BIGGUNDOCTOR

I believe the main reason you don't see modern pattern welded shotgun barrels is the cost to manufacture. Damascus barrels are still being used in some circle for trap/skeet shooting. One of the magazines like Guns and Ammo, or Outdoor Life did an article on them. Winchester made a shotgun barrel that was a thin steel tube wrapped with a mile long fiberglass thread. They feel like a piece of paper they are so light.

That Fisher is fixable in my opinion. Of course I have have the tools to do it, welders, mill, etc. There are several ways that it could be done, and be fully usable again. Where are you located? What tools do you have access too? What skills do you have? Personally I do not care for nickel rods like E99, and prefer others over it. The ones I have used in the past are in the $50 a pound range, and lay down like 7018. Some cast iron is very weldable, while some grades are not. You have to know what you are dealing with first. I would look more at a possible mechanical method of attachment myself.

Tell Gage it is OK to smile when you are showing off your work So Cooter, how long till he is striking for you? Ahhh the blackpowder bug got ya. It is a strong affliction that you now have. It usually leads to much greater affects down the road. Don't worry, it isn't a dangerous bug, and it is actually a good thing that your wife has caught it too My advice is keep it real-no Pyrodex. No smoke, no smell, it just isn't right <_<

Jeff, that was what I was thinking too. If you just made a knife out of a precision gauge block than you just converted a VERRRRY expensive tool into a knife. Depending on accuracy it's value could have kept you in O-1 for a long time. O-1 tool steel is pretty cheap, and available all over. MSC has it, and usually delivers by the next day. No need to be destroying gauges, if that is what it was.

I would have no problem painting an anvil that I will be using. Why worry about value, unless you are getting ready to sell it? If you do sell it, you can strip the paint then. It is a tool, and if paint helps keep it from rusting badly, with less maintenance, than paint it.

If you think blowing out black boogers is normal. If the scrap yard sends you Christmas cards. You only accept a job after looking in the company's scrap bin. You prefer to drive through alleys rather than on streets. You use bartering more than cash. The fire dept knows your address by heart. You see a bonfire as a source of charcoal after the event. You know that Champ 400 is not the name of a race. You suggest naming your kids Beaudry, LG, Nazel, and Bradley.

Looks like you captured the feeling of a lot of Americans for the upcoming elections :D

Since you say that you have already "cut, and shaped this thing" hammering may not work as it will spread the material outwards distorting the shape you currently have. If it is already shaped you may be looking at a surface grinding, or milling operation. You could rig up something with a belt-sander, if you have one. What tools do you have access too? You don't mention how much you want to reduce the thickness by? .001", .010", .100". or .100"+? At a foundry I worked at we used a rolling mill to bring down cast strips that we made.

Have you thought about how strong it will be in extreme cold? I know steel gets brittle in subzero conditions, and I noticed the laminations being 90 degrees to the head-possible weak point? Looks good, but I would want to know this before putting myself in a possibly life or death situation. Wish I had better video viewing. Looks like you modified a horizontal milling machine into a belt surface grinder. What speed do you run the spindle?

Sukellos, that may be how the ancients did it, but over time we have developed new tools-we are the smart monkeys after all . We now have water jets that can pop one out in a few minutes. The only reason I would even entertain making one would be 1:just to prove I can do it, and 2:the world's supply has dried up-not in my lifetime. I have 4 of them laying around, and have yet to use one, even the one that has the frame with it.

In Ca a few years ago black walnut trees were literally being stolen from farms. They were getting up to $10,000 for the trunks. The wood was/is in high demand for veneers. I know a company in Chico CA that buys walnut trees for gun stock material. They get up to $1,200 for some blanks, if the grain is right. You may want to get some, and see what the grain looks like. May be a good investment for you. Slab it up, and hang it to dry. Good walnut is getting tough to find.

