home made tools and equipment...

I made this, hand filed out of some decent 1/4” steel plate...



To remove these off a rear axle....

 

Don't do this. It's dangerous.

This guy wanted a longer power cord for his handy little 12VDC air pump so he could reach his trailer tires or the far side of another car parked beside him. So he spliced a 12 foot extention cord into his air pump's cord, giving him plenty of length.

If he needs an even longer reach, all he has to do is unplug it in the middle and plug in a second extention cord. Now he has almost unlimited reach.

He said to splice the male 12VDC plug to the female end of the extension cord. Otherwise the male extention cord prongs would be "hot" and could short against the metal car body.

Here's the dangerous part. His 12VDC air pump now has a male 120Vac plug on it. Anyone could plug it into a 120VAC wall outlet. That's what makes this so dangerous.

It could electrocute someone.

That's why I'm railing against this terrible, dangerous idea.

Please do not do this.



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They make plugs for DC "extension cords" that orient + and -
McMaster-Carr sells a variety.

 

Wow; the 12V extension cords aren't very expensive. I keep one or two around all the time. No need for this death trap. Well, maybe not a death trap but would probably look like the 4th of July if it ever got plugged in to a 120V circuit. Not to mention the burn(s) the plugger inner would most likely get when the plastic plug melted instantaneously the moment the plug was inserted.

 

I agree with the 120V plug being a bad idea for sure. I would also be concerned about 12V extension cords as well. I am not to familiar with them but the longer they are the more amperage they draw, more heat is generated, and more strain on the accessory's motor. All of it should be sized and rated accordingly. I'd just get a longer air hose and figure out a way to store it.


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That's all good till someone else gets ahold of it.

I was on a job site and needed a place to plug in a cordless battery charger, some guys from another crew said to plug into the box mounted on their table saw. Right after my battery charger charger exploded they said oh not that one, that one is 220 you should have used the other one. I was like WTF man? What 220 shit do you plug into a 110 plug ant ways?

 

Dang-it - wouldn't want to ride in his car fer sure!

 

Forget the extension cord(s)......My vote is for a longer hose.

 

Am I the only one with the urge to plug it into an outlet??

 

Nope

 

I don't have pictures yet but I'm working on building a forge from a leaky water heater tank and scrap 1/8" steel sheet. The sheet was free that has pieces stamped out of it and I guess it must have just been out of spec. I pick up little pieces of the scrap that get stamped out when I can find them and they've came in handy many times. Tank is about 1/8" or a little less. Coatings inside and out are pretty nasty and I'm not looking forward to the first fire to burn the remainder off. I will be wearing a respirator for that. Finishing up the firepot from the 1/8" scrap sheet currently. The big challenge will be finding an affordable blower. This is how I plan to make door hinges for my T and a myriad of other things.

 

I'm always interested in forges, especially home built.
Is it going to be fired by coal or gas?
What are you planning for the refactory lining?
Show some pictures.
Can't wait !!

Harry

 

It’ll be a supercharged pump on 120v
lol
Andrew

 

Indestructableforce, if you have a shop vac or other vacuum you can use the exhaust side for your blower. If you need to control the air you could run it through a dimmer switch.

 

I'm waiting for..."hold my beer, watch this!"

 

What are you planning to use the forge for? Casting?
If you are planning cast, what metal are you planning to melt?
I just recently got into casting aluminum and so I'm interested to see how badly I screwed it up.

 

I'm gonna use coal, love the smell and that I don't have to worry about hoses, fittings, leaks or exchanging tanks though now I've got a place I can exchange small ones about 4 miles away instead of 15 like it was 2 years ago. Those trips to town eat up too much time. I've talked to a few guys and some Amish that are blacksmiths for a living. From what I've seen they don't have any refractory material on theirs, their forges are just old steel sheet welded up so I figured if it worked for them... Will post pictures when I get it a little closer to done.

I like how quiet (high pitch of electric annoys me) the hand crank blowers are but I probably will use electric at least until I get a crank one. I regret selling a roots supercharger I had, I could have built a gearbox and just used it.

