pnut

I gave him a pretty wide berth. I seen him start puffing up and fanning out his tail and displaying as he made a bee line in my direction. I didn't want to fight a turkey before work. It was too early. I like to schedule my turkey fights for after lunch. Pnut

The circle grows smaller by one. I'll hoist a cold one in his name. Pnut

Nope you sure can't. Personally I like anthracite for everything but welding maybe. I have been trying to get the local TSC to carry it again without much luck. In the last few years every retailer within an hour or so drive has quit stocking it due to lack of demand so it's charcoal or corn for me. Pnut

Perhaps I should have said, " It is the volatiles becoming gaseous that creates the lubricating effect.", Touche good sir. Pnut

A good awl is a must. I have a friend who repairs tack at turfway park racecourse. She gave me a thing that has a leather pad in the palm and a strip that fits over the index and middle finger. It makes stitching much easier. Another trick is lubing the thread with beeswax before stitching and also making holes with an awl instead of trying to push a needle through the leather makes it much easier on the hands. These are probably already known to you but I thought I'd post them in hopes of helping someone who doesn't know. Once again KB21, Nice work. Pnut

There's a flock that roosts not far from my apartment. I see them in the field in the mornings. It was so nice the other day I walked to work and the head honcho Jake tried to run me off. Pretty exciting stroll into the job that morning. Pnut

I used to do some soaring and a little bit of flying and you are correct Chris. The initial expense isn't the problem it's the storage and maintenance fees that make any type of flying or gliding except parasailing prohibitively expensive. A nice fixed wing glider can be had for a reasonable price but you have to maintain it and some you can't easily disassemble for storage. Then you have to pay for a tow plane and depending on where you live and whether there's a municipal airfield that can accommodate a glider you have to pay fees to a private airfield. It's not a purchase that anyone should jump into without some serious consideration. It's an ongoing expense that only increases as the craft ages. Pnut

I was under the impression it was the volatile gasses that acted as a lube when using green coal also. I didn't consider the incomplete combustion products. Hmm learned something new. I wonder if lamp black might be useful. Pnut

Chris, the jet dri was suggested by Frosty as a surfactant to be used in the water when mixing the fumed silica. Pnut

Build a jabod forge. The coals must be banked when using a campfire. A jabod is a simple and effective proven design. There's many threads on them. Pnut

I haven't had a chance to use any of their tools but they seem a bit expensive for what you're getting. I looked at the forges they offer and to me they seemed to be overpriced. Pnut

Here in my part of the bluegrass state we have coyotes, fox, racoons,possums, red tail hawks, turkey vultures, bald eagles have moved back along the Ohio and Licking Rivers, peregrine falcons, feral dogs and cats, and an occasional bobcat. This is in town, I guess it may not be as bad out in the farms due to the concentration of food in town but I don't know for sure I'm just speculating. Little dogs have been getting preyed upon if not watched closely. I'm not sure what is getting them. Probably coyotes. I see coyotes all the time. One was walking down the sidewalk the other morning at about 3am. It was pretty startled when it seen me. The KY dept of wildlife resources did a study on the coyotes a few years back and most had some percentage of wolf DNA from the population in Wisconsin. It was pretty surprising. Pnut

I've had much better results after taking the advice gained here to the forge. I have another question for the brain trust and that is what size stock requires lube? I punched 1/4 and 1/8 stock with and without it and couldn't tell any significant difference. I was wondering if it should be used every time you punch a hole no matter the thickness of the stock or at what point is it advisable or necessary? I haven't really been able to find an answer so was going on the assumption I should use it every time but decided to try it without it on thin stock and was surprised when it didn't seem to make a difference. The punch didn't try to stick and went through the material just as easily. With thin stock is it really personal preference? At what thickness does it become necessary? Pnut

A-36 is a performance specification while 1018 is an alloy isn't it? The place I buy steel offer hot rolled 1018 all the way up to 1080 in square and round. Guess I'm lucky although the smaller sizes in 1018 is more likely to be out of stock. At any of the big box stores the "weldable" or mild steel they sell hot or cold rolled I would assume is A-36 unless otherwise marked. Pnut

I have a petzl head lamp I use for all kinds of stuff it wasn't made for, anything I need to have a good view of what I'm doing. It took some getting used to at first but I can wear it now and not notice it. It works great in combination with the lights in the room for illuminating whatever I'm working on. Just used it to sew up a ripped shirt. Couldn't find the little needle threader thingy and had to do it the hard way. Wouldn't have happened without the head lamp. Pnut

I'm just spit balling here but, Could you airbrush a thinned mix of BLO and turpentine? I don't know if this would work or if you got it thin enough to spray it would be effective but it might be worth looking into. If it would work it would be pretty easy to apply. Pnut

Just how much it costs at the steelyard. Hot rolled is cheaper and if you're going to put It In a forge there's no point in buying cold rolled. Pnut

Like Steve said. Go to the home page>solid fuel forges> Just a box of dirt ( jabod) forge. There's a few of them. If you take a little bit and look through all the different forums here it'll make it easier to navigate later. Don't use the search engine here. Go to Google or Bing and type in what you're looking for followed by iforgeiron. Pnut

Check out the jabod threads. That's the cheapest and easiest forge to build. As far as instruction. Go to the ABANA website and look at the blacksmithing basic curriculum. There's a list of good YouTube videos in the reference section here also. Good luck and remember it's supposed to be fun. Pnut

Thanks Frosty, I guess even a blind squirrel runs into an acorn eventually. ;-) Pnut

Is your anvil good? Does it do what you need it to do without a lot of extra effort? If it's working for you then it's good. I use a big piece of vertical rail. Now lots of folks say they are junk and a waste of effort. I've ran into some difficulties with it but have come up with fairly easy workarounds to make it work. The biggest so far was punching a hole in flat bar for twist tongs. I made a hold down and attached it to a log that's the same height as my rail. Just put the hot end on the rail the cold end on the log and throw the weighted chain hold down over it and I have two hands free. It's not ideal but it works. So good, I don't know, but good enough yep. I would say if your anvil has a decent rebound and does what you need it to do it's good. Pnut

Dixon makes lots of good quality pencils in many different hardnesses for a variety of applications. I use them for laying out watercolor paintings. I haven't tried the flat carpenter pencils by them though. Pnut

There's a tool similar to that for cutting RR track cold. There was recently a picture posted in the it followed me home thread with a tape measure next to it. Your tool appears to be about two inches shorter but You can compare it to that picture and see what you think. Pnut

If you weld the tubing together there will be zinc oxide fumes. Is this drum cut lengthwise? You only need about 10 inches of the top or bottom to make a forge. A 55 drum cut lengthwise is pretty big. Have you looked through the 55 forge blueprint or any of the other threads about 55 forges? Pnut

Upon further inspection I noticed that there is a lot of rust in one picture of the big forge that looks pretty substantial. The smaller rivet forge and blower would be a good deal if you could talk them down some, like a hundred bucks. If you do pick up the rivet forge you may want to clay the pan. I've heard some folks say it isn't necessary but I would do it anyway. Good luck and post some updates when you get done with your jabod or whatever you decide to do. Pnut