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I Forge Iron

Ohio

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  1. Ohio

    Ways and means

    So I have a Boice & Crane I'd estimate is 80-100 years old that had been adapted as a small metal spinning lathe. I finally have the Wonder Hut (my metalworking studio---studio because I am a pretentious artiste) close to done and ready for projects and this lathe may be in the top five of first set of projects. I say top five because I have fabricating to do, but I'd really like to get this lathe operational. Maybe. Which is why I'm posting this. I think I could probably clean everything off and just get it working but I think I'd like to try re-habbing it and perhaps replacing the ways. The headstock is quite beefy cast iron with ball bearings that are working just fine based on appearances, but I'll pull out the headstock spindle assembly to be sure. The tailstock is also quite beefy, though there's a chunk out of the back of the casting near the handwheel you turn to tighten the quill. I don't think it's repairable but it may not need to be as the quill tightens when the wheel turns and I don't see any other cracks...yet. The toolslide appears to have been fabricated for metal spinning as it's big and heavier than what you'd expect for a lathe like this, and the t-rest was obviously fabbed for this use. I made a t-rest that's heavier than the one made for this lathe and I'll either swap them or make another. The ways, however, are not heavy. It may not matter, really, but they are also way too long for my use. I'm wondering if I should replace or cut down the ways. The ways are steel and in two pieces that are bolted together. There's a cast iron foot for the end opposite the headstock and a cast iron insert that I think is supposed to go on the end closest to the headstock---I'm going to take it apart and I'll move it to see if it fits. I haven't found any manuals specifically for this lathe but the manuals and drawings I can find for similar Boice & Crane wood lathes have the piece at the headstock end. I'm wondering how difficult it would be to replace the ways with heavier and shorter materials. I'm also wondering how difficult it would be to cut the ways without deforming them too much by heat. I also have to get a new motor. I saw a youtube video showing where a guy used a treadmill motor to run what looked like the same lathe. I like the variable speed but I was struck at how much vibration there was. That could be because he hadn't bolted anything down or the bench wasn't heavy enough, but perhaps it was the ways are too light for this use. I know the old guy who owned all this stuff before me used it frequently to spin lighter projects, so I know it works. But I'd like a lot less vibration, so I'm thinking maybe I should make heavier ways. But maybe not. So I'm going to brave the shark-infested waters of old lathe rehab to get opinions from you all. I'll try to get some pictures to show you what I mean.
  2. Heh. I never asked about the spelling. He did talk like he forgot vowels existed, though, so you're probably right. So, TP, what kind of braid for the beard? I find beardbraids...disturbing. And not in a good way. Maybe you could plait it like Yeoman Rand's hair on Star Trek---The Original Series.
  3. As my late father-born-and-raised-in-Arkansas-in-law used to say, "That feller's got summer teeth---summer in and summer out."
  4. Ah, I see. And then TP spends time contouring the cheekbones to achieve a natural, smooth definition. That clarifies things. I do wonder what TP uses for eyeshadow---I bet he goes for the smoky-eye-look by getting too close to a fire he may or may not have started. I'm not saying TP is an arsonist, though my hunch is that he is often arson adjacent.
  5. Heh. Nice. So, TP, what kind of compound are using to this here polish you're talking about? What is the appropriate rouge to get your Hillbilly Image to a mirror shine?
  6. Heh. That sounds like a terrible breakfast. I thought of you when I asked Slag about using rage in lieu of le papier de la toilette (I don't know if that's right, but I'm bored with typing, "TP," so you gets what you gets).
  7. It's Ms., SLAG. And no apologies necessary. I knew what ya meant. I was just giving you a hard time because I never make yptos. (I also chortled when I read it, so thanks for that.)
  8. Frosty, why is the grass white? Heh. One of my besties drives horses in competitions. When it's time for them to work, you can feel they're excitement. She has Freisians now but way back, she had an old Percheron who would flex his muscles when he entered the ring. Of course, he'd pose until he went around the ring three times and then he was done and ready for his treats. He was hilarious and way too smart. His best trick was if you were giving him a bath, he'd step on the hose to stop the water. He wouldn't move his foot until you bent down to tap his hoof and then he'd raise his foot and knee you in the forehead. Sounds kinda mean but it was pretty funny. He got my friend just once. After that, you'd see him try the trick again but he never pulled it off. He'd lift his foot an then set it back down on the edge of his hoof as if he was just shifting positions. He was sort of like a cat. A cat that literally weighed just under a ton. I miss that horse.
  9. SLAG, think you could expand a bit more on how to use rage in lieu of toilet paper? Because I have lots of rage and using it for personal hygiene would be awesome. Heh. Just having some fun with typos. That is a particularly amusing one, SLAG.
