BillyBones

I logged in and this discussion has certainly branched offed in a different direction. I have a budding hope that the root of the problem is supply and demand.

The magnet sticks to it so it does have iron content.

Perlite contains water, at high temps it will expand and release the water. Perlite is used in gardening to lighten soil and to help soil retain moisture.

Alexandr, impressive as always. Love those hinges. With being a year behind schedule i finally got to break ground for the deck i am putting on the back of the house. My house was moved from its original location back in the early 1900's, a whole town was actually moved. Where it sits the land was raised about 4 feet and leveled off. A lot of my property is fill with a lot of gravel and rock. Anyway whilest digging away i found something interesting. I think it is a chunk of iron ore. Maybe one of you geology types could verify that it is indeed. Mr. Mouse says "Hi".

Back deck. Not that odd really. The turbine exhaust comes out at around 1200*F so we would put water containers on top of where it exhausts. Always had hot water for shaving and the ...bath. And those grunts loved our tanks in the winter. Imagine standing behind a jet engine. You can get a warm draft off of it a good 30'. In the winter when when we would fire up to charge the batteries grunts would come out of the wood work to stand in our exhaust for a few minutes.

I just got back into a machine shop last year, i got laid off a few years back and then spent many a year rebuilding transmissions. One thing i enjoy about smithing is the break from being precise. Yup, close enough, it works, gives the old noggin some time to unwind from .001" is way to far off.

Ha That is what we called them also. Not only the radios but it was also running the wires for the field phones, but yep communications. You did not know tanks have toilets? Most folks call them MRE boxes but right up on the backside of the knees, lean our back against the skirt and you can hang over and do your business. Want to know where the water heater is on a tank?

DHarris, i do not see why you could not hang a grill from one. I would attach 3 or 4 chains to the grill though so it would not hang sideways. Or maybe 3 or for hooks about 12" long or so. That could look nice with some twists or maybe a wheat twist type thing, kind of wide hooks. The possibilities are there as long as the grill is balanced. Copy my chain... WHA, WHA, WHAT? No just kidding, copy away, aint nothing new in the world of blacksmithing i am sure i aint the first to do it like that. I really got inspiration to look outside the box to make chain from an English smith on the youtube. His name is Rowen Taylor and he did a recreation of a chain found in the Sutton Hoo burial site. The chain took him i think he said a month to make and there are 14 videos of him making it. I was fascinated by him doing it. I highly recommend it. About Russia, i found it fascinating how quickly they were able to turn factories that made tractors into factories that made tanks. Also one of my personnel kind of heros came out of the battle of Stalingrad, Vasily Zaitsev, 225 confirmed.

I loved being a loader, even after making some rank i would volunteer to load on other tanks if we were short at gunnery. But it the most dangerous job on a tank becuase of things like unloading hot, running commo, disconnecting the mine plow under fire when it gets stuck, shaking the tree so you can find it easier on a map, etc.

I had to pull a hot round once. It was not even my tank, i did it on but my wing mans. There loader was having some problems so rather than wait and get a dummy round they figured it would be a good idea to use a live round. Loaded it, it swelled and got stuck. While pulling it the af-cap came off and out spilled, oh i dont know, 40# or so of propellant. Then they had to dig out the cellulose casing and projectile from the gun tube. The next day with the battalion commander was not a fun day for the tank commander.

Not sure what the projectile weighed but a tank HEAT round is about 75#. It is shaped like a bottle and the nose blasts a small hole to allow the main explosive entry to cuase a bit of a ruckus. The sabot or APFSDS-T was about 65#, basically a depleted uranium dart with fins. Traveling at 2 miles a second it to would cuase a small bit of mayhem. Sometime at gunnery ranges we would play with the rounds. A roll of TP soaked in diesel or a pop can full of grease stuck on the end of an inert heat round when it hits a wooden target makes a nice fire ball. A bottle cap taped to the end would make an ear piecing whistle.

I have not lobbed one, but we did pop the turret off one about 20' in the air. 120mm HEAT got 'er did. (HEAT: high explosive anti-tank, for anyone wondering, also rarely used on tanks, sabot is the tank killer.)

