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Michael Cochran

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Everything posted by Michael Cochran

  1. I haven’t been on in a while and I have been to the shop just as long or longer. I have been battling some demons (depression and anxiety are just a couple) I carry inside of me and they have started lashing out affecting others. I have caused a bunch of trouble in the last few weeks as a result of my untreated issues. I spent almost all day at the VA Friday so I could get help. I have to go back regularly for a while for therapy and keep track of my new meds. That is the easy stuff to deal with. The most important thing I need so much help with is helping to mend the hearts and relationships I’ve damaged. I can’t even begin to describe the pain I’ve caused or that I feel right now. I know some here have probably been where I am and made it through stronger on the other side, that’s my goal.
  2. You could make friends with someone at the local deli etc that uses a deep fryer and they’d probably let you have their old oil. It may be a little fishy smelling but it’s free and much better (for your health) than using old motor oil.
  3. I was looking forward to that meeting but had to miss because my son wasn’t feeling well. Maybe I can talk someone’s into helping me make one next meeting. What size and type of steel did you start with for that hammer?
  4. I’ll give a loving home to any of those orphaned machines out there. If anyone knows of one please let me know and send it my way.
  5. TSA workers would have nightmares for the rest of their lives and would likely suffer PTSD from all the scrap they’d examine from a trip like that.
  6. I didn’t mean anything by my comment. I was just saying I’ve gotten lazy and don’t research enough for myself. As a result I have gotten content with the answers given to me instead of finding out the truth for myself. The fact that biggun and Steve both commented with similar answers means there might be something to the idea of it being an artifact of the manufacturing process. However, I will do some homework and see where it leads me.
  7. That means I committed a big crime and posted this in the wrong section I’m sorry. I actually thought the line might’ve been a result of the steel not being a through hardening steel. That’s why I posted here in the heat treatment area. I guess I need to do some more reading and digging to learn more before I give in that it’s just a natural result of the forming process. It’s nothing personal, I just need to practice researching a little more so that I don’t repeat this type of mistake later.
  8. That’s an interesting idea but how would the forming process make the line like that?
  9. According to what I just found on a website for a local rail manufacturer the specs for one type of rail they make are as follows: Carbon .72 to .84 Manganese .80 to 1.10 Phosphorus .035 max Sulfur .04 max Silicon .10 to .50 Some of the other weight rails they make have varying mixes of the above. I really wish now I had started my research durin lunch today so I could have called this company with some questions I’m starting to get. Looks like I need to write them down and call them one day next week and have a nice chat with them.
  10. I’ve seen mention several times about making a small bick using rail web and flange lately and decided I’d try again. (Charles mentioned it to me shortly after I joined IFI and I failed miserably on my first attempt) I took a short piece of rail to work to cut on our large bandsaw to save myself a headache trying to cut it with my limited tooling at home. When I finished cutting it I washed off the cutting fluid and noticed a line following the profile of the rail and it’s got me a little curious. Is this line evidence of the heat treatment? I know very little about the specifics of the metallurgy of rail but will be doing some more in depth searching to help figure out what this line is. In the mean time I thought I’d share a picture of it to see what others thought about it. Looking at this picture you can see what I’m taking about really well at the top and right hand sides. It’s visible all the way around but the lighting makes it hard to see it all at one time.
  11. Unfourtuanately I had to be off work today to deal with other things so I can’t do much for him today. He did go to work this morning and called me earlier looking for help with something I know more about than he does. He admitted he’s still a little weak right now. I told him nobody knows exactly what happened, I just told the other guys that he wasn’t feeling well and he’d be back when he was able. I told him if he wanted to share with them he could but I wasn’t about to tell them something like that. It will take time but I think things will go back to “normal” in a few weeks.
  12. I just got off the phone. He’s on his way home from the hospital and wants to go back to work tomorrow. I think I talked him into staying home one more day and getting some rest.
  13. He’s supposed to be talking to a social worker today to see what kind of help they can find for him. I was told he’s being more than a little feisty and that’s why they are keeping him sedated most of the time.
  14. Just got an update. He’s woke up and he’s eating some but still out of it.
  15. Thank you all for the support. I haven’t gotten an updated but imagine not much has changed since earlier.
  16. I have a friend here at work that’s more like family than anything that has been havin some difficulty lately with some of things. He talked to me about some of it and seemed to be getting back on track like things were going back to normal. Last night I got a call from him that didn’t make sense until his girlfriend called about an hour later telling me he overdosed and was on the way to the hospital. Right now he’s in CCU at the local hospital and is being kept sedated. Right now nobody knows when he’s gonna be able to home. I didn’t see any warning signs and looking back I still can’t see any. He carries his problems and worries deep inside and doesn’t share well. Hopefully that won’t bite him in the end.
  17. This discussion may help you with some ideas. https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/44160-the-handy-rail-spike/
  18. I believe it’s meant to hold the insert in while you’re getting things together to set the weld.
  19. Cullman group meets tomorrow. The plan, as far as I know, is hammer making. Clay is a great fella. I’ve seen him at a couple of the Cullman meetings and wish I could absorb more from him. Going to meetings will help much more than you’d imagine even at such an early stage. With someone there that can see what you’re doing as you’re doing it they can give you real time feedback to help your technique in no time at all.
  20. That’s a fair point but as I mentioned before I don’t know personally that it works. I only have the word of the guy that told me to take it. It came from a pile of older motors that were replaced with newer better ones. I would’ve loved to get the bigger ones (there are a couple 5hp motors and some larger) but I knew I couldn’t power them. I’ll see about testing it using the pull cord method and go from there. On another note I had a package in the mail when I got home from running errands today. Thank you Mr and Mrs Stitch.
  21. Truth is when I was given the opportunity to take this rather large motor I was thinking it would make for a couple useful tools since it was a TEFC form. When I cleaned the plate and saw it was only 1 hp instead of more like I thought (bad assumption based on the size) I was more than a little disappointed. Knowing I’ll have a reduction of power using single phase means it’s less useful to me. I guess I’ll do some thinkin about what I want/need in the shop and see what I can actually do with it.
  22. I have a free motor I brought home that the data plate was so dirty you couldn’t read it. After cleaning it some I realize I can’t use the motor without buying more stuff. It is a 1 hp 3ph TEFC motor. It’s supposed to be functional but since I can’t power it I can’t test it might just get rid of it if I can’t find a good affordable solution.
  23. I did some looking and the closer yard is West Blount Recycling. It’s hard to miss as long as you get on the right road you’ll run right through the gates. The guy that own it is a good ole country boy and is really friendly. The one time I went to drop stuff off he left the office and came out to help me unload my scrap and we stood there talking for about 20 minutes while I looked around. Last time I was there he had several old vehicles (think axles, coil/leaf spring, sheet metal, etc) as well as the usual scrapyard stuff.
  24. If you want to do it, do lots of research. Lee sauder and Skip someone have some papers available online showing how they do it. They also have diagrams for some small furnaces for this kind of thing. Including the Aristotle furnace. I plan to make another go at it one day but it’s a long process and it’s not really a one man job so I’ll need to recruit some help.
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