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 That is a Lagun Republic 10x50 knee mill with digital read out sitting in my driveway right now. I picked that up last night from a guy up in Red Lion, PA. $1500. The ways are in absolutely fantastic condition... they still have their original frosting!!! I see the motor on it was made in 1989. This is a substantial machine that once I get it put back together and working will be an amazing buy! I'm guessing once running again, it should be worth $4-5k, if not more. He took apart the mill himself, and guarantees everything is there, and is even willing to lend a helping hand if I get stuck. (He wanted to paint it, but never got to it.) The person selling this was a very nice gentleman with extensive machine tool experience. The machine is actually leftover from a engine machine shop business he used to own. He never actually put it into service after he bought it (used), and has been sitting around for 15 years. He is retired now but very busy helping his daughter with real estate investments that he doesn't have the time to deal with this poo poo, and needs the space in his garage. I was over there with my buddy for about 2 hours or so talking to him and loading stuff up... it took longer to talk to him then to load the iron! I actually talked to him about this months ago, but it didn't' happen until now. He had responded to a wanted ad on craiglist that I posted in January, and only one other person had looked at it. He was actually ready to send the machine to the scrap yard next week!!! Thank heavens I was able to come in and save it! I rented a box truck with a hydraulic lift gate on the back. Needed the lift gate because hey, I don't have a fork lift... YET! Unfortunately, the only truck with a lift gate at the rental place was a 20 ft box truck.  Along with the mill, the seller through in a free surface grinder. This thing needed extensive work. It's a completely servo driven machine with wires hanging out all over the place and all sorts of other poo poo to deal with. While it was in OK condition mechanically it would need enough work done to it that I don't know if I (or anybody) is capable of it, and if it's even worth the time. Unfortunately, during the drive home, the tie down straps that were keeping the machine upright failed and the machine fell over. Taking into consideration the condition it was in, the fact that it fell over, and the fact it is now harder to remove from the truck made me decide to scrap the machine. I called up an old contact at the scrap yard I used to work for, and he was nice enough to open the gate for me and take it out with a fork lift on a Saturday. That gives me 1440 lbs of #1 iron (That came to $216, 15 cents a lb). Also I saved the magnetic chuck which is worth a few hundred dollars. I also have the motor and a couple other odds and ends. That'll give me a nice little rebate on the cost of the mill! It's a shame I had to scrap the machine, but it is what it is, and I can't change it. Quite frankly the machine would have probably sat around for many years, taking up space, and when I do start work on it, would have probably found that it wasn't worth it anyway due to some major roadblock.  The mill survived the journey home with only a very minor scratch. One of the heavy cables hanging off of the grinder grazed the rear section of milling head, touching only heavy iron. Close call. I'm going to need to make investments in better rigging equipment soon! I've come to realize that buying any used machine equipment is a bit of a gamble. (If it's not a gamble, then it usually has a very high price tag.) But hey, if I'm willing to sit down at poker table with $700+ sitting in front of me, what's $1500 to buy some iron, right? I'm 95% confident that this mill is going to come together to be a beautiful piece of functional mechanical art. Edit: This is what a brand new one looks like: 
AbsentMindedWelder fucked around with this message at 13:54 on Mar 21, 2011 |
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Mar 19, 2011 22:42
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You're an incredibly lucky man to find a mill like that for that price. You're going to have an awesome machine shop once you get that lathe finished up 
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Mar 19, 2011 22:58
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Am I a complete retard for wanting to build a billows instead of just buying a pharmacy hair-dryer? I'll be working with charcoal in an earth-pit-of-a-forge, it doesn't seem too unreasonable to go Full Primitivist while I'm still learning. I'd imagine working a billows gives you a much more... tactile feel for the fire as opposed to fiddling with a butterfly valve. I'm mostly looking at building a box billows, if only because it's simple as poo poo and it provides constant airflow. Like this: 
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Mar 20, 2011 23:47
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You really don't need that much airflow.... for smaller forges I have seen a PC cooling fan used and for larger forges, a $10 home depot bathroom exhaust fan will work just fine. You will want a way to control how much air flows into the forge, so either a speed control for the fan or an airgate that you can close off part of the air supply pipe with will be necessary. If you can find a hand crank blower it is a worthy investment. Nothing beats being able to vary the amount of airflow to the fire on the fly just by cranking the blower slow or fast. Check out youtube videos of some homemade coal/charcoal forges to get an idea of how other people are doing it. A shop-vac or hairdryer will be loud and annoying, I promise you that....
