Frosty

Naw, no surprise at all. A guy came out, a couple summers back and wanted me to tell (not show, tell) him the secret so he could make blades. I guess he didn't like the secret I haven't seen him since. "A little knowledge and lots of practice." The lots of practice part is just unfair. Oh well. Frosty The Lucky.

Uh huh, they don't want to see a fastener at all. Oh how typical. The following method isn't going to come off the doors without doing significant damage to the door or handles or both. Weld barbed spikes to the backs of the plates. Drill a LITTLE smaller holes in matching positions into the second ply of the door. Mix polyester resin and thin it with toluene and squirt it in the holes on one handle site completely coating it. Mix bondo and force into holes and drive the handle spikes into the holes. Give it a couple days to cure completely and the only way they're get the handles off the doors will be rip the doors apart. The polyester resin thinned with toluene will soak into the wood. When the toluene evaporates the resin will set plasticizing the wood. The Bondo will bond permanently to the resin impregnated wood. Putting barbs on the spikes is gravy, coarse threaded bolts work as well if they're a little larger than the hole. Using this technique to secure logs in cabins, Bondo and rebar, makes them almost indestructible without burning first. Be sure you explain to the customer the handles will NOT come off without severely damaging the doors. Let it be their choice, they may decide seeing the fasteners isn't so bad after all. Frosty The Lucky.

A 60 year old blacksmith has things to do the lifting for him/er. Frosty The Lucky.

Alright! Excited is good, rushing is BAD. Take your time and don't invest a bunch of time and money in trying to make or find the "perfect" . . . Anything. It isn't the tools, it's the person wielding them that counts. Frosty The Lucky.

You mean the neighborhood litter box? I think that idea stinks! Frosty The Lucky.

We're all aware it's a problem. Being a free site Iforge just can't afford a better software platform so we're stuck with this IPS . . . Ofal. Everything comes out of Glenn's pocket, adds and donations only ease the pain a little. Frosty The Lucky.

Don't think you're special, everybody, the site owner and admin corps included are trying to figure it out too. Good to see you can take a little poking well. There are hundreds of posts on virtually any subject you might wish to try saved in various sections. Reading what you're interested in learning will do a couple important things for you: It'll give you enough knowledge to ask good questions, the jargon is important it lets us communicate clearly. Second reading will give you some excellent examples of what kinds of advice to consider and what to ignore. People are naturally helpful and want to contribute, unfortunately lots don't know enough to give useful advice. Frosty The Lucky.

Forget the cement it behaves badly when HOT. What are the "embers" for? Frosty The Lucky.

Move it farther out the horn and let it teach you to dance? Frosty The Lucky.

I have dents in my head to show I can be complacent. Well maybe, I don't remember exactly what I was doing when I got the dents but maybe. I don't know. There's a big difference between keeping safety issues in mind and worrying about them to the point of paralysis. Another of Dad's sayings, "You can't be afraid of it but you have to respect it." He was a metal spinner and a spinning shop can eat you alive if you aren't on top of it all the time. Frosty The Lucky.

When you say "no through bolts" do you mean through the: doors, handles or both? Each has a solution though the last is pretty permanent. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Cody, glad to have you. Nice oil well, is it yours? We're kind of traditionalists here we keep the subject lines reasonably short and write the message in the text window. We post pictures here too, we LOVE pics but you can put them and the text together. All kidding aside plenty of guys from your neck of the woods on Iforge, you'll enjoy getting together with them. Catch some meetings, hammer ins, BBQs, etc. Good guys. Frosty The Lucky.

I think Pogo was paraphrasing the human condition, we're our own worst enemies too often for my liking. I did this one a few years ago to show someone you don't need anything special. Everything but drifting the eye was done on the face anvil face and a little filing to dress up the curve on the blade. It's folded and welded mild with a hacksaw blade hood spring billet twist pattern bit. The handle is you guessed it a hockey stick from behind the high school gym. I call it the "Francesca Wasilla." I haven't tried throwing it but it's light really fast and cuts well. I don't think I'd like to be on the receiving end of a few hundred of these things raining down out of the sky. Not only do they bounce crazy they're as likely to lay on the ground edge up as down and Legionaries wore sandals. Frosty The Lucky.

Don't burn them off in a cemetery. Frosty The Lucky.

Now we're talking! More scrap, bigger projects! Frosty The Lucky.

