Frosty

An old school trick was to replace the air with something without oxy, engine exhaust was a common favorite and one I used many times. I liked a small engine, start it, pull the choke till it was running smokey and poke a hose in the barrel, fuel tank, etc. when the tank is blowing smoke it's good to go. Right? Uh, maybe. In the late 70's I believe it was, a local tank and welding company in Anchorage was commissioned to repair a cracked leg on a 10,000gl. diesel tank. Their long proven process was to drain it and steam the tank for a couple days before doing anything more than examine it. They were halfway through day 3 and an old timer decided they needed the shop space and struck an arc. Heck it was only about a 2" long crack and right under one of the steam lances aimed into the manholes. I was at work about 7 miles away and the explosion rattled the windows at the soil's lab. Their 120' x 60' x 24' H. red iron steel main shop building looked like a popped balloon. Oddly enough the old timer who ran the bead, well started to, survived with moderate injuries, 4 other guys in the shop suffered impact and minor burn injuries, the kid on top of the tank adjusting one of the steam stingers was blown through the roof, his body was found about half a block away. That was it for my displace the oxy bearing air method of fuel tank repair, that tank had been washed with special detergents and steamed HARD for 3 days and there was enough residual volatiles in the tank to almost completely level a large shop kill a man and break windows for a couple miles around. If I'm welding on a fuel tank I want the beads running completely submerged in fuel, if it isn't seeping out of the seam, crack, etc. I'm not doing it. If someone IS willing I'll be a few blocks away ready to dial 911. I know I'm on a roll on this subject. I used to be one of those guys who was willing but I've been too close to what even a small mistake can and will do. I don't know why I'm still alive, if I was careful enough, just lucky or both. I don't care, I won't take ANY chances with a fuel oil tank of any size. Frosty The Lucky.

Not a bad home built version of a jaw crusher. It'll work better if the hammer jaw is arched top to bottom, with the pinch point (narrowest closure which determines the max size of the output) at the hinge. This does several things for performance: First it makes loading easier because the top is at least 3x the desired width, crush size, Secondly the hammer jaw is only crushing a small quantity at once and as the crush falls into the jaws the pieces are already cracked and much easier to mill to desired size. It also allows a heavier hammer jaw and faster speed for more efficient performance. Lastly IIRC, an arched hammer jaw puts considerably less stress on the hinges so you can make them adjustable with a much reduced incidence of wear and failure. The anvil plate needs to be darned heavy, any deflection is energy drained from the work. Arching the anvil plate is undesirable. Yeah, I've been around these things too, can't work in a highways material lab without becoming intimately familiar with one of these things. Had to rebuild ours twice. Sweet machines, very simple. The lab crusher was driven by a cam and compound lever. different in detail but the same in spirit as yours. Frosty The Lucky.

Yes, better than a Fisher even, when around one in use, "I HEAR NOTHING." Frosty The Lucky.

Yes Bandit: HC= High Carbon. I keep my short stock in buckets as to type, mostly by carbon content. Most of the time I forge mild but every once in a while you want something tougher or hardenable and it's good not having to look through a bunch of buckets. Something to cut the stock with, a hack saw or chisels to cut it hot. A good hot cut is a masonry chisel, they're wide and thin. Post vise springs are simple, easy and can be mild steel. The spring action doesn't need to be strong. There should be a number of pictures of threads with pictures of post vises being repaired here. A short leg probably means this one was used as a hammering vise. Not to worry, post vises were designed and built to take hammering on. Frosty The Lucky.

I don't know what Dreft is so I'll let that lay. My home brew welding flux is 3-4 pts borax and 1pt boric acid and it works noticably better than straight borax. However I tried a commercial flux from the welding supply. It's powder intended for gas brazing, silver soldering, welding cast iron, aluminum, etc. It's anhydrous borax and boric acid and was about 1/4 the price of buying a "forge welding" flux from a blacksmith supply and it works a like a charm. Just read the labels of the commercial fluxes and see what's in them. Frosty The Lucky.

Keep your anvil much hotter than Alec did until the very last couple drifts it won't be nearly as much work. You can hear when Alec's block got too cool, the sound of the hammer's blows went from thud to clank. Put the steel back in the fire when it clanks. Remember though, the anvil block will shrink when it cools so you need to keep driving the final drift as it cools or the hardy hole will be small. Of course there are files. Frosty The Lucky.

They must've been using a crock pot for a boiler. Yeah, you have to learn how things sound differently to the listener than to you. I can see how the interviewer could think, two't three might sound like twen't three, especially if there was a breeze. Do you do Demos? You'll run into this at demos too so you learn to keep it simple and speak clearly. I'd love to take a ride on a steam engine, running one would be a blast but I really don't want to be the pilot on a locomotive. Frosty The Lucky.

NO. Frosty The Lucky.

Slip a little 15n20 between the bars and that's a large pattern weld billet. I wonder how much propane it'd take to get it to welding temperature. Frosty The Lucky.

Yeah, much as I'd like a touchmark they're too expensive. It's not like I'm still earning a living. I've considered making a pantograph to hold my dremel to transfer a design to a steel die block then drive a punch and see how it comes out. Yeah, something else on my get a round toit list. Is anyone's round toit list getting shorter? Frosty The Lucky.

Just being courteous makes a huge difference. If you want something from someone, giving them crap for it isn't a good tactic for success. We aren't plants and even don't like smell. Come - post, keep the compost to yourself! Frosty The Lucky.

