JHCC

If you make it from gun barrels, it's definitely ex-caliber.

"Set in stone" isn't the best option for a trailer.

There are enthusiasts for EVERYTHING on IFI, and chances are good that ThomasPowers is one of them.

Just make sure the O-rings are above freezing. That’s all I’m saying.

No idea on the manufacturer, but I wonder if anyone ever collected on the warranty.

I wonder if the temperature inside the tube is low enough to make something from aluminum sheet from a soda can....

Yes, indeed.

Fair point. Especially when the animator is trying to sell something.

Yes, as you see. Very irregular, too. If you look at the animation above, the gas particles are represented as moving very regularly and smoothly. I suspect that this attempt’s irregularity created a lot of turbulence in the tube that did a good job mixing up the gas, but at the cost of increasing friction.

Well, I whipped up something quick out of thin-gauge sheet steel. It was not a success: the burner kept huffing, and I could smell unburnt propane. Pulled it back out again, and everything was fine. This is not to say that this is a bad idea. My try was very much a quick-and-dirty experiment, and your mileage may vary considerably. (N.B.: In the interests of “only change one variable at a time”, I had not yet plugged up that additional hole in the ribbon burner, so that is not a factor in the burner’s performance.)

Or just mount your burner so that your connections are below the forge!

Jennifer just keeps the ground-up anhydrous in a cookie tin, and it does fine. I've done the same, and can report similar results. The BIG difference is that the anhydrous does NOT foam up when you put it on the hot steel the way regular borax does straight from the box. Another thing to think about (if you're interested in adding carbon to the mix) is the "Alaska flux" recipe from IFI member teenylittlemetalguy, announced in this comment and discussed in the subsequent comments:

A much better way to make anhydrous borax is to melt it and grind up the resulting glass. IFI member (and general magician) jlpservicesinc has a useful video about what this looks like:

That is true.

Welcome to IFI, Kelly. If you haven't yet, please READ THIS FIRST!!!

Welcome to IFI! If you haven't yet, please READ THIS FIRST!!!

8.5" diameter = just over 26" of circumference. He could grind a radius on the edge that tapers from 1/16" up to 1-1/2" (start with a 2" wide section at 1/16", then 2" of 1/8", then increase the radius by 1/8" every two inches) and still have lots of flat space in the middle for regular hammering.

Welcome to IFI! If you haven't yet, please READ THIS FIRST!!!

Using copper tubing certainly won't hurt. Even if it costs a couple of extra bucks, it's a lot cheaper than replacing your building.

Good luck. My treadle hammer was a game-changer, even though I used a different design.

If your trailer already has leveling jacks in the corners, you're golden. Just level the trailer, crank the jacks a bit higher than needed on one side, slide a solid block under the anvil (preferably nice and wide, to distribute the hammering forces), and lower the trailer back down until it's resting on the support block and level all the way around.

Now I'm thinking about making a twisted ribbon to fit in the mixer tube of my NARB. Not sure how I'll be able to tell the difference, but I have to take it out of the forge to plug a couple of holes in the ribbon anyway.

"Good score"? That's the best score since the New York Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds 25:13 in 1901!

I can think of three ways to do it off the top of my head, although I have no idea if any of them would actually work. 1. Make the punch as I did above, but drill an additional smaller hole at the bottom of and centered on the main hole. Insert a small pin to act as the punch for the pupil. (Maybe braze it in place? If you did, you probably wouldn't be able to do a proper heat-treat on the punch.) 2. In a piece of high-carbon steel, forge the eye you want with a normal eye punch and dot the pupil with a center punch, Harden, and hammer the end of a heated rod into the eye to form it to that shape, like some people do to make their touchmarks. 3. Drill the hole in the end of the punch blank with a hollow-center drill bit. I don’t know where one might get such a thing, but presumably a machinist could make one. This is all purely theoretical, and as I said, I have no idea if any of these methods would actually work. Might be fun to try, though.

And, of course, more neutral.