John in Oly, WA

You might connect the tank to something else to see if you get gas flow - like a BBQ or weed burner torch. Then you'll have an idea where the problem is. Your regulator looks to be screwed in to FULL on flow. Like Thomas said, back out the adjuster screw til it's almost about to fall out.

Isn't the excess metal supposed to deposit on the cathode? What do you use as a resist?

JHCC, I've used RootKill (copper sulfate pentahydrate) and table salt in warm water - no electricity - for etching with good results.

Congrats on the successful pattern weld! Kind of exciting to go through the steps and see it going together well. How long did you soak it in the coffee? I'm working on my first pattern welds now, but I have a forge press. I can appreciate all the effort to hammer it out by hand, though I think doing it that way would get the better of me. Nice bevel grind too!

It's a forge, aren't you trying to make the inside hot? LOL just kidding. Just put together two or three panels (plywood or whatever) with hinges so it can stand up and partially surround the forge on the upwind side. make it taller than the height of the top of the burners. No need to put a top on it and make a box.

Another very nit picky comment on the first one, the notch (sharpening choil?) looks like it cuts into the plunge line. If it were moved forward slightly so the back of the notch was flush with the plunge line, it wouldn't interrupt the plunge line and then that line would extend smoothly to the bottom of the ricasso. But that's just me being pickticularly picky.

For me, it's like the Egyptian pyramids of blacksmithing..."How the heck did they manage to build that?!"

And beautiful gardens Alexandr! Sure thing, bigfoot. It's one of the unique treats of the Americas. When they come over for a visit, my English relatives love to watch the hummingbirds, as they don't have them.

$37.50 sounds a bit high. you could probably get it cheaper than that at the big box stores and I never recommend using them as a steel supplier. The big box store has 2" x 3/8" x 36" for $22.87 in my neck of the woods. That's the same amount of steel you're looking for - slightly different shape. Have you shopped around for industrial steel suppliers that sell small orders retail? What I often do is go in and order two 10' pieces of whatever size I want - short enough to tie to my truck or top of my car and get home with. They take a 20' and cut it in half. I figure any extra, I'll eventually use for some project, but even buying shorter lengths has never resulted in that high a price.

Very nice! I agree with you, creativity with some personal meaning worked in is most rewarding.

You have some nice treasure piles!

I doubt any hummingbirds, unless they've been exported. They're specific to the Americas.

And then you have some scrap metal to do something else with. Nothing like getting a start on building up your scrap, uh, I mean treasure pile.

The Kolswa looks nice, but I'm not real crazy about the stand it's on. $700 is kinda spendy, but the market is what it is sometimes. If you bought the 104lb, you'd probably be jonesin' for a 150-200 lber in short order. I have an 80 lber and I'm on the lookout for a larger anvil, not a $700 larger anvil though.

First thing I thought seeing the drawing was it looks like a skinner. If that's its intended purpose, that's great, but I agree with "minion's" assessment - straighten the angle of the handle a bit.

If it were me, I'd just make it a side blast - cut the melted part off the end of the pipe, stack the bricks around it in a square bowl shape so the end of the pipe is tucked back from the bowl protected by brick around it, add fuel and fire it up. If I wanted to get fancy, I'd fashion a ceramic nozzle on the end of the pipe.

Bad analogy. Venomous snakes are not humans. We tend to hold humans to a bit different standard of conduct than wild animals (we make laws about that conduct), otherwise there would be either, no prisons, or they would be full of animals too. Our standards of morality, we apply to humans, not animals. Although, if an animal attacks a human, we certainly kill it. As for "killing every snake we see" based on their potential, yes humans have essentially done that. Wolves were wiped out in various areas of the world based on the threat they posed to humans. Other animals were treated similarly as well. And my opinion ( I agree with the psychiatrists you've read that sociopaths can't be rehabilitated ), harsh though it may be, is kill them or lock them up at the first offense and don't ever release them. I would consider it cleaning the gene pool.

So, you think when a sociopath goes on a spree of killing several people, or even just uses and manipulates people for their own benefit with no regard for any harm it may inflict, it's morally neither good nor bad?

Don't marry them. Yes they are bad. They just don't see it that way, which is a big part of their mental illness.

You're right Frosty. I drew it correct and said it backwards. Picky is important, as the devil's in the details. Reminds me of Spinal Tap and their Stonehenge stage prop. My house's roof would look a lot different if I wrote the ratio backward. LOL

A 45 degree taper would be a 1:1 ratio. 12:1 is pretty shallow. You rigidize the kaowool. That makes it well...rigid. Then it won't compress so easily when coating it with kastolite 30. Also, you apply the 1/2" of kastolite all at once. Not built up of many layers. It handles and works like concrete.

I come up with a taper roughly 1.05" to 1.375" in a 2" span based on 3/4" sched. 40 SS pipe with an OD of 1.05" and the end of the burner inserted 1/2" into the forge.

Casting the flare into the refractory can work if it's the right shape - generally 12:1 taper is considered right. That's what I did in my forge and it works fine.

Hey Frosty, if you don't have any luck with the food saver, you can send the piece of myrtlewood down to me and I'll stabilize it for you and send it back. If it's not too big a piece. Note to Theo: I'm making progress on the collaboration knife. I'll post an update soon. It's just been a steep learning curve, but that's what I tend to do, design things that take a lot of work and learning.

Thanks for the pics. It reminds me of my Grampa's house - a fun place with all kinds of interesting iron. My Grampa would've been in seventh heaven walking around there. Of course he would've wanted to tinker with everything to make it "skookum".