bigb

This thread is timely since the stay at home orders I have been spending a lot of time in the shop. I started going through all my steel last week and getting it organized, I found a lot of things I didn't know I had. This weekend I am building a rack similar to the ones at the hardware store to put all the lengths of material under 36" into, those are the ones that get lost too easily behind the big stuff. This is all my bar, rod, angle, tubing, pipe & rebar, 20 footers outside under the porch, anything 12 feet or less is inside. Then there's another 2 walls of sheet & plate inside and some large structural pieces behind the garage, and an old locker full of interesting doo dads I have a bunch of different round and square pieces of plate stashed behind benches and shelves too. There's so much I can't always remember what I have or where it is. The only way I can explain it is I am a metal junkie, can't turn it down, can't part with it. And I stash it all over. I might need professional help

I find it hard to pass up any metal whatsoever. I have several tons right now in various locations at my house. It's like treasure to me. When I need to build something I am always looking to use the least desirable stuff in my collection first, I almost hate to use a "nice" piece of steel for the project at hand in case a better use for it might come up in the future. It's even hard for me to toss small scraps that might be useful someday. I got a lot of my collection from the scrap yard where I recycle my copper wire. Also on the construction sites, any scrap or stuff home owners don't want goes straight into my truck. Add to that any leftovers from new steel that I buy for certain projects and I have quite a pile. Yet it seems a lot of the time I don't have just what I need, or enough of one thing to make something. Then it's off to the steel yard. Just today I cut up 8 feet of 4X4X1/4" angle from an old window lentil I have had for years, it will now become the corners for some large wooden box planters.

Once you have the anhydrous Borax will it store OK or will it absorb moisture like 7018 welding rod does?

In my shop I hooked up a socket to my air compressor and screwed in a red light bulb that stays on when the compressor switch is on, I don't forget to shut it off this way. I have several electric heaters with 4 hour spring wound timer switches on them, plus red light bulbs. Another compressor idea is to wire it through a time clock and install only the "off" cam set at the latest time you would be in the shop. That way the compressor will never stay on all night. Just use the manual switch in the time clock to turn it back on.

The masons here remove the guards and put 10 inch carbide/diamond blades on their 7" grinders to slice block, very scary looking. They don't believe in respirators either, why waste good beer money on a respirator when you can just pull your tee shirt over your nose?

That is one beautiful vise! I really need to get going on my 3 post vises which all need work. Do you happen to have more pics of the mounting bracket, I might copy the design

I am planning a sand filled stand as well, I have the base already made. I wouldn't mind seeing Alwin's idea but alas he hasn't posted for 3-1/2 years on the site.

I think I would do it anyway while they aren't looking. Is it a primary line or something? No such rules here or in the NEC except for proper clearances which vary for different voltages. Sometimes those POCO guys make up their own rules. They follow NESC, not sure what NESC says about structures under the line but whether it is primary or secondary is going to make a difference. I don't see a problem placing a non-conductive roof, or a conductive one at that, under a secondary line provided you have the required minimum clearance

I almost forgot, I made a weather proof locker from angle iron and corrugated roofing 4 feet wide, 2 feet deep and 6 feet tall. I keep my coal in there and I put racks on the doors so when you swing them open the tongs and hammers are right there hanging on the inside of the door easy to grab. When finished for the day just close em up and everything is out of the weather. Another smaller white cabinet sits just inside the roofed area and holds all my small material that might come in handy when making something.

My smithy is outdoors as well but I did build a metal roof that cranks up and down so when not in use it is hidden from view below my 6' perimeter wall and mostly protects my stuff from the rain. I bought some roof turbine vent covers from Home Depot for $5 each and I cover the anvils and the two pedestal grinders I keep out there. The coal forge is an open top barrel design and I took a big piece of 1/8" aluminum and bent it into a "garbage can" looking lid that fits tightly over the top since the coal forge sits out from under the roof. The aluminum top also makes for a great work surface when the forge is not being used, I always use it to rest lumber on when I cut it. In the summer it gets really hot here but it's very dry so evaporative coolers work great and I have a 4,500 CFM on a rolling stand sitting just outside the roofed area. My propane forge fits nicely under the roof.