Better yet Spanky, family remembrance is good, a thing to be treasured. For instance, the liner in our wedding rings was made from a gold rig a dear friend of Deb's, passed some time ago gave her many years ago. Such things mean a lot. Frosty The Lucky.

Ooh, very viney. Pics of the die please? Frosty The Lucky.

​Bummer, I won't be able to credit anyone if (when) I steal the idea. Deb's especially gifted at bent wire art, far better than I. Frosty The Lucky.

Petty good hunter, gathering there. I think a couple of those handles are hatchet handles but still a good score. Frosty The Lucky.

​BINGO! I spent 20 years WORKING for fools, put my tolerance levels in the crapper. How about this idea Smoothbore: We start a blacksmith advice for Benjamins column and call it, "Dear Crabby!" Frosty The Lucky.

​Yeah you better if you want to pay your folks back for that touchmark stamp! Frosty The Lucky.

YIKES! Custom one off products will always be expensive. Remember that when pricing for customers. Frosty The Lucky.

Okay, that explains a lot Ethan. Authors frequently write about subjects they don't actually know much about. Someday you will see something in the paper, a magazine or a book you are familiar with and be slapping your head at the misconceptions and outright mistakes in print. How many times have your read somthing about forged cast iron? Cast iron doesn't forge worth spit if at all. My bet is the author didn't know the difference between a closed die forging and a casting. Or he wrote the first thing that came to mind while he was writing, we all do that, especially if we're on a roll. It's what makes editing so much work and a good editor worth gold. Frosty The Lucky.

Can you visit the anvil? If so take a ball bearing or small ball pein hammer and perform a rebound test. Drop the ball bearing from a distance, 10" is good and estimate how far it rebounds, bounces back up. IIRC above around 70% is a good rebound. Do it over the entire face and look for dead spots, a place the bearing doesn't bounce much and it sounds significantly different than the rest of the face. Be aware it will rebound less over the heal but the change will be gradual and follow the thinning of the anvil body under the face. Using a hammer, smooth faced hammer works the same way you just don't drop it. Hold the hammer a given distance above the face and let the head drop OR give it a light tap but his takes more experience to judge how hard you're hitting something. Anyway, you estimate how far the hammer rebounds it's the same test, just a little different metric. (measuring method) I really like the hammer because I can tell a lot by how the hammer feels in my hand. It's one of my main sources of feed back and how I read the steel I'm forging anyway so using the meter I'm most familiar with is more reliable but that's ME. YMMV Without a rebound test I'd say that's a beautiful anvil, excellent condition and a good shape. Thick waisted anvils tend to be quieter and have a wider sweet spot. Size and weight is a good question, it's important. Assuming the fellow's thumb, knuckle to nail tip is more average length than my little stumpies call it about 2.5"- 2.75" long the face would be approximately 17" to 19" long and approximately 5.6" to 6.33" wide. Approximately 8.5" - 9.7" tall. Not hard numbers by a long shot, I'm gauging off the screen with dividers and a scale using the guy's thumb from tip to joint as the bench mark. Now for a WAG, I put it in the 100+lb. range FWIW. Frosty The Lucky.

That'll work a treat once you open up the intake port. A chisel or sabre saw will open up the intake port easily enough and a lot faster than drilling a bunch of holes. Heck, use a larger bit and drill so they connect, clean up with a file and you're golden. Lots of ways to make holes in metal, especially aluminum. Frosty The Lucky.

A few months ago the gang in the Sandbox E-mail list were talking about mixing silicone calking with various powders to model. Some were as basic as saw dust, some talcum powder or maybe baby powder, flour, salt, baking soda was supposed to have interesting effects. On and on. I haven't messed with calking and . . . stuff, (Binders?) but it was intriguing and on my long list of intriguig things to try someday. Now though, cheap alternatives? Hmmmmm. Frosty The Lucky.

Malice: No, filing the hole is NOT a good idea. First it makes the hole larger than it should be. Secondly it roughens the surface of the hole enlarging the surface area speeds chemical reactions. The epoxy around the pins is a prophylactic (barrier) measure, it keeps the electrolyte (moisture and dissolved chemicals) off of and out of the joint. If you use marine bronze for your rivets and pins it is FAR less susceptible to galvanic reaction. I'm not sure if marine bronze is a dialectric or dialectric bronze is a different alloy but dialectric couplers are how you hook up the copper plumbing to the boiler, well, etc. in the basement. IF you can make the holes a couple thousandths smaller than the pins you can still slip them in by chilling in dry ice and warming the knife handle. When the pins warm back up and expand they will form an interference fit and be especially water tight and heck just plain tight. Sealed with a good epoxy, etc. and it'll last generations. Do NOT get anything between the tang and pins. Frosty The Lucky.

Charles: it's counter intuitive to think a hardened and tempered piece of steel is vulnerable to a hack saw or drill bit but a spring temper is nowhere near blade hard. A quick stroke with a file will tell your trained ear a toothed saw or HSS drill bit will work just fine. No need to anneal, normalize, etc. I had to try it to believe it myself, I'm a "trust but verify" kind of guy where tools and such are concerned you know. <wink> I have ZERO heartburn if someone has to try a suggestion of mine before believing it. Or even more valuable in my little world tell me it doesn't work. If something doesn't work I WANT to KNOW, there may be a mistake or I may have run across a fluke. Pointing out a mistake of mine is something I cherish. Frosty The Lucky.

Very cool Jammer. My father had the cast aluminum ashtray I made for him in Jr. high school metal shop on his desk 20 years after he quit smoking. Heck it was on the side table next to his death bed last time I saw him. Now I'm all misty eyed.<sniff> Frosty The Lucky.