The Jeff

There was a Berlin Machine Works, is it part of a bigger machine?

I second what frosty said. Be safe things can be rebuilt or replaced. 

Will be praying

2 hours ago, JHCC said:

Now, a clever man would put the poison into his own goblet

INCONCEIVEABLE! 

I would suggest gravel instead of just dirt.

When it rains it will be mudd.

Maybe not to constructive, but theres a good bit of info in the  Forges section.

Not my idea, but I saw this on a press similar to yours.

I also saw some that had the dies bolted in.

I haven't made a folder yet, but I have made a template from mdf to see how everything fits up, moves and how or if the lock works.

I may be way off but that may be a easy starting place, if I'm wrong let me know.

https://sgs.princeton.edu/news-announcements/news-2023-07-21

I had actually done that, I saw them sanded as you said and etched and showed up a little darker then the surronding steel.

After another round of sanding and etching the marks are gone so i suppose deep grind marks or surface cracks?

I have read about the dye, thanks for the suggestion.

I etched a peice for a few minutes and it had a few darker lines runing through and wasn't sure if they were cracks.

I don't have enough experience to know one way or the other. 

If a peice of steel has cracks ( that you cant otherwise see) , will they show up when you etch it?

Could you get an eye bolt around the legs and bolt it through the body?

You can use wood, it will burn down to charcoal.

But go easy on the blower or you will blow the smaller peices of charcoal out of the forge.

http://www.vintagemachinery.org/pubs/detail.aspx?id=5105

Link to Wells Bros. & Co. catalog from 1895, has the little giant #4 on page 84 if you click the pdf.

Vintage machinery.org has some general info about wells bros. & co.

I think your cast looks good, I got side tracked and forgot to mention that..

I have wanted to try casting, its on a long list of things I want to try.

Nooo, I couldn't do something that clean I just pulled from internet.

My boss used to say aluniyum.

Cast?

reminds me of this

Mod note: Copyrighted photo removed

This may be obvious or just a stupid question but Im ignorant enough to not really know what I am asking, but since we are talking about souping things up would a 2" tee burner be feasible? 

I do vaguely remeber that one. 

I work in a local hardware store and we sell Stihl products, well there are some lumber jack shows in town that use Stihl. So we get people in here wanting the biggest saw we have occasionally. The "soup it up" remionded me of that.

Frosty and Tim Allen are now the same person in my mind

Not trying to derail the conversation but I'm preparing to build another forge soon.

Would there be an advantage to an oval, over the D shape. 

In a previous house we would hvae knocks and things move. Heard an old timey phone ringing over a baby monitor once, the ringing was unlike any phone we had. Another time a plainy heard the door open, some one come in and door close. And yep there was nobody there except me.

My first time heating a blade with charcoal I burnt right through before I even noticed.

21 minutes ago, Frosty said:

I'm working on doing a better job of picking my battles, maybe fall on a pillow or bed from now on.

Frosty, I don't fall on hard things but I have tryed to catch hard things that were falling.... With my head.

Ok before I speak I have no experience with plasma cutters so if I'm wrong or way off feel free to let me know.

But from what I am seeing if your consumables are good and connections are good you should check air? Not enough air or to much or contaminated?

Again I don't know just trying be helpful.