BillyBones

My daughters dog, a little pit, got ran over by a huge dually truck. Both rear tires went over her mid section. She lived through that and had to be carried out of the middle of the road back to the house. My daughter called the vet and he said best thing to do was make her comfortable and a pain killer might help. Expecting the dog to die she gave her a vicodan. The next morning the dog woke her up wanting to go out and do her business. She hit the yard running and frolicking like nothing had happened. Lived about another 8 years. The driver was quite sorry and upset about it. The dog did run out in front of him and there was no animosity felt towards him.

Frosty, me and your dad have something in common i love me some creamed corn. Canned veggies meant to me that they came out of a mason jar. I do miss grandma's pickled corn. Anyway a slow day, yesterday, finished 1 ax, got 1 heat treated and lost another. Maybe i should do some straightening up. Also mad a tremmel hook and a claw hammer. Then made a corkscrew. My first attempt at one. Way underestimated just how much stock needed drawn out for the screw. Also underestimated how thin it needs to be. Learning experience, overall though even being to short and to fat it will make a nice addition to the scrap pile.

I have no clue as to how anyone willingly eats boiled peanuts, or them Brussel sprouts either. When i was a kid we used to catch crawfish and cook them right on the river bank. Usualy in an old beer can with a little river water to boil them.

When a flap disk wears out you can cut off the worn out section revealing unused portions below them and extend the life a bit.

Pnut, i have run into a lot of stuff like porch railing that is powder coated. To get that off is a real PITA. The easiest way i have found is build a big fire out in the back 40 and chuck it in and let the fire rage for a couple hours. It does not get it all off but a wire brush on an angle grinder get s off what is left easy enough.

Chad, in theory yes. There are a lot of youtube videos of people doing just that, also rewiring motors to make generators. An alternator though will only supply AC voltage where as a generator can supply both AC and DC voltage. An alternator also must have a battery that supplies DC for it to work. You can however still find generators for old cars. Thomas, i was thinking more along the lines of a few years after apocalypse when people started living in small communities once again. I do not think we will go back to a time of neo lithic man but more towards the 17th or 18th century. While at first yes it will be a struggle for survival eventually people will form communities, when that happens communities will start trading with each other. And our current civilization, no its done. We will have to rebuild anew.

George, when i was akid we had a coal fire stove for heat in the house. Many years later when i started using coal in my forge i had almost that exact same response. Kind of like when i was away for years and started driving back home and got into the Appalachians. It literally brought a tear to my eye becuase i was home. The sights, sounds, smells and even the feel of the air and taste of the water are different at home than anyplace else in the world. I have been in places that certain aspects remind me of home, but when all of it comes together you know in your soul that you are home and feel the connection with land.

What i never really understood about "post apocalypses" was people thinking we will revert back to using spears and swords. Gunpowder is not hard to make, lead is easily cast, and any competent machinist can reverse engineer a gun. Of course at first there will not be the AR-15, most likely some sort of flint lock, but people are smart critters and it wont take long before we are back to some sort of resemblance to modern firearms. And about those machines to make the parts, they do not need electricity, machinery was used for years before electricity. I also do not believe that we will be that long without electricity. No it may not be the modern power grid but it will not be long before someone attaches a water wheel to a generator and voila electricity. Or maybe a couple zombies on a hamster wheel. Regardless i cant wait for the day i get to see the zombie ball roll down my street. (i hope some of yall watched "Z Nation" and got that)

When i lived in Louisiana during hurricane Gustav we had a huge, and i do mean huge, pecan tree fall on the house. It hit the family room between the main house and the mother in law apartment. We kept a few chunks but we had no problem getting rid of that tree.

You can save a few bucks if you can find a sheet metal fabricator that can make the pipe. Not a lot mind you 10 or maybe 15%. Many sheet metal places wont do it though becuase of liability. The insurance and liabilities are one issue bet let me ask, how much is your life or the life of one of your loved ones worth? Will those savings make you or your family feel better if the shop burns with you or one of your kids trapped inside, or even both? Worst case scenario yes, but still a possibility. Also a note about that silicone, i worked for many years on cars and i have seen that silicone burn off of exhaust systems. What is used on exhaust systems is more of a clay, we just called it muffler putty. Ideally you use a metal gasket on exhaust. I do not know about code where you are at, but here i can run single wall pipe up to within 18" of the roof. Then a class A pipe out the roof for 18" and the top can be single walled. And even a class A pipe has to have at lest 6" between it and any flammable material. So i can get a 4' piece of class A and the rest cheap single wall. However, heat, rain and sulfur do not mix well and end up eating holes in cheap old single wall pipe. Basically makes acid rain inside your flue, or at least that is my understanding. Like frazer said though, we are not trying to give you grief. We want you and your family to be safe. Do not skimp on safety.

