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A 9" Atlas lathe has showed up for $500 on my local Craigslist. It's not beat up, and the owner says it's never been out of air conditioning. It's got a 3-jaw chuck and some tooling. Is this as good a deal as it seems? e:     Good deal or no? Help me out on this, goons. Paul MaudDib fucked around with this message at 20:57 on Jan 25, 2009 |
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Jan 25, 2009 06:40
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I got my shipping quote from Nimba today, and it looks like it is going to cost me $135 to ship the anvil. You're right Slung Blade, it is cheaper in the States, but not by much. Gotta wait till the 30th, but when it finally rolls around, I'm going to go ahead and order a Titan. Already have a 1'' trailer ball, thats the same size my pickup uses, but it didn't occur to me that it'd be a useful hardy tool.
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Jan 25, 2009 10:23
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No, sorry, I meant the size of the threaded rod coming out of the ball, not the ball itself. That one I posted has a 2 1/2" ball. If you have one, that's cool, but I wouldn't use the same one you use for towing, because it will get damaged. Anyway, that's great news, congrats  Have you fired up that brake drum forge yet? I'd love to see some pictures if you have them.
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Jan 25, 2009 19:17
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No pics yet, I can't find my camera battery charger, it seems to have gotten lost the last time I moved... I haven't fired it up yet either, been too busy at work. I'll see if I can't scrounge something up sometime this week though. And I understood you correctly, the shank on my trailer ball is 1'', the ball is about the same size as yours, I just didn't explain myself correctly. As far as damage goes, the one that I have right now got all hosed up last time I did do any towing because I used it on a truck that needed a slightly bigger shank. All the threads that were in contact with the hole in the bumper of that truck got ground off or smashed flat by the vibrations. This is what you get for not having a proper tow kit, children. I am just glad that it held, otherwise half of my furniture would have fallen off the side of a mountain. edit: yay puncuation! Zquargon fucked around with this message at 20:23 on Jan 25, 2009 |
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Jan 25, 2009 20:19
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Ah, ok. Well that works out pretty well then, recycling scrap for tools. It's what we do 
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Jan 25, 2009 20:28
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Do any of you guys have the facilities (milling), that could produce a couple of pieces for me? I'm after a couple of prototype pieces machined out of either aluminium or steel, they're both small pieces (less than 100x80x15mm). Click here for the full 1028x604 image. The cylinders on the above image are actually holes drilled through the upright part, but at an angle (sketchup doesn't seem to like that intersection much, so i can't get it look better). The image below gives a better top down view of what's going on:  Click here for the full 663x865 image. The red lines are showing the angles of the holes. The holes are about 3mm diameter, and equally spaced (about 10.5mm i think), i'd like the rear side (the side not visible in the sketchup drawing) holes countersunk. I'd be happy to pay for your services obviously, shipping would need to be to the UK, but we can sort all that out if you're interested Cheers!
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Jan 25, 2009 23:37
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My mill isnt up yet but http://www.cnczone.com/ has a request for quote section.
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Jan 25, 2009 23:40
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dv6speed posted:Actually I lied, I did do some metal working today. I worked 6 hours of overtime today welding patches inside of a coal car. Oooh la la! How is the new job going anyways? My new job is gravy, it turns out that maintenance and standby are the same word. So they pay me to sit around, playing cards. Its gravy. The plant is a huge piece of trash though. The operators arent certified, and most dont even speak english. But what can you do. They told the operators to shut the steam down because of leaks and it was super cold. They didnt listen and a whole area of the plant was a giant block of ice. Also on one of the flare stacks they had a 40 foot icicle. Biggest one I've ever seen. They had to make an emergency plan in the event it caused the tower to topple because it weighed so much. The plant is basically a huge piece of trash and I'd be concerned if I held CNQ stocks.