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Mar 21, 2011 00:20
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I always wondered if you could rig an air compressor with a high volume output and a cool home engineered truyere as the air supply. Never owned an air compressor nor a forge thus I have no idea of the practicality.
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Mar 21, 2011 01:45
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Ambrose Burnside posted:Am I a complete retard for wanting to build a billows instead of just buying a pharmacy hair-dryer? When starting out with building forges and furnaces, it's very easy to overestimate the amount of air you actually need. Just like iForge suggested get yourself one of the larger computer fans and add rig some type of gate valve to control air flow. That type of fan can run off a small rechargeable battery and solar panel, in the event you aren't near a convenient electrical source. Trying to maintain a coal fire and figure out how to handle and work hot metal will give you enough to think about without having to worry about working a bellows. The Scientist posted:I always wondered if you could rig an air compressor with a high volume output and a cool home engineered truyere as the air supply. Never owned an air compressor nor a forge thus I have no idea of the practicality.
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Mar 21, 2011 02:07
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A lot of guys still use the hand cranked blowers, this is pretty much the same thing. Having more air than necessary isn't a problem since you can just pump it less. In this case, having as much air as possible would not be a bad thing, provided you can pump it. My biggest worry is the tolerances needed for the box. If you're a good carpenter Ambrose, or you know someone who is, go for it. I would use a hairdryer or something as a test to make sure the forge is up to the task before you go all out and build the box billows though.
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Mar 21, 2011 03:50
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Also, make sure it has a 1-way valve, lest it suck up intense heat and burst into flames or something equally awesome.
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Mar 21, 2011 03:54
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Slung Blade posted:A lot of guys still use the hand cranked blowers, this is pretty much the same thing. Having more air than necessary isn't a problem since you can just pump it less. In this case, having as much air as possible would not be a bad thing, provided you can pump it. Yeah, I had the opportunity to use a cranked squirrel-cage blower-equipped forge, and I honestly preferred it quite a bit to an electric blower. The fire never 'gets away' from you, in terms of control. And yeah, I was considering building it out of PVC piping instead, which would make things like piston alignment way simpler. Then it's a piston bellows, not a box bellows, but V  V
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Mar 21, 2011 12:08
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Slung Blade posted:You're an incredibly lucky man to find a mill like that for that price. The truck rental ended up costing me $209. Unfortunately, when the surface grinder fell, it caused damaged to the door of the truck. Because they were impressed with my honesty about the damage, they only charged me $200 for the cost of the parts, and didn't charge me labor which they would normally do. (It took out the door panel that has all the lock bullshit attached to it... the most expensive one!) I also spent $70 on diesel. I went back to the scrap yard today and got $216 out of the surface grinder. So I'm into this mill $1763. I'll be spending $255 on a VFD to power the 3HP, 3 phase motor. So $2018 not including what I spend on tooling for a mill of this quality/capability/condition is still a deal I'm very happy with. Also, I still have some value sitting in the surface grinder parts I did not scrap. Slung Blade posted:You're going to have an awesome machine shop once you get that lathe finished up
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Mar 21, 2011 14:15
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Hey, everybody, blacksmithing goon meet in Delaware at the machine shop that Dv6speed lives in. Slung blade will be driving his tractor there, and we'll all work on one giant project, like a piece of corporate art or casting a giant bronze horse like Da Vinci http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci#Professional_life.2C_1476.E2.80.931513 Then we'll get some ice cream.
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Mar 21, 2011 14:52
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Also I always thought the term "squirrel cage" referred exclusively to a specific type of electric motor?
