natenaaron

18 minutes ago, Charles R. Stevens said:

8" deep box, aproximently 24" acrossz filled with dirt or ash and clinker, sand and ash etc.,with a bowl dug down some 6" deap and 6-8" across, the tuyere is some 3" off the bottom of the hole (you want a min of 3" from the bottom to the bottom ends of they hole in the tuyere). 

Is there some place I can read about these.  Looking for a detailed description.  I am intrigued.

If I am reading right the article makes some good points but in the end is mostly hot air.

1 hour ago, Charles R. Stevens said:

as to cheap, easy and effective, the hole in the ground has worked for some 3 millennia, a modern side blast, like our friends across the pond use is simply a way to raise that hole off the ground, small Iron Age style side blast forges require a 3/4-1"tuyere (schedual 40 pipe is about 7/8" ID) a box about 24"d 8" deep some legs to bring it to anvil hight and some dirt to fill it in, I have seen 30" high flower pots used. 3/4" pipe is a lot less expensive than 2", no metal fabrication tools nessisary, once the forge is built you can use it to make something nicer, say all steel with rivits. 

Also, small side blasts burn coal, Coke, corn and charcoal with equal effecency, tho bottom blasts do better with wood

Still many folks use them, and have sense the depression.  

Should that be 24 inches across and 8 inches deep or 24 inches deep filled then a hole 8 inches deep put in?  Got lost on that one.

I was looking at brake drum forges and how to build them when I came across the article about how bad a brake drum is and how you are just setting yourself up for failure by building one.

I am sure this article is known to folks here, but if you want to read it here it is.  I am also sure it has been discussed but I can't find where it has.

Not being familiar with coal forges at all, and thinking someday I would like to make and use a brake drum forge, this article has given me pause.  Are his arguments valid?

I have a tube of arnica on my dresser.

20 hours ago, BIGGUNDOCTOR said:

Is that in St.George? That dealership looks familiar....

Yep.  Stephen Wade.  Good folks and I feel we got a good deal.  They had no problem with the boys hanging out in the cars while exploring them.  A few older gents would wonder over to the vets and my 10yr old would show them all the bells and whistles.  Gave the salesmen a good laugh.

19 hours ago, Charles R. Stevens said:

Yea, I might have sold both the boys and bought the vet...

but then again I raised girls...

I thank god every day, that I don't have girls.

You paid way too much for that anvil.  You should ship it to me so you are not reminded of the bad deal you got.

All too often the student is blamed for reading and sticking to what they read.  You could say the student was taught wrong.  You would be surprised by the amount of adults who cannot read and infer.  They take the book literally.  This creates a mind set that has to be changed.  Unfortunately undoing bad learning takes extra patience and extra time.  In many cases You have to lay down the law as Thomas said.  Young people react better to this than adults.  Adults often require more patience and that is harder for us as teachers.  We wrongly assume adults should change faster.  They don't.  In my opinion adults require much more patience and take longer to accept they learned something wrong than children are.  The current hoopla over gun control (Just an example Folks not a political statement) on the part of both the red and the blue sides proves that adults are actually worse than children when it comes to blindly holding onto false and/or inflammatory information. 

Literal reading, with no instruction, has gotten many people in trouble, and vague writing has gotten even more folks in trouble. Put the two together and you have a recipe for disaster, or amusement, depending on your mood.

I am blaming this one on the author.  The student, being naive, did not understand what is a colloquial saying in a lot of trades.  "Let the saw do the work", "let the sand paper do the work", "Let the hammer do the work", all mean the same thing.  With no schema to build off of they will not understand and will learn wrong.

Remember, deep breathing and patience.

4 hours ago, SmoothBore said:

, that "you can't fix stupid".

That's the harsh reality.

But someone competent has to clean up the mess stupid creates. 

No need to wear full leather armor.  The worst is below the metal or out the end of the pipe/tube.  Always wear jeans and leather shoes.

It depends on what you are cutting. If I am doing super thin clean metal I am not going to get blow back so I am fine in a short sleeved shirt on top, tig gloves and cutting shades and a dust mask.  This is super quick going and usually done outside.  If I am inside I wear the respirator.

As the metal thickness goes up the slower you will be going.  How dirty the metal is plays a factor too.  If I am cutting dirty metal or over 1/8 inch I am in a respirator, sleeves, glasses, and face shield.

21 hours ago, Jackdawg said:

No, you have this strange idea about doing paperwork, when you could spend all day at the scrap yard!

Now there is a thought

You are correct frosty.  They cut the middle out of the H member.  I am thinking this is not the way to go.  By the time I have reinforced and changed everything I will have put enough metal, from the sound of it, to build a whole press.  I will pass on it though.  I am not going to say it will be easy but building one is doable.

I made a deal with myself:

If I work 4 hours on paper work tomorrow I can go to the scrap yard.

Then I started negotiating with myself about time on task.

If I work 2 hours on paper work, I can go to the scrap yard and then I can go back to paper work.  Yeah, right. 

I think I have a scrap yard addiction.

27 minutes ago, the iron dwarf said:

what are you going to use it for?

After a talk with a doctor it is clear my wrists will not tolerate swinging the hammer for long periods.  Darn arthritis.  The plan was to swing the hammer for short term stuff like tapering, upsetting, finishing etc. and the press for lengthy stuff like drawing out and eventually pattern welding for blade work.

I've got a thermal dynamics cutmaster 39.  Best tool investment I made for our business.  That thing saved tons of man hours when we had to cut into house boat pontoons for repair and baffle work.  Paid for itself the first summer.

I thought I might sell it when we shut the shop part of the business but I am always finding something that needs cut.  It is nice not to have to use the Oxy/Acet torch for cutting things under 1/2 inch plate which is 90% of what I cut.  I get a cleaner cut too.

