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I Forge Iron

It followed me home


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I converted an old Sears band saw to cut metal by using a jack shaft and several pulleys to get the speed down.  It worked okay but slow on stuff like 1/4" plate and was just fine on aluminum and brass.  I bought a Delta saw with the gear box that is designed to be both metal and wood cutting and sold the Sears.  Wish I had kept it and set it it up just for wood.  

I stopped at the scrap yard on the way home from a Dr.s visit this morning and got a nice haul of 4" square tubing, some smaller square tubing, two pieces of formed channel, 2 pieces of schedule 40 aluminum tube or pipe, a bunch of small hand tools as somebody had just scraped his entire tool box!  I took what I thought might be useful to me even though I already have that same stuff. A small hook and an old hand forged pintle (I think ).  A nicely made steel shelf, a Wagner dutch oven thing missing its top and this interesting solid chunk of steel - sort of a stretched pyramid thing.  Maybe useful as a hot cut once I weld a stub to it.  The scrap yard is my favorite place to shop!

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Stopped by the steelyard on my way home to see what kind of drops they might have for me to use for the frame of my press. TOTAL SCORE: four pieces of 5” x 6.7 lb C-channel, close enough to my original target length as to need minimal redesign and no additional cutting. 

 

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I came home with a piece of 4140 that weighed 7 pounds and was 2 and 7/8" round.  The guy told me it weighed almost 9 pounds.  I didn't believe him, but for $10 I wasn't complaining.   Ought to make some good hammer heads.  (something I'm hoping to do someday)  Still lookin' for a cast off leaf spring.  I need to make a draw knife to pull of the bark of this tree stump base I cut for my anvil stand.

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Gazz,

send a picture of the cast iron pot from the side and an estimate of how much liquid it will hold. There may be a number stamped on the bottom. Measurement across the top and height will help. 

It resembles the style of an old wash pot, but looks smaller. Best thing to cook in, the rounded bottom makes it cook on the sides, like a wok, great for slow cooking rice, beans, gravy, etc. fry fish or chicken all the crumbs fall to the bottom center and doesn’t burn your oil. 

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Okay, here is a picture from the side and of the bottom.  So it is marked with a 3 (3 quarts?) and is 10" wide and about 4" deep.  I've also added pics of another dutch oven type pot that I also scored at the scrap yard a couple of weeks ago.  This one has the lid and is sort of unusual in shape and also has a round bottom and is 9" in diameter and 6" deep.  I need to clean it a bit more before I cook anything in it, both of them actually.  I did see a video on youtube where a guy takes a chicken stuffed with pineapple puts it in a large skillet and then packs oil soaked seasoned salt around it - lots of it - places the skillet on a pile of sticks and then piles more sticks on top.  Lights it up and lets it burn out.  The salt forms a shell that has to be cracked off and the bird inside looked really moist and delicious.  Thinking of trying it with a pork butt but no pineapple although it might be interesting.

I have a hard time making myself not go to the scrap yard everyday - I am sure there are many treasures that go through there and I keep hoping to find a little giant there someday.

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Just make sure you test it for lead before cooking anything in it. People sometimes use old cast iron for melting lead scrap, and enough can remain on the surface (even if not visible to the naked eye) to give you some serious health issues. Lead testing kits are available in hardware and paint stores.

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I typically clean these by heating them until red with the rosebud torch or just put in the big campfire.  I will also cook some vinegar in them too.

I would never choose aluminum for cookware in fact I passed up a nice pile of commercial quality aluminum skillets of various sizes at the scrap yard yesterday.  I may have a lid that fits and if not I would make one from sheet steel.  Then again, one may show up at the scrap yard!

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Messrs. Les L and Gazz,

Pineapples have a chemical called bromelain which is a mixture of protein digesting chemicals. They are used, by chefs, as meat tenderizers. So pineapple will improve the quality of meat. especially poor cuts of meat.

These chemicals are, also,  used in biochemistry laboratories.

The most common such chemical is papain, derived from the papaya plant.  (for example. Adolph's meat tenderizer).

The foregoing is trivia for the members.

SLAG.

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1 hour ago, ThomasPowers said:

Somehow picturing Gollum in a welding mask creates cognitive dissonance!

You don't know some of the elders I do. Gollum in a welding mask has a familiar ring. 

Frosty The Lucky.

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Not to worry: we already had an extensive discussion of this on the press’ own page, and I’m only going to mig weld parts that are under compression.  Anything under tension (that is, the main frame) will get stick welded. 

 I think from now on I’m going to call it “The Presscious”. 

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