Frosty

Welcome aboard H&I guy, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header we won't have to keep bugging you. Nice knuckle dusters but getting caught in possession in Alaska is good for some gray bar hotel time. Probably not more than a night but the fine could be pretty hefty. Still, if a guy can make them decorative enough they can't be considered a weapon . . . Frosty The Lucky.

That might not be as nice in their eyes. This is really hard to say, women can be mighty particular. Will the hooks be attached or slip over a flat bar? If they can be moved I'd iclude an extra hook or two, say one like the others and one long one that way the lady of the house can decide. It's a tough call but given a choice I'm uncertain about I go with what the customer wants unless it's a clear hazard. Frosty The Lucky.

Brass rivets will be plenty strong even if she hangs cast iron. I'm thinking I'd make it just a little larger than a 3 pan hanger, say 4 or 5. Nothing extravagant, just a little bit more than she asked for. did you get a look at where she wants to hang it? It'd be good to know if you have room and how much, 4 might be all that fits and I'm thinking might be just the right extra. Frosty The Lucky.

Easier than all that, just call a company that builds roads. Even if they don't run air tracks (drill rigs) they know who does, a blasting company probably. Call that company and ask who supplies their drill steels. THAT company will be able to tell you more about those than you'll want to know. The longer ones have carbide bits so the steel only has to be impact resistant rather than hard. The bits themselves come off so the shafts may be different steel entirely. Air tracks typically use rope threads and don't couple to the hammer like those seem to so they could well be a jack hammer type rock drill. This is a good example of the yellow pages being a faster and better search engine than the internet. You can talk to people on the phone so you can ask simple questins, they can use some judgement or just connect you. Frosty The Lucky.

Oh come on Postleg, it's just POP corn. <sheesh> Richard: I have a better idea of what you want to do and your questions are pretty straight forward with that little bit more information. Something that will really help you talk to folk in specialist fields is to learn to be less flowery and vague in your speech. You're adding a lot of elements that have no bearing on what you ask of us without shedding much light on what we do need to know. So, what you want to do is bid a project. To do so YOU must know what's the best material to use and stay within budget. There are a number of materials that will work well but each with it's own unique characteristics. #1 is expense, #2 difficulty working, #3, appearance, #4 finish. That's just a ROUGH guide, for instance do you know how to calculate a materials cost? #1 purchase price. #2, how much does the machinery cost to work it, can you weld? How well, do you have the welder? Finish isn't about being done, it's about bringing the material to a finished state for instance hand rubbing and lacquering fine wood, powder coating steel or maybe chroming it. Were I attempting your project I'd spend time talking to the person commissioning the work with sketch pad in hand. If a tree were what was really wanted I'd find out what kind. Do they want realistic, impressionist, etc. what finish do they want Rust? paint? What? I'd look over the location, most used paths, vantage points, natural lighting seasonal traffic patterns, daily time of traffic who is the traffic, etc. etc. So, lets say they want fairly realistic, natural patina minimal rust. It's placement will be in a small piece of lawn in an intersection in front of a building entrance. The entrance is two ful flights of steps above the installation spot. So, it'll have to look good from above. Coming up the paths it's going to get good lighting from one side during business hours and the background isn't terribly interesting. Weather in the area isn't too severe but gets wind and occasional wind. Armed with this basic info I know the weather is a factor so it's going to have to stand up to winds, no big leaves or long lacy elements. Lots of rain means mild steel will rust and stain the groud under it so no mild steel or Core-10. This leaves a number of alternative. How good are you at the forge? Ever try forging Monel? Ever hear of Monel? What ever patina you put on it will be relatively unchanged a couple thousand years from now. Patination on Monel is limited though it's FAR from a reactive metal so you can get it to look like various iron patinas pretty easily. You'll need to tig weld it, grinding isn't too hard but it'll gum up wheels so that's an expense. You can electro polish it so you can probably send it to a subcontractor and it'll be shiney for a couple thousand years. You can forge bronze but it's tricky stuff, too hot it crumbles, not hot enough and it breaks up. the stuff is a PITA but it's plenty doable. Once again TIG welds and it isn't going to like being too flexible in heavy weather, it work hardens and could fail. Clean up and polishing is pretty straight forward, nothing strange there, just lots of sweat. Bronze looks good and is a common sculptural material. Copper is fun to forge but has it's own characteristics you have to understand and deal with. Okay, none of what I've written is detailed enough to be very helpful to you in a bid. My intent was to give you an idea of what and how to ask your questions. If you ask a metal supplier your questions like you asked us, the supplier is going to get the idea you don't know enough to understand their answers so they're unlikely to accept the liability of trying too hard. For instance, do we really need to know you want to use 10 rods with a twist pattern to try and represent a "grain?" growth pattern? What that kind of background info does is get us thinking how we'd do it instead. Believe me I wouldn't try doing a 10' tall sculpture that way unless the person buying it wanted it. Maybe if it was a Banyon or similar but even then. Sorry, I know this has turned into more of a critique than you were looking for but there are no easy answers to what you've asked. I've only TOUCHED on material costs and some of the contributing factors to that cost. Just don't give up, we're pulling for you. Frosty The Lucky.

Right you are, getting going is the only way to arrive. Anywhere. I like copper, it's malleable with a little occasional annealing and you can do that on a kitchen stove, camp fire, a few BBQ briquettes, etc. That is a good looking rose, well done. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. Have you hooked up with the NWBA? they're a great bunch of guys ad it will network you with tools, equipment, classes, hammer ins, etc. all over the place. Dave's a good guy though I've always wondered about a guy with D. Lisch as a handle. <grin> The Pac NW has been a heavily industrialized area since the Russians trapped fur there. There are tools everywhere but they're getting harder to find and more expensive. Snohomish used to be good hunting but since it's gone to antique central everything's gotten really expensive. East of the Cascades is more rural but it wasn't as heavily industrialized. Farming, logging and rail roads being the exceptions. I used to see some older farms, ranches, towns, etc. running 395 but that's been quite a while. Keep your eyes open and your ear to the ground and they'll come to you. Frosty The Lucky.

Vibration damaging in floor heat systems is from the days they used metal tubing and is no longer a factor. At first they used copper but concrete and copper react in a bad way for copper, steel tends to corrode and stainless tends to not like the concrete checking or vibration. Pex is darned near bullet proof. When I laid it in my shop floor I pressurized it as per instructions but over pressured it for a couple weeks just to see if it'd spring a leak. 125psi for two weeks and zippo. You pressurize it when you pour the concrete so it's expanded a little and makes a little room for heat expansion. I mapped the Pex in my floor and it's all tied to the rebar which is welded to the gozintas. I didn't know about renting an IR camera if I wanted to drill holes. Frosty The Lucky.

For a "wild west bar" feel you ought to brand the lettering on. Of course selling the branding irons is expected. Selling whiskey would complete the theme. Frosty The Lucky.

For any kind of oil burner you need to either use a high pressure spray to vaporize it or pre-heat it significantly, till it's hot it's going to smoke. A neighbor of mine many a year ago used fuel oil to fire his kiln and to get it hot enough used a propane torch to pre-heat the cast iron frying pan he used as an oil vaporizer. As I recall some issues of "Mother Earth News" did some pretty good articles about making your own oil burners and not all for heaters. You'll need to filter it or THINGS will block your metering valve. Frosty The Lucky.

B-A-D idea! Propane sinks in open air so when your forge ever springs a leak the propane WILL lay in your basement till it reaches a flammable ratio and the next spark will send it up. That will scatter burning pieces of your house for a surprising distance. Even as out of the building codes zone as we live installing a propane boiler here had so many requirements attached it turned out to be far cheaper to burn oil. No insurance company would touch us with propane in the basement and we have a daylight basement so it's not airtight like a deep hole. Not saying you can't do it, just be very VERY careful and have it done professionally so THEIR insurance will cover IT. Frosty The Lucky.

You can rent the IR cameras. . . Here at least. Really nice looking shop Mike. About the moving equipment in when it's finished part, there's that big red thing just sitting there; letting the shop taper into it's new job? Frosty The Lucky.

Used petroleum based oils have the problem of contamination and can exhaust some seriously BAD fumes. frying oils be they peanut, coconut, canola, etc. etc. work fine and don't smell bad either, especially used donut shop fryer oil. Sure you can mix oils so long as they aren't too different. If you want to determine the relative BTU ratings you might need to make up a tester. for instance an oil lamp burning a measured amount of oil to heat a measured amount of clear water. The degrees of temp rise in the water will let you figure the BTU rating of the oil. Don't ask me what kind of lamp, how to burn it, etc. I don't know that kid of thing I'm more a generalist. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. It's pretty hard to be very helpful without more information. Outdoor and treelike could be a piece of jewelry or a bottle opener for an outdoor BBQ. At least let us know the general size, concept sketches would be much better. Another helpful bit of info is it's proposed location, a sculpture for a kindergarten playground wouldn't work in a prison exercise yard. Monel is an excellent material, it'll last for centuries easily but it can be a mother bear to work. Frosty The Lucky.