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Mar 21, 2011 14:53
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The Scientist posted:Also I always thought the term "squirrel cage" referred exclusively to a specific type of electric motor? squirrel cage fan = centrifugal fan.
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Mar 21, 2011 15:06
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The Scientist posted:Hey, everybody, blacksmithing goon meet in Delaware at the machine shop that Dv6speed lives in. I got more toys on the way too. I already have a guy who is going to sell me a natural gas furnace, crucible, tongs, pyrometer, safety gear, petrobond sand, muller, and I think some flasks too as a package deal. It's just a question of whenever he digs it out. He bought this equipment used from an old school shop and has never used it himself. The Scientist posted:Also I always thought the term "squirrel cage" referred exclusively to a specific type of electric motor? 
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Mar 21, 2011 15:09
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Hey everyone! I'm back I'm sorry I let this thread get to the bottom of my bookmarked list.duck hunt posted:Going back to O/A cutting, if you have ever used propane and oxygen, it works great. Propane is a lot cheaper than acetylene (god I hate spelling that word). Propane doesn't burn as hot as acetylene, however it puts out higher BTU's ( I hate propane cutting with a passion. The heat is so much more broad than acetylene which makes it take what seems forever to heat your work up to a place where you can start cutting. If you don't get the whole work piece up to a decent temperature first you'll notice it looks like a beaver did your torch cut for you. We had it in my unions welding shop for a while and there was always a terrible line up at the pipe beveling station because it was taking everyone so long to make their cuts until they just switched back to acetylene. That's been my experience with it, maybe it's better for structural steel applications I'm not too sure, or maybe if you have a bunch of guys running grinders for $1/hour :P The Scientist posted:Whoops quoted the wrong post but you were asking about a giving a file bigger teeth. I saw something like that before and the guy just used a zip disc to cut notches into the file every so often so it was like it had bigger teeth. Maybe that is an option for you? AbsentMindedWelder posted:Tell the man how to finish his bead so it doesn't crater, without using a footpedal. You are probably the only one here with that experience, except SmokeyXIII, (did I get the numeral right?) whom we haven't heard from in ages. I can tell you that when it comes to pipe welding, and you don't have a remote you have to take the puddle up the side of the bevel to keep the fish eye out of your root which will fail an xray for ya. 3 months late but at least it's a reply :P Also about me, I started a Steamfitter apprenticeship. Welding is fun and cool and all that but it has become clear to me that the Steamfitters are the ones who get promoted to foreman, get paid the same money, and the older steamfitters have bodies in way better condition. Also more education is always fun! I've got a little less than a year and a half left in the apprenticeship now. SmokeyXIII fucked around with this message at 18:11 on Mar 22, 2011 |
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Mar 22, 2011 18:08
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). Waaaay less smoke/sooty shullshit. I recommend propane to everyone. You do however have to buy a different tip for your torch so you don't end up running it and being like "omgwtf is this poo poo gently caress you duck hunt."
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What's the difference? Are we talking like steam pipes that are under high pressure?
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Mar 22, 2011 20:12
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The Scientist posted:What's the difference? Are we talking like steam pipes that are under high pressure? The difference between what? Steamfitters work with high pressure piping, not necessarily always with steam in the lines. They do all the rigging, join set up for welders, blue print reading, and basically all the brain work.
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Mar 22, 2011 21:26
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I've worked with steamfitters in UA 290. They were cool guys who knew their poo poo. Fitting and rigging is brain work and is much more challenging than welding. Welding is kind of the grunt work. I always try to tell people who are in welding tech programs at the community college to learn fitting and fabrication skills because those are the skills that will make you more money and get you promoted.
