jumbojak

To be fair, in today's world "booting up" is as simple as pulling the phone from your pocket and swiping the screen.

I have a stump anvil similar to the one in the photograph above. It seems somewhat limiting but I have considered welding catches and grinding different radii into the sides for just the reasons Glenn mentioned.

Billings and Spencer was still forging simple carbon steel wrenches long after other makers had switched to more sophisticated alloys for their tools. If you get a closeup of the markings I might be able to roughly estimate the date and give a better idea of the alloy, though the end profiles certainly look like the older style which was produced into the 1920s. At one time B&S was a premium brand for adjustable and fixed end wrenches. They fell behind the times though and later attempt to modernize never gained much traction until the company was absorbed by Crescent Niagara and later killed by the Cooper Tool Group. The ones you have would probably make good candidates for repurposing. I have a small but growing collection of the old style Billings wrenches. They can be had very cheaply and I love the look of them. Especially the obstruction wrenches.

Sewing isn't very hard. Planning a pouch or roll can be surprisingly difficult though. I recently made a roll for a set of wrenches and with a few eyelets tacked on the ends it'd make a handy punch/chisel holder thatthatbcould be easily brought back inside or tucked away.

I would test the corrosion resistance of the bolts (studs?) which would tell you something about their potential uses, even if you don't determine the exact alloy. They might make good stock for outdoor fixtures or cooking utensils.

I got halfway through that article and found myself wondering when they started making car bodies out of high speed steel. The next paragraph cleared it up though. Interesting research.

A radio, yes. I should probably get one of those. The empty hole in the dash stares at me every day just begging for something to fill that space. A cup holder would be nice too.

The Integra was somewhat famous for broken climate control cables. It's really a question of how much or little of the dash I have to remove to get to it! And a sticking brake caliper is coming between me and comfort. I'm on number two to replace now. The first was likely due to the previous owner compressing the rear piston with a pair of Channellocks thereby stripping the parking brake. Moving on to the front, I think it's likely due to the brake fluid having not been changed since 98. Brakes are marginally more important than comfort. I just wish it had been both rears as I already have pads for that. Grrrrr.

The library card I carry in my wallet.

Staying cool in the car? I still haven't found the motivation to figure out why my "new" 98 Acura's heat won't turn off. I can turn the blower off but heat still radiates from the dash. Most likely a broken cable but I haven't been bothered enough to crawl under the dash yet and figure it out. By July maybe... if I don't die of heatstroke by then...

I can't speak to PFERD but at least some of the Grobet USA files are made in India. I discovered that while looking for some smaller saw files so check the COO before you shell out any cash for their products. The Indian Grobets looked terrible in the photographs I looked at and not exactly cheap either.

Well, I'm officially past the two week point without a cigarette. A girl I work with walked back in the other day after taking a smoke break and smelled absolutely scruptuous, but I resisted the urge to stop on the way home to buy a pack. Hopefully I'm out of the woods now. I've been using a vape pen just to maintain sanity but it's not the same. I'll give it another week and start turning it down to get off of nicotine completely.

If we're talking about blacksmithing tools I generally pass whenever someone knows (or thinks...) that a particular item is a blacksmithing tool. The price ends up way too high in that case. I've seen damaged hammers priced higher than new ones you could buy at a local hardware store because the hammer in question was a rusty cross peen and therefore an antique blacksmithing tool. For other types of tools I normally steer clear of the gimmicky stuff that seems to end up at thrift stores a few seasons after it's advertized on TV. While I usually buy hand saws if the price is $5 or less I toss the newer models back in the pile as they can't be sharpened reasonably. Pliers I will go for if a brand is visible and I can look it up, the knock offs stay where I find them. I don't buy used screwdrivers unless it's something I'm reallllly set on getting like the old SnapOns with the nice handles. Sockets and wrenches are usually priced smilarly to new, so it'd have to be something interesting like an SK, Wright, Proto, or Armstrong to get my attention. Power tools get purchased if it's a really good deal. I've found that older corded drills can be had for $5 or less and having a supply comes in handy. I'll pay six if the chuck key is part of the deal. Bench grinders, drill presses, table and miter saws etc., tend to be out of my price range but I keep my eyes open for other folks and might just be convinced to fork over some of my own cash if the deal is too good to pass up.

I've never run a gas forge so this may be completely off base but wouldn't having your forge mounted that high run a serious risk of burning all the hair off of your head? I think Thomas Powers mentioned doing a demonstration where he singed the hair from his arm by passing it in front of the opening. Just a thought.

