starbits

Thanks guys.

Curved

Picked up this lot at an auction for $6.25. Never seen a pick like the one second from the right, any ideas?

I skipped out early one friday afternoon on a 3 day weekend. On Hwy 101 heading north at San Jose a dump truck pulling a trailer blew a tire. When he went to pull over he hit the curb ( who puts curbs on a major highway) lost control and flipped his dump truck 3/4 over in the middle of the highway. Another guy and I pulled him from the cab, shaken but unhurt. In the middle of the highway was a 3 foot high pile of sludge from the dump truck, on a friday, on a 3 day weekend. Was I glad I had skipped out early. Just enough room to get around him and be on my way.

wirerabbit: The open ends look good. Almost a complete set of larger wrenches, missing 1 3/4. Thomas: I have several of those rake heads I bought for holding tongs, but never set them up. Had not thought about them for the wrenches, but that looks like great idea.

Bid on a lot of wrenches thinking the crescent wrench was a 12" wrench and the rest scaled from that. Including fees I paid $38 for the lot. Note the 6" crescent wrench next to the bigger one I thought was 12 inches. Wrench on the far right is 2" and 30 inches long. Box on the left are all duplicates including the 2" wrench next to the box.

My first thought was using the iron powder for canister damascus. However it is looking like it is just Fe with no carbon content so not hardenable and probably not the best choice. However powdered metals are used for cold casting metals using resin and molds. It looks like the powdered metals are selling for $10-$15 per pound on ebay so I will probably sell it on ebay and then buy stuff I can use. Starbits

My 20 year old compressor tank sprung a leak and I have been looking for a replacement. At an auction this past week for less than the cost of a new 120 gallon replacement tank I picked up a nearly new (2017) 400 gallon tank with automatic drain valve and 690 pounds of 325 mesh powdered metal. The powdered metal included 189 pounds of iron, 95 pounds of stainless steel, and 191 pounds of bronze. The rest or the powdered metal was brass, white bronze and nickel silver.

I recently visited my youngest brother in Colorado Springs. He had picked up the 2 blowers for me for $75 for the pair. The one on the right is only marked 476 and is frozen up. The one on the left is marked Royal Western Chief by Canedy Otto. It turns fine if a bit stiff and needs to be cleaned up. The chain binder, wrought iron pick and other tools came from the fleamarket for a total of $10. The big prize was on the way home though. My Great Uncle was a well known artist (BJO Nordfeldt). A couple years ago another brother bought an auction lot which had 6 of my great uncle's dry point etching plates. My brother had found someone to print the 6 plates and we dropped them off on the way to CS and picked them up on the way home. You really couldn't see what was on the plates so this one was a big surprise. Research afterward show a print at the Metropolitan Museum in NYC titled "The Forge, Engelhom, Sweden, Circa 1907. If you would like to see some other prints by my great uncle google search "Philadelphia museum nordfeldt"

In one article it mentions a complete set including a set of tongs. In the photo at this link you can see a set of tongs at the bottom left of the photo.

My haul this past weekend from an auction for about $45.

There is a 138 lb Hay budden on the denver craig's list with just as much of the top missing that is only $600. Yours is a steal.

I picked up a couple rods from a hydraulic repair shop. Two inch diameter by 48 inches long for $5 each. The gal at the shop looked through her records and said it was 1045 or 1050 steel. The grinder test showed it was chrome plated and a medium carbon steel. I checked IFI about removing the chrome and didn't see anything that I wanted to tackle myself. Stopped by a chrome plating place to see about getting it removed. The first place said it was hard chrome and they didn't do that but recommended a second place. Talked to the second place and they said they could do it, but it would be a minimum of $165. So much for cheap steel. Plan for the future is to chop it up and make rollers for adjustable height extension stands. Starbits

Angle grinder. We have a love/hate relationship. I try to treat it nice, it tries to bite me.