BillyBones

Ok, so my openers used to be just a twisted bar with the flat in the front. This is my first of this style. I was going for a fish tail look but my chisel skills are a little off. So i just made due. 

Half round twist, brass highlights. The middle, cant really see in photo, is darker. I burnt beeswax on to the piece. Then waxed after a few more minutes of cooling.

May i offer 2.

1) Do not stare into the forge, you will damage your eyes.

2) Put down the hammer and pick up a broom. In other words clean up every once in a while. Don't need clutter under your feet. Your mama dont work in your shop, aint nobody gonna pick up after you, but you. 

Thanks guys, that is what i thought but could not find a definite picture or a parts blow up.

Das, quite right very easy to forge one. Already fixed. 

Roger, my dad's name is Roger, thanks for the location it should be placed and the pic. I had already done the repair last night before i saw this, but it just seemed logical to put it behind the key. 

Since i have moved and getting my shop up and running my vise has become wobbly. I think i may have lost something in the move. The leg is mounted quite securly, a 1 3/4 hole 3" deep in a 4x4 for the "knob" and a 3/4" hole the rest of the way for the little "tenon" on the end. My problem is not twisting in the base but at the top. Also back and forth movement. The vice was my great grandfathers so who made it, good question.

Notice the bit of light right under the screw box...

Notice the bit of light is gone when i push the jaws towards the mount. Should there be may be a wedge or something in there? Or perhaps a pair of wedges? 

Thanks in advance for any and all help on this.

Found this in my barn today, i think it is either a finish nail, paneling nail, or maybe a wire brad.

Das and Slag, thanks for the kind words and thoughts. This is a hard loss for me. 

Das, sorry to hear about your cat. 

This is Ziggy, the best friend i ever had, my faithful companion. With me no matter what. If you seen one of us you seen both of us. Today he crossed into that great beyond. Glad none of my friends seen a grown man break down like i did this afternoon

o

He was 10 years old. Pure bread mut. Smartest most well behaved dog i have ever owned. 

Ausfire, that gold chain, maybe a anvil hold down. I use a similiar chain from the pump drive of a 6t70 transmission. 

Any way hope everyone is doing good, been a while and i have been a busy little beaver. Have not been able to get much anvil time, been house hunting. So let me say that this is kind of backwards. Instaed of things following me home, i followed them home. So with out further ado, let me start bragging:

first little gem:

My light switches, many looked like this. You old guys remember these dont you?

The interior door knobs with the old box style locks, again for you old guys.

32 x 32 barn.  And a small garage that will become a workshop, truck wont fit inside.

But most interesting to all here is what i found in the basement. The house was moved to its current location in 1900. It is actually much older. And what did we find in the coal chute? Well see for yourelf:

Yup, whole bunch of coal. This is just 1 pile in the corner it is scatter all over the floor. Once sifted of other debris i am guessing a good #100. Just kind of blew my mind that there was still, in 2018, coal in the coal chute. 

Anyway i thought yall may get a kick out of some of the old fixtures and who doesnt love a barn? But mostly the pile of coal still there. And now that i will not have to stand at an anvil in the blistering sun, or the frigid cold, i can get some more time on it. Which means i will be here more pestering yall more. 

Have a Happy Thanksgiving my friends. 

Hey yall, hope everyone is doin good. 

Thought yall may get a kick out of my new "anvil". I was putting a shift kit into a trans at work the other day. There is a hole in the separator plate that you block off with an aluminium rivet by mashing it flat with a hammer. The instructions said to "use the provided anvil". Well here it is:

And now that i see a boat i have to show this off. It followed me and my dad home about 3 weeks ago. 

'66 302 with a 5 spd standard. We traded straight up for our '67 Biscayne, 350 w/ TH 350 rev. manual. We traded our '69 Nova SS 454 w/ TH 400 pro street for it. Sorry no pics of that one. but here is the '67:

Lou, 

"If you see something odd and can ID it for me feel free to do so."

Looks like a couple body hammers in your pile. That blue and yellow chuncks of steel in the 3rd pic. Used to knock out dents and form body panels on cars. I have always heard them called hammers but they are more like an anvil. Hold one on 1 side on of the panel then beat the other side with a hammer. People who know how to use them are usually the same peole who still "lead" a panel on. 

