BIGGUNDOCTOR

Some of the parts we manufacture require passivating to the customer's specs. Some allow citric, others nitric. It is done to remove any iron that may have adhered to the part during manufacture, which would compromise the corrosion requirements.

A leaf spring should work for ya.The end may even have the right size eye already formed depending on the size spring used. To form the eye you fold it over and forge weld it onto itself, or stick weld it. Then round the eye up with a drift the right size.

I have the Foxfire book too that shows that. Basically lay out the profile that you want then add about 1" straight for the top section. Allow for the sides to be bent, and riveted. Rivet on a strap handle, and a clapper. The bell can be pretty much any shape that you can form. An easy way to figure out what you want is to lay it out on some paper, cut it out, and fold it up. Made out of 55 gal drums you may call in some Calypso cows, would that make it Cowlypso? My cousin is a music teacher in Washington who teaches/taught making, and playing of steel drums.

I found a vise similar to the green one, minus the anvil section. It was laying along the road that goes through the Lake Mead Recreation Area. I think it escaped from a scrap metal hauler's trailer, as it was headed towards the desert. When I found it it had a slightly bent handle, but otherwise OK. I scooped it up, and gave it a place out here on my property where it can recuperate from it's harrowing ordeal :D

Size depends on application; scalpels are smaller than that, and very useful. A folder could be made with what you have, or add a tang.

We never cut the handles, just choked up on them. The way we used a striker hammer was with the cross arm swing. If you are right handed you put your right hand up on the handle towards the head.Your left hand goes towards the rear. The cross part comes when you hold the handle along your right side. It sounds funny, but you have a lot of control with the swing. It isn't a full overhead swing, basically up 90 degrees-or less depending on weight, then down.

I was taught to NEVER wear gloves when operating a grinder, buffer, wire wheel , or any other rotating equipment. That is because the glove can get caught and pull your hand in. I was taught that if it is getting too hot you cool it off, or use something like vise grips, or a pin vise to hold what you are working on. You also do not have the dexterity, and may not have the best grip on the part when wearing them. The other thing that causes parts to get snagged is pushing too hard on the wheel, let the wheel do the work. You also have to be mindful of where all of the part is , not just the area that you are working on.

This is a good time to research alternative building techniques / smart architecture. One way to help slow the heat down is with a thermal mass. Walls made of straw bales (not hay) can be a few feet thick which will slow the infiltration of heat inside the dwelling. Rammed earth / earth berm is another way to go. Large overhangs to shade the structure, doubled roof with air gap, and other things can be done to help out. The biggest problem you may have to deal with is the humidity, and hurricanes. For FEMA approved hurricane shelters look into monolithic concrete domes, they are some of the only buildings left standing after a severe storm. Insulation, insulation, insulation. If they say R33 is good enough for the roof-triple it. It does work, although some folks have to get over the idea of what a structure is "supposed" to look like. I am looking into putting my entire house underground, since my basement is nice year round. Even when it is 112 outside. You could do the same depending on your water table. I really don't have to worry about that here since I live in the driest area of the United States. There are several websites out there that can give you some ideas. Some may cost more to build depending on what you can do, but save a lot of energy making up for the initial cost. Others can be very inexpensive to do yourself.

I read in one book that some bed rails are Cor-Ten steel. They were making wood chisels out of it. Cor-Ten is also used in manufacturing some of the ocean cargo containers.

No problems reversing the wheel, as they are made to go on either direction. The only wheels that I knw of that don't throw wires are the ones that have had plastic molded around the wires. Otherwise they all toss a wire or two when you use them. At the gunsmithing shop I would flip the wheel around fairly frequently to keep it working at peak performance. You could tell when it was time to reverse it, as it would burnish the surface rather than clean it. With the wire wheel on a bench grinder you leave the guard off so you can utilize the wheel best. Sometimes you have to get at weird angles to hit all of the parts that you want to. With the guard off it was easy to flip it around fairly quickly.

What you need to do is check out some gunsmithing sites. Brownells is a large supplier of gunsmithing stuff including bluing , and browning solutions. They have been around for years, and should be able to get you the information that you want.

I have pulled squirrel cage blowers out of copy machines, and other office equipment. An old kitchen range hood may also be a good donor. Look around for one of the old C tube fireplace blower units---a series of tubes bent into a C that the flames warmed while air was blown through them. Craigslist would be a good start, check the freebies first then the ads. Also check Upillar.com, freecycle.com/org? Garage sales, office equipment repair shops, appliance repair shops, and flea markets. nShould be able to locate one easy enough.

For the patrons I was thinking of the rain flys we used in the Scouts. Usually about 12'x12' with aluminum poles, the fly itself was like a blue poly tarp. When rolled up they were about 6" in diameter and 24" long, and weighed about 2#.

Don't get me wrong, I have done my share of doing things in the rain. I have literally waded through 10" of water to take a look at car parts on trailers, and have made some of my best buys at automotive swap meets during downpours. But that was part of my point. Most sane people were bugging out, iIt was the crazy gearheads like me that stayed. The dealers that did hang around were having to fire sale stuff just to cover expenses. If you can provide some shelter for the crowd too that would help a lot, as some folks may only have an umbrella. Even with an umbrella, you can get soaked. Now to really help keep them there you can have pots of hot chocolate, or coffee available.

I do not think that it would be really permanent especially being used on a handle where it would tend to wear off fastest. Blood will stain clothes where it can get into the fibers, but may not get the penetration you need in a piece of ivory, antler, or bone. It may need some sort of a sealer to make it more permanent. I have seen guns, and knives that had blood stains, or that is what they were purposed to be anyway. Sometimes a story helps to sell something. But anyway you could mask off an area on the blade, be it a name or a design , and put a little blood on it to stain it. Use a mask like wax, and you could get some nice detail. In an old movie (Moby Dick perhaps) a blade was quenched in blood.

How many people stick around to see demos when it is raining that hard? Sounds like that is the time to pack up, and go inside.

Wire wheels never scared me, more of an annoyance due to the wires being thrown. In the gunsmith's shop we wire wheeled the heavy rust off with a wheel on a bench grinder. During the process I usually ended up with a few wires stuck in my shop apron. Eye protection is a must with these. Wire wheels on a bench grinder need to be reversed every so often to keep the edges sharp. The only part of the wire that does any work is the tip. As they are used the tips get bent/worn back, and by flipping the wheel around it gets the tips pointed back forwards. Makes a huge difference in how well they work. With mounted wheels, like that one, if they get too badly rounded you can dress them on a disc sander, or grinder to bring the tips back to working order. Preferably dress them the opposite direction of the wheels rotation to push any burr forward. Do not overheat the wire, and soften it. The big thing is to let the wheel do the work, too much pressure only bends the wires, and doesn't allow the tips to do the work. It also promotes kickbacks.

Small sheets need to be worked quickly. In your case probably in a couple of seconds. For a vacuum pump you can use an air compressor, and hook onto the intake side. The form needs to have a lot of fine holes in it to allow all of the air to be evacuated evenly, and quickly. Some larger units have a tank that is drawn down, then when the part is sealed down a valve is opened allowing the tank to suck in a large volume of air quickly. Have you thought about blow molding? Make a reverse of your pattern, and pressurize the plastic. This would require another chamber, but may work for you. These methods of forming canopies will produce some distortion, and may not be very clear. To get very clear parts they are usually cast/molded/

No problem , your English is far better than my Italian vocabulary since it consists mainly of menu items :D

Is this for a stationary setup or a portable one? If it is stationary, bulk may not be that big of a problem. Too bad the shipping is so high, as I see hand crank blowers here in the States fairly often. I would look into a bicycle chain drive with a flywheel, easy, cheap (free), lightweight, easy to crank, and easily repaired if needed. The bigger the fan is the less RPM's needed for the same volume of air. You need volume, not pressure. A large fan at low RPM may work best as the fan can double as a second flywheel , if it has some weight to it.

The small side projection is for making heel clips, as explained to me by a farrier who I purchased an anvil, and forge from.

If you go to the user CP ( control panel ) you can update your profile with your location. IFI is world wide.

Ran track in high school, and played little league baseball, but that was it. I like to shoot, and I recently bought a home gym to get in shape. I now commute 100 miles each way to work, so I spend a few hours sitting in the car, and being a tool maker isn't that strenuous either. As for watching sports, I haven't even turned my TV on in about 2 years now. I do like any kind of motorsport though, from air races to swamp buggies it's all good. My favorite is Drag Racing. There is just something about dressing in women's clothes and driving really fast that excites me :D

Probably has more to do with possible litigation worries than anything. Too many sue happy people nowadays, and corporations asking "What if?"

Notch sensitivity, or stress risers are when a sharp nick, or notch is made in a piece causing a higher risk of breakage at that point. If it is going to break it will generally be at that nick. A way to reduce the risk is to use rounded punches designed for this purpose. Try this at home. Take a piece of paper and strip off a 1" or so wide piece the length of the sheet. Now cut a V in one side that is .250" deep or so. Now have someone pull one side while you hold the other, and see where it tears. Now do the same thing except instead of a V cut a semi circle the same depth as the V at the deepest, and 4 times as wide as the V width. Now pull it, and see how much better it holds up to the test. IIRC it should be a 4:1 ratio when radiusing a nick in a shaft etc.. The problem I would have with etching is it is not as permanent as a stamping. I also am concerned about file work that has sharp corners due to stress risers forming.