  10. Yeah, I know about charcoal staying lit. We heated our homes for over two decades before building the house we're in now. But your point is a good one and I'll ponder it as I move forward. Why, yes, houses in South California need fireplaces so during winter holidays, you can fire them up and then crank the air conditioning for a truly festive experience. It's traditional.
  11. Heh. Good one. Re: bin air-tightness for fire prevention. My concept for the charcoal hole is to keep the storage and burning areas separated by a series of (probably steel) panels/doors as well as brick wall or surround to keep any fire/spark away from the stored materials. I'm trying to keep dust inside the Hut down by using this pass-thru. And it's one less round of toting to do, but those advantages mean nothing if I unintentionally set fire to stuff. Intentional firesetting is a completely different thing. I got the idea during a re-read of Silas Marner by George Eliot (Eppie is shut in the coal hole, etc.---adorable scene, actually). And then I remembered how people built firewood pass-thrus into their cabins, something people still do here.
  12. I'm progressing, slowly but surely. I learned how to bend 3/4" conduit and have gotten pretty good at it. My pipe cutter needs a new blade (or I need a new cutter) because it takes forever to cut EMT. But it is getting done. Using 24" pallet rack for shelving and work benches (yet to be installed) and am pretty sure I'm going to cut up the scaffolding I have in the Hut into a rolling work table. I have other scaffolding, so I won't miss this one. I have to draw up the idea of I have because I'd like to use some of the bits I cut off as swing up tables, but let me get the infrastructure done and I'll worry about that later. Changed the location of my forge to a corner. I want to do small things and if I want to do big stuff, I can go outside. I think I'll cut a coal hole in the east sidewall for my charcoal. Basically, the charcoal will sit in a a top or side-loading watertight bin outside the structure that I fill from Burnie the charcoal retort. I can then open an interior door to shovel or rake the charcoal through the sidewall opening as needed for the forge. I may even have it sit off the ground so I can rake charcoal in next to the forge. I'll have to draw it to make sure it's going to work as I visualize it. I had thought of enclosing my compressor on the exterior on the east wall as well, and then sending power and hose through the wall to cut down on the sound., but may not need to do that. Finish up the infrastructure, set up the pallet rack, move in tools and equipment, start fabricating some stuff (tool racks mostly) and fixing up my spinning lathe and building the forge. Don't have pictures, but I have a picture... Century Graphic 6x7, Ilford Delta 100, way too early in the morning and pretty dang cold. I can't remember the shutter speed but I believe the aperture was f/11.
  13. Unfortunate, but true, Marc1. They all seem so bored. Though I still think Grant Imahara is pretty cool because robots. Ok, TP, the first time I read your response I thought you meant like, Chili's, the restaurant. And I thought, "Well, that's wrong. ALL Chili's contravene the Geneva Convention." Then I saw you meant the other kind of chili. So with the solar-powered mini-foundry, I understand what you're saying about BTUs and stuff. Science is always against me, dang it. However, I think I may try it because I like to melt things. Shut up, melting things is a perfectly respectable hobby.
  14. Oooo, ThomasPowers, are you saying you want to build an Archimedes Death Ray? MIT actually built one after Mythbusters busted it as a myth and set a fake ship on fire with it. So in your face, TV show. If an Archimedes Death Ray isn't what you meant, it's what you should've meant because a Death Ray would be awesome.
  15. You and me both, dude. So, has anyone tried fresnel welding or similarly, using a fresnel in a little aluminum foundry? (Maybe I should start a different thread.) It's one of those, "Looks like a fun mad science experiment for a grown-up who knows to keep a hose handy for when she/he sets the grass on fire," sort of things. I ask because it seems like an interesting thing to think about and try, not as a replacement but as a way to learn and experiment.
  16. I am a charter member of B.O.O. We had t-shirts and sweatshirts and still have actual badges, made by the same people who make FBI badges. We've gone on ghost hunts (sometimes outside the USA), do investigations, and were featured on Discovery Channel Canada on a kids' TV show about how to approach claims about ghosts and hauntings. And we were vilified by other ghosthunters because were skeptics. (Don't go looking for us though because I took down the website years ago when we stopped doing ghosthunts.) However, we're planning a ghosthunting/photo trip to Northern State Hospital in Sedro Wooley this summer. The most important tool in the ghosthunting arsenal are Rice Krispie Treats. Rice Krispie Treats are the official food of adventure. We did one investigation where the entire workforce of this bookstore were too terrified to go into the basement storage area. We hid some cameras and mics, but it was when we interviewed the employees that we caught the guy who was scaring everyone. He'd been dating someone who also worked there and when she broke up with him, he started terrorizing her. Then it spread. He was such a jerk. One time we were in Deal, England, in a pub (because bars always have spirits, hahahah---get it?) when I heard one of my favorite ghost stories. We hear a lot of stories doing this very thing---sit in a local watering hole like a bar or coffee shop, be honest when someone asks what you're doing in town and be honest. Everyone laughs at you then after a bit, people will start telling stories. Happens every time. So, the woman who told us this story was the daughter of the cleaning woman who took care of a set of elderly fraternal twins living in a nearby village. The twins were very close and very eccentric. They would always perform at village gatherings where she sang and he played piano. The brother died and the sister lived in the house alone but for visits from the cleaning woman. One day the cleaning woman was about to open the front door when she heard someone singing accompanied by a piano. "It's so nice to hear you singing," she told the elderly sister when she came in. "Oh, yes," the lady said. "It's so nice to sing again." "I didn't know you played the piano," "Oh, no," the old lady said. "I don't."
