BIGGUNDOCTOR

Looks to be a cast anvil. Some have very faint markings stamped into them. My Soderfors is stamped that way.

Your little pig is fine. If you had ground it down smooth and shiny it would have been a different story. But even then it might have still been ok.

Das, sounds like they were pounding mochi.

Billy B, I had been looking for beeswax for a few different things , but didn't want to pay the asking price for dirty nonrefined wax. Well as things turned out I now have a bunch of wax from where I work. We use food grade beeswax blocks on some conveyors, and they no longer keep the small bits, and just toss them. I probably have around 50# now. We get it in 50# boxes made up of four 12.5# slabs each, and we get a pallet load at a time. When I worked at Jelly Belly we used beeswax for polishing the beans. They had an old fiber drum that probably had 40# of pellets in it, and it got tossed before I could ask about getting it.

I weld magesium with the same setup as I do for aluminum. It welds very nicely. Pure tungsten (green end). One thing you will notice while welding is the green glow as opposed to the bright white of aluminum. I welded up VW, and motorcycle parts that were broken. \ The fire hazard is from fines from sawing or sanding.

Stash, I would put a wider flange on the stake for it to rest on. That small pin can eat at the hardy hole. Rojo Pedro, nice looking bell. How did you do the thumb tab?

The epoxy coated is bonded on, sounds like it is a type of powder paint. What that means it is super tough, even above ground, and would not peel like regular paint can.

SinDoc, not not flex pipe, but standard rigid black iron with a greenish coating. It is made for direct burial. Looks like it is called VPC, and it is an epoxy coating. Used for Nat gas and LP. And there is some called X-tru with a thicker yellow plastic coating that needs to be trimmed off before threading. Littleblacksmith, my arm is sore just looking at all of those items on the table. I am impressed, and glad to have watched your progress over the years.

SinDoc, there is iron piping that has a plastic coating bonded to it for burial. Cutting and threading pipe is not that bad. For up to 2" pipe you measure from flange to flange on the fittings and add 1" to get the length needed. Rent a power threader, and it will go quickly. I prefer the pipe dope over tape, as it is more forgiving if you have to adjust an angle of a fitting. Thread the fitting on one turn, then paint it on the threads. This way you don't get any inside the pipe.

Speed is your friend when stamping metal parts.

I'd hang onto it and look for the tools to go with it, The coil is close to $200 new. I have some strapping tools here in the smaller sizes, and they come in handy at times,

Turning this into a career is going to be a long road. What type of items do you want to make? From what you said, I would suggest classes first. Have you done any smithing at all? You will learn much faster with a teacher, than alone. Classes on running a business would also need to be taken. Smithing sounds fun as a career right up until all of the things that are needed to make it a viable business come into play. You either have to know how to do them yourself, or be making enough to pay someone to do the druge work.

IFCW, that flag could be worth quite a bit today.

Blacken everything then assemble, cold blue, or let it rust and buff.

I would see if a scrap yard has an XRF? gun , and can do a check for what alloy it is. If it is not 316 then I would go after the contractor. If you have other items that are not rusting like this, then I would lean towards them not using the right alloy.

I always wondered why a crane is not used to upright some of the big trees that simply tip over when the ground is soaked. I realize they are heavy, but there are big cranes too. Glad to hear you came through it OK. WD-40 is your friend right now. This is exactly why Water Displacement Formula #40 was invented. Hose down the electronics and any other items to keep corrosion and rust at bay.

JHCC, a good project for a ring roller. George NM, check out Leatherworker dot net. They are the IFI of leather

Every clinker I have had was like gooey glass when hot, not something that would break apart. I just rake them out. I have seen some "clinker breakers" that were offset, I have to spin mine around to adjust the airflow. Clinkers are the main reason I am considering making a side blast forge. Twisted, that 3/8" plate would make a good workbench top. That blue eyed kitty is pretty cute.

When my folks were stationed in Germany from 1948-52 for the Berlin airlift the old house they stayed in had tankless water heaters in it. It has taken a long time to gain acceptance over here.

Farmall, that serial number is A24689 if what I see is the tail of the 9 in the picture.

Why do you need to heat hot water? I prefer to use cold water heaters myself.

Tree trimming services can provide a stump. Even here in the desert there is no shortage of scrap wood from dunnage and crating.

No paper, all plastic, and they use a new bag for darn near every item.....

Yes, Matt Clark, not Mitch. Been awhile since I have been up that way.

Mitch Clark is a wheelchair bound southern Utah based metal artist who does welded sculptures that are pretty big. You can pull him up on the net.