Frosty

They can SAY whatever they want but if it's marked they HAVE to honor the tag, it's the law. You just have to let them know you know, call a manager if you must, the sales folk often just don't know. Call a manager, they'll honor it or call the BBB and they'll do some citing and fining and you'll get the deal. Frosty The Lucky.

Willis's story reminds me of the time during construction on the house when I was going to hang a quick piece of wood on the tarp tent shop when I ran a screw through the plywood thingy I was hanging, through the 2x4 I was hanging it on and into my finger. Any idea how hard it is to just pull your finger off a wood screw? so, there I was violating several safety rules, standing on the second from the top step of a ladder on uneven ground, nobody within shouting distance, my finger screwed to the far side of a 2x4 and my only recourse to unscrew it. All I needed at that moment was to drop the screw gun and I'd be there till Deb came looking or ran an errand. Luckily I got the screw gun reversed and freed myself. Sure, I'd gotten away with this kind of thing for years but it's like drinking from the well, do it enough times and you WILL drop the dipper. Frosty The Lucky.

Looks good, nicely matched and well formed. I found punching for the counter sink before punching or drilling the screw hole works very much better than doing it second. I very much prefer screws for working hooks, nails, especially hand forged nails WILL work loose. If however you twist the nails they will hold longer, they'll still work loose but will hold longer. OR you could clinch them on the other side of the mounting board, that works nicely. Good inexpensive lumber for projects like this are shipping pallets, they're often high quality hard wood, oak, maple, etc. and sometimes tropical hardwoods like teak and such. They ca be a PITA to clean up but usually look very nice as backing boards. Watch out for oil stains when you pick pallets, oil and chemical stains can be invulnerable stains, sometimes hazardous. Frosty The Lucky.

You're very welcome and Thomas is someone I always read and give consideration. I plain forgot the practical test of swinging a long piece to see what gets in the way. Sorry about the Dr Pepper, bummer. I put the horizontal/vertical band saw against the wall where the stock is stored nearer one end. That lets me just pick a piece and lower it onto the rolls to be fed to Mr. Shortener. The less handling you can do the better. Frosty The Lucky.

Not to worry, too much emphasis is placed on ring when it's rebound that counts. An anvil does it's work by resisting the inertia imparted by the hammer to the work and this is best indicated in a field test, by rebound. After all the steel isn't going to be scared into moving by a loud noise. <grin> It's an immovable backing that's going to have the most effect and rebound is the far better indicator. Ring is best generated by harmonics and a Fisher is high carbon steel on cast iron two materials with very different resonant frequencies so they damp against each other, making it go dink and quieting. Fishers are famous and highly desirable for being quiet anvils. blacksmithing and iron/steel is a huge learning curve, you could study it from birth the rest of your life and not learn but a small fraction. Welcome to THE learning curve, enjoy the ride. Frosty The Lucky.

You know Dave when we over emphasize hazards it tends to make folk under emphasize things they shouldn't. this is why you don't see caution signs on the road everywhere, too many and motorists start disregarding them all. Same reason we didn't thurn on the strobes unless we were doing something that darned well needed early warning. Then there's the effects of warning people about an issue and NOT taking proper precautions for that level hazard. For instance, were you wearing a paper class 1 hazmat overall, gloves taped to the sleeves and a hepa, full face filter mask? OR were you wearing neoprene gloves, plain filter mask, open sleeves and safety glasses? Seriously inadequate PPE for the level hazard you were warning about. NOTHING kills a person's regard for warnings like seeing the person making them disregarding them. The last 10 years I worked for highways maintenance I was required to carry current hazmat certifications just shy of nuclear waste. Why? Have you ever noticed who is on the front lines with the fire dept if there's a hazardous spill? Yeah DOT Highways guys and gals, we have the equipment and training to go in and first contain then cleanup. My hazmat response PPE was hanging in my locker with my every day orange coveralls and there were emergency spill showers in 6 places in the shop bays with floor drains feeding directly into grease and hazmat traps. I certainly appreciate you warning people about a hazardous material or process but keeping such warnings accurate is much better policy. Sometimes we have to put our feelings aside to be truly effective. Frosty The Lucky.