 

This is gonna be for blacksmithing. But I really would also like to get into casting aluminum and brass or copper. From what I've read, it seems like most homemade foundrys in a hobby setting are usually not very long lasting, I know in this region back in the early days a ton of iron ore was smelted here, a significant portion of the US supply and I'd like to find some information on those to copy. I figure if those can hold up under the heat of smelting iron, then brass and aluminum won't hurt it.

 

I managed to melt and pour aluminum using discarded fence boards in a cut off oil drum. Didn't use any air. Just kept feeding in more boards. Did it in camp fires on the El Mirage lake bed also. Used a cast iron plumbers ladle for at aluminum scrap and poured it in hemi head heat riser ports to plug them. Worked fine.

 

My advice would be to use the refractory material. It's not expensive. Without it you'll lose a lot of heat through the sides of a steel firebox.

 

Indestructable, you could get a junk leaf blower and with some pulleys to speed up use a hand crank to turn it which should be cheap with all the leaf blowers that get tossed out.

 

Doesn't take a lot of air velocity but it does take a lot of volume.

 

That's a much safer and convient idea. However, the white extension cord was only $3.00 and he can reuse the 2nd extention cord (It's 20 feet long!) for other things. He even tried it on a 100 foot cord and it worked just fine. Still, those advantages don't outweigh the risk. That's why I would never recomend doing this, especially on a public forum.

Hadn't thought about the melting plug. I wonder if an in-line fuse would prevent that. Oh well, it doesn't matter because no one should do this.

This guy always has his 20 foot extention cord on his van because he uses it on the job. However, in the past, on another air pump, he has spliced in a longer power cord without the dangerous 120VAC plugs on it. He just used the wire only. It seemed to work pretty good and was a lot safer. I would recommend splicing in just the wire from the 12 foot extension cord because there's no way to accidentally plug it into 120VAC. The advantage of the 20 foot and 100 foot extension cords are not worth the risk.

This is exactly what I'm afraid of, which is why I'm railing against this. The guy says he is the only one who ever uses it but he can't guarantee that's the case with others. I told him he'll probably eventually accidentally plug it in himself some day but he's hard headed and won't listen to me.

The 20 foot cord is always on his truck where the pump stays. This way he didn't have to buy any hose because he already had the cord. But the money saved on the cord isn't worth the risk to himself and others.

I wouldn't recomend that. But if you do, try to get some video.

Agreed.

I don't think a 12VDC motor will spin with AC, will it?

Nothing can distort the laws of reality more than beer and pride.


In the picture below, he's maintaining his "fleet" so the city code enforcement folks won't get on to him for flat or low tires. It's kind of hard to see but he's about 50 feet away from his van right now. The farthest tire is about 75 feet away.

What an idiot! I can think of a hundred safer ways to do this. I hope no one else trys this foolish, dangerous homemade tool.

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how did he wire it? 3 prong plug using only the wide blade and ground would be safe, right? or am i thinking about it wrong?

 

That's brilliant!!! Why didn't he think of that. He's going to rewire it as soon as he gets home tonight.

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I have a small forge I built last year, my firepot is a LARGE brake drum from a 5 ton truck. Down pipe is a 2.5" black pipe, 12" below is a Tee. The tee allows the hot soot to drop straight down 12" more to a removable pipe plug, for cleanout. The tee provides a horizontal 6" nipple to accommodate the insertion of my $16.00 hair dryer! Run the hair dryer on low or high, without its heat activated. (run it 'cold')
For a foot operated switch (and speed control) I bought a sewing machine foot control, 115V A/C, of course. It had a power in cord/with plug, and the 'power out' has a female 115 plug.
I use lump coal and wood chips, really anything long-burning, and my heat is adequate to warm a spring leaf to near white-hot. (great steel there, thanks, Henry!)
...and yes, I have an anvil. 1863 Thomas Wright, England. (thanks, Bonneville Butch!)

 

How much soot do you get in the cleanout? 2.5"x12" is what I figured id do on mine also since I already had some 2.5" laying around. A lot of the ones I've seen have used a counterweighted and hinged cap that stayed closed til you kick it but if it isn't a whole lot id rