Frosty

You can try machine shops, the ones wo do work for heavy equipment usually have some really nice pieces of 4140 as drops, Up here the shops that do oil field work have some really hefty drops. Shafting is good, stand it on end and it gives you excellent depth of rebound so metal moves well on it. Heavy equipment repair shops sometimes have broken axles and those can make really nice anvil. This is where the internet and searches actually hinders finding what you need, the yellow pages works so much better. If one place doesn't have what you need they probably know who does. Frosty The Lucky.

I only spent a very brief time on the North slope and not on a rig. Most modern well drillers around here are using rotary hammer drills clearing the cuttings with compressed air, we called wire line drills. checking the cuttings is a real dance, trying to catch cuttings being blown out of the stand pipe. Accurate samples are taken with down hole tooling, specifically samplers and down hole hammers. My drilling experience is in soil sampling, testing and instrument setting for bridges and foundations. As to what kind of drill bit or tool could be sharpened or tweeked on that anvil, I can't say. I don't think it being an anvil for drilling operations is anything but a hypothesis yet. Maybe if it gets flipped over we'll find it's a tool holder for a knife smith? I don't know what it is but it'd sure look cool in my shop and I'd be happy to do some hammering on it. Frosty The Lucky.

You've posted pics of Tyrannosaurus Wrench haven't you Thomas? If not, Hmmmm? Frosty The Lucky.

You're going to have to try a LOT harder than that to offend any of us Blake. About replacing us older generation types, I'm ready for a break, how about hopping on up and I'll just kibitz while you work? Seriously, I'm ready for a new generation barn cleaner, dog poop scooper, brush controller and . . . Tree killer. Hmmmm, I'm a pretty darned good cook. Frosty The Lucky.

We call em Elastrators here but I'm thinking of the stretchers to slip elastic bands over a critter's testicles. I'm thinking what you're thinking about is more like a nipper. My one encounter with calf evaluating, branding and castrating wasn't as much fun as TV and movies made it look. Branding stinks and I foolishly showed Vern my knife was indeed scary sharp so he used MY knife, the rounded blade to be precise. I just HAD to bring those memories back didn't I? <sigh> Frosty The Lucky.

There are a few types of drill bits: the lift and drop bits are commonly called "Churn bits" and can vary wildly depending on formations and conditions. then there are rotary bits they too can vary wildly from tricone bits, button bits,, finger bits, tooth bits and combo bits, tec. then there are impact bits like you see drilling holes for setting explosives we called them air tracks because everything about them was run with compressed air. Those bits are designed to be hammered into whatever they encounter with a little rotary action to keep the bore holes round and keep them from jamming, cuttings are blown up and out with air. These are seldom expected to drill more than a hundred feet or so. combo drills are usually rotary rigs with a hammer to advance the bit and casing by beating it through obstacles. A basic principle of drilling is we can put a hole in ANYTHING or break it and push it out of our way. Frosty The Lucky.

Pretty cool I'd sure hate to be pouring molten metal into an ant hill and discover there was damp soil down there. I've seen a couple examples of casting them with I think a two part resin or plastic (I don't recall) those hives were huge, two story house size and took days to excavate. This is all cool stuff, thanks for the link. Frosty The Lucky.

There's a serious soot generator if you want serious amounts of soot. A kerosene lamp without a chimney and long wick. One would be enough to soot a table top in a couple minutes. Frosty The Lucky.

I don't know if it's dry or how long it'll take. If you hang a light bulb in it that'll speed it up as will using your desk fan. On second thought you can kill two birds with one stone. Bring the forge inside and put it on the desk, then put your fan on the other side and position both so the air will blow through the forge and onto the computer. Win win. Frosty The Lucky.

Give it a day anyway. If the humidity is high it'll take longer of course. You can hang a light bulb in the forge to aid drying. Frosty The Lucky.

That's Fold Forming Todd. the fellow who invented the technique is Charles Lewton Brain. Frosty The Lucky.

Did you pass the piece through the candle flame? Modern candles don't smoke like old school tallow candles so you need to interrupt the flame a bit so it can't burn clean. Acetylene works great and is so much faster. However, if you want a more traditional way to soot something, make or buy an oil lamp and pass the piece through that flame, above it may work. Frosty The Lucky.

