Charlotte

Cutting foods in the hand was done by my mother and that is the way I learned. We wanted our knives sharp and sharpened them often. When I started watching Julia Child when she came on Public Broadcasting with her first shows I learned that there was a better way. Not because it was safer but because it was so much faster;

Btw, how many years of chemistry do you have at the college level? Have you considered the problem of waste disposal? Have you acquired information on the total grams of the metals in each model of converter. You do realize that the cost of converter is mostly in the creation not in the materials? Reminds me to the time that a gold dealer friend of mine wanted to set up a refining operation to recover value from his pawn shop ( run under a different name). After he ran the numbers and calculated the require volume and payback time he decided he was still better off vending it off to a wholesaler. BTW before you ask The same guy started dealing postage stamps and silver coins in a retail store and finished with a personal fortune of over 1 mill (business included)

I invested in #3 tint prescription safety glasses my self. Most Welding supply stores sell no prescription welding tint safety glasses. I bought a pair that fits over my civilian prescription glasses recently to use when I visit peoples shops.

One of the things I missed most when I left east Tennessee was the junk yard owned by kindly man that would let me pick through selected scrap piles. Right here near the Big Easy things are not so easy. Yup small towns are also better to be a kid in even today.

Many of practical jokes that kids got away with back " in the day" get them sent to Juvenile detention today. Even though I spent a lot of my childhood in city apartments there were always places we could get to that were not supervised and nobody cared if we make a little mess or a small fort. Think of this if you will there are more than twice the people living in the US than there were when you were born. Then think about the number of lawsuits that are filed over supposed civil liabilities. Gone are the days when you and your dad could get down in the grease pit with the mechanic to look at the problem.

kind of wonder about the face my self. I looks a great deal like the Stanley brand hammers issued to Bell Telephone repair men (They were all men in those days). They were Riveting hammers. The flat face tapered from the square body to a round flat face. I occurs to me that in those days Bell system may have bought tinner's hammers from Stanley and had their name stamped on them. My copy is in my tool box as I type. Hammer head is 11 cm long 2 cm deep 2.4 cm thick weight of head and handle is 1.1 lb

I agree! Beautiful

Actually. I gave away my mother's 50 + year old cast iron frying pan. The simple reason is that fried foods have been off my menu for 20 years. I was cooking far too many foods with lots of water and acid fresh tomatoes. Too much iron in the food and seasoning doesn't hold up under that use. However, I have kept the cast iron pan that we use to make cornbread. That pan never sees any thing but butter and cornbread batter.

I came across a web site for a supplier based in Houston Texas that carries a brand of " 3000 Degree F Polycrystalline Alumina Blanket" as well as other refractory materials. http://www.tflhouston.com/refractories/ I have never done business with this supplier so the information is provided for your investigation. The claimed durability on exposure to flame contact sounds outstanding and may be of interest to smiths working in pattern welding.

The problem in the US is that the people running the show are dedicated to their own careers. I worked for a corporation that gradually closed down all research and product development squeezed the sales staff out of face to face customer contact and eventually sold the whole production end to three different levels of competitors. American Industry was founded by men that knew and understood their products and wanted it to get better. I knew we were in trouble when the industry trade magazine reported that US Steel had changed its name to USX. They subsequently sold all their steel divisions. That happened before half the members here were born.

LOL Steve, Forgot talking one woman to another. Sorry!

chisels and gouges I made did well while I had them. They were good enough that my ex managed to sneak them out of my tool box. They went south when I divorced.

Oh Yes! That is a great Knife! Great size. Would be right at home in any woman's kitchen.

I have followed Alexander Weygers suggestion my self and forged good working chisels my self. BTW Weygers or another writer made the statement that bed frames were often made out of re-rolled steel railroad rails.

Great work! Love it !! one thing that concerns me is the wear and tear the wall will get over time. You may want to put a shelf under it with a decorative back to take up the metal/ plaster contact. Just my homemaker gene kicking in.

I have often reflected that I was fortunate to have survived my industrial "one of the hands that draw the water and hews the wood" years with all my parts in tact and with out serious chemical damage. There are still employers around the world that place profit and production ahead to their employees.

pressure is a trivial issue which has been discussed here many times. Size of box to be heated is an issue as well as how quickly the gas exits the box. I use industrial regulators and smaller orifices than some designs. I have run as High as 30 psig. However, from the rate of gas usage you are suggesting it appears that you have made some very fundamental design errors. I suggest you re-read the stickies for the forge section.

From my point of view the above can not be repeated often enough!

There is a reason most guitars have nickel-silver for frets. A real silver alloy with copper and rhodium would be special and might do the job but then you would have the hassle of fabricating custom shape. Consider that the frets not heavy wear items. You didn't say what style of guitar you are planning to build btw?

very good work. I have the same problem at times. Have a project to the stage where the next step is make or break and stand there looking at it gathering confidence.

you are of course assuming that the clamp has zinc plating. It could be dip nickel for that matter. Have you run tests? cold galvanized iron is much thinner than Hot Dip. It's been years since I saw Hot dip galvanized in the local hardware store Pipe fittings. Just saying ! Be careful, be aware, be informed , be safe, DONT" PANIC.

Zinc??? well folks Let me say this about that: cool your jets, slow your roll, hang loose. Yes it does have a quick and very thin coating of quick dip zinc. You would have to be trying to weld to the table with deliberate intent and doing deep inhales at the same time. For normal use unless you take rose bud to it you won't have any trouble from zinc fumes. The upside of the thin coat is that it will generally wear off over the years and if sprayed with Pam the BB's will slide off. Zinc is an essential element in human diet and some people think Lozenges with zinc in them help fight colds. The hazard from zinc is breathing the fumes produced when it is heated in a fire as from paint stripping or heating with a torch or forge where there substantial amounts to be vaporized. I know there are a lot people that correctly caution member about putting Hot dip galvanized materials their forge. It is good to be aware that there is a potential problem. On the other hand a quick, cosmetic, coating on the surface of a work table is not the sort of thing we need to worry about.

A little while back someone expressed a wish for a welding table. As it Happens I decided that I was tired of cleaning stuff off my work table every time I wanted to weld on it. I bought one from Harbor freight yesterday. I got marked down with coupon so worked out as inexpensive measured against time and hassel factor. 30x19 7/8 " top 32 High maybe 1/8 thick steel Chinese Made of course. Light duty of course. amateur grade equipment. does tilt 45 and 90 deg from horizontal. Does have slots that can be use to hold Jigs and clamp. Assembly requires two adjustable wrenches, Phillip's screw driver. I needed a rat tail file to clean up a couple of ragged bolt holes. Like all Chinese cheap stuff it has some sharp edged metal from stamping. I don't do heavy welding just small stuff these days so the 100 lb claimed capacity is adequate.

Actually you could also use industrial grade isopropyl alcohol and dry ice. Temperature is the same and much safer. Crysoak in LN2 means that you have to have a transport for It. Dewars get expensive quick. In NY you might find if a little more difficult to find acetone because of the Mother of Satan concerns atm. My experience with NY gov. was that they tend to think every one is a crook or insane except them.

The Older I get the more I sympathize with that point of view/