You might like the Salton Sea area, slab city, Salvation Mountain etc. Leonard Knight dedicated the last 30 years of his life to Salvation Mountain. We made a road trip at Christmas to Plam Springs with the intention of seeing everything. We saw the West side of the Salton Sea on the way up but on our way home, when we planned on seeing the Far more interesting East side, it poured rain so hard we barely got out of there as the highway was flooding in numerous areas.We saw the campground and Bombay Beach before we decided we had better get out. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvation_Mountain

There's more videos, this one has good pictures of his work and of his shop, and some good ones of Emory himself. Why can't more stuff like this be on TV instead of the garbage shows? https://www.pbs.org/video/emery-blagdon-and-his-healing-machine-zviysk/

That was incredible, thanks for sharing

Pics will come....progress is very slow as I still work full time. (I've had the cylinders cut and ready for about 5 years!) Neil thanks, I am planning to experiment, I saw where one guy uses hard wood wrapped in leather. I also have some smaller cylinders that would fit up inside the large one but I wonder if that will be too heavy for the wind to move.

Apparently the Flores family agrees that arc welding is part of blacksmithing. https://tucson.com/news/local/william-flores-jr-carried-on-after-dad-in-blacksmith-shop/article_90c09187-b3b0-51d5-afa9-4bcc164e9ffb.html I never knew the family but recently a friend got the job of clearing out some remaining items from the now closed shop. Earlier all the stuff that was able to be moved was donated by the family to the Arizona Artist's Blacksmith Association to equip the County Fair Blacksmith Shop. My friend was paid to "dispose" of the remaining items. Here he is dismantling the very power hammer Mr. Flores is using in the 2010 newspaper article photo and preparing it for disposal....in his shop. Lucky for him the motor is single phase.

I hope it's OK to post this here, it's mostly cutting & welding but some hammering could be done on the decoration and hooks. I am getting ready to hang my O2 cylinder bell. I have the stand figured out for now but I am wondering what people are doing for the part that you hang it from, and hang the clanger from. I noticed the threads where the valve came out look like 3/4" with fine threads. I have some nice heavy rings, and I can probably make or buy a big eye bolt. I also thought about a D ring shackle. Just looking for some ideas from those who have done this

here is mine

I made one 48 inches X 32 inches, height about 6 feet. I made the base with scrap 2" angle iron 1/4" thick with heavy duty casters then the four sides with 3/16" X 2" angle, the top 1/8" angle and the shelves are framed with 1" X 1/8" inverted angle covered with expanded metal and some 1/2" square tube running across the short span for added strength (all scrap I had on hand). Then I cut up some of the leftover 1/4" angle into "L" brackets to hold my shelves up. I drilled the uprights every 6" and tapped the L brackets for a 3/8" bolt so my shelves can be adjusted by removing the bolts and re-positioning the L brackets. It is very sturdy and the casters make it versatile to move around in the shop. It's present use is holding electrical equipment for upcoming jobs but after I retire I plan to use it for material storage. The shelving in your pictures looks a lot like "Gorilla Racks" and I have half a dozen of those along the walls. They are good for storing things long term but impossible to move should something fall behind them.

Ah got it. Ringing never really bothered me anyway, I had heard that springs or magnets can reduce it but didn't really notice any difference on my other anvils when I tried a magnet. No neighbors close to my shop either.

Not sure what you are trying to say, you would leave them? I always secure my anvils but not with welds.

There's a spring on each side and I think they were hooked into the stand. I'm thinking about grinding them off, the welds look like bird poop anyways.

I finally got it. She weighs in at 115 lbs and I got the following rebound with my ball bearing: HORN=75-80%, FACE BETWEEN HORN & HARDIE HOLE=90+%, HEEL=80%. The top is very nice and flat with no pitting. There are some welds on it where someone put on a couple of springs and also appear to be some beads on the front of the base. My cost was one service call, then when I went to pick it up he said the arena light was out so I fixed that in 30 min plus one new photocell so really I barely got anything but some of my time into it and about 1.5 hrs of my helper's time ($33) and a $15 photocell. This make #3 for me, all good quality ones. Seems like in the beginning you try to find anvils, then after a while they find you. Oh almost forgot, I got a nice heavy stand with it.

Oh it felt real good to beat them. They come to the yard sales and snatch things up real quick and resell it. One yard sale had 2 1/2 air impacts side by side, one was old school Snapon and one was Harbor Freight. Stupidly I asked how much for the HF and the lady says $5 and before I could ask how much for the Snapon the other guy asked and he got it for $5, later I found out he was a dealer when he came to my house to buy my old Okeefe and Merrit range.

I lucked out on my A&H, it was a yard sale and the people let me in the night before. I bought the anvil for full asking price of $2.50/lb and a bunch of other stuff. Went back the following morning for more stuff and waited till the advertised 7:00 AM start time, when I walked in there were two guys looking for the anvil. It was easy to see they were dealers.

I have an A & H, 149 lbs. I was able to date it with the serial number like Thomas says. It is a beautiful anvil and rings all over the face and the rebound is 90%. The heel is a bit thin and worriesome to some when using it for heavy work but I haven't heard of anyone breaking one yet. Mine is right at 100 years old.