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Jan 26, 2009 01:23
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SmokeyXIII posted:Oooh la la! How is the new job going anyways? We had the Federal Railroad Administration come in and inspect the joint Thursday and Friday. It turns out that only the shop foreman is actually certified to weld on tank cars. However, everyone does welding. So guess what, no welding took place those days. They had me working in the valve shop during that time where I was replacing safety valves on propane cars. A safety valve on a propane car weighs between 50-60 lbs, and the nuts that hold it in are torqued down very tight and quite rusty. After you get the nuts removed, you have the joy of scraping old gaskets off, which can take upwards of a couple hours. It's rather funny. I used to really be into trains when I was a kid. I appreciate them even more now that I know all the drat works that goes into them! The shipyard will be a DREAM job compared to this privately owned gently caress-up operation.
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Jan 26, 2009 02:09
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I ordered a leaf point swage and a square stock center chiseling swage along with some flux and a book from blacksmith's depot the other day. It's sitting with Canada Customs right now, here's hoping the release it soon.
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Jan 26, 2009 06:01
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Oh my, what's this? Looks interesting!  My new habanero forge. Interior shot, the bottom is cardboard for now, but under that is ceramic blanket. I'm supposed to slide the shelf in on top of the cardboard and then remove it to keep the blanket from bunching up.  Here is the bottom shelf "armor". Kind of a fuzzy picture, but it's just some ceramic tile.  Dual burners, one regulator.  My other shipment arrived too. Two tins of forge welding flux, a really soft brass brush putting a nice gold coloured finish on black hot items and a horrendously expensive book.  Center chiseling swage for square stock.  Leaf blank swage.  Truly it was the night of the living packing peanuts in my garage.
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Jan 28, 2009 04:41
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That's an awesome looking forge! Looking forward to pics of it in action. I finally found my camera battery, hopefully I can get something to show all of you today or tomorrow. I was taking apart the gates that I got for scrap the other day, and I was slightly dismayed to find out that all the bars are hollow. The whole gate was made of 1'' and 1/4'' square bars that were welded together on the ends, so I wasn't sure if it was solid or not. I am thinking (hoping) that all this will still be usable for forging, because its an awful lot of metal. Do you think that I would be able to get away with using the stock as is, or should I try to forge weld the bars together until it is a solid bar first? I'll get some pics of those scraps as well so you can see what I mean. Zquargon fucked around with this message at 18:27 on Jan 28, 2009 |
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Jan 28, 2009 18:02
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To forge weld that many tubes would take a expensively huge amount of coal. You could do it I suppose, but I wouldn't recommend it. It would also probably turn out all lumpy and misshapen. It's way cheaper to buy or find iron that more closely fits your needs and work from there. We live in an industrial age, and have every right to take advantage of efficient means of production for our raw materials. That said, I would still keep it. You can cut little pieces of the tube out and split it down the middle to have useful bits. Also, you can reuse it for things like tables or benches or tool supports or all kinds of things. I've also seen pictures of tubes that have been twisted into artsy shapes, I'll take some pictures out of a book I have when I get home tonight. What's the wall thickness? Are the 1/4" bars hollow too? It must be awfully thin.
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Jan 28, 2009 19:21
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I may be a bit off on my sizes, but yeah they are pretty thin. I was mostly expecting the larger bars to be hollow, but the small ones are too. I am definitely planning on keeping all of the scraps, even if I don't end up ever using them. Took a lot of work to get them off the house, the person who put them on wasn't big on skill or technique. They just welded the poo poo out of everything that touched another piece. Luckily the welds are older then I am, so the majority of them broke fairly easily. edit: I don't even know where I would go looking to buy iron bar stock. Closest thing I can think of off the top of my head is rebar from Home Depot or something like that Zquargon fucked around with this message at 19:57 on Jan 28, 2009 |
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Jan 28, 2009 19:38
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Home depot iron is way too expensive. I think it's usually cold rolled steel, which is harder because it's been cold worked. Once you heat it to forge temperature, that strength leaves it and it's just normal iron, which is fine, but they charge a premium for that strength. Where exactly do you live? There's probably a small iron distribution center or scrap yard around you somewhere. If there are railway crossings near you on lightly trafficked country roads there's almost certainly a small supply of bent "ruined" spikes and plates to be found. Though it's technically trespassing, the RR don't usually care because it's just scrap to them. Don't break the law, but sometimes right-of-way crews just toss old spikes into the ditch, which isn't always their property. Old rebar is a plentiful source too, though it might be pretty dirty and rusty, and it isn't always the best quality iron. Just keep your eyes open, I'm sure you'll spot some iron around town that you can get for free or cheap. Edit: Oh sorry you said home depot rebar. Yeah, don't buy that either. Too expensive.