Do the eye holes go all the way through? I was thinking it would be cool if they do and if the fire kind of flares up in the back or something you would see kind of a flickering through the eyes.

Welcome aboard Dueldor. If you fill out the header with where in the states you are it would be a little easier to answer that question. For instance i get a good deal on 5/4 hickory board at a store that is the only one in the country and even many locals do not know of it. If you want to make your own handle think outside the box. A sledge handle can make 3 hammer handles, along with wheel barrow handles, shovels, etc most of which are made of hickory, at least where i buy them. Most are carried by any hardware store including the big box stores. Hammer handles alone i have found are a rare find in these parts. You either have to order them from industrial supply or find a mom and pop hardware that actually still has them.

Paul, you can afford lumber? Das, a way to make it have a "tick-tock" noise would be cool also.

Like the gator. To bad you aint closer i got a whole spool of .030 laying on top the scrap pile from a welder i...uh...just did not get a long with that is now in the scrap pile also.

The machines i run at work are called Davenport screw machines. Imagine a 5 spindle lathe that indexes to different cutting positions. But i hold tolerances within .0005". One of the machines has a 1906 build date. Proves that old tech is still good tech and if taken care of can last forever. Davenports are now all computer controlled CNC things that just need button pushers.

I have used auto feed drill presses before, i was just joking about who really uses it. Everyone i know does it by feel. My drill press is an old Cummins built in 1978. Works great need new belts though. I found a machine shop here that had a big 3 head drill press for sale. But the wife would have hurt me if i spent what they were asking.

Well i burned my self. The web between my thumb and finger. Not a bad burn just a little red and puffy, but i thought ya'll might get a kick out of how. So i was drifting an ax eye open and of course the drift gets a little stuck. So i put him in the old vice give a few whacks to the back and the corners and the drift starts to loosen. So i whack the business end of the drift protruding from the eye and out she flies. With ninja like reflexes i managed to catch it in mid air...by the hot end.

Yes you can sandblast with out a cabinet. You can buy a syphon blaster that an air hose pugs into the end and has a syphon hose you just stick in a bag of sand. Keep in mind that sand goes EVERYWHERE. You will find sand in places you never dreamed of for years to come. And definitely wear your PPE. Many mechanics have a sandblaster. Try calling your mechanic or body shop and ask if they have one and what it would take to blast it for you.

Generally yes grind a coated drill and you have a HSS drill with coating on the secondary edges, sides. However they do make carbide and cobalt TiN coated drills. Those are found in specialty applications like aircraft manufacture. They also cost a pretty penny. 1030 is a pretty high carbon steel for what i do at my job. However i have cut much harder steels at home on my drill press but i do anneal the material first. So i cannot say yes it will cut it but i can say i have done it annealed. Keep in mind many of the cutting tools you are already using are made of HSS steel, taps, dies, files, etc. Most of the HSS steel you will encounter is of the M-2 or M-50 variety. Cutting steel is all about speed and feed. Anvil, what is this auto feed that you speak of? Frosty, i am like you, a hand drill is for shootin screws. I aint no good with one either.