  17. Frosty, you're just jealous. Everyone knows Thor is completely secure in his masculinity. He can pose however and he's still Thor. And the dude had a hammer till Mjolnir got all crushed by Cate Blanchett. Oh, sorry: Spoiler alert.
  18. Okay, I get what you're going for here---light touch-ups of cutting edges, definitely not for re-grind. Looks fun. I don't like working with MDF (personal preference, not a comment on your character---I'll wait till I know you better to do that) but it is heavy and strong. And expensive. I was wondering if you could use pre-existing wood shapes. For example, big stores sell 3/4"x4'x8' MDF for about $35 around here. They also sell round pine table tops or plywood birch circles for about $12 each (you might even find free ones on CL). Perhaps you could glue-up four or five of those table tops (alternating grain direction for any solid wood), then route and drill to fit. You may even be able to add weight between layers of the glue-up by insetting steel, though you'd need to be careful about balance. You could then sand or circle cut the perimeter or fill any gaps with something like Bondo. Might even then glue a hook-and-loop to make changing grits easier. I'd also suggest having a shelf on which to rest your arms as you touch up edges and in case the workpiece slips or some piece goes flying---it may stop you from getting hit in a sensitive area. Be interesting to see how you proceed.
  19. So I went outside and looked everything over minus my excitement about multi-process machines. It all makes sense again. The panel in the Wonder Hut has one double pole (240v) 50-amp breaker and two 20-amp single pole (120v) breakers. The service is 60 amps coming from the main shop panel at the mast. I opened up that box as well to confirm that there are 200 amps, which is correct. Plus I found wasps, which I killed. BTW, everything was turned off before I started poking around. I prefer my foolishness to be whimsical and charming, not all electrified and smoking. I don't think I want to increase capacity at the W'Hut now. We have a big upgrade to the Moneymaking Shop coming next year---huge, as in, I'm going to have to sell a kidney to afford it---and it makes more sense to re-evaluate our needs then. This will also prevent me from buying big machines any time soon because I will be both poor and minus one kidney. Normally I'd be all over the "Get it done before you move stuff in or cover it up," but this shop is small and everything will be in conduit and relatively accessible. (The dome was made of 3/4" EMT, so I have the conduit. Recycling, baby.) As always, thanks, you all.
  20. So, y'all got me re-checking everything, including my notes. I think I have it totally wrong. We installed this panel in the geodesic dome I built for my lap pool aka Poolie. I built the dome out of 3/4" electrical conduit that bolted together, then had it shrinkwrapped using the stuff they shrinkwrap yachts, etc., with. Poolie was all 120v---pump and heater---when installed. In the summer, it worked great but the heater couldn't keep up once it got cold. So I hired some electricians to install an exterior panel inside the dome so I could heat the pool with 240v. Passed inspection, though my pool guy said there was stuff in the panel that was not to code for spa/pool. Nothing was dangerous, but it was kind of funky. But we got the pool hooked up and I used the pool for six years. I took it all apart because the pool was misbehaving in the way swimming pools do and the shrinkwrap was falling apart. I used the dome as a temporary shop and realized I wanted something more permanent. (There are pictures of the dome interior in this thread about Burnie the charcoal retort.) I hired a company to build the frame and exterior siding around the electrical panel. (Note: I will never hire that to be done again. The crew were all nice and non-creepy, but when you don't know how to install a window the right way up, well, maybe this isn't the career path for you. They did leave a bunch of extra material for me, which I used on the inside of my new Wonder Hut.) The white siding is surplus they left for me. The ceiling has billboard tarps (this one is for an olde-timey biplane club). Walls are just under 8' and the peak is about 11' from the floor. Floor space is about 15'x15', so it's small, but will work for me. Roll up door and person door on the north side. Three windows. I also insulated and used moisture barrier under the floor. Anyway, my notes say we have 60-amp service at the panel now inside the Hut. The electricians said they had pulled heavier-gauge wire that required (I'm pretty sure because they had it) and that there were two 15-amp 120v circuits in addition to what I needed for the pool. I wrote down that they were 15-amp breakers and I don't recall swapping them out for 20-amp, but that's what's there. My pool guy said the electricians installed a 50-amp double breaker for the pool heater-pump assembly and it was oversized for this application. As I recall (because this isn't in my notes but I'm pretty sure this is correct) my pool guy wired the pool-heater assembly as 240v, which let me keep the water warm during the winter. The pool heater-pump assembly was hardwired to the panel. There was also an exterior light installed as required by code the electricians hung on the side of the dome, as well as one GFI outlet that's still there---these are the circuits I have noted as 15-amp. When I took the dome apart, I turned off the service at this panel and at the panel on the mast and removed all of the wiring but that for the GFI. I went out to look at the panel because Fowllife made a great point about how weird the set-up I described would be. I also realized I was so sure about what was there, that I must be wrong. This is what I found: So now I'm all confused and feeling stupid, baffled, and dispirited. What have I got going on here? And I gotta find an electrician.
