BIGGUNDOCTOR

Someone modified a house jack as a screw replacement.

Is it a Steelhead?

There are old pilots and bold pilots, but there are no old bold pilots.

As long as you keep the orange rust off it will develop a nice patina in short order without any pitting. It is kind of like how the old firearms were rust blued, but they used methods to speed up the process.

IFCW, the bumper sticker I liked was Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional. 2008 hurt my chances of retiring when I wanted too. My retirement funds are building back up, but slowly.

You want more of a flat cutting edge for brass type alloys. The tool more or less scrapes it off. With a drill you put a small flat straight up and down on the edge, otherwise it can grab, and literally suck the drill into the part.

I just turned 56 and I am still trying to figure out what I want to do when I grow up. Dad and I started smithing around 1977, never got super involved with it as there was always something new to try out. When Dad passed away in 2000 the smithing equipment had not been used for some time. I drug it down to NV when I moved, and it sat in a pile here for a few more years until I set it up again. It came down in 2017 when I had a fight with the county over my place. I really need to get it set back up again. I need some sort of distraction besides the internet. I have not done any of my hobbies that I used to love to do for several years.... wood carving, leather working, ceramics, shooting, etc.. Too many things weighing me down mentally. As to the career. When I was little I wanted to be a paleontologist until I learned you need to go to college to dig up dinosaur bones. I went to the local community college and followed Dad's lead of being a machinist. This was in the mid 80's and CNC was just on the horizon. I worked for a few small shops before starting my own machine and fab shop with a friend when I was 22. We went 6.5 years before closing up in 1993. One of the reasons we closed was we never charged enough. Don't get me wrong, we paid our bills on time, but we never made the profits we needed to really take off with the business. Around this time the the machining jobs were starting to be offshored, and were a foreshadowing of what was to come. I went to work at a customers dental metals foundry where I did the custom tooling. The induction furnace could do 25kg and we did investment castings for the ingots. Left there to go work for an automotive lift service company. From there to plant maintenance at the Jelly Belly Candy co. Moved to NV and working for a machine gun dealer. Off to another machine shop as the tool maker, then to a commercial bakery as maintenance, and now plant maintenance for TH Foods. We make the Blue Diamond brand snack crackers and our house brand is Crunchmaster. I am making the most money I ever have, yet I long to start another business. There is a building in my community that I can envision being a social hub for my small valley. Dining, dancing, meetings, a place for the kids to hang out, receptions, game nights, etc.. But is that what I want to do, or go towards a more automotive route? Maybe a second hand store, as I can scrounge deals with the best of them. Maybe set up a maker space with all of my machine tools. I just don't know which way to go. What I do know is my time here is limited, and I would like to be happier than I am now, so something needs to happen soon. I used to watch a show called Modern Masters, and think to myself how great it would be to make a living as an artist. But art is a tough way to make a living, and I followed the easier path that was more stable income wise. All I know is that I am making a ton of money which has allowed me to buy some cool cars, but I just don't have the job satisfaction I am looking for. I don't know if it is full on depression, as I do go out with friends, and socialize, but I have lost a lot of the motivation I used to have. It is more of an existence, than a life. Apologize for the rambling, so back on the topic of pricing work. There was a good thread awhile back that covered how various people priced their work from industrial smiths, architectural smiths recreating items for restorations, artists, and hobbyists.

Just let it rust. When you see orange rust, buff it off with a rag, Not down to bare steel, just until the orange is gone. You will have a nice patina in no time.

Frazer, if it is powder coating it sets at 300F. Heat them up past that and scrape it off. I would think it is more of an epoxy paint as that would be faster than powder painting - dip or spray compared to spray and run through a 350F oven to set it. Manufacturing is all about getting it done fast and inexpensively. Powder paint is great for many applications, I'm just not sure that springs are one of them.

If you don't want to travel for an anvil, buy a new one. In many cases the new ones cost the same or less than an on old beat up one. Anvil Brand, and Centaur forge sell small affordable anvils that are good quality.

The forklift manufacturers that got back with me said 4140 and 4340 is what they used for standard sized forks.

Steering components are forged steel, not cast iron. Basically the only cast iron in a car could be the engine block, engine head, some crankshafts, camshafts, flywheels, brake drums and rotors. When I would strip a car before sending it to the wrecker I would pull the following (not all cars have these items) ; leaf springs, coil springs, torsion bars,front and rear sway bars, steering components-center link/tie rods/Pittman arm, VW bugs had small flat torsion spring packs in the front beam pre 68, hood springs, some cars like my 74 Duster had long torsion springs for the trunk lid, axles, clutch and brake pedals (if they were not sheet metal stampings), headliner bows used for older vinyl headliners, steering shaft, gearshift lever if the transmission wasn't to be sold, driveshafts for tubing, and sometimes the front spindles.

I would think a forklift would be a good rental. Even in my rural area I can rent an 8k rough terrain extension lift. A decent sized backhoe like a Case 580 would have no issue lifting that as well.

Frosty, that dish would be poutine - fries with gravy. I'll see if I can get some pictures of the area around me. We got hit hard recently with 2" of rain in 45 minutes that produced some flash floods. Those coupled with the high winds with gusts hitting 60+ miles per hour did some damage.

Unfortunately no. That was back in the late 80's early 00's. I used up what came with my welder. I just remember seeing Made in Switzerland on the box. Red and gray box if I remember right. At Jelly Belly we used a Harris rod. I'd go to a local welding supplier and ask them what they carry. Ours had several options beyond E99. Some were for color matching, some left a super hard bead, it all depended on the application.