Been building alot of tools lately, trying to get enough stuff around to make my life a bit easier. Being as I've got a wife and 3 daughters, I've got very little fun money to just go buy stuff, so I save scrap and scrounge around to find useful stuff that can be used.
First up is a heat treating forge, I plan on eventually putting a salt pot in this, but as it sits right now it works pretty well. The body is a gutted muffler from a newer chevy truck that I lined in kaowool. The burner is just a homemade reil burner controled by a PID from auber instruments. The solenoid that switches the propane on and off to the burner is a fuel shutoff solenoid for a propane forklift. I have to run the controler in on/off mode, but it maintains a pretty good temp, I can keep it within 5 degrees of the set point. I just dangle the blade in the hole in the top with a heavy piece of wire. You'll also see I've got the controller and all the electrics in an ammo can.
On to a new welding forge, my old forge has seen better days and it's got a pretty small volume, so I built a vertical welding forge. The floor is 2" thick of mizzou refractory, walls have 2" of kaowool and then coated in an industrial refractory clay that I get from the local foundry called X9. Then it's all coated in ITC100. The outside diameter is 12" and it has a homemade blown burner. It gets screaming hot and it should be bulletproof. It now has a proper top for it instead of just a piece of kaowool, this was my first test run.
I've got my big 180 pound block of D2 for my normal anvil, but there's times a person needs a horn and a hardy hole, so between an O/A torch and grinder I went to town on a piece of rail road track, it ain't heavy and has a horible ring to it, but it was pretty much free and will due until I can find a proper anvil
I've been using a harbor freight 1x30 and 4x36 belt sanders for alot of my blade shaping, and anyone who has ever used one, knows my frustration. Recently I just bought an 8" grizzly belt grinder contact wheel, and needed to put it to use. I scrounged around for an electric motor to no avail, but I did dig out a varible speed automotive buffer. I wasn't sure how much power it had, but it didn't owe me anything so I put it into use. The spindle thread is a normal 5/8 x 11 so I machined up a nut that took up the space between the spindle and the 3/4 bore of the wheel. I love doing lathe work, and I got the thing dead nuts as there is no vibration, even with the wheel spinning at 3000 rpm. It's got plenty of power and variable speed to boot. A little bit of angle iron and welding later, and here's where it sits now. I'm going to build a stand for it, instead of clamping it into my portable workbench and using a rope to steady it. I can't even believe how fast it removes metal compared to what I was using, super happy about this one. Randy Haas of HHH knives doesn't live too far from me and helped me out by giving me a few old used belts to get everything setup and running, even with a dull used belt, it just chews running the motor wide open at 6280 SFPM, a bit scary though, so I don't run it there very often if at all.
And tonight I finished up plumbing the new press. I'm using the same pump and valve from my last one and a larger cylinder, so it's a bit slower, but lots more power. It's not done yet as I want to make a foot controled valve and I'll need to do a little more welding yet. Still need to make some dies and figure a way to align them, but those are small things. Here she is.
All these little projects are still sorta in progress as every thing is constantly evolving, and they'll probably stay rough around the edges, but I'm fine with that. I do alot of scrounging for stuff and use what I can find, and sometimes just plain get lucky on finding just the right thing. Thanks for watching
Zeb
First up is a heat treating forge, I plan on eventually putting a salt pot in this, but as it sits right now it works pretty well. The body is a gutted muffler from a newer chevy truck that I lined in kaowool. The burner is just a homemade reil burner controled by a PID from auber instruments. The solenoid that switches the propane on and off to the burner is a fuel shutoff solenoid for a propane forklift. I have to run the controler in on/off mode, but it maintains a pretty good temp, I can keep it within 5 degrees of the set point. I just dangle the blade in the hole in the top with a heavy piece of wire. You'll also see I've got the controller and all the electrics in an ammo can.
On to a new welding forge, my old forge has seen better days and it's got a pretty small volume, so I built a vertical welding forge. The floor is 2" thick of mizzou refractory, walls have 2" of kaowool and then coated in an industrial refractory clay that I get from the local foundry called X9. Then it's all coated in ITC100. The outside diameter is 12" and it has a homemade blown burner. It gets screaming hot and it should be bulletproof. It now has a proper top for it instead of just a piece of kaowool, this was my first test run.
I've got my big 180 pound block of D2 for my normal anvil, but there's times a person needs a horn and a hardy hole, so between an O/A torch and grinder I went to town on a piece of rail road track, it ain't heavy and has a horible ring to it, but it was pretty much free and will due until I can find a proper anvil
I've been using a harbor freight 1x30 and 4x36 belt sanders for alot of my blade shaping, and anyone who has ever used one, knows my frustration. Recently I just bought an 8" grizzly belt grinder contact wheel, and needed to put it to use. I scrounged around for an electric motor to no avail, but I did dig out a varible speed automotive buffer. I wasn't sure how much power it had, but it didn't owe me anything so I put it into use. The spindle thread is a normal 5/8 x 11 so I machined up a nut that took up the space between the spindle and the 3/4 bore of the wheel. I love doing lathe work, and I got the thing dead nuts as there is no vibration, even with the wheel spinning at 3000 rpm. It's got plenty of power and variable speed to boot. A little bit of angle iron and welding later, and here's where it sits now. I'm going to build a stand for it, instead of clamping it into my portable workbench and using a rope to steady it. I can't even believe how fast it removes metal compared to what I was using, super happy about this one. Randy Haas of HHH knives doesn't live too far from me and helped me out by giving me a few old used belts to get everything setup and running, even with a dull used belt, it just chews running the motor wide open at 6280 SFPM, a bit scary though, so I don't run it there very often if at all.
And tonight I finished up plumbing the new press. I'm using the same pump and valve from my last one and a larger cylinder, so it's a bit slower, but lots more power. It's not done yet as I want to make a foot controled valve and I'll need to do a little more welding yet. Still need to make some dies and figure a way to align them, but those are small things. Here she is.
All these little projects are still sorta in progress as every thing is constantly evolving, and they'll probably stay rough around the edges, but I'm fine with that. I do alot of scrounging for stuff and use what I can find, and sometimes just plain get lucky on finding just the right thing. Thanks for watching
Zeb
