Smoggy

Happy Christmas and New Year to all where ever you are.

I suspect BGD is correct, cables are laid in wet concrete casting and then tensioned usially via a mechanical/hydraulic "puller". The sheathing is a spacer between multiple pours or secions. When the concrete has cured the cable ends are cut off. Leaving the cast concrete "pre=stressed". The cable in the offcuts, now no longer under tension relax back to near their original length or there abouts and expanding to fill the sheath. Looks like that it is those offcuts you have to me, so be carefull there may be a galvanised coating on the wires!

if that the remaining faced areas are sound then just use it, as mentioned above, dress the damaged area a little and use it as an extra feature. As for the horn tip, if you need the smaller end, make yourself a small horn stake or a cone to mount in the hardy hole.

Tools were traditionally carried in box bellows, dependant on design, both the main chamber and valve box had opening lids, and the valve sections at the ends were beyond the range of the piston, all these areas could be used for storage, Some even had draws built into the ends. Due to BB's working at low pressure/high volume, the chamber sides and piston can be rather crude with a rudimentery seal. So light damage to the interior isn't as detrimental to performance as one would think. And you could always add some light packing for protection, rice straw springs to mind, or any modern packing material. But take care not to overload it...!

I found it very interesting and informative too, no idea when I will ever get a chance to use a power hammer, but so much here applies to other processes and machines. Fundamentally basic stuff but so easy to overlook to our detriment.

Plenty of welders regularly make bolts from threaded rod with a nut zapwelded on, and it's not so long ago that dogs powered the roasting spit in Wales. Seems to me sometimes the more things change the more they stay the same and it is very rare you ever come across anything genuinely new!

All depends on what you have to do, or can choose to do. If it's getting in your way and making life and work difficult it's a pain. If you have the freetime to enjoy it then for a lot of us it's a rare treat! Yes we've already had a show earlier last month, not a lot and barely laid, didn't last long at all. It's highly likely we will get more this season but usually after Christmas. How much is anyones guess!

Good advice offered above, my mind also turned straight to canister damascus but not completely sure as regards the stainless, I've not done a lot of work with it at all. I have one question for the original postee, if you recycle yourself rather than dispatching it for recycling, is there any paperwork you could get tripped up on?

Like anything, VR has it's uses and education can be one, if nothing else it is a form of exposure. The virtual reality of flight and driving simulators has proven a real boon with the Military, Civil Aviation and Motor Sport, How usefull it is to instruct in a craft setting I've no idea, maybe I have not the vision of the young students, (pun intended) what Blacksmith(s) did they work with and what did they think of the finished product? Can't fail to agree with Glenn, as regards if it brings one person into the craft it can't be bad, but call me a sceptic, I suspect it is of most use to the IT Students themselves!

No again JHCC, I didn't mean to refer to myself as the compiler of a dictionary but as the dictionary itself and the language/grammar, although having already spotted one spelling error I didn't notice the errant 'c'. You do realise the more I tripe the more I err...!

Ah! I see Daswolf, thanks. JHCC, no I did mean exacerbates: to make something that is bad even worse (Cambridge Dictionary) Although I do admit to being a particularly unacomplished lexicon and prone to typographic errors, so I do tend to proof read but often do not see them on screen but spot them straight up on paper...weird!

I'm not familiar with that term Tubalcain2, but I summise it refers to the rebufal of my statedment, which in the 3rd paragraph confirms my statement as true.

As my main anvil is square (the other is slightly longer) it makes little difference except the edges all have different radii, when using most other peoples anvils, I'm with both TP and ID.

It is worth pointing out that ALL vices do this, be it old well worn blacksmiths leg vices (that's the vice that's old and worn not the blacksmith or his leg,,,,) or brand new accurtate engineering machine vices. Not shimming exasperates the problem over time.

That my be fine for you Aussies, but here in the UK when we have one of those days....... ......we turn of the cricket on the TV off and go light the forge and beat up some metal....!

I've seen a video of aJapanese Swordsmith light his forge by hammering an iron rod to light a piece of paper, traditional I believe.

Are you sure it is the cross pien hammer that is giving tyou grief? It could equally be the tongs, size/type/shape/fit or how they are being held. When viewing a video or watching a demo by a tutor or skilled proponent, how often do you watch how the work is being hammered, failing to take notice of how it is being held and handled?

Always complete a visual inspection and ring test before mounting a wheel. If you find a cracked wheel, then break it so it can never be mounted, but don;t discard it, I use the broken bits to dress mounted wheels and in the process redress the broken bits to use as sharpening stones, which can be very handy if you need to keep touching up the likes of hoes in the field, saves taking them for sharpening so often!

I have a number of chucks requiring various square drive keys......I use a square drive ratchet and appropriate reducers, I'd use a tommy bar and extention but don't have one handy! Yes at some point I will make myself a set to match each chuck.

No problem Andrew, just make sure you follow the dimensions and other info provided by Lee, as I understand it they are somewhat critical to success, yes when you gain experience and understand it's workings you likely can "deviate" a bit.

Not the info I was thiking of but essentually the same. Diverting from the design is where you have gone wrong, nothing to do with damp charcoal, that'll dry out in short order. It took quite some experimenting to get the dimentions for this furnace correct adding a completely new feature makes what you have not an Aristitle Furnace. The bloom is removed from the top of the furnace with a pair of tongs when the charcoal is burned out, Upon doing so it can immeadiately be recharge for another burn. It is dependant on the airflow to make it work, change that, and it no longer works. You have plans, stick to them next time, once you can get it working relyably then is the time to "fiddle" with the design if you feel you must and not before.

Too much air flow, which also means you are burning up your fuel! You can cut it off all together when you don't have iron in the fire, charcoal will stay alight without air and save more fuel.

As a machinist, welder and hoping one day to call myself a Blacksmith in training......"drool" !

It's called an Aristotle Furnace because it was first described by Aristotle I believe and you apear to have gotten it a bit wrong, there is a very good you tube vid of a gentleman demonstrating one, half an hour to produce a useable bloom I think it was and once removed you can fire it back up again. There are also some decent design plans on the web from they who worked it out in the first place. i have intentions of having a go myself once I get my box bellows installed in the forge.

Stock rack, good idea.... there's probably a thread here devoted to that subect, and if not, there should be.....