Old Crew

I purchase quite a bit of 3 construction materials : structural steel, galvanized steel coil and fire treated plywood. Everything was gone up exponentially . For instance In mid January I bid a job for a contractor that we do a lot of work for. At bid date we were under contract with them on 2 similar jobs. The jobs were light gauge steel trusses which we manufacture and install with fire treated ply wood decking. At the time plywood was on the rise, I tried to convince them to sign the contract and we would order the material to lock in the price. We would have billed them a stored material draw when we received the material, both the steel coil and the plywood. In early March we rebid the job and again on May 3rd. They signed our contracts on May 5th. In January the cost our cost of galvanized steel coil was 54 cents per pound, in march it was 63 cents and in May 74 cents per pound. The 5/8 fire treated plywood was 56$ per sheet in January, 63$ in March and $72.30 in May. Currently the same plywood is 97$ per sheet and the steel coil is currently 1.12 per pound. Structural steel beams and shapes were about 39 to 40 cents and are currently 65 to 70 cents per pound but structural sheet or plate is at $1.05 Tube steel was at around 64 cents a pound and is now $1.27 per pound. The price increases will at some point get to a point where it limits growth . I doubt that things will slow down much in the area where I live though. Recently I read an article that stated that the county that I live in is the fastest growing in the US. I live 35 miles north west of Austin Tx

I don't know how Alexandr does it but I am in the process of rebuilding and recreating some 100 year old handrail for a building. It has 1/2 square solid which is twisted in the center. I built a fixture and twisted it cold. I post some pictures later.

I will 2nd the recommendation for Technicus Joes videos. I don't know if I will ever want to make small anvils but it definitely takes some skills. Enjoy the forum and take things with a grain of salt. There is vast experience here. With vast experience comes Crust or crustiness

JHCC Something to keep in mind if you want to use 7018 rod is that standard 7018 is DC only and welds like crap on AC. They do make 7018 for AC though which works fairly well. I think the same is true of 6010 and 6011. I had the same machine in the 80s and it worked well for my needs for a time. Eventually I upgraded to a DC machine, but for only $50 you have another tool in your arsenal, which is always good.

Welcome Wyatt I have learned a lot here and have much more to learn when I get back to learning to forge. I also am in central Tx . Central narrows it down some but texas is spread out. I am just northwest of Austin

I had a pipe freeze inside the wall of my house. Plumbing pipe was on the outside a north facing wall and the insulation was on the inside of the wall. So not much between the pipe and the cold. I had left faucets on in a couple spots just not the kitchen sink . So when there was no water the sink I put a diesel torpedo heater outside on the wall blowing on the stucco. A while later water is flowing from the sink slowly I look outside ad water is ruing out of the wall I cut a 2'X3' hole in the stucco and fixed the broken pipe in the wall dried it out and insulated it all while at about 5 degrees outside. But the heater was blowing Heater good!! -14 bad While work and everything was shut down I went down in my garage under my house (with heaters) and worked on building my 505 cubic inch port injected FE motor. Building things and making things are some of the best things in life I think. Seeing It then making it happen Like Your School!

Looks good MT I played with the angles of the legs for a bit before I found that 15 degrees worked well for my stand . If mine wasn't so stinking heavy I would have done wheels like you did, but I don't want anything popping out of where it shouldn't (Hernia) so no wheels on mine!! David

Here in Texas at my place it got down to -1 a couple weeks ago and everything came to a halt for a week. Most central Texans thought civilization had come to an end. I am fairly handy and was mostly un-affected by the freeze and power problems. I feel for the people that are not equipped to deal with problems. I like your solution for a large heater on a budget. You want heat make something work on the cheap. If I lived in a place where coooooold was a common problem I would probably have built a home brewed heater for my shop similar to yours which burned used oil if possible . What you really want to do and what you can make happen are seldom the same. So you make do and you did good. David

I used to shoot anything and everything out of my wrist rocket and had a lot of fun. But I was a pyromaniac in a permissive or unknowing family so my favorite was a small ball that I made myself. I melted equal parts table sugar and ammonium nitrate in to a taffy consistency and molded it into small balls with a little tail. Once hardened I could light the little tail with a lighter and shoot a firey ball !! It was good fun in a different time. I could buy the ammonium nitrate at the drug store as a young teenager and I was in the pacific northwest where it rained more than the sun shone so I didn't cause any fires either.

That sounds exactly like what I probably have. I am insulin dependent also. When I was first diagnosed they didn't want to give me insulin . Just metformin at first. I went from 185# to 145# and was wasting away before they finally gave me insulin. Balancing the insulin dose with the food intake can be a real challenge especially when you are a carboholic like me. I have been trying to limit it but don't always succeed . A couple of days ago I took my shot with dinner and did not eat a evening snack like I usually do I woke up in the morning with my blood sugar at 35. A least I woke up!

At my shop there is only 220 single phase at the pole. The power company was able to provide me 220 3 phase through the use of 3 transformers at my pole. I don't know how it works but 1 of the 3 legs is higher voltage . I believe they call it a delta Y with a high leg ? In my panel 1 leg fluctuates from 220 to higher which works fine for my motors and welders and only cause a problem on machines that have a step down transformer for low voltage controls. It only causes a problem if I hook the high leg to the step down transformer. All in all it works well and I don't need a rotary phase converter. It might be worth asking if it is available .

Fowllife Mine are both wet Jhcc I will take some pictures

I have a 2 large steel cutting bandsaws the conventional style 1 (hinged at the back scissor style) uses rollers with bearings mounted so that the blade can be adjusted with set screws. The other saw has simple blocks made of either carbide or steel harder than the blade material. There is a small rectangular block on either side of the blade , one mounted slightly above the other. Each block sits in a recess with 2 set screws which can adjust the blocks ( push one side of the block deeper than the other to twist the blade). This style would be easy to fabricate. I mention this because the brass might wear quickly and cause crooked cuts. The amount of wear would depend on about of usage though. Both of my saws are large commercial units. The first is capable of cuts 14" tall by 16" wide , the second saw the blade is vertical and it miterers in both directions and will cut 18" tall and 20" wide If the simple block adjusters sound like something you would like to try I can take some pictures.

JLP I believe the brand door I used last was PLYCO I bought a 3-0x7-0 With hinges, leverset, Frame insulated leaf and threshold for under 500 in July They are not precut I install the frame and then cut to fit . If your threshold has to be purchased separately I have seen some aluminum ones with a hard plastic bottom piece bolded to them. I typically use hot dip galvanized "Tapcon" style concrete screws. (Tapcon brand are always coated with a blue anti corrosion coating that looks bad on a finished product or aluminum threshold). The frames are typically only attached to the structure at the header which slips up onto the top girt and then are anchored to the slab. No intermediate attachment in-between . So the little pieces you installed are not necessary , the sheets screw to the door jamb. That being said I have installed full length structural jamb members on each side on high traffic doors occasionally. David

Jennifer I typically install the aluminum threshold in a bed of NP1 sealant or similar and wipe off the excess that oozes out. David