It followed me home

[ThomasPowers]

Check for dunnage lumber!  A friend got some huge oak beams when their company bought a million dollar injection machine from Germany!

I found the 180# set on an old forklift that had been "retired" by running it off onto a spoil pile on a bluff beside a river behind the company that had used it.  Had a tree growing up through it big enough to cut for firewood!  How casual industrial disposal used to be!

[Frosty]

One of the guys in our club made an anvil from a piece of forklift tine off one at the port, 6" x 15" sounds about right, it's cut at 24" and has another 10" of "horn" torched and ground on an end. It weighs at least 500 lbs. We move it with a forklift or 3-4 guys slide it.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Stash]

Hey MJ- both top and bottom dies are each held in place by 2 3/8" bolts tapped into the upper and lower plates. I have a spare 1/2" ratchet with a 9/16" socket on standby.

Steve

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

The forklift companies I contacted told me they use 4140/4340 type alloys on standard forklifts with the larger ones being a different alloy. NO explanation of larger was given.

Diamond concrete saw cores are also 4140 according to the manufacturers I contacted.

If you have a pair of forks you can make a post vise from them.

 

[Donal Harris]

Hammer blanks. Daniel Moss on YouTube uses them for those. The tapered sections can be cut and then forged into punches and drifts. Most of the hard work will have already been done. 

[pnut]

On 7/2/2021 at 11:37 AM, ThomasPowers said:

Check for dunnage lumber

I ask the lumberyard up the road for any lumber they've culled whenever I can't get what I need for free. You'd be surprised how cheap you can get larger sized timbers for. 

Pnut. 

[Chimaera]

Got some good stuff in the past couple days. Neighbor had a tree cut down and I made a big upgrade in anvil stands. Went from two rotting pieces of pine strapped together to a several hundred pound maple log. Has plenty of room for my eventual anvil upgrade. Visited the scrapyard for the first time and ended up with 140 lbs, mostly leaf spring with a big coil, some cable, and a huge file. Ended up costing $0.50/lb. more than I would’ve liked, about what I expected. Should last me a very long time once I break it down (a task I do not look forward to. Time to get an abrasive chop saw?).

[JHCC]

A chop saw is safer, but a hefty angle grinder has more uses. 

[Chimaera]

Unfortunately, I’m probably going to end up doing it with a 4.5” AG

[JHCC]

Just wear your PPE. 

[Donal Harris]

That has happened to me more than once.  It isn’t much of a thing with thin stock, but witch thicker stuff, if I am not careful I will get it kind of offline in the cut and the disc will shatter. Always let it cut at the speed it wants to cut and do not try to force it.

 I don’t have the type of guard recommended for the discs I am using. Sooner or later I am bound to find out why the other guard is recommended. But at least I do use it with a guard. I have seen many welders who for whatever reason, remove the guard. That is just stupid. When a disc flies apart, it isn’t only the user who is at risk. Anyone nearby could also be severely injured. There are photos and videos online which show how serious these can be. Very hard tool to work without, but it is a very dangerous thing. 

This is the guard I should be using with my angle grinder when using a cutting wheel. The even have some with adjustable depth guides. Eventually I will just buy another grinder and have one set up for cutting and the other for grinding. 

[BillyBones]

I got that Dewalt porta-band not long ago and love it. It is the deep cut and would take down those springs and such in no time. 

[lary]

10 hours ago, JHCC said:

Just wear your PPE. 

Now we know why that brand is so cheap on Amazon.

[Chimaera]

Believe it or not, I’ve never had an AG wheel shatter. Probably part of it comes from the fact that I always get the thicker ones, so they’re not as high risk. I do always wear PPE, learning from the time a piece of dremel cut off got lodged in my chin (I was still wearing safety glasses then). I imagine a shattering AG is no fun.

[JHCC]

It wasn't. 

[Daswulf]

I've used a Lot of those wheels from HF and haven't blown one up yet. Most I've done is mess up the outer edge on a bad cut. Not saying there couldn't be bad ones, I've even seen some on the shelf that looked suspect of poor quality. Also if it gets dropped or you rough the edge on a bad cut, replace the disc or it could blow up like that.  I think a lot has to do with technique.

[JHCC]

To be honest, I can't remember exactly how it happened. What I DO remember is how happy I was to have been wearing a face shield!

[AngryOnion]

I haven't had one blow up like that yet, but usually when I get a chuck taken out it's when I'm cutting hollow tubing. One habit I have in the workplace when that happens is to snap the whole thing in half so nobody else tries to use it. I've seen them pull half broken ones out of the trash to use.

[pnut]

1 minute ago, AngryOnion said:

it's when I'm cutting hollow tubing

It's less likely to happen if you try to keep the cutting wheel at the shallowest possible depth in the cut and avoid going deeper than necessary. 

Pnut

[Daswulf]

Well, when something goes wrong it is usually quick to do so. Like split second fast. Then it's damage analysis. It's always better to be prepared that something could go wrong. 

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

I had one blow up like that the other day when I was cutting an air compressor in half, I had the compressor locked down in a vise and I was trying to take my time and not force it and I still broke the disc.
   But I think it might have been my fault I think As I was cutting along my line I think that I got it off the line and put it in a bind. I was using the guard and wearing ppe, luckily nothing hit me or anything else it just shredded to pieces. 

[JHCC]

17 minutes ago, Daswulf said:

Well, when something goes wrong it is usually quick to do so. Like split second fast. Then it's damage analysis. It's always better to be prepared that something could go wrong. 

Absolutely true. By the time we perceive that something is going wrong, it's already happened.

[Frosty]

When you're cutting a tank you need to wedge the cut open SLIGHTLY, when you get most of the way around the remaining section can act like a hinge so the vibration makes if clamp on the disk binding and breaking it. Just a couple pieces of wood or such a LITTLE thicker than the cut off wheel will do.

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

AP shells are also good for tanks.

[Gazz]

I think most of these cutting disc failures and accidents are because of using the wrong tool for the job at hand.  These machines are called angle grinders because that is what they are for - they are not cut off saws.  Yes, they can be used for cut off applications but are not the right tool especially when the stock gets bigger.  If you drop your grinder and damage a disc, toss that disc.  Flying pieces do hurt and less than perfect condition disc will be tiring to use because of added vibration.  Get yourself a oxy/acetylene torch with a cutting handpiece if you want or need to cut bigger stuff and use the grinder to clean up the slag.  It is much faster as well.   Cut off saws, whether abrasive or bandsaw are good for one thing, cut off.  The torch will be quite useful for other stuff as well. The O/A torch can be used for heating and bending, setting rivets, applying finishes, loosening rusty fasteners and can even be used as a heat source for a small hotbox type forge made of fire brick.  I understand that budgets require many to work with what they have but if you intend to grow with the craft, the torch is indispensable.