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Mar 22, 2011 23:09
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duck hunt posted:I've worked with steamfitters in UA 290. They were cool guys who knew their poo poo. Fitting and rigging is brain work and is much more challenging than welding. Welding is kind of the grunt work. 488 here. I disagree that it is more challenging, they're both challenging in different ways. And fitters have their share of grunt work too. Welding gets really hard when you have less than 2" clearance between the pipe and the wall behind it and you have to pass a sour severe xray since it's an H2S line and welp you can't see what you're doing. Fitters have to often times go into dirty dirty holes and rip out piping from places most people couldn't get paid enough to go into in the first place. Then again the welders have to go in after the fitters and weld everything up. It's the other side of the coin for sure, the side with the brain picture on it. I think it's funny how everyone wants to get into welding first when they get into a trade since it's SO COOL FIRE HEHEHEHE MELTING METAL ITS BADASS but then after a while you realize you are burning up your body in more ways than one and making the same money as the guy next to you looking at pictures of pipe.
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Mar 22, 2011 23:56
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I think welding really is a way to enter into other things. It isn't something anybody wants to do all day long, every day, forever, but it is still a very fundamental industrial activity. If you actually understand how to weld well, you are a step ahead of many other people. With any trade/career, the grass is always greener. I remember talking to a weld inspector who came into the railcar facility and did inspections on the tank cars. I talked to him about how he got into that job and that sort of thing. He mentioned, however, that some days, he missed being behind the hood in contrast to the traveling and responsibility he has now. Then again, he also mentioned he just about to get his pilot's license and buy a small airplane, so it can't be that bad. Personally, I've found that I enjoy getting dirty now and then, actually. I just don't want to do it everyday. This is one of the reasons I'm trying to start my own business. I want to have some control over what I do, how I do it, and what type of environment I do it in. If I am successful I can always hire employees to get dirty for me.
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Mar 23, 2011 00:16
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That's actually the perfect way to put it. A great way to get into other things. Even steamfitting is a step along my path of quality control/project management. Also I don't mean to sound as jaded as I did, I'm really not I just got on a roll. It's still nice to sometimes go into my own world and be left alone for the day but it's just not most days anymore.
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Mar 23, 2011 00:40
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Hey you guys! It's been a while since I last posted here. Made some stuff: This is a big ol' bowie knife. I kinda exaggerated the clipped tip. Also made the sheath with angled belt loops for a cross draw.  Reverse blade knife that I gave to my brother for christmas. Also made the sheath and put in a metal liner, which I'd never done before.  I left the charring on the edge bevel from the heat treating. I gave this one to my dad for christmas.  Close up of the handle on the last one. I tried brass bolsters for the first time and I think they turned out ok.
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Mar 23, 2011 01:25
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Holy hit your an admin now backyard blacksmith? Did you replaces Childlike Empress? Nice knives man. I think the bowie reminds me a little of a kabar. I really like the job you did putting handles on them. I've got a draw knife and a big rear end chisel I'm gonna put handles on. I made them out of a '86 ford F250 helper leaf spring - which leads me to my first question, what kind of stock did you make the knives out of? Have you ever experimented with doing the Damascus Steel thing? Also, what kind of wood are the handles? ------- A completely seperate question for everyone: Could anybody illustrtate the distinction between "pipe fitters" and "plumbers"? A weird question, but I've been wondering in what regard pipe fitters are employed to fit pipe? Like, around here, all our water mains and poo poo are preformed steel reinforced concrete segments, or bigass green pvc pipes. I wonder if the situation is different here because no pipe ever runs for a very long distance. We have our own aquifer under florida and where it doesn't bubble up in springs (Zephyrhills water, for example), municipalities filter it and send us that through the pipes. So every city has its own water source, and its not like pipe ever has to be laid in loving rock or through a mountain or anything particularly bad rear end.
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Mar 23, 2011 02:41
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The Scientist posted:Holy hit your an admin now backyard blacksmith? Did you replaces Childlike Empress? Yeah I replaced CE. And thanks! The handles were fun. I just cut up a big block of hickory, or red oak, I don't remember, then epoxied them in place and pinned them while the epoxy cured. The stock is actually armor plate steel scraps I got from a friend who works at a place that armor plates cars. It's really loving hard. I shot it with a .308 and it didn't even dent, and it's only like 1/4" thick. I've never tried the damascus thing, as I have neither the skill nor the patience.
