BIGGUNDOCTOR

Twisted, the new post vise looks like an Iron City to me. Nice score on the 400's if you can get them going.

Torch the horizontal off and sacrifice it. Just take a cutting torch and cut around the weld. With a cutting torch you can actually blow the weld off the cast iron and preserve it. I have done this with cast iron exhaust manifolds with broken studs. Heat the stud and hit the oxygen. That burns the steel and leaves the cast iron in perfect shape. You just want to do it as fast as possible so the cast dos not get too hot, so tip size is important. Even if you mar the cast a little I have found running a needle scaler over it blends the cast beautifully. Don't overthink this. The mild is far less expensive than the time cutting, trimming, aligning,and welding the cast.

How many mines does it take to make a minefield? One sign saying minefield.

So the casting is the horizontal with all of the finials? George, the issue is the distance from the horizontal bar to the bulge on the base of the finial.

I believe you are talking about StormCrow You can try sending him a message through here

I have six Rhode Island Red hens and one rooster. Depending on the hen I get medium to large eggs. Sometimes extra large. I find it interesting the shape of the eggs can change greatly from week to week. Some look "normal", others will be more streamlined, some more rounded, etc. I free range mine in my fenced off front yard more for exercise, and quality of life, as I don't have a lawn here in the desert. We have a Latin market here called Cardenas, and they sell whole grilled butterflied chickens at their deli on Friday for $6 now, up from $5. They smell so good that I usually start munching on one as soon as I get to the car. These are not small birds either, they have quite a bit of meat on them. Far better deal in my opinion than a more expensive burger and fries. The only thing that has followed me home recently has been more commercial food service equipment. This time it was three refrigerated sandwich prep stations, small conveyor oven, and upright refrigerator along with some miscellaneous items from the stores. I have a line on another storage locker full of items that I need to follow up on. I bought a commercial past cooker and bar station from one location, and they mentioned the other stuff they need to get rid of. Oh, almost forgot. Brought home another 10' of 100-3 drive chain from work. We replaced a damaged chain on the cooker I maintain. Now need to figure out what it can be used for. That 10' of chain weighs 80#.

Just remove the horizontal, and leave the entire cast upright spindle as it came. OR is the horizontal part of the casting? Is it all cast iron from the horizontal up and lower steel vertical added to the bottom of the cast iron horizontal? From what you said earlier I am imagining the finial and the entire vertical came as a unit like a spear that you cut to length.. If it was a horizontal casting of the rail and finials, that changes everything. What that would mean is the casting ordered was the wrong one

That is why I say chop the horizontal away and replace it. Leave the vertical alone , so no alignment issues.

Great looking Gnome. Bull rider? Well now, that explains a lot

I have welded cast iron before, and it is a process, not just running some beads. It can be strong with the right rods, but here in the States the right rods can be $50 a pound on up in cost. The right rods even have a great color match unlike the nickle rods most use. The problem with arc welding cast iron is the coefficient of expansion of the cast is so different than the metals used to weld them. The weld bead cools and shrinks so much faster than the cast that it tears away at the edges of the bead. This is where peening the weld bead comes in. I weld short 1" or so beads that are still red hot when I finish. As soon as I stop welding. I start running an industrial pneumatic inline needle scaler over the weld bead. As the needles impact the hot bead they spread the weld out and keep it in contact with the cast iron so that it does not pull away. Repeat as necessary. When done welding, the item is heated up and placed in gray wood ashes to make sure the welds cool down as slow as possible overnight. Now, a different method is brazing, and it is the go to for working every time it is used. BUT, the main issue with brazing is the yellow braze will show unless painted. Brazing is also labor intensive as it is applied with a gas torch instead of arc welder. It can be done with a MIG using silicon bronze wire, but it is expensive wire. This why I say just sacrifice the rail, and chop it off by whatever method is available; saw, torch, danger disc, plasma cutter, etc.. Then grind what is left flush with the upright. Install the new horizontal rail at the correct height and weld with the MIG. The time savings will pay for itself.

It would actually be less work in my opinion to remove the rail and replace it with a different one. I don't mean to do it delicately either. Just torch the rail off, grind what is left on the upright down flat, and install into the new rail. Done.

Welcome from the desert just outside of Fabulous Las Vegas NV. Were you here fr the Mint 400? I am putting the parts together for my off road explorer, a 1956 Imperial.

Well last night was a bust. The wind and rain picked up and my friend cancelled out due to some relatives testing positive for the Vid. Didn't want to make the hour drive in to celebrate alone. The last couple of years have been really good to me financially. I am making the most I ever have, but mentally they have been unfulfilling. Wishing all of my fellow smiths a wonderful new year full of whatever it is you seek.

Running into Fabulous Las Vegas NV to meet a friend for drinks, and watch the fireworks over on the STRIP.

There is a whole thread covering junkyard metals, and what to look for.

Billy Bones. the MC marked spikes were for the experimental Space Train and were marked for meteoric content..... JHCC, when I had my shop we would set the part in the vise with a riser on one end to angle the part enough to lessen the swept area of the blade. Also getting blades with a big tooth pitch help.

For a gig I wouldn't weld tines, but raise them with a chisel by shaving it up from the parent stock. Like dragon horns, and wizard beards are done. That is how commercial gigs appear to be done.

I see you made it over here from FB. Welcome from the desert outside of Fabulous Las Vegas NV.

Your shoelace is untied..... What happened to the Japanese toed shoes? Thomas, it is amazing how fast induction works on steel. Seconds instead of minutes.

I would be looking at doing a monoblock and adding tubes. Even so, that will be a ton of work, so I would hope you are not working for free. Or scrounge up all of the barrel assemblies you can find, and refit them. I would see, and have bought SxS barrels at gun shows.

Beryllium copper alloys have a distinctive color to them. When polished it looks just like gold. More easily confused with brass or bronze than copper. We ran literal tons of it through the last machine shop I worked at. Wonderful alloys with lots of uses. Yes, there is the issue of Berylliosis after chronic exposure to fine dust and fumes. But with proper care it can be safely worked. The alloys in common use have a maximum of 2% Be as an alloying element.

Merry Christmas

Faster and easier to drill out than forge to shape. With hot forging it would have to be done in an inert atmosphere to eliminate the scale formation. Trying to keep it hot enough while the rollers are sucking the heat out will also be an issue. To cold roll that shape will require massive tonnage in hydraulic power as well as machine strength. You could buy a used CNC turning center, or Swiss style for a lot less. The other forging option would be a rotary hammer forge. Seems like the work would easily exceed the value of the shotguns. Are you working with solid or pattern welded barrels? Missing barrels? May look at making the chopper lump into a monoblock. Cut the old barrels off and solder in new tubes.

TW, the way we dealt with nails and staples was Dad had a horseshoe magnet out of a radar set that we put on a string. drag it around the ashes and out come the ferrous bits. But the way you cut the boards will eliminate them to start with. Run a saw down the runners removes the top and bottom boards fastener free. Some pallets have fewer top boards so more meat between them without nails. Bigger crates have longer fastener free sections and many times they have 2x6 or 4x4 runners.

Thanks for the tip Randy. I have around 300# of various clay bodies that have been sitting under the bench since 2007? All high fire cone 10-14. I picked up a wheel, now to get off my butt and actually get back to my hobbies. I have not been in the game mentally for a few years now due to some issues I am dealing with. Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, but with my luck lately it may be a freight train headed my way.