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Jan 28, 2009 20:54
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Slung Blade posted:My new habanero forge. Let me know what you think of this thing once you get the chance to try it out; I've been looking for a nice pre-built forge and this one looks perfect.
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Jan 30, 2009 01:58
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Third Murderer posted:Let me know what you think of this thing once you get the chance to try it out; I've been looking for a nice pre-built forge and this one looks perfect. Sure thing. I'm sick as a dog, my boss told me to go home, but I didn't want to, too much stuff to do. So she forced me out and threatened to have me escorted out of the building. She's a pretty cool manager  So, that said, I don't know if I'll be able to work outside this weekend. Maybe though, fresh air might be good for me.
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Jan 30, 2009 07:37
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Weeee! I know I am probably getting waay too excited and look very juvenile, but I just placed my order for the Titan about 5 minutes ago and I am so excited I could piss myself and probably not notice. Until it got cold at any rate. I know I keep promising pictures and never delivering, but I swear I will get some pictures tomorrow so you can see my forge and all my scraps and the massive amount of yardwork I have to do in order to have room to do all of this without lighting the yard on fire.
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Jan 31, 2009 00:15
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Congratulations Zquargon, that's great news. And I'd better see some pictures in this thread tomorrow. Or else. 
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Jan 31, 2009 00:51
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Two recent projects. Nice visor for my helmet in the 14th century German style. Stainless, 14 gauge. And here's some casting work. These are brass "plaques" 2x2 inches, to be put on a belt, basically medieval bling. The casting equipment isn't mine, but I did the work. I've got lots more pictures if there are people interested in the process. Pouring  Finished product 
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Feb 1, 2009 02:42
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Very nice finish on the helmet. I you fabricated that the old fashoned way, with rounded ends of things and a hammer then wow.
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Feb 1, 2009 02:52
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That's really impressive. And yes, post more pictures dammit.
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Feb 1, 2009 04:11
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Slung Blade posted:And I'd better see some pictures in this thread tomorrow. Someone put pictures in here, that counts, yes? I took all my pictures, but I had enough that I didn't feel like hitting you all with a wall of images, so I am putting them in a Flickr account. It is 2am and they are all uploading at the moment, so consider this a placeholder for pictury goodness. Edit: Aaaaaaand here you are. Pics of all of my adventures yesterday. Some of them have not been turned yet, so they are sideways, but that's because I am lazy. http://www.flickr.com/photos/34975971@N06/sets/72157613197428683/ Zquargon fucked around with this message at 17:43 on Feb 1, 2009 |
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Feb 1, 2009 09:55
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Looks good man. I think you need a baffle or a slower hair dryer though. That thing will oxidize your steel like crazy. You could probably use an old computer fan if you make a manifold out of cardboard or sheet metal. Plus then you could use a battery and make it portable  Here's that picture of the twisted tube stuff I was talking about before. http://i42.tinypic.com/1564sns.jpg I left it high-res so you can read it if you like. Not really something that I would enjoy but I can certainly understand other people appreciating the beauty of it. The shot is from a book called "The Artist Blacksmith" by an English fellow named Peter Parkinson. There are great pictures and great ideas throughout the book. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in decorative iron work. I just googled the lady's name who made the tube artwork and she has her own site too. http://www.shelleythomas.co.uk/ Interesting and very different stuff.