I'm on board with the heavy disk base or some little darling is going to tip it over climbing on it. Even with a wide heavy base this is a possibility I'm thinking a pair of struts anchoring it to a wall is about as close to a guarantee as you'll get. The cup hooks don't need to support more than a ceramic mug so if they're small and springy a kid won't be able to climb them. They'll be too uncomfortable to hold onto and they'll just straighten under more than a lb or two weight. You could make the verticals from something nice and springy so if a little darling tries climbing or otherwise messing with it it will shake, setting off a clinky rattle audible all over the store. That way the worst that will happen is mommy will have to pay for broken mugs rather than the shop owner having to pay for a broken darling. Frosty The Lucky.

It's good to hear it's working Eric. The rod will work harden so it will get better, just try not to hit it directly with the hammer till it hardens up a little. If you want to radius the edges more, start with the grinder at 45*, then take the resultant corners down. do this a little at a time till it's close to what you want, THEN finish rounding the corner. take it a little at a time. It'll take a while to get used to the weather in Arizona but once you adapt you'll love it there. Lots of cool stuff to see and plenty of blacksmiths to visit. They're good guys. Frosty The Lucky.

A good place to start is the Library, there are a lot of kiln building books and a forge furnace is generally a small version. this spring I hit the library excess book sale and amongst the loot scored was, Fredrick L. Olsen's "The Kiln book" The thing has more information about kilns, materials and construction than a boy could use. For example, It lists fire brick by manufacturer, type, formula and construction, performance, etc. there are a LOT of different fire bricks available. It covers refractory blankets of all makes, kiln cements, pourable and rammable refractory mixes. Goes into kiln washes in depth. The last time I was in a pottery supply they had shelves of different kiln books, second only to glazes. The "pottery" books fell to third place in the how to section. Frosty The Lucky.

I put my Soderfors on a steel stand and virtually eliminated the ring. On a wood block it'd make your ears ring through plugs AND muffs, it's brutally loud, especially if struck on the horn or heal. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. Please put your general location in the header so we won't have to keep bugging you. We love pics in general but you have a special case so we REALLY love pics. <grin> There is a huge amount of knowledge and experience here and most of us really enjoy good questions. I'm thinking there will be lines of guys willing to help you restore your new (OLD) smithy/foundry. Frosty The Lucky.

Wow, those are going to make a customer feel GOOD coming home! Just beautiful, all round. Frosty The Lucky.

I'll second that suggestion. I don't know what I was thinking, it's sitting right next to my chair. A friend lent it to me so maybe it isn't in the same brain file as a book I own. Frosty The Lucky.

That's very cool. I only have a couple things of my Grandfathers's. Yeah, that's not a typo, one thing from each Grandfather, gold pocket watches. How's that for coincidence? Best of luck on the tool hunt. I'd love to have something one of my grandfather's used professionally though one was a federal judge. His gold pocket watch is probably something I can identify with. Frosty The Lucky.

I made this for a friend who owns a remote cabin. He wanted someone to forge nails for him but choked at the prices guys asked. No surprise there. I forged this out of a RR spike, drew the point square, longer and sharp enough to drive into a block without a sledge hammer. Punched and drifted the header hole square and forge welded the cutoff blade on. I used it to make the nails laying on the anvil, mounted in the wood block, it as seen in pic 2. Unfortunately my buddy isn't really a tool using guy so he twisted and broke the cut off right off trying to hammer and pry it out of a wood block. Now he has to use a chisel to make the cut while making nails. <sigh> Somewhere I have the RR spike wizard I made at the Gordon Williams clinic this spring but I didn't see pics and don't know where they might be in this new stupid thinky machine. <sigh> Frosty The Lucky.

I think Bill Roberts is here somewhere but doesn't post often. He does torch work amongst other cool stuff. I don't know if he teaches lamp work but I'm sure he's in the loop and can give you a name or sixty. http://www.customdesignmetalarts.com/about.html Tell him Frostilio sent you, not that it'll do you any good but what the hey. <grin> Frosty The Lucky.

This wasn't Stoody rod, it is Washington Alloy 700. It isn't as fluid as some I've run but all the hard facing I've done before was either on Drill auger or the bits so flexibility was important. We used to use Eutectic Ultimium but by time our last box ran dry it was running some $110/lb. so it wasn't on the play list anymore. What we settled on was Lincore 50, flux core wire and if I could've bought it in 10lb spools that's what I would've run. I would've liked to use chill plates but none are available around here, maybe in Fairbanks but I would've had to order them. If I could've got 1" sq copper I would've repaired the hardy hole. At any rate they would've been mail order and wait items. I'm still not sure how chill plates would've prevented undercutting with this rod. The stuff undercuts like it was designed to. Really nice build up beads though. I really screwed up not practicing with it first. Frosty The Lucky.