  21. Heh. Good one. How long you been waiting to use that one? Arrrgh. Yeah, more power to the Wonder Hut. It just gets me in an uncomfortable bind.
  22. Dang, I meant to address this question and I totally forgot in my enthusiasm... The air supply needed for charcoal is a lot less than you think. I used a hand air mattress pump with the JAGOD, but I've since moved up to a handcranked blower a buddy gave me. There are people who use blow dryers and to control the amount of air, they moves the blow dryer away from the mouth of the tuyere (that's the pipe that sends the air into the fire). A side blast forge has the tuyere coming in the side of the firepit, while a bottom blast forge has the tuyere attached at the bottom. As I understand it, and in very general terms, a forge using charcoal will perform best as a side blast forge while a forge using bituminous coal is usually a bottom blast. But this is not always so. Also, generally, charcoal forges need less air than you think, but the air needs to be going to the right place. That's where the learning comes in. One of the nice things about a JABOD/JAGOD is that you can tear it apart and re-arrange bits to suit your needs.
  23. So my blacksmithing buddy mentioned multi-process machines, like everlast which I would use along with my little Lincoln MIG. My use is hobbyist and project based, so not every day and probably not anything large. I don't usually weld any steel over 1/4-3/8" thick. Anyway, I have several questions. First, a caveat: My blacksmithing buddy was a Navy electrician and I have done some work with 120V, but the second I sense even a whiff of danger, I'll call a professional. My nose is as sensitive to the scent of danger as it is to money, which is to say, pretty dang sensitive. Right now I'm just trying to grasp what my options are. So, onward... 1. Has anyone used any of the multi-process machines and if so, what's your opinion of them? 2. Most of these Everlast machines are dual voltage but need 40A or 50A. The Wonder Hut has a sub panel currently wired 120V/60A---2 15A circuits and 1 30A circuit. Can I run successfully operate one of these multi machines on a 120V 30A circuit provided I keep the controls turned down? 3. Is it stupid/brilliant/unnecessarily complicated/too expensive to come up with a way to switch from 120 to 240 and devote all the power to equipment that needs more capacity? Or maybe switch the 120V/15A circuits off so all 60A is available? (I think I've asked this one before but I don't remember.) I could re-wire for greater capacity, but that isn't as easy as it seems. The Wonder Hut shares power from the Moneymaking Shop and we're already wondering if we should increase the Moneymaking Shop's capacity. Right now, those two shops have 120V/200A between them. The house has 400A capacity but I don't think I can easily access power from the main house for another sub-panel and even if I could, I don't know if it would be financially feasible or frankly, if it's a good idea---when I get an electrician out here, I'll ask. And yeah, this all seems backwards, designing capacity for a machine I may or may not buy, but I'm fairly sure I need a buzz box. There are little plasma cutters that are ADORABLE and will work provided I use my compressor, but if a multi-process machine will do all I need plus TIG, well... Thanks.
  24. I'm with pnut---I only use lump charcoal, much of which I make in a charcoal retort, write-up here. But you don't have to make your own charcoal. BTW, there's some interesting threads about using weeds and corncob and all sorts of things as feedstock for charcoal. I think Thomas rakes charcoal out of the woodstove for use in his smithy and there' someone else who uses a wood fire---he doesn't forge while the fire is burning, he rakes the charcoal into the forge firepit as the fire is burning. Can't remember who it is though. There's even a company link removed that builds forges that use wood that you rake the charcoal out to forge with. Regardless, charcoal will get plenty hot. I don't use bituminous/blacksmith coal, but I live in a place where there are a lot of deadfalls and downed trees so there's plenty of feedstock for making charcoal. Other people may prefer bituminous coal while others like propane. Or an induction forge. In addition to just like charcoal as a fuel, I prefer the smell of woodsmoke to coal/coke, and how quiet burning charcoal is compared to propane. OTOH, I know why people use those other fuels and one of those may work better for you once you know you want to keep forging.
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