To keep cool I sometimes use one of those water gel neck wraps. My Mom made them from scrap cloth that she had. The filling is found in a good garden supply shop, it is a polymer that soaks up to 70 times its volume in water, and holds it for a long time. It is meant to be used in potting mix to conserve water. Put about 2 teaspoons in a cloth tube about 18-24" long, and sew shut. Soak in water, and watch it swell up. It will stay hydrated for days, and can be cooled in the refrigerator before using. Another note is wearing hats. We lose around 80% of our body heat through out head, so a hat will help hold the heat in. If you are indoors it may be a good idea to lose the ball cap, and get your hair wet-if you still have hair that is Eating fresh fruit, one of the few things I miss from California. We have FSO here - fruit shaped objects <_<

There already is a thread on solid fuel prices. BTW, for me it is $6 per 100# $120 a ton.

Another option is to work at night after the sun goes down, or early morning. Where I live it will still be 100-even after midnight. A typical summer day (for 3 solid months) here is 100-115 during the day, low of 85 around 3AM, then back up 100 by 9AM. I have seen humidity posted on the weather reports as low as 1%, at 113 degrees. A lot of tourists on The Strip (Las Vegas)don't realize just how much they are sweating due to our single digit humidity at times. The sweat evaporates as fast as you release it. What that usually means is a tourist face down on the concrete. You can usually spot a local by the water bottle that they always carry with them. Keep hydrated, if you feel thirsty you are not drinking enough. Lately I will work around the property till I get too warm, then I come in to cruise the net some, snack, cool off, then head back out, unless it is one of those too hot to do anything days. The wind only makes it a convection oven here, so it can be an indoor day till the sun goes down. It is 5:30AM and a pleasant 78 now, so I am getting ready to get some work done.

Not too uncommon to be missing the spring. So folks use mild steel, others convert an automotive leaf spring. The clamp holds the top, and a couple of ears on the bottom keep it centered on the movable jaw. Best I can say is to look at a complete vise, and copy that. Nothing special.

One thing that you may want to do next time is to make a backing piece that fits the wire diameter. Just pick a new spot each hole, so that when the drill starts to pass through the wire it is still cutting steel (the backing piece) I do that when I have to cut half a hole, or half a thread in a piece.

Round is all we have in copper. The only shapes I have seen are some hex in Stainless. In a lot of cases we will mill a square, hex, etc out of round, as that cuts down on tooling needed to set the machine up. We have parts that require .0002" tolerances, and it is easier to hold that with round than shaped material. Our stock usually has less than .001" of variation in diameter the entire length. The Swiss turning method is just the opposite of what I am familiar with. In this case the tools are stationary(just moving in,and out) and the stock is fed past the cutters, usually at full depth. I will see what we have in 1/2" and up.

Number one get a good drill. A lot of whiz bang "coatings" are used to sell a crappy drill. Coatings help, when applied to a quality drill. I have run into hard spots in various pieces before, but nothing that I couldn't drill through. Use plenty of oil/cutting fluid, and a sharp bit. Make sure the bit is ground correctly, if not it can drag causing cutting problems. For speed try 110 x 4 divided by the diameter of the drill. Example 110 x 4 divided by .500 (1/2") - 440 divided by .500 = 880 rpm. Start there then slow up if needed.Too slow is just as bad as too fast.