I've had that happen before. I start out wanting to make a mythological critter and it ends up a mystery. I like the horned snakelike opener too. Heck I like em all. Frosty The Lucky.

Oh yeah, that box will come in darned handy. Good scrounging. Frosty The Lucky.

What argument, did I miss something? I know most manufacturers are making multi fuel torch regulators now, have been for a few years. It's just not safe to assume that's what a person has on their tank unless I can lay eyes on it or am reasonably sure they know the difference. Johnny's story scares me too and should be a good reminder to us all not to get complacent. My Father used to say, "familiarity breeds contempt." He said that so often I got sick of hearing it but truer words were never spoken. Frosty The Lucky.

A foot treadle on the hand grinder. . . BINGO! A length of 1/4" rod is overkill and a couple ends so it moves freely, almost anything will work for the treadle, don't need a spring, nothing fancy at all. Hand grinders work but are inconvenient seeing as we only have the two hands. However once you get good at sharpening on one you can work magic on an electric wheel. That's a PERFECT little lamp. If you attach it to a small piece of sq tubing you can attach pieces of sq tubing that telescope over it all over the place so you can put the lamp where ever you need it. Good light on the grinder is important you know. Frosty The Lucky.

Do you have an electric drill? Drill a hole in the plate for the leg. (Assuming the flat steel plate base for discussion's sake) Find and cut the post whatever it is, round, square tubing, I beam, wooden post, etc. Cut, oh 6 pieces of 2"x2" or larger angle iron. Drill and bolt the angle iron to the base so it's snug around the post, drill and bolt the post to it. Same sort of thing for the top mount, the vise bracket will be perfectly happy bolted directly to a piece of angle iron bolted to the plate. If you have round post you may need to bolt the angle iron flange in so it mates squarely with the post and bolt another piece or two of angle to it for the vise bracket. If you think of the angle iron like shelf brackets you have the picture. No need for a welder but whooEEE they're handy gizmos. Frosty The Lucky.

Ed: I said or meant to is, I don''t have enough friends to risk losing any if I can help it. I call thousands of folk just here on Iforge friends, even some of the ones I don't much like. I still don't want to lose any, I'm greedy like that. I run an All States oxy propane torch and it has a thumb valve on the handle so shutting it off is a matter of rolling my thumb on the valve and BANG!! it's off. On torches without a master valve I shut off the fuel, then the oxy at the handle. The I shut off the tank valves, go back, bleed the hoses and shut the handle valves again. If a cutting torch I shut the preheat adjustment valve after shutting the handle valve and it's the last valve shut in the bleed off process. The last thing I do when I leave my shop is do one final valve check, shut the lights off and close the door. Fuel air explosions make me jumpy and a compressed oxygen fire scare the . . . stuff out of me. A number of shops I've worked in didn't bleed the hoses and I follow the shop's rules unless they're blatantly dangerous and I pass on working in that shop. Frosty The Lucky.

Hmmm, sounds like a good project but be prepared to make a bunch before you get one close enough to right to use. I don't know enough to even guess but with some details on the desired club why the heck not. I think pick a steel with a little chrome in it so it doesn't tarnish like mild steel would. Weight the club head you want to replicate to determine your starting stock. Figure you'll loose a few % every heat but don't go overboard or you'll have to heat it more times. Unless there's something special about them like being hollow I don't see a problem that failure analysis and persistence won't take care of. Frosty The Lucky.

Make an elephant to hold it with it's trunk! Frosty The Lucky.

I'm feeling a little better now, your regulator meters fuel at a preset ratio. This is how propane is regulated on oxy prop torches I'm familiar with. I may be wrong but I don't like the propane tip conversion torches there are too many issues with them. I don't like the tip you're using to heat with but I don't know anything about it so I may be off base completely. In what sequence did you turn it off? Alan was the first to ask and I've now asked at least twice. Shutting a torch off properly is important, there are ways to do it incorrectly that almost guarantee a backfire. Please tell us it may be a simple thing to correct. Have you talked to the people you bought it from since the scary backfire? I would've called them as soon as I was sure the fire was out. Seriously if they're a reputable company they're your best bet, we're just faceless guys in cyberspace who like to type and BS. We just don't have so many friends we want to lose any. Frosty The Lucky.

I'd like to see someone put it through it's paces. Frosty The Lucky.