 I am jealous of the old masonry drills. Grandpa taught me how to use one many years ago. 

Running a single burner forge. Reil style venturi. My problem is wind. I am outside with it. In my area it is mostly calm then every few minutes get a wind gust of 10 - 15 mph. This causes my burner to sputter. I can compensate with a little more pressure but when the wind dies i am burning rich. 

Any suggestions for some sort of wind block? I am afraid that if i just box it in it will make the inside so hot that it can cause a fire hazard. 

Hope yall had a great Independence day, and everyone is doing good. 

Hey again yall,

This guy has been coming around. I just call him Bobcat becuase as you can see he has no tail. Most lovable cat i have ever seen. And he is just a stray. 

Hey yall, been a minute hope everyone is doing good.

I too am dyslexic, takes me forever to type on this computer thing sometimes. Numbers and words switch places on me. 

Any way, sometimes it is good to be a mechanic, dug these out the scrap bin at work the other day:

A couple timing pulleys, thinking belt grinder fro them. Some bearing races and wrist pins. A half shaft, some REALLY old taps and i mean like 1950's, transfer chain out of a TH125, old dodge ball joint, thinking hardy tool of some sort. But best is the 10# sledge and the hydraulic hoist.  Thinking of mounting the hoist on a receiver for my truck. But that leads me to a story.

The one on the left. My cousin blew it up a couple weeks ago. It was a TH350 that went in his drag car. I made a deal with him to come and build him a new trans. I was getting ready a couple weekends ago when he called me and said that his buddies truck quit moving and to come the next weekend and do both of them. Both ended up with bad cases. Solid aluminum. I figure i can trade the scrap guy down the street from me for some steel. Anyway i built 2 trans in the weekended and ended up with a little extra jingle. So i took that little jingle and i went and bought this:

Yeah i provably paid to much, market price from what i can tell. It is a mouse hole, 1854 what i was told, stamped hm armatige and is 153#. Rings nice, great rebound. A little swayed and used but i think it has a lot of life left in it. 

I also cleaned out the bed of my truck.

Well hope everyone is having a nice summer except for those in the south, hope the winter aint to cold.  

No not all. The ones i have run into have been mostly luxury cars. I am just saying that if it is of unknown origin it is better safe than sorry before you cut one open. That run of the mill Chevy truck is most likely hollow, but it is hard to tell the difference between that and a Cadi shaft. 

Drive shafts being hollow they are prone to harmonic noise. To dampen that noise they are sometimes filled with something, like Styrofoam. So if you plan to cut one use a saws-all and cut of one of the yokes off to see inside, before taking the cutting torch to it. 

Interesting fact, the yokes are welded on by spinning the shaft and the yoke in opposite directions. When enough heat builds up from friction they are "jammed together" and get what i have always called a "work weld" to hold them together.  

Oh for anyone who does not know the yoke is the ends with the 2 holes to mount the u-joint into. 

Thats what i figured too, i was getting my chain jerked.

But that i have found the technique it is coming, not to say easy, but not to difficult. 

Thanks for all the help yall. 

Ok...... so i know this aint no big deal to yall old timers but i would like to share my experience. So the lessons i have learned.

1) take your time, let the metal heat slowly.

2) dont force it, let the hammer fall lightly and try and not rebound it. Press the metal together i guess you could say.

3) flux aint glue. this i already knew but ya dont need a lot is my point. A  good sprinkle will do

4) hot flux burns but 15 minutes in the slag tank takes the burn out. (had a chunk hit my hand, no blister 24 hours later. soak it in that water)

I do have one question. Another guy i know told me to put a light coat of PB'laster on my anvil before i started. Well i tried it thinking that even if it dont help, oil dont hurt steel, and since my anvil is in a rust prone area it definitely aint gonna hurt none. Just wonderin if anyone else has heard of this and why would it work better. I am thinking it has something to do with what ever it is in PB'laster that eats away rust on things, and rust being oxidation which is bad for welding.  But anyway dont know if it actually helped or i was just finally successful.  

So on to the pictures, but first its been a minute since i been on and just hope everyone is alright and keeping at it. 

The first is a side view on my knee, the second i tried to get a pic of the cross section but thats the best i could get. 

Like i said no biggie to many of yall but its a new level for me, kind of proud of myself.