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Feb 2, 2009 00:12
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Slung Blade posted:post more pictures dammit. Got some free time, so here you go. So I know an earlier post detailed casting so I won't talk too much about the process.  So here is the positive on the left. It is just brass bits soldered together, with a handle on the back. Since it is so shallow, I can just press it into my sand without building the negative the hard way. You can see one to the right. In the center are the pins for holding the mold halves together and a template for lining up the sprues and air holes.  Here's the foundry setup. Its a legit backyard foundry, 100% built by hand. Can hit nearly 3000 degrees. First you light a fire (sticks 'n gasoline) in the box (burner) on the left. This is your heat source. After it gets going it is fed with oil (top tube) and air (bottom tube). It feeds a flame into the right dealio (furnace) in which the crucible is placed, in which the actual bits to melt are placed. You can pull out the crucible once the material is melted and pour it.  Lid off. That's pretty hot. Time to pour. See pic I posted earlier (scroll up a bit).  Opening up the mold. Lookin' good!  Here's the pieces before finishing work. The main pour sprue has already been cut off except for the one on the far left. You can also see a few failures that occurred before I got the technique down right. The thin sprues in the corners are a result of the material rising up the air holes. In the top left you can see one where the center actually sucked upwards due to uneven cooling.  A couple finished pieces. As you can see from the mold, I can do 6 at a time, and maybe 3 of those are acceptable on average (first attempts had more failures, last attempts more or less perfect). 20 total made. I'm definitely not an expert on technical details and theory of how the foundry works or proper mold making technique but I can answer basic questions.
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Feb 4, 2009 03:57
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Nice casting, thanks for the pictures. I'm still sick at home, but I'm feeling slightly better, and it was 18'C outside here today so I had to spend some time outdoors and get some fresh air. Welded up that plate to the support. Here's the bottom:  Top:  After that, I thought I'd dig out my gas forge and give it a try.  Cardboard comes out, bottom shelf goes in.  These are the side armor tiles, the rough side has been coated with a protectant.  The bottom armor goes on top of the bottom shelf, then the side armors go in.  I was told by the sales lady that this step wasn't necessary, but I bought a can of ITC 100 so I thought I would seal up the cracks between the armor tile.  All put together, first firing.  When I first started it up it scared the hell out of me. I cannot use enough hyperbole to describe how loud this thing is at pressure. It sounds like a rocket engine and it is awesome.  This is it operating at about the lowest pressure setting on both burners. It was still incredibly hot and put this 3/8th rod up to temperature in no time at all.  I made a quick rose with it. Turned out ok, considering I'm still sick.  First thoughts: It blasts heat out like crazy, even at low. I need to make a wider work support so I can put things in at more of an angle, because the exhaust heats up what I would normally use as a handle to the point of damaging my glove. So far though, I'm really happy with it.
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Feb 5, 2009 03:19
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I'm very tempted to buy one of those now. I'll have to start putting some money aside.
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Feb 5, 2009 04:16
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Give me a few more days of use before I can recommend it wholeheartedly. But hey, so far so good. In terms of propane, it seems pretty good, I was running at 6 psi, usual usage is 9-12, depending on the size of the material you're forging.
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Feb 5, 2009 05:09
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Oh hell. Through a crazy windfall and a wonderful brother, I just got a brand-new Campbell-Hausfield 115V MIG/FCAW. I'm not a welder, but I have one now. I just tacked two pieces of metal together and it was wonderful. What am I going to do with this thing? edit: my attempt to weld a cat to a t-shirt was not a success.  babyeatingpsychopath fucked around with this message at 05:39 on Feb 6, 2009 |
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Feb 6, 2009 05:10
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Woo! My anvil came to me today, and it is awesome! I am pretty sure that this thing is going to bug the poo poo out of the neighbors with how much it rings, but hopefully I can bribe them with metalwork to ignore it. I am going to be doing a lot of rearranging of stumps and logs and bricks this weekend. I'll let you guys see what happened after I am done.
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Feb 6, 2009 05:33
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If the ringing is too much, put it in a tub of sand, or put a sheet of rubber underneath it. It should help. Congrats Zquargon, isn't it beautiful and shiny? Those spots with the duct tape glue on the sharp bits come of with a little effort with a sanding block.
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Feb 6, 2009 05:43
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It is very beautiful and shiny. I already got all the duct tape glue off while I was waiting for my brother to help me get the thing into my truck. The truck is high enough that I couldn't get it onto the tailgate by myself. I am sure that I amused the hell out of my family with how excited I was when the UPS guy showed up, but whatever, my anvil is cooler than they are. So there.
