HWHII

He is doing fine. He is posting his progress on Facebook.

Pickling is a passivation process and should be done last, at the end of all you work. It will remove the color from welding, and make your part bright, but most importantly neturalize your parts exposure from contact with carbon steel and keep it from rusting. I have never used citric acid only paste. I will be curious to see how it works.

Nice Jim! Some day I hope I can stop on and say HI !

Fastenal

It has not rained here since April 5.

Last year I bid on a 18th century recreation hardware job. The client wanted lag bolt type pintles. Not sure what to do I called Peter Ross. He informed me that the lag screw was product of the industrial revolution and would not be period correct. He also stated that wood screws of the time would have been made on a lathe. In other words they are machine made not forged.

Black Frog, nice choice on the Miller 211! ;) Don't settle in on the mixed gas. Its nice to have around but you should take a look at straight CO2. It's alot cheaper and works well. For pretty welds, thin gage tubing, and sheet metal welding 75/25 is the best choice. If you are doing repairs on rusty metal, making jigs, welding heavier material, or welding outside on a breezy day CO2 is the better choice. Your welding supplier might talk you out of buying the CO2. Most do to novices, they want you to buy the more expensive gas. Gases are where they make their most money.

Arizona the codes are dictated by county building code and can be found on line for each county. 36" high top rail and no vertical spaces larger than 4" or below the bottom rail is pretty standard. Some counties will allow a cable railing and some won't.

Peter Seven will be gone for most of the summer. I can put you in touch with him if you like. I think Ron Kinyon is the man you need to see. He has done a few of them. He is in Mesa. Dan Jennings has some experance with this too. He is in Chandler. PM me if you would like their contact info.

Winddancer, If you are interested in a video of Gorden there is one of a full demo at a BAM Conference available from ABANA.

You are pretty much right on the money with your assement. The other items are, the better metal vertical bandsaws have some sort of feed unit. Either the table will feed into the blade or the part will. Also their are vertical bandsaw called friction saws which uses a band saw bland and cuts at a very rate of speed and heats the metal up to a dull red as it cuts. These machines are usually used on sheet metal. I have seen saws that have been converted from wood to be used on metal by changing the belt pulleys. I have also seen meat cutting bandsaws done the same way too.

One of our local steel suppliers has a rem room. All the material in this room is mark at big discounts. Perhaps you have a simular supplier there. Also we have a scrap yard who pulls items like tubing, pipe, plate and angle iron for resale at $.20 lb above scrap price.

Here is a photo of what you are looking for. What you need to do is find a company who makes spun heads for tanks and pressure vessels. This one is 30" dia. and 10 GA thick. You can buy them in all different sizes, But only a few in spheres. I buy mine from a company in Ohio. If you are lucky you can buy seconds. These are heads that come of the machine during set up for a run. They don't meet specs or code and they are just scrap. My supplier sets them aside for people like us who like to make fire bowls out of them or art. It is harder to get seconds any more because when they have them they go fast, first come first serve basis. You can always buy firsts though, but the price is double and the shipping will get you too. For me when I have bought them 200lbs is where you get your first price brake on shipping. Hope this helps!

Nice size! Just what I have been looking for.

Welcome! Joining the MABA is good advise. It will make it alot easier to get started, and youl will make some great friends along the way.

Nice fab work! Adding the third burner will give it a more even heat. Just a suggestion. I don' know on how you plan to plumb it? I you make it so you use 1,2, or 3 burners at a time. It will be more versitile and use less fuel dependin on what you are doing. you can cut a custom size brick to put inside to cut yor chamber size down.

Well folks summer is almost upon us again. 98 degrees here today. This Saturday 5-4-13 9 AM will be Holy Hammer Ironworks last open forge till October. So let make it a good one! Uhrs Chantel and I will be doing a Bearded Viking Axe out of wrought iron with a harden bit forge welded in it for all who are interested in watching. I will also have 5 forging stations open as well. See you there.

Very nice Colleen! I especially like the broom too. It puts it over the top in my book! ;)

Those types of metals are usually used in high temp and corrosive applications and they are hard. Did it come out of a paper mill?

Thanks Frank! It's a odd ball for sure. I have seen the pictures of the Champion and Buffalo but none like this one. I have done every I think but take it apart and the only markings I can find are some initals carved in the handle.

The rod is connected to the arm with the large counter weight on the end.

Here's what I'm driven now. My bobber, which I made a sissy bar for out of a old pair of tongs, holding a open forges cross made out of copper, and my 2006 2500 Dodge which I made the bed and front bumber for.

You guy's are in for a big treat. I have known Gorden for many years through the AABA can't tell you how many times I have seen him demo. I can honestly say, "I have learned more from him than any other smith I know." We never tire of seeing his demos. He always has something new to add. I would suggest to video record his demo. He covers some much ground if your taking notes and pictures, your bound to miss a little bit. It almost a brain over load.

My 25 lb was made Feb. 21, 1919. It went to a blacksmith shop, new in Iowa. Then some how ended up in a maintenance shop at a cotton gin in Suprise, Az where Bentiron bought it and took it to Cave Creek, AZ and now I have it in Tucson, AZ