At least it wasn't passing motorists "helping" with by blaring their horns. I've been in that situation a few times and there's nothing like seeing ten cows you carefully drove down the road all by yourself split into two different groups heading into two different patches of woods. The driver then pulls up and apologizes ("I didn't think they'd do THAT!) but all you can think about is dragging him out of the car and doing something highly impolite. I feel your pain Frosty...

That was my point, people intentionally welding on the table. Say, someone buys a welder and this table from HF, watches a few YouTube videos and fires it up with no professional guidance or substantial research. Heck, you can buy torch sets at HF too, and what better place to practice your cutting/welding/brazing skills than on the welding table you just bought? That's not to say that the table was a bad purchase for you, only that it could indeed be bad for someone less well informed. I just don't think it's the most well thought out product in their lineup. Potential liabilities and all that, not to mention additional cost, but that's their decision. I'm hardly one to panic over the prospect of galvanization. I steer clear of it as much as possible when I suspect fumes may come my way though.

I just looked the table up on the HF website and it lists zinc plating as one of the features. By my thinking, a galvanized welding table may not be the greatest idea to come from HF. Sure, it won't rust as easily as an unplated table, but if someone decided to tack something to the table or had to grind off spatter there's a potential fume hazard. Is your table galvanized Charlotte?

Any farmer raising registered cattle will have a source on line for liquid nitrogen. We have two tanks and no dairy cattle. The American Angus Association is the big one here and might be able to put you in touch with a member who could get a tank filled for you whenever they get theirs done. Of course, you'd have to provide a tank and arrange for payment. The nitrogen deliveries are usually on a set schedule here, not sure about New York or if a different organization would be better to contact.

The additional carbon in grey cast iron is in the form of graphite which acts as a lubricant while drilling and tapping. That's why drilling produces a fine powder instead of spiral chips. White cast iron is a different story altogether.

I do have a question and I hope you haven't answered it elsewhere Joel. How much does the length of the shaft matter to efficiency? By my thinking it might be beneficial to have heavier machines closer to the engine, so less energy is lost to flexing of the shaft. Then again, it might not matter on a practical line shaft run, given the limits of building length. I'm just wondering if that might be a consideration for a line shaft design. Also, you mentioned that the firepot in your coal forge was of your own design. Could you elaborate on the design?

You'll need to know what sort of anvil you're using before too much thought can go into the stand. For a heavy block of steel a tripod stand works well though I've seen some on here use a bucket filled with sand and wooden spacers to keep the anvil upright. A wider base might be in order for a london pattern. Just something to consider. Anvils come in many shapes and sizes. I work outside exclusively - haven't gotten around to stacking straw for the shop yet - and don't have any problems save one. Rain keeps me from working, as I don't have any sort of awning. Depending on the weather you might find enough rain blows in on bad days to keep you from working. Always use caution when electricity is involved. Build the heaviest bench you can and then build a shelf underneath so you can stack heavy items there to increase its weight. The best aspect of a bench is that it's a solid working surface. One that moves can be more of a hindrance than an aid in some cases. I'd stay away from any of the ready-made, store bought benches unless you can get one reaaaaaaaly cheap and use any savings to beef it up.

Indeed he did. Not sure how I missed that considering I read through this thread at least five times. Well, I thought I had anyway!

I'm curious about the shafts and belts themselves. From the photographs it appears to be a steel shaft fitted with wooden pulleys (some of them at least) run by leather belts. Were the shafts and pulleys fabricated or salvaged from another shop? Regarding the belts, what material do you use and what sort of service life can you expect from such an arrangement? I remember reading about beltmaker's planes... yes, here it is, the Stanley #11 beltmaker's plane. Do you use one of these or perhaps something of your own design to make and service the belts running on the line?

It's the Thomas Powers Applied Anvil Acquisition Technique. At the very least, you will find anvils using it. Whether they are for sale is another matter entirely....

I have a suspicion that this is an old principle dating to the days before powered, even foot powered, grinders were common. Go to a junk shop and find a chisel with a badly chipped edge. Now, using nothing more than a sharpening stone and perhaps a jig, grind the chisel until a flat primary bevel is achieved. It takes a long, long time. I could be wrong but it certainly seems plausible. A softer edge that would be more likely to roll than chip badly would be a more easily remedied failure. Similarly I've seen people worry themselves to death when sharpening drill bits, even though the bits in question were HSS. Folks will tell you to cool a drill often while sharpening so that the temper isn't ruined, despite the fact that HSS is engineered to maintain its hardness at much higher temperatures than simpler steels. Dunking serves to keep the drill at a temperature you can comfortably hold, not to protect the drill from overheating. A century ago overheating the drill could well have ruined it. It seems like knowledge from past generations that is no longer applicable given our modern situation.