Interesting wear on the hook jaw, the man obviously had a bread and butter job. that jaw has better than half it's thickness worn off and the divot is obviously (to me) tool wear rather than a break of some sort. Maybe file work or similar. If you're in contact with the gentleman who gave it to you, please ask him what his father did. I've seen "occupational" wear patterns and heck put a couple on tools myself. The vise I used to hold drill bits when I built and rebuilt them had two distinctive weld spatter patterns where the bit's body shaded one side and the tooth block shaded the other. I didn't actually grind low spots in the other vise but there were a couple spots that'd get bit when the disk grinder grabbed or kicked back, or when it slipped off the spot I was dressing to weld a new block on. Frosty The Lucky.

Glenn's right, car hoods make fine fire wood sleds, Spray it with pledge spray wax and it's really easy to pull. Auto body steel is deep draw and very low carbon so it's easy on the press dies. It makes it easy to form in the shop, need a side draft hood? Something to use for a can weld? Being so low carbon it ought to etch nice and dark. Frosty The Lucky.

Cool, hope to see you next weekend. I'll be set up with the bed of a silver Chevy Silverado as my bench/shelf/ lunch box. Just ask one of the guys beating hot iron. I'll be there or right back. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Matt, if I haven't said so already, Heck even if I have. First I have to tell you your Avatar puts a smile on me every time I see it. <grin> Okay the topic. I see you've read Mike Porter's burner book, good. He's the only guy I know who calls the mig tip jets accelerators. What they do is smooth the flow considerable which does accelerate it a bit but that's not their primary function. the "sleeve" is a coupler, not a mixing chamber, lose it if you can. the threads on the tips should be 1/4"x28 the coupler was to make the transition from the sleeve in the wire/gas line to the mig tip non grabby. It's definitely an old machine, I don't think they use the couplers anymore. Don't worry, it'll work just fine so long as the propane flows it's good Mikey thinks the mig tips are accelerators but they're main function is to generate a laminar (smooth) gas flow so the expanding cone of propane is as smooth and effective as possible. the expanding cone of gas entrains combustion air by generating a low pressure zone in the tube. the smoother and more uniform the cone of propane the more effective the entrainment. Okay, ain't that more than you wanted to know. I can't help myself, I get wordy. In short, even if those old contact tips won't work right, they're cheap at the local welding supply, in the neighborhood of $1.00 here in Wasilla Alaska where everything gets barged, or flown in and trucked out from Anchorage. Your burners look fine but will need some tuning. Give me a shout, we'll get em burning a treat for you. Frosty The Lucky.

Rabbit dude: I do NOT know what you have to be Mad about. You have one of the best girlfriends I've heard of in a long time. You my friend are almost as lucky picking a lady as I am. Oh the coal, good score there too. Treat that Girl like a queen or I'll give you grief if I have to fly down and slap you for hiding out! Frosty The Lucky.

Do a patent search, especially helpful if you have a model or serial # Frosty The Lucky.

Plastic ice cube tray. <wink> Frosty The Lucky.

Nice score! that's a tap wrench but will make a decent' twisting wrench. Look for a patent number on the punch and search with name and patent # for the model number. that's a wagon/buggy wheel, etc. tire. You can turn the ball peins into all kinds of good forging hammers and bottom tools. all in all a good $31 score not counting the ever handy plate. Frosty The Lucky.

And I used to weld guy's names on stuff to make it distinctive, how ordinary of me. <sigh> Well done Larry Frosty The Lucky.

Making your own briquettes takes a lot less precise control than injecting and burning it like gas in a gun burner system. Frosty The Lucky.

When I was playing around with the idea I figured a shutter system between the lenses and the sun was the best bet. that way there is NO intense light unless it's heating. I like Thomas's idea of a solar path slit in the chamber. I'd planned on a phototropic mirror, columnating lense system, kind of why I gave it up for a game for slack time. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Adam, glad to have you. How mobile are you? I'm in the Valley, just the other side of Wasilla and am always looking for playmates. Right now I'm prepping for Art on Fire, next Saturday the 29th. At the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry just past Wasilla on the Parks Highway a bit before you get to the airport on Airport road, there are signs. The Association of Alaskan Blacksmiths will be there, next to the locomotives if I get there early enough to choose the spot. It's a good event an the big show is the iron pour but there's smithing, raku pottery glazing, glass lamp work and some others I'm not sure of. PM me if you want contact info or just give me a shout, we can get together most days and beat innocent steel into submission. Frosty The Lucky.

I've got to try a pair of those Frank, thank you. Frosty The Lucky.