved my fingers untold grief installing hangers..  

Sorry for the slow reply I have not had computer access the past few days.  So far the best price I have been able to find for high build epoxy is from Jamestown Distributors.  That said, Smith and Company makes a penetrating epoxy that is specifically for treating crumbling concrete.

Well that is an option but it is a pretty large tank and I do not think plywood alone would support the weight of the pour thus there would have to be a framework below.  The idea of a steel form which could be reinforced from above by just tacking some angle on top of it and pouring over the whole thing eliminates that problem. I certainly don't want to climb in it to remove forms.  That would be like the end of the movie The Magic Christian.

I have never seen precast fence planks here.  These days you have to worry so much about liability I would be nervous about using something that wasn't designed for a load carrying application.  I feel pretty comfortable with poured concrete with lots of rebar in it.

I am buying a place that has a failing septic tank lid.  The tank itself has been inspected and is fine.  It is at a hard to get at location so casting a lid and hauling it in would be a problem.  I am thinking about fabricating a steel form that would be epoxy primed and then left in place once the concrete is poured.  In the past I have used Zspar 646 epoxy primer for jobs where tough protection is required but I am wondering if there isn't a cheaper equal product out there that doesn't have the "marine" price premium.  Any suggestions?

Thanks

Use the steel.  You would never forgive yourself if someone was injured using those old ladder jacks.

Or maybe some sort of ladder jack.

9 minutes ago, yesteryearforge said:

I just love it when Y'all use big words

The way I see it is if you can't say it with four letters it probably isn't worth saying.

From some of the posts I read I would have to say the brain.

I recently picked up a Pheer 2 x72 and I am quite happy with it.  They are about half the price you mentioned.  

With what appears to be a marlin spike on one handle I wonder if they were not designed for splicing wire cable.

Well I was wrong, google gas pipe pliers or gas burner pliers and look at the images.

I ended up using a variation of TP's idea and it works great.  By the way, these grinders are great.  I was a little worried because they are so much cheaper than some of the others so I read every review I could find and took a chance and went for it.  The install went fine except I had to reverse a couple of wires because it was running in reverse.  The workmanship on mine is good and I have no complaints.  

I have it sitting on a 28" high shop cart right now and that puts the platen tool rest at 38".  I am very comfortable doing most work at a 36" high bench but putting the grinder on such a bench would result in the tool rest being 46" which is way too high.  At 38" there is slight down slope from my elbows to hands which seems comfortable enough.  But what seems comfortable for a couple of minutes can often prove to be unbearable over longer periods.  If I was to raise it an inch or so my forearms would be closer to level and I think it would take a little more effort but the angle of my view of the work would be better. I am not quite sure how to balance these different factors for me thus the questions.  Maybe my question should have been what do you regret about the height of your belt grinder and why? 

I just purchased a Pheer 2 x 72 grinder and I am going to have to buid a bench for it.  With that in mind what height should I make the work surface?  Generally I like making the work surface of a bench 36" but I am wondering if any of you have found another height that works better and why.

Thanks

There is a gal in the Santa Fe area that has a gasoline powered power hammer at her off the grid place.  Maybe with a line shaft set up the noise might be tolerable.

I had a commercial fishing boat with a single cylinder Hicks in it.  I think we were the last ones commercially fishing with a Hicks powered boat.  To start it first you gave everything a shot of oil.  Then open up the throttle and manually retard the timing.  Then on your knees spin the flywheel with the compression release open.  Continue spinning the flywheel and flip the compression release closed.  Once firing start retarding the timing.  With practice this can be done in a little over 30 seconds.  Every half hour I would manually oil everything as the engine ran.  You had to be careful in a rolling sea because everything was exposed so lots of moving parts to snag body parts.

That was my first experience with antique engines and I have loved them since.

Perhaps it was the level of arrogance that I found disturbing.  Of course there is extreme value in the collective experience but don't discount innovative thought either.

A lot of this thread seems to be the same old people pounding their chests yet again.  The fact is innovation happens when someone looks at something and asks what if questions.  In regards to blacksmithing we are generally not talking super high tech jet engine stuff.  One of the joys of walking though an old smithy is looking at the innovative and original solutions that the smith has come up with.  Sometimes those ideas come from people not locked into the established practices of the trade.  I saw an example of this back in the 70s.  A guy I knew sold his company to Baker Oil Tool (now Baker Hughes).  The company that was sold made quality control equipment for the oil refining industry and medical devices.  The founder and seller of that company was an electronic engineer.  He was invited to be on the Board of Baker and joined it.  The Chairman of Baker at the time was a management genius by the name of Huby Clark.  Huby immediately put the guy I knew in charge of some copper mines.  What Huby understood was that when you have a new set of eyes that are backed up with an innovative and creative mind innovation happens and innovation drives profits.

Charles, good to see you still have your sense of humor.  Frosty is right about all the death and destruction caused by that stuff.  I worked in a family law court for a while and we had 40 cases on the calendar every morning.  It was a parade of drug addicts and alcoholics.  The destruction to the families was unbearable to watch day after day, kids born addicted and or with brain damage, etc.  I came to think of drug dealers as terrorists, their actions set off a web of destruction with no regard as to who gets impacted.  If you look at how many lives are destroyed it is worse than shooting up a theater.  On the positive side it sounds like she realizes she needs help.  People do recover.  Give her lots of love and support.  Talk honestly about the issues.  Encourage her to develop the spiritual side of life.  I will pray for anyone trying to escape the prison of drug abuse.  Each one that recovers makes the world a better place.

Charles, my heart goes out to you.  I went through the same thing with my older boys.  It turned out well but it wasn't easy and the path was never clear.  

There are a whole lot of other issues such as filing a DBA, business entity form, etc. In some jurisdictions you don't need a DBA if the business name is your own name.  And then there will be all the issues about openning a bank account under the business name thanks to Frank-N-Dodd.  This is US specific of course and each state has its own rules.  Of course you could name it "Cash Forge" and then tell your customers to just make the checks out to cash.  That would work for me.