Sharpening drills is easy peasy once you learn the "wrist flip". When i first started in a machine shop years ago i asked about sharpening the drills. An old guy pointed to the snag grinder, then proceded to teach me how to do it. The trick is to hold it at the proper angle then flip the wrist so that you cut the back side lower than the cutting edge. Easy to show, hard to explain. Also a good sharp stone on the grinder is required. Another note is relieve the back of the drill. Get that cutting edge as thin as possible. The relief will help chips get pulled out of the hole, and provide some room so they do not build up and get snagged. Many of the newer larger drills come from the factory with the back side relieved now but not the smaller ones. Cutting speed an pressure is dependent on what you are cutting and with what. A carbide drill cuts at a different speed than a HSS and stainless cuts with much more pressure than mild. The trick is to get enough pressure so you have a proper chip but not so much that you burn it up with to much pressure. Deeper cuts require multiple cuts also. Cut about 1/2" pull the drill, blow out the hole, drill and repeat. Never try and take a deep hole in a single cut. Heat is what make things hard to work. There is heat build up in 3 places. The tool, the piece you are working, and the chip. If your tool heats up it becomes soft and will not cut, if the piece heats up it work hardens and will not cut, what you want is to get the chip to carry the heat away from the tool and the piece you are working. That goes back to getting a proper chip for the material. Do not use to much oil. When hand drilling a couple drops is all that is needed. If it starts to dry out a couple more. Do not flood the area or fill the hole with oil. That will just waste the oil and the oil can bind the chips in the hole. I get cutting oil from work, a quart of oil is still about 1/2 full after a year. The oil does not have to be anything special either. Water can be used but evaporates fast. Just something to lube the hole and drill. Pilot holes are not necessary either. I have cut some pretty big hole and the only thing i ever do is maybe use a spot drill on big drills. Just enough to get it centered. A lot of new fangled drills are on the market now but a good quality set of old fashioned HSS twist drills will last you a lifetime if you keep them sharp and use them properly. The majority of the drills i have replaced is becuase i have lost them. There really is no need for the specialty drills in the home workshop. Even in the shop at work we mostly use HSS with the occasional carbide or coated drill. Getting into cutting materials other than steel (brass, aluminum, nylon, copper, etc.) is when we start getting into the specialty drills. Also a carbide or coated drill gives a different chip than HSS so you have to watch that. You can tell a lot about how your tooling is by how the chip looks. For instance a HSS drill cutting mild should make small chips if it starts pulling a spiral the drill is getting dull. That is a general rule of thumb. I posted this on another thread but think it is worth posting here. To get the speed and feed to cut is a simple formula. You do need some info to plug in though. RPM = (FPM x 12 / PI x dia. of tool) . FPM will change with material and tool. Those can be found from the tool manufacture and the material supplier or there are about a dozen books on the market with that info. (RPM x PI x tool dia. / 12) will give you FPM. For those who may not know: HSS is high speed steel and FPM is feet per minute.

Minions, that is what minions are for. Got an order for a couple hatchets, a while back ago. Made these with some mild flat bar i found in the barn and a piece of old rasp for the bit. Been working A-36 for so long now i had nearly forgotten how nice plain mild works and welds. The one on the left is fresh out of the forge from welding, still needs some hammer time, the one on the right is about ground to shape and ready for heat treat. One day soon i need to get the shovel and skootch my scrap pile back before it over takes my anvil.

Frosty, that pic reminds me of my granddad.

No, just a tad late on the discussion. Did not realize that was almost a month ago.

My grandfather was doing a hot tar roof once when he fell off the roof. He landed with his arm from finger tip to elbow in a bucket of hot tar. Many skin grafts to get that fixed back up. When i was a kid i was aloud 1 pop a day. I always waited until evening after my bath to have it. That has carried over into adulthood and i still to this day have 1 pop a day, if i even have one. I am also not a big fan of the major pop brands like coke or pepsi, i like a good ginger ale or birch beer, love me a black cherry IBC, or a Cheer wine.

I always though the first aid kit they gave me in the Army was funny. It consisted of 1 field dressing. I was the designated combat life saver in my platoon. That meant that i had a little more than basic first aid training, things such as how to give an IV. So my kit contained much more. Saline bags, IV tubing, needles and even morphine. The life saver part is a little misleading. Your job is actually just to make the person as comfortable as possible. Those store bought first aid kits are absolutely useless. Filled with a little guaze and a whole plethora of useless band-aids. I keep a first aid kit in my truck. I have found that a tackle box makes a good one. I do not keep pads but that is becuase i have a supply of field dressings, if i did not i would. Among things not mentioned i also keep needle and thread and an exacto knife set. Never know when you may have to stitch someone up or preform minor surgery. I modeled my kit after the one a guy i knew that was a survival instructor had.