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Feb 6, 2009 06:10
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So, for your first projects, might I suggest 2 pokers? One pointy hooked one for breaking up large bits of charcoal, and one that you can use like a bulldozer for moving around in your forge would be a good start. 3/8ths round rod works great for both. After that, make some staples to hold your anvil in place on your stump or whatever you mount it on. And after that, I would either start working on some tongs or start practicing your leaves. I looked online and there seems to be dozens of steel suppliers in the Tuscon area, if I were you I would go out and get at least 30 feet of 3/8th round hot rolled mild steel. I use more of that stuff than anything else, tools, rivets, roses, etc. It's fantastically useful and not terribly expensive. 
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Feb 6, 2009 08:10
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A trick my friend uses to cut down the ringing on his anvil is to wrap a few turns of chain around the base, and stick a few magnets on the anvil too. It works!
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Feb 8, 2009 18:19
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Ahahaha! I finally got enough time to try doing some forging, and I tell you what, the first attempt was not pretty. It wasn't that offensive, but it sure wasn't pretty. I was trying to draw a taper on that bar that I was heating in my forge pictures from earlier... yeah, that one wasn't cooperating, I kept jarring the bar out of my grip whenever I hit it hard enough to move any metal. So I figured I'd try practicing on the hollow bars, to get a little bit more of a feel for how things move. On the very first hit, I flattened out the bar too far to be able to fix, so the metal buckled inwards when I turned the bar. I got a taper to it though, and if you ignore the buckling, it doesn't look that bad. I am making this bar into a poker, it's not good for much of anything else anymore. I just have to wait till later this week to finish because I can't get started until late evening, and I don't want to piss off the neighbors yet. I'll have to give the chains and magnets a try, or find a rubber mat.
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Feb 10, 2009 07:51
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Don't hold the bar too hard if it's bouncing around, it means your arm, instead of the anvil, is absorbing too much of the impact from the hammer and too little force is being used for what you want. Practice with light blows, you want to be able to strike your workpiece without it bouncing hardly at all, the hammer should be doing most of the bouncing. Try to direct the wave of force straight into the anvil so it reflects back out into the piece and your hammer, which should then lift leaving the workpiece behind. I liken it to holding the handle of a frying pan while I'm cooking something, just enough finesse to hold it right where you want it. A death grip is unnecessary unless you're doing a bend or something over the edge of the anvil, then yes, hang on to it while you wail on the end. So, if you're drawing a taper on a bar, at what angle are you holding it relative to the face of the anvil? Or are you doing it on the horn? In any event, congrats, it's fun isn't it?
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Feb 10, 2009 16:37
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After a little bit more tinkering around, I think I have the right idea going now, and you are right, a light grip does make things a bit easier As far as the angle I'm holding my workpiece at, it is a little bit higher than parallel to the face of the anvil. It may be a wrong height, but it's a comfortable stress free height. The anvil itself is a little bit lower than my knuckles when I left my arm hang at my side. I tried to draw a taper on the horn, but I didn't have as much control as I wanted, and the noise was a bit much.
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Feb 13, 2009 06:27
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Yeah the anvil acts like an amplifier for the horn when you hit it. Neat eh? I'll be making another rose this weekend for my friend's mother, and hopefully I can finish off that speedbag mount for my sister. 3 day weekend in Alberta 
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Feb 13, 2009 08:04
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It is pretty neat, and I enjoy listening to the ring fade out over several seconds, but I am still unsure how the neighbors are going to react. Happy Singles Awareness Day yesterday by the way. I am wrapping up my staples for my anvil stump, and I will get you guys pics when I am done. It amuses me greatly how dramatically different one staple is from the next as I figured out what works and what didn't.
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Feb 16, 2009 08:41
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Lazy weekend followed by a flurry of activity today on the holiday. Cut a 2 foot circle out of some doubled up 5/8th plywood I glued together 2 weeks ago, made 2 bends in that frame I posted earlier, and bent 2 support brackets that I will add to it later. All it needs now is some welding and drilling, plus cleaning and painting. I'll take pictures when it's done, it's not terribly interesting as it is right now. Also made a rose for a friend's mom. Take some photos of your shop when you get a chance Zquargon, I always like to see the layout people come up with.
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Feb 17, 2009 02:43
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