While you don't need to redeem yourself in our eyes we certainly know how you feel, I'm pretty sure we've all bit on something sour. I left the ASO I bought with a shop where the guys think an anvil is something to use to torch stuff on. AND I have another sitting around here somewhere another fellow bought but couldn't bear to keep. We've all done it. HOWEVER, not many of us get spanking great deals like you did. Next time I fly I want you sitting next to me! Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome to the forum Jason, do keep posting once you get settled. Frosty The Lucky.

Well done Harris. That is a lot of work single handed. I sharpen my hardies and hot cuts sharp but put a convex bevel on the edge, it makes them much more robust and requires less force to drive through the stock. Slightly blunting works well for the reasons given but I don't do it except for butchers and area section isolation sets. Frosty The Lucky.

Really nice angler fish. First time I saw a picture of one I thought they could catch people by dangling the bait near the bank, dock, etc. So I was maybe 9-10 I can still see the image. Frosty The Lucky.

I wondered about the name but . . . HEY, I got close! I said, "Slick Jim, Slick! SJS is pretty close. Isn't it? I'll be waiting for videos for sure. Frosty The Lucky.

Slick Jim, very slick. How about some action shots? Frosty The Lucky.

Harris: Take a look around the gas forge section, there are a lot of burner designs to choose from. Not being able to take your apart is the first black mark I've heard about these. Dave: I looked up the MSDS for Zircopax and it's listed as a breathing hazard and possible eye/skin irritant. With no "reportable quantity" it's not toxic, zero. There is a reportable quantity for the trace isotopes but it's such a minute quantity there is none for zircopax, you could us zircopax for plaster in your house without tinting a dosimeter in decades. NO, I'm NOT suggesting zircopax for plaster, it's just an example. <grin> The dust hazard is persistent and serious enough to use good quality PPE, HEPA filter quality, all round. If you have a link to a MSDS with a reportable quantity, please post it. I'll be applying it the way ITC uses zirconia; mixing it with kaolin clay. Kaolin isn't a high silica clay so is pretty resistant to base fluxes. I'd give your application a try but current hazmat regs. make getting sodium silicate a PITA or I'd be using it in casting media. Thanks very much for the work and videos, very useful. Well done. Frosty The Lucky.

A pristine 150lb. Fisher and tools for $200 is something to brag about. Were it me I'd have bought a lottery ticket on the drive home in case the luck held. Some of the tools are stone cutter's tools, no matter, good scores all round. Frosty The Lucky.

Good looking first commission, well done. the customer is always right, almost. I make few exceptions to giving the customer just what they want. I will NOT compromise on safety but I've never met a customer who didn't agree if I pointed out a safety issue. Congratulations, you'll have em lining up in no time. It's HARD to get better exposure than an airport. Too COOL. Frosty The Lucky.

Yes, it works very effectively if you can get it welded solidly enough. Try stacking some rail the way I describe, you'll see the rail and flange/webs match up almost perfectly so the entire new face is supported by solid steel. the main trick is getting it welded as solidly as possible. You need to slot the webs of the base pieces so you can weld the center flange to the inside of the rails on each side. Do the same to the bottom contact areas. lastly if you grind a little scarf on the lower flanges where they connect you can weld straight through to the upside down rail making the base solid. Weld every joint you see. Remember rail is high carbon steel and is prone to being brittle, preheat, ping and relieve the welds, post heat and normalize the whole sheebang for best results. I did pre and post heats with a wood fire and tempil sticks, let it soak but don't get carried away. Frosty The Lucky.