If the music wire is in a blue temper it is probably too hard for your drills. I work with some spring stock at work, and I use carbide drills. For a HSS drill, cutting speed would be in the neighborhood of 70x4 divided by the diameter of the drill. With hard stock, start with that, and go slower from there if needed. I haven"t had any problems with steel work hardening under a spinning bit. With Stainless, yes. You may try using a center drill first, then your bit. With the center drill you can keep the pressure on due to the higher rigidity. Change the angle of the cutting edges, and leave the back rake shallow to prevent the edge from chipping to easily. Use plenty of cutting fluid/oil. The water and baking soda will work, and it won't rust up the tools, but there are better options. I have yet to be in any machine shop that uses straight water for a coolant. Some cutting fluids are water based, but they have a lot of additives in them. 1,1,1 Tri Chlor works excellent-if you can find it, and have plenty of ventilation when you use it, and DO NOT USE ON ALUMINUM. I have found that some solvents like brake cleaner can work wonders for some applications. High sulfur pipe cutting oil is good, and both of these are readily available. If you have any machine shops around you may be able to get some cutting oil/fluid from them. You have 2 things working against you here. #1 The material is in a hardened condition. #2 Being round doesn't help. The surfaces are compacted in the forming process adding some hardness. Plus add in when the drill starts to break through on an interrupted cut it can chip the drill flute tips. If it was me, and I don't have my solid carbide drill handy, I would anneal the part to be drilled, drill, and re-harden/temper if need be. Being a thin section it will cool quick, maybe too quick. If it is too quick, you can heat another larger chunk of steel that will hold some heat, wire them together, and put both into the annealing medium-I use wood ashes.

Sprockets are like gears. Divide the number of teeth on the large sprocket by the number of teeth on the small sprocket. 117 divided by 15 = 7.8 to 1 Hey S_O_B I make a keeler made from scratch Key Lime pie,it's one of my favorites too.

You might be surprised if you do some research on straight razors, just Google straight razor forum They are making somewhat of a comeback in some circles. Why? Some say it is just more of a manly ritual to use one, others say it is the closest shave you can get, and others point out that over the years it will actually cost less than the disposables. A coworker of mine just bought, and started using one. The conversion to a knife would be ill advised in my opinion. Too thin, scales too weak,and not something that Grand Dad used in that form. Give them as razors, your girls may appreciate them more, and possibly use them themselves. A straight razor won't plug up like a safety razor will. If they knew their grandfather, it will mean something to them, and it can be passed down to their kids-if they have any. Besides it may help in fending of undesirable suitors when they hear that they shave with a straight razor .

It generally takes millions of years and a bit of pressure to make the grinding wheel, so I would recommend just buying one of the many ones found at garage sales, flea markets, auctions, automotive swap meets, or just ask about the one being used as yard art. I see them all of the time as I drive around.They are not that uncommon.

Brian, any particular sizes? Small 1/16-3/16, med 7/32-7/16,large 1/2+ (not that common, but I will see what we have). I will check with the boss to see what he needs, may take a couple of days, as we are in the midst of an AS9100 audit/certification.

Nothing to get all worked up about, it's an anvil after all. Paint the non working surfaces, and don't worry about rust, it will polish right up as soon as you start using it. It will also develop a patina after awhile. All of my anvils sit outside uncovered.

I work for a screw-machine shop where one of our byproducts are bar ends. These are the part of the 12' bars that cannot be fed through the machine, and are normally sold as scrap. They run around 7" long, but can be longer at times. We occasionally also have full 12' bars that we cannot use due to being bent, or other problems. The materials we use are C97, and other copper alloys, 360 brass for the most part, various stainless steels mostly 303/304, occasionally some aluminum, and lots of M25/M65 copper beryllium (2% max Be). Sizes will run from .0625" up to 1.00". We mostly work with .500 and under, and a lot of odd sizes 32's,64's, and MM's. With the price of copper over $10 a # now we try to get as close to finished size as possible. I have purchased scrap in the past for projects, and as long as the owner gets current scrap price he doesn't care how much I buy. We literally generate tons of scrap a month including the chips. Unless I can get the ends right off the machine, I can't sort for a specific alloy IE;303/304. I am thinking that these could be used for knife pins, jewelery, small parts, lathe stock, punches, forge stock, and whatever else you can think of. I can include some safety info with the copper beryllium stock. CuBe alloys are heat treatable,and are very strong-knife pins,punches,small hammer heads,etc. It will also be way less than the $23 a # we pay for new. Not sure how to break it up for size due to so many sizes, or I could just do a mix for x$ a pound per type. If there is a specific size/type that you are looking for I can watch the machines to see what is running, and let the operators know to save them for me. They are doing that for the bigger sizes already. USPS flat rate boxes work good for these.