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Mar 23, 2011 02:49
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The Scientist posted:A completely seperate question for everyone: Could anybody illustrtate the distinction between "pipe fitters" and "plumbers"? A weird question, but I've been wondering in what regard pipe fitters are employed to fit pipe? Pipefitter, in my region, is a broad term to describe the pipe trades which are broken down into Gasfitter, Steamfitter, Sprinklerfitter, Plumber, and Refrigeration. In our Pipefitters Union we also have Instrumentation and Welders. The broad difference in work scopes for the two trades you are describing however is that a plumber will do residential stuff where as a pipefitter will do industrial stuff like oil refineries or power plants, then there is the commercial sector where there is some crossover. Think of a high rise where the pipefitters get the water to the 20th floor, and the plumbers hook up the sinks and whatever from there. Pipefitters typically don't work with PVC or do soldered joints, they will have welded joints or have victolic clams or flanged bolt ups. Pipefitters do big stuff, and plumbers do small stuff. Ultimately they are very similar and in times of more demand for trades than supply employers have been known to hire plumbers to do steamfitter work, which never works out great beacuse when does a plumber ever rig for a crane of set up welded joints? Never.
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Mar 23, 2011 05:39
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Backyard Blacksmith posted:Yeah I replaced CE.  bout fuckin time mister.thank you for posting again  The Scientist posted:A completely separate question for everyone: Could anybody illustrate the distinction between "pipe fitters" and "plumbers"? A weird question, but I've been wondering in what regard pipe fitters are employed to fit pipe? Pipe fitters typically do gas, steam and other dangerous things. Plumbers usually stick with sewer and water piping. Similar in theory, but the details are very, very different. Gas flows anywhere, but sewage needs slope or pumping. Water/sewer pipe are usually joined with glue/dope or crimped fittings, and gas/steam usually has either soldered, brazed, threaded or sometimes welded fittings and joins.
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Mar 23, 2011 05:43
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I'm throwing around ideas for a first project, and I'm leaning towards "as many nails as possible until I can do a nail in one heat and/or I want to kill someone". Mostly 'cause they're hard to gently caress up and the endless roteness of it will help me develop better hammer control/work efficiency. It's either that or hooks, and I'd imagine I could sell off my finished nails a lot easier/faster than hooks. Which I may or may not opt to do, depending on how lovely they turn out and how many I end up with. e: the point to this post being, is this a terrible idea that will make me put a sledge through the side of my garage? And I can do this without a real anvil if I throw the nail header in a vice and get a hold of a Caterpillar tread/a sledgehammer head set in concrete/whatever for lightweight drawing out? Ambrose Burnside fucked around with this message at 00:52 on Mar 24, 2011 |
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Mar 24, 2011 00:25
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I hope this is the right thread. My company is considering getting a letter stamp set for marking some enclosures. I am sure I have seen sets that come with a holder/template that is used to get the letters lined up in a straight line, but I haven't found a set that comes with one yet. I also have no idea what it is called, so I can't search for it. Can you guys tell me what that piece is called? e: apparently it is called a holder, I found some of these sets. What price point will buy a decent set? I've seen $29.99 to $515. taqueso fucked around with this message at 15:20 on Mar 24, 2011 |
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Mar 24, 2011 15:15
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Got bored and finished a knife today. Stainless full tang with red oak handle and copper rivets. Just under 9 inches overall.
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Mar 24, 2011 17:35
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cross-posted from the garden thread: Welded up a metal grape trellis to replace the wooden one I threw together last year:  1" square tubing (vertical bars), 5/8" bar (horizontal bar), and a couple of leftover garden fencing pieces. Also in the photo, you can see the strawberry plants sprawling out under the trellis, as well as the boxes that my wife and I recently added. I studied the way the garden fence units were put together. Very simple curves. I haven't done much work with 1/4" rod, but these might be fun to replicate.