I wouldn't sand blast it unless you're just going to paint it and use it for a decoration. Wire brush and put it to work works really well. After a long day's work, when the anvil is almost too hot to touch bare handed is a good time to rub it down with a bar of paraffin wax. the hot iron/steel will soak it up and when cool it hardens and makes a good tough finish. that's how I coated my Soderfors. When I redo it I'm using Tree Wax, it's Carnuba wax, the stuff they armor bowling alleys with. A coat of LPS3 is good, it has rust inhibitors and leaves a coat of really tough wax once the deep penetrating volatiles evaporate. I'm HUGE fan of LPS3, fast, easy and good. Frosty The Lucky.

My first anvils were whatever heavy hunk of steel I could find and lastly I kept my third welded up RR rail anvil and used it for a number of years. I kept my eyes open but hadn't heard of so wasn't using the TPAAT till one day I mentioned looking for a real anvil to one of the guys at work. Next day he told me a neighbor of his was selling his blacksmithing gear. Turns out the fellow was a farrier who's knees and back were giving out so I bought his kit. my much beloved 125lb. Soderfors Sorceress#5 got a pallet of tongs, a 12v coal forge his anvil stand with shoe vise, etc. etc. BUT. . . the Soderfors was MINE! And worth the price without the other stuff that came with. Some years later the new shop foreman at Heavy Duty wanted the welding area cleaned out so I got a call asking if I wanted this really heavy thing, take it or it's going to the scrapper. It's my 200lb. Lancaster pattern swage block. See guys, donuts and coffee pays off. Frosty The Lucky.

There is the scar remains of a mistake on the pad of my right ring finger that I'll never forget giving myself. I was cutting slots in the end of a length of pipe I was modifying into an asphalt cutter so we could drill through roadways without making a big pucker. Well, I was slotting the end for silver soldering carbide bits with a disk grinder. Was I using a cutting disk? Oh no, I was using a grinding disk but what the hey, I was only slotting about 3/8" deep. Well, after cutting a dozen slots I was getting tired but only had the one slot to go and it was about to depth. last slot, time for a break and finish it up in the morning so I let go of the trigger. Ever notice how a 9" Milwaukee develops torque, how it twists in your hand when you turn it on or OFF? Wellll, the disk was still in the slot and the inertia of the grinder is plenty to do exciting things so it grabbed in the slot and launched itself across the shop, about 30' in total. I took a good hit when my hand hit the drill bit in progress, went white numb from finger tips to shoulder. I walked over to the disk grinder knowing the disk was history but I had a box on the shelf so no big deal. When I looked I saw the handle was broken, the trigger and ridge ripped clean off with the wiring hanging out of a split near where the cord enters. DARN!!! (cleaned up for the forum) Off to the shop it goes. DOUBLE DRATS!!! I was carrying the wounded tool back to the table when it occurred to me I had my finger on that trigger, better take a look, I still can't feel it. Hmmmm. I take my first look and gee whiz! there's a big hole ripped in the pad area of my right ring finger and it's oozing a good flow of blood. Off comes the glove and low and behold I have a goodly avulsion where the trigger track, whatever it's called, pinned my finger to the pipe before ripping first the pad and then itself off as it departed on it's airborne trek of discovery. Ooh, I can see my own bone again! Think of this avulsion like taking an icecream scoop and scooping some hide down to the bone but stopping before it comes out completely. Immediate first aid was push it back in with my thumb, shut down and lock up the shop, call the office and drive to the local clinic to get sewn up. A long story for a really brief incident but BAD often is just too fast for us. Lesson learned? Oh yeah, no matter what kind of disk you're using to cut steel, never, NEVER turn the grinder on or off with the disk IN the slot! Frosty The Lucky.

Yes, Do come to Art On Fire, June 29 at the Museum of Transportation and Industry by the Wasilla Airport. Drive through Wasilla on the Parks and follow the signs. A number of us should be set up demoing. Frosty The Lucky.