On 3/13/2018 at 3:23 PM, Daswulf said:

arge section"s" of cardboard helps a good bit in those situations, both on you and not losing things as easily.

Use a sheet of plywood. The wood will support the jack and make it much easier to roll the tranny under the car. I been working on trannies for about 15 years, 30 years "professional" mechanic. Which leads me too this. Recently we replaced two of or lifts at work. We took out the old in ground  and replaced with above ground electric. I scored these today. They are the arms that would go under the car to raise them off the ground. A total of 8 of them. Here is 2, they are all the same. (the things on to the drum) I would guess at least 75# each. I still need a decent "anvil" and i am thinking one turned on its side would work well, what to do with the others, listen to the old lady gripe about them laying about.

On 3/10/2018 at 4:22 PM, Shady McGrady said:

Ziggy looks like a great boy. How old is he?

He is 8 yr old. Best dog i ever owned. Listens to every word i say and smart as all get out. Coco is a very pretty dog also. 

Well here's my best friend Ziggy. He is just a mutt. The vet says he knows for sure he has German Shepard, Boxer, Lab, and Pit. And most likely some others. Loyal to a fault, smart as a whip and the bestest dog ever (well i am a little biased.) 

First thanks for the replies and my apologies. I forgot to hit that notify button at the bottom, so it took me some time to get back. Sundays are kind of busy for me. I am pretty active with my church so my time is taken. Sometimes i get an hour or 2 before Mass but thats about it. 

So onwards, 

Wayne, i shall look you up. 

Iron dragon, yup, looks like the way to go. 

Frosty, I did try and look up the MSDS and what i found was like i said almost identical. My real question was about the weight issue which i didnot find much in the threads. So i asked. 

Mikey, k28 brick. If i cant afford or get what i want i will keep that in mind. 

Tim, thanks. Very informative.

Thomas, i have not been to a SOFA thing. their last one i could have eve possibly been able to attend was Jan. 3rd. Which right after the holidays was blown out. Their next one is the 14th, i am going to try but that night will be up to the old lady. 27th is looking good though. I am also trying to make the time to make one of their blacksmithing 101 classes. Finances are preventing that however. 

Thanks again for all the help guys. 

The box is just hard fire brick. Like i said i built it before i had any real knowledge on doing these things. It is a lining of just fireplace cement. Yep completely off mark. 

I just figured in my head at just under 400 Cu." but after i actually crunched the numbers it came out to 364.5. Ironically almost the same size of my engines. 

My welds, well i am kind of self conscious about my work. My profession demands attention to detail ,and i just really do not like showing a bad job when i know i can do much, much better. But sometimes i will just throw something together to help get a game plane together. 

Thanks for all the input and kind words of encouragement.    

So i need to build a proper gas forge. As anyone who has seen my other inquiry knows. I am about to get my lining and have a couple questions.

First i was  looking for the Kaowool and what i can find is Max-wool. There data says it is basically the same. Has anyone had experience with this stuff?

Second, they offer 2 different styles. one is 6 PCF and the other 8 PCF,  (PCF- pounds per cubic foot) both are rated the same.  Which is better and why would i pay for the heavier one when the lighter does the same job? Basically other than weight what is the difference? 

I am not a rich man and i am about to shell out $100 bucks for a roll and just want to make sure i dont just throw away money. 

No idea how fast propane is burning. I have ran it about 3 hours total and from just the weight of carrying the tank in and out i would guess at least 3/4 left. Oh just a standard BBQ size tank. Also it has been in the upper 30's low 40's and i have had no freeze up. From what i know about running gas, i do not think it is running to fast. From my experience the faster it runs the faster you get freeze up. But i do not claim to be an expert on the subject. I need to invest in a gauge to let me know when i get low i guess. 

Frosty, ya made my day. Getting a thumbs up from you is a huge boost to my ego. No worries about spilling beer, i am a professional drinker. 

I tried to get pics with the burner installed and up to heat. From what i understand that all effects performance. I know it burns different in a vice on the bench than installed. It being winter the sunsets early and i have a day job so most of the time i am at the anvil at night right now. But today i did not have to work ad was able to get out at a decent time. so i got better pics. Just after lighting and just before coming to temp.  Ad the burner itself. 

Again please dont pick on my box or my welds, not a good representation of my work.  

Great thread, yall should take this on the road. I laughed till i cried with yall and the blood and urine quench thing.