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It followed me home


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I bought emergency tools for the vehicles and a couple seatbelt cutters each. The emergency tools have a: glass breaker, belt cutter, flash light and flashing red light. They fit in the door compartment under the arm rests. 

My pocket knife worked, though it doesn't have a flashlight.

Frosty The Lucky. 

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Twigg:  Just dump them.  The amount of steel you could reclaim versus the time you'd put into it and the safety considerations just doesn't work out.

BTW, have you looked into Rocky Mountain Smiths?  Good group and you are in the center of the area for demos and meetings once covid has been shown the door.

Also, you are only about 2 hours away from here.  Again, once covid is over we may be able to arrange a visit.  I'm getting my shop set up for 2 coal forge stations, 3 if you count the gasser.  

"By hammer and hand al arts do stand."

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Cheap steel stock is so easy to be had for cheap or free. Just because it is cheap or free doesn't make it good steel to use. There are a Lot of discussions on here on where to source and what. It includes what Not to scrounge or bother using as We find it. 

We only want You to have a good forging experience and a long healthy life, so please heed our mistakes, experiences and learning so you can have a long lifetime forging to learn and warn of new ones. 

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You've convinced me. Yeah I better revisit the What not to scrounge list.


George, I vaguely remember hearing about Rocky Mountain Smiths. I haven't been reaching out to society much with covid and struggling with 2020 in general. Funnily enough I drove through Laramie last week. I'd be happy to visit once we get rid of the 'vid.

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Mail call! A book and some T-shirts:

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And some freebies through FB Marketplace: three wagon wheel tires, 4’ in diameter, two at 1/4” x 1” & one at 1/8” x 1-3/4”. The other party also threw in a nice big C-clamp. 

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And it looks like all three tires are wrought iron!

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I had mentioned this earlier this year, but I finally got it. Over the last few days, I've been helping a friend remove a greenhouse that he inherited when he got his property. It was a 30'x60' qwansat hut(not sure of the spelling, but it was a peaked top, round sided tunnel). It was in disrepair, but whole to start with, but the first winter he was there we had 4' of Sierra cement fall overnight and it collapsed. He had no emotional or monetary attachments to it, so when I asked what he was going to do with it, he responded that he was going to scrap it and that I could have it as long as I helped him tear it down. I told him I'll bring the beer and my tools, which turns out all we needed was a hammer, a ratchet set, a pair of wire cutters and a cordless drill. Oh, and some loppers and rakes to clear the blackberries that had taken over one side.

I came away with ~200' of 1.5" square tubing, ~300' of 1.75"od round tubing, ~120' of 1 1/2" round tubing, 28 4' sections of 2" tubing that was the "foundation"(hammered into the ground, 1.75" ribs slipped inside and were bolted into place), some conduit, a couple 2'x2' vents, a 2ft fan that fits one of the vents, a couple 12" cage fans(not pictured), an industrial propane heater(unknown condition, he said it worked when he bought the place), 3 100# propane tanks(not pictured), 3 330 gallon tanks with cages, a bunch of old large gague extension cords and electrical wire(to be assessed later if its worth messing with for the copper), and all the brickets and brackets that held it all together. The main damage was on the 1.75" tubing, so there's not too many straight pieces longer than 3' of that. I'll have to scrap the kinked sections, but the rest is in pretty decent condition. It is all galvanized so I won't be forging with it, but I could definitely use it to build things with. Maybe I'll start with a way to store it all.

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The only thing we had to bring to the land fill was the skin, which was 3 layers. 2 of thick clear plastic, 1 of woven plastic, and it took a whole truck load for each layer.

He also wanted to have the "dirt" removed, but I educated him on the difference between dirt and soil, so he is keeping that for a garden for his wife. Besides, I didn't want to move at least 40 yards of soil, though I would have taken that too if he decided he wanted it gone. You can never have too much good loamy soil here in the land of red clay. 

It amazes me what can come your way when you have a willingness to help and some beer

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I was bike riding on the  side of the highway to a friends house when I found a coil spring it looks new because the paint is still there its about 1/4th of an inch thick so I might just make punches or chisels/carving knives with it.

Hopefully the suspension spring wasn't in a deadly car crash or something. My guess is it just fell out of someones truck bed

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Thanks, it sure will help. Though ill have to get creative on how to put it back together. There were only 2 ribs that didn't collapse out of 14, but I may be able to piece together 1 or 2 more from the others. With those, hopefully I can make a 30' round house by crossing the ribs and reinforcing with wood beams. I think I would get more space than if I put them in line like they were before (5' between ribs).

I took a glance at what would be allowed by code, and apparently with the pipe anchors this isn't considered a permanent structure, so there is ALOT of leeway on what they will allow before they start to look at it, a 30x60 greenhouse instead of "under 100ft² floor space" for example. A slab would make it permanent, so I'll have to have a dirt or gravel floor. I still need to see what siding I can use, fingers crossed that roofing tin will be allowed, we have a whole bunch of it laying around. I may have to spring for a skin if not.

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I ordered myself a bunch of goodies arriving soon. Got these from the scrapyard

The drill has a broken trigger switch, and the internal spring has long since sproinged into the abyss so it sticks in the on position. Just for tinkering with. Rakes for tool hangers, per Thomas's suggestion. Bed frame for general construction. Haven't spark tested it yet, but good chance it could be quenchable. Some handle material (not for hammers), and a 5 gal.

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Looks like a Champion 40 or 140 blower in good shape. If you take the gear cover off and clean it with kerosene then re oil it, should last for several more decades. A tip about oiling it. Put in just enough oil (not grease) for the lower gear teeth to run in, the splash oil system will distribute oil throughout the other gears & bearings/bushings. Too much oil and it will leak like a sieve.  Don't ya love it when a plan comes together.:)

PS: I never recommend disassembling those old blowers unless it is absolutely necessary. Why you ask, because there are no new parts available for them and getting them back together in the exact positions is very hard so it usually causes more harm than good.

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