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Mar 30, 2011 03:54
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Quite elegant. Excellent job. Right now the wife is thinking "mom was wrong - I got me a catch" (well, if she's a southern belle, that is).
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Mar 30, 2011 15:27
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I finally got a picture of the english wheel we worked on all last quarter. They'll sandblast and paint it at some point, but it's done as far as we're concerned. New quarter, new project, and an excuse to use the flycutter that I made way back. It's slower than the multi-flute face mills, but since you can adjust the width it can do in one pass what they'd do in two. It also leaves a really nice cross hatch pattern.  I'm making 1-2-3 blocks. They need to be flat, parallel, and square to within .0002"(5 microns), same tolerance for the three sides, and the two blocks need to be within .0001" of each other. 
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Mar 30, 2011 16:42
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So I saw a video for this thing earlier today while trying to source a new wood planer for the shop: http://www.multiplaz.com/ Is it even nearly as impressive as they say it is (There claim seems to be that it is essentially a highly focused O/A torch that automatically fluxes what it's heating and a plasma cutter with no need for gasses that runs off 110v using nothing but water and alcohol). Does anyone have experience with one of these, or a similar device? Can anyone say if it's absolute marketing poppycock or not. How does it work? I am fascinated by the concept, but my 'cold heat solder gun' scam detector is firing off the whole time I read about it or watch it in action.
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Mar 30, 2011 21:40
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I'm still looking at it but it says it "tunnels ordinary tap water into plasma 4400°F (8000°C)". Don't know anything about the physics of that. Ima keep looking.
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Mar 31, 2011 00:42
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VML-uRXyxHI I like the dude's Yakov Smrinofv voice.
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Mar 31, 2011 00:48
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Has anyone here ever used eMachineshop? If so, what kind of parts did you get made, and what did it cost? I am planning a project that would need six metal gearwheels. I used the eMachineshop CAD program estimator function. I did not email them. The gears I needed were about 4" diameter and 3/4" thick, 20 teeth and the cheapest steel they offer. The price it gave was about $75 each ($450) for a 30-day delivery, and over $1000 for a 10-day delivery. I've never paid to have anything made like this, so I am wondering. I bought a pair of car engine timing gears to see if they would work (which they may) but those only cost $50 for a air of gears, 3.5 and 5.5 inches dia.....
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Mar 31, 2011 01:27
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Yeah man, I woulda recommended just kind of scoping out old trannies at junk yards and stuff. Then afterwards look through a couple of old gearboxes and see if there might be an easy source for the gears you need.  IDK, of course quality wise and ease of sourcing the parts right away having them made would be a good choice, but I'm cheap as hell. However, I don't have any particular experience getting stuff made to spec and I therefore must defer to my  brethren.Been thinking about hitting up this heat treating company whose van I keep seeing all over the county. Hope I don't  at the rates, though.
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Mar 31, 2011 04:19
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NOOB QUESTION AHEAD What's the preferred method to hollow grind an edge bevel? Also, how do you figure out which kind of heat treating you are supposed to do?
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Mar 31, 2011 05:13
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edmund745 posted:The gears I needed were about 4" diameter and 3/4" thick, 20 teeth and the cheapest steel they offer. The price it gave was about $75 each ($450) for a 30-day delivery, and over $1000 for a 10-day delivery. I've never used them, but I can tell you that machining custom gears gets expensive in a hurry. You're using several different machines, using several different tools on each. Every time someone has to touch the part it means labor in deburring, aligning, etc. Also, cutting teeth is a slow process.
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Mar 31, 2011 06:00
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There is something so very unnerving watching this guy leaving the torch just shooting plasmas sitting on the table like that while he is moving stuff around it. Also I watched the aluminum welding video and it doesn't look like he is getting very much penetration at all. e: Just watched another video and the welds look generally atrocious, in particular the pipe welds. There is some socket welds there that look like they didn't even fill up the whole way. I wonder if that is operator or process to blame though. SmokeyXIII fucked around with this message at 06:12 on Mar 31, 2011 |
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Mar 31, 2011 06:09
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