That's a big boy you got there with lots of consumables.  If you are not careful you can blow through those consumables in no time.  Get a good water trap.  I have two.  One at the beginning of the line and one at the machine. During monsoons I have found water in the second.  Things get ugly when water gets in the line and destroys the tips quick.  Get in the habit of NOT dragging.  Just because you can does not mean you should.  A welder friend (40 years experience welding professionally) drags his tip and is always griping about the cost of consumables.

You will soon wonder how you lived without it.

Thanks.

33 minutes ago, the iron dwarf said:

you would need to go from the bottom of the table to near the top of the mounting for the cylinder with a box section or universal column (H) on the outsides depending on if you are using guided tooling or not, on my tiny press I use angle to make the sides triangular, see the pix in the dwarf forging press near the end of the thread.

I see what you mean by the sides.  Sweet little press.  Can you explain the 1/4 of travel before contacting the work.  I am not wrapping my head around it.  Are you only pressing stuff of the same size, is the start point of the press adjustable, or do you use plates to raise or lower the item to be pressed?

90% rule, get the vehicle that will get the job done 90% of the time

I guessed we had a one way trip to the closest "city".  After several hours of browsing the interweb we called the dealer and set up an appointment with the salesman to view 4 cars they had on the lot.  This was one of those mega dealers who have several brands all under one name. We left at 6am our time for a meeting with them at 10 their time.  3 hours later, on the lot my guess was proved right.  In fact I did not think we were going to make it a few times.  Nothing like knowing you are stranded and HAVE to buy.  I did not tell the salesman that.  quickly narrowed the choice to two 2013 Toyota Sienna, and 2011 Yukon, test drove them, and went to lunch to discuss.

Came back and Sienna was sold.  We got the Yukon.  At the top end of our budget but met most of our needs.  I was pleasantly shocked by the gas mileage we got on the way home.  Granted it is a pretty flat drive but we still got 28 miles per gallon.

The boys registered their votes on which to get too 

By width do you mean welding another plate onto the side or something like a 1 inch bar?  Would it need to be the entire length of the press or just the opening plus some to go past the opening?

This is down at the scrap yard.  obviously the ram needs to be changed but I was wondering about the structure.  It is about 12 inches wide in the opening and obviously I would have to weld a flat plate on instead of curved.  I can only assume this was used to cut pipe.

16 hours ago, Bud in PA said:

I remember my dad wearing leather wrist braces when he worked at loading trucks, back in the 40's an 50's. I have arthritis in my hands and use capsacium to treat it. it works for me, only down side is to remember to pee before putting it on your hands.

Do you remember what they looked like?

You rub the capsaicin on?  Really.  Peeing is one thing but what if your eyes itch, or your lady makes the moves.  I see lots of problems.  Maybe I should avoid this.

2 hours ago, Charles R. Stevens said:

I'm a big fan of letting some one else take the first hit form depreciation and new car warranty bugs, unless it's the first year of a major design change.  

I'm pushing for formally leased.  This way I know the dealer has kept it up and the mileage is just over when I feel the bug show themselves.

I am not good at making decisions. The bigger and more costly the decision, the longer it takes me to make it.  I'm a cheap skate at heart.

Momma gettin a new swagger wagon!  Dad is not.  Another mini van is what we will be getting.

And the happy news just keeps coming (That's sarcasm) plus it is going to be even hotter next week than when I started this thread.

Our CHevy uplander has always had a problem with the rear going out of alignment.  How can the rear of a FWD car go out of alignment you ask?  It is not supposed to.  You have to have shims installed.  I assumed the shims would wear down over time because in the ten years we have owned the thing we have had this done at least 4 times.

This time shims won't work.  Have to get a new axel.  When I asked how come the shims won't work because they have before, I was told "This van has never had shims put in" BY THE GUY WHO HAS BEEN THE ONE CHARGING US FOR SHIMMING IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would get banned if I used the words I used at that moment. 

My mechanic said trade it in.  I agree.  I haven't had a car payment for 9 years.  Its been nice.

P.S. my mechanic is not the alignment guy

Please don't use that beautiful piece of spalted maple for an anvil stand.  It deserves a lot more respect than being a stand that will be burnt, and dirtied.  If I were in your neck of the woods I would build a stand for you and trade.  I am and will always be a woodworker before metal worker.

Since it is too short you might see if a local wood worker will build you a butt ugly pine stand. in trade, and to your specifications.

Spalted maple book matched lumber for $195 and only 39 inches long.  Do you realize how valuable that stand is?

When I was young slot car tracks were popular.  Use one of those erasers on the contact points and leave your buddies in the dust, until they figured it out.

A long block in an oldsmobile Alero?  I don't think that is possible.  This is where boat and car motors differ and I start scratching my head.  No FWD on a boat so not sideways facing motors.  Here is what it would look like under my hood if there were no problems.

Frosty, that is how I am with carburetors.  When I am done fixing them I need a new one.  When I took over the boat shop I was smart enough to hand carb work over to one of the guys.

News on the car finally came back.  Definitely a blown head gasket but evidence also points to a cracked head, but no antifreeze in the oil. 

It is funny when people momentarily forget that I was boat mechanic.  I went in and he told me what was wrong, then said "the good news is the heads are only 300 dollars apiece."  That is low but then I explained the best part about head gasket or head replacement jobs, in the eyes of the shop, is the large amount of labor involved.  I was right the labor cost is 2 .5 times the cost of the heads if nothing else is wrong.

The car only has 50,000 miles on it so it is worth saving in that respect.  It is 16 years old so other parts are deteriorating due to age.