I just acquired a rock island 574. I am assuming you mean the knobs on the ends of the handle. The ones on my vise are welded. I do not know if that is how they came or if someone did it later on though. I know i have welded the screw on knobs onto a couple vises in my time. Real pain when the come off while working on something.

You can use the lid for a cover rather than moving after it cools down. I would also make the dirt level with the rotor. I have about a 1/2" step on mine and it does get in the way at times. After figuring out location and setup i would work on strengthing those legs though. It is most likely not the legs them selves that are weak but the sockets connecting them to the body of the grill. Get that thing good and sturdy. You definately do not want it falling over while in use.

Blue, that is one heck of a lot of work and it looks nice. I do have one question though, shouldnt the angle of the jaws be less? You have almost a 90* bend and it seems a lot of the energy that should be directed into the leg of the vise will be directed into that bend.

Thomas, Bring them to quad state, bring them to quad state. (read that in a slow hypnotic voice) Had one of those days yesterday that everything went right. Finished a 10 link chain and made a decretive 4 link with hooks. Only had 2 welds not take first time and only 1 link that refused to weld. Then made a swivel. My first attempt so it was more of a figuring out the process than anything else. But it works and that is the important part. The hook gave me some fits welding but that was just becuase of it being awkward. Next go i will punch the hole in the hook and put it on the ring before welding the ring. Why do 2 welds if i only need one, and the hook was almost an after thought anyway. Now to make a skillet holder and a grill top that swings away and my camp fire set will be done, well the major components anyway.

JHCC, if the bit is pretty trashed try grinding the point off till it is a fat bottom. Sometimes it helps to just start over with a kind of blank, so to say. MJ, i did not catch your tank till just now. Pretty cool i think, but then again i got some what of a soft spot for tanks.

My dad brought me over this little guy. 2 ton chain hoist. Also discoveed my pocket knife is still quite sharp, thought i had just bumped my finger, about an hour later the bleeding stopped.

EN24 in the states is known as 4340. If your supplier does not provide specs for how to work the material, change suppliers. Each suppliers steel will work a little different than another. This is true, trust me, i work with a cheap skate GM that bounces from supplier to supplier depending on price. Right now i am making these little pins that are knurled on one end. Changed lots of stock and the new stock was wiping out the knurling tool in less than 3,000 parts. Had to change the feed rate for that particular steel to keep my knurls working good. And cobalt knurls are not the cheapest things, they kind of frown on going through a dozen knurls a week. Just an example of how different suppliers steels work and machine. I myself would tell my work "NO" in great big letters too. The reason is liability. There are places that specialize in heat treating that have all the modern equipment to heat treat and the lawyers to take care of any liability claims. You have a gas forge and a bucket of oil, if the piece happens to crack and that crack leads to someone's injury i could see a good lawyer taking you and your employer to the cleaners over it.

Alligators have a broad flat snout while a croc is more pointy and round. Dont matter really though i wont be paying that close attention whilst running in the opposite direction. Like bears, color dont matter what matters is how fast i can get away from it.

My ignorance of horses and riding is astonishing. My experience with horses is strapping the plow to the old horse we had as a kid. I even had a FIL that did western reenacting with out horses, yeah cowboys in Ohio with no horses, figure that one out. Anyway i knew about riding sidesaddle but had no idea that there was a such a critter as a side saddle. I just thought that was how ladies rode becuase of their dress. It is not that far of a stretch to figure some one would have invented one but just never gave it a lot of thought. Quite interesting and maybe one day you can visit my life. Blacksmith, work, grandkids...never mind i have no life.

You do know you can buy one right? A quick search of the intra-net gave me a whole bunch of options, quickest to look at was the one named after that river in S. America, but they ranged from $30 low to around $80 at highest.

I lumbered in here to see about building materials. Missed the connection, guess i'll find an outlet.

Finally got my doors hung this weekend, only took 6 months. Then got my new vise cleaned up and a coat of oil.

My granddad dropped hammers on me. Really he did, once was from the hay loft, but i do remember at least 5 or 6 times.