Todd Brother mine: We all have our challenges some sore some fine but challenged we all are. what point wold life be were we not to live? "Dum Vivimus Vivimus" While I live let me LIVE. From "Glory Road" by. Robert A. Heinlein. I know how you feel, I don't fight with depression like I used to but the one way I used to get through bad times was to make. Most times I was in a situation where writing was my best outlet. I spent 20 years doing a field job and some 3/4 of that time in another town or tent in the bush. Not much in the way of doing things stuff you can haul along. I managed but still. . . My most creative writing came while I was down, none great, very little published and that mostly articles for magazines but I did my best when I hurt the worst. I met Deb in 1996 and haven't been more than mildly glum since. Then too, I couldn't expect her to live in a mobile home in south Mountain View so we shopped a little and bought 30 acres of forest land and I got to make to my heart's content. Carved out a chunk, laid out roads, space for house, shop, garden, barn and critters, etc. then built the darned house my own darned self. I hired pro help of course but everything but the block foundation pony walls, well and steel roof has my hand in it. Paint, oh yeah, had it painted. Good years, plenty of real time hands on problems to solve AND a job I got plenty of satisfaction from, transferred from the geology section to highways maintenance. Still, normal problems for my line of work and where we lived. Good times. Retired in 2007, got a nice little retirement job and got to spend a lot more time in the shop. Finish building it was high on the list but I was doing stuff in it too. Then came 09/28/09 and I got in the way of a tree I was felling. woke up in a hospital some 3-4 weeks later and have been recovering ever since. the broken neck while healed hurts pretty often but a strong antihistamine usually helps. Awe, I'm rambling now and I didn't want to high jack the thread, just say I identify with you. IFI is loaded with folk who live with pain, disease, loss, many are wounded warriors, some just konked characters like me. We all get great therapy from smithing, making does that for a person. I know this isn't a suggestion to help you deal with bad days, just trying to say we feel it too and you can bring your pain to us, we'll try to share it out. Suggestions for making things when you can't get to the museum. have you heard of Fold Forming? It's a recently invented metal working technique, a quick search with these terms will yield you hours worth of reading. <fold forming Charles Lewton Brain> Fold Forming doesn't take special tools, a small smooth jawed vise, tin snips, a couple light hammers and a small anvil like object, body and fender dollies are good enough but something like a 10lb bench anvil is perfect. Light copper sheet is the material most often used but folk are branching out into fold Forming aluminum to steel sheet under powerhammers and making some of the coolest things around. Finishing the copper is as varied as the ways to finish copper, from polished and sealed to patinated to enameled, to ? It's darned good creative making. Darned good. Good for the soul. Frosty The Lucky.

None. That's just WAY to vague a question to expect a meaningful answer, it's like asking how much fuel does a truck use in a day. How much line goes on a fishing reel? And so on. My answer is perfectly accurate in spite of how vague your question is. It burns propane, how much depends on an assortment of factors but I CAN answer unequivocally it burns NO coal. Frosty The Lucky.

The subject on your thread drew my attention immediately Frank. Saying hi with a short sword is oh so very Roman. Heck, not such a bad idea now, depending on the neighborhood, eh? Frosty The Lucky.

Are you familiar with how rail is stacked? cCut it into three pieces, there's a pattern to this but later. Lay two rail up and the third rail down slid between the webs of the two base ones. Snug them tightly together and that's the basic stack. Cutting a couple slits in the flanges of the bottom rails and you can easily weld the stack solid, Weld every joint you can get at. This would give you a 240lb. anvil with a face approx 2' log. That's the basic picture but if you offset the bottom rails in opposite directions say 8" or so you have the makings of a horn and heel, a little shaping and it's a done deal. Sure it'll look a bit odd but it'll work a treat, has good weight, is tougher than nails and makes a good conversation piece while you're forging on it. Frosty The Lucky.

I'll see if I can find the drawings but can't promise anything. Since the head injury I can't seem to keep things straight, if I walk out to the shop to start marking out steel for the frame, there's NO telling what I'd end up doing. There's no way I'd try drawing it from memory, I'd have to redesign it from the basic principles. I'm afraid my heart just isn't in to it that much anymore. Frosty The Lucky.