Frosty

Welcome aboard Irontoes, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you'll be more likely to find someone to ride with. We aren't going to remember where you are after we open the next post. We like Pics too, most anything you'd let preschoolers look at or read is good. Outside of the occasional slip up we're a pretty family oriented bunch. Frosty The Lucky.

Ball peins make good top tools of most types. Draw the temper on the end you're going to strike with a hammer into the purple, you don't want it chipping. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard James, glad to have you. If you've been reading much here you know how addictive the blacksmith's craft is. It's a lifelong learning curve and a heck of a trip. Enjoy the ride, Frosty The Lucky.

Nice, I like it. I've always liked reverse scrolls as finials on fire grates and andirons. It gives them a more organic, almost serpentine look. Frosty The Lucky.

Good grief Darlin! I seem to recall you complaining about the cold and snow a few months ago. Is there NO happy medium there? Heat prostration and stroke are no little thing. You be CAREFUL you! Frosty The Lucky.

Shoe polish works well on interior pieces. Apply it to pretty warm work so it'll liquify and fill the little nooks and crannies and it'll set up pretty quickly. Buff the excess while it's still warm. I use Trewax brand Carnuba, indoors or out, it's very durable and I like the finish, the pieces look wet with a bit of shine. I don't know about waxing, oiling, painting, plating, etc. over Penetrol and I don't know how Penetrol stands as a finish on it's own. The only chips I see in the pics are scale, black iron oxide. A brisk wire brushing at red heat usually cleans it to burnished steel silver and provides a surface the finish has a good chance of sticking to for a while. Pretty nice hooks. The point at the top needs to be longer if a drive hook or bent in a hook if an S hook. A J hook needs a feature that allows it to be connected to function as a hanger. Frosty The Lucky.

A 10psi reg is pretty low power. Is it off a BBQ or camp stove? I run a 0-20psi variable and what's most commonly seems to be a 0-30psi variable pressure. I can get one off the shelf at the Propane distributor's showroom in Wasilla ALASKA for $26.00 and change. Not only does the regulator need to supply stable pressure but it has to supply enough volume of gas to do the work. BBQ, etc. regs are generally low volume as well as pressure. A 3/4" T burner has a total BTU output that'd heat the average home in winter Alaska. I run my burners under 10psi on occasion and they consume propane prodigiously, a crab pot reg is completely out of it's range. Just be sure it's a propane regulator, using an old acet reg, etc. isn't a good idea, Propane is very reactive with rubbers that aren't formulated for it. You really don't want propane to start shooting out of the vent holes in the sides of a regulator, it'll be leaking at tank pressure, aprox. 200psi @ 72f. Just another detail to take care of. Life's full of the pesky things. You're almost there, hang in we're pulling for you. Frosty The Lucky.

She's a beauty. How do you want to finish her? I painted my smaller vise but yours looks pretty nice as she stands. There aren't any rules really, it's your tool, your shop your choice. Just don't forget pics. Frosty The Lucky.

I've had a Jet 7"x12" horizontal, vertical band saw for better than 15 years and it's a solid piece of equipment I'd be lost without. Frosty The Lucky.

That's well out of my grasp Wayne. I don't know who could fill his shoes. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard KP, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the IFI gang live within visiting distance. Please don't take this the wrong way but if you have to ask you don't know enough to attempt it on any level. First casting steel for home use is terribly wasteful of time fuel and is tremendously dangerous. There are guys on this forum who make their own iron and steel but certainly NOT by melting scrap. 10 lbs. say a coffee mug size crucible worth of molten steel has the potential explosive power of around a CASE of 40% dynamite. One mistake and you're wearing a couple lbs. of molten steel in the burning remains of your shop. Stripping galvy is easy to do, a little research will answer that question. I'm not going to here, you need the practice doing real research. I'm not being mean, we like to see folk being successful but it takes effort on all levels on your part. For something to forge, especially just beginning keep it simple and buy some mild or A36 steel. It's a known quantity so the techniques you learn are applicable. Scrounging is a necessary blacksmith skill but learning to evaluate what you're salvaged is a different set of skills you don't need to try to learn while developing basic hammer control and forging skills. Frosty The Lucky.

Even though it says pastewax, Trewax is pretty hard in the can, that's why I use the cloth I use to wipe the excess to apply it too. I keep them in the can and they are pretty waxy. I just give the block in the can a hard rub with the cloth and apply it to the warm steel. I like the results when the steel is about fresh cup of coffee/tea hot, say in the 160f range. I use a different rag to wipe the excess while it's still pretty warm. After a while the buff rag ends up the applicator rag. You can turn the applicator back into the buff just by using it often without rubbing the wax block. Yeah, I know that's a lot of technique for waxing hot iron but it's not like shoe polish, it takes a few tricks but it's worth it. And yeah, black shoe polish makes a decent finish on iron you can buff nice highlights on textures and it's reasonably durable once dry. Frosty The Lucky.

S'okay, I was in a mood is all. It's a curmudgeon thing. Never apologize for a lack of knowledge, admitting it is a positive personality trait. Wanting to get things right is a good thing too. I hang here to spread some of what I've learned around. I spread bad jokes and long rambly missives too but I try to make up for it. If an apology is due it's mine, there was no need to take out my aggravation on you, I don't even know what's on my nerves sometimes. I'm glad to be of what help I can. Give me a shout, I'll get back. Frosty The Lucky.

I love this site, ask a question and not only get pictures but dimensioned drawings. SWEET. Frosty The Lucky.

Beautiful table, nice background. I've always liked well composed mixed media, wood and iron go together so well a person has to be really ham handed for them to not look like they belong. Are you getting orders for tables like that one? It's a high end piece of work. Frosty The Lucky.

See? I KNEW there was someone on Iforge who'd know! NAILED another one. I'll be looking for the pics. Frosty The Lucky.

Exactly, a "drop" is what's left over when stock is cut for a project. The term meaning it's been Dropped from the stock inventory. Another good term is rem or remnant or remainder. What I mean by a "good term" is one that is known and understood by folk in a trade or person on the street without needing a long explanation. Drop and Rem are good examples of "good terms," in my book. Frosty The Lucky.

Awe come ON, no ought treble snagging hooks whipping in the wind? Where's the fun in that. I think the cross head isn't as straight as it should be but it's hard to see in the pics. I'd need to take a look in person to have a good idea of what I'm looking at. It may be nothing, say just the angle you're taking the pics. It can be hard to judge when you're taking pics of multi arm devices, every one is at a different angle and it can disguise their orientation on the plane. Everything from the crank arm, cross head to the hammer guides should be on the same plane. Any lean in or out will not only absorb energy but cause more than normal wear. Frosty The Lucky.

Just use it as is. No, it doesn't need a straight edge but putting a radius on some of it is a very good idea. A sharp edge will cut when you set shoulders or isolate material. sharp inside corners rapidly turn into "Cold Shuts" which are weak points where failure initiates. Think scoring glass to cut it, exactly the same physics to the same affect. Just put it to work, if it isn't hard enough you can hard face over any dents and dings without messing with them, that's what hard facing rod is for. Frosty The Lucky.