GTTS Go To The Source

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

That happened where I work too. They were going through 4 barrels a day per shift, per slurry room. Now the safflower oil comes in a 275 gallon bag in a box (5 barrels worth). The cardboard box is around 1.5" - 1.75" thick.

[bluerooster]

Remodeling an old barn, and found all manner of rusty gold.  There were several old jackhammer bits driven into the ground used as stakes.  A couple of "Kelly bars", 2 square, one octagon.  and 2 complete plow shanks from a spring tooth harrow, which I intend to salvage for use as they were intended.

[Frosty]

Kelly bars are typically medium carbon or the high alloy equivalent to resist work hardening but be stiff. It's good hammer stock at least. Test it to discern what it'll require and potential uses.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Amze]

Earlier in the thread, lead wheel weights are mentioned. You have to be really careful using them these days, as they are using non-lead more and more. Melting them can be toxic, and the untrained eye wouldn’t know the difference. I learned about it pouring fishing weights

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

The newer wheel weights have a lot of zinc in them. They melt at a higher temp & will float while the older ones will sink in the melt and I pick out the zinc ones before they melt. The best wheel weights to use are the stick on ones used on mag wheels, they are pure lead. I use them to cast bullets/ round balls for my muzzleloder's.

[Amze]

That’s what I did as well. I know a number of guys would use a melting pot over fire, and it got hot enough to start getting gas off of the zink, from what I remember. I was always super careful when sorting and poured from a melting pot. 

[Johan roraback]

Worked for a number of years at a mom and pop auto/farm/industrial parts store, we were one of the few that still turned rotors and drums. Nearly 1/2 the time new rotors were cheaper or the rotors were out of spec and could not be turned. Few customers wanted to take home their old rotors when they bought new. They would pile up in barrels behind the store for a long time before someone thought it was worth the time and potential flat tires hauling them to sell at the scrap yard.  Clearly most of this was not great metal, but a lot of it was quite thick.  More than one of my home made vices had jaws from brake rotors.  Several work stands had rotors or drums as bases, and a few were modified to become dishing forms.  I suspect most shops would gladly give these away, or be very happy to sell at a good price to avoid the hassle of recycling.     Another great resource from there was 1 inch thick hexiboard cardboard.  These are roughly 4 foot square, 1 inch thick cardboard sheets. They were used as spacers between boxes on pallet deliveries. One of the best packing materials I’ve ever found for either fragile or heavy items.  So much so that 10 years after I left the place I still visit once a month to buy them. (I say buy because they would gladly give me whatever they have laying around when I visit, but when I pay they go to the effort of collecting them, storing them, and don’t let any hit the dumpster)

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Johan, that is called honeycomb. You can also get aluminum sheets with an aluminum honeycomb core in it. Very strong and lightweight.  All I have ever found is blocks of it, never sheets.  The separators for the pallets at work are inflatable bags. Slip in between the pallets and air up to 3psi. The guys just slice them to release the air instead of deflating them. I want to get a few to play around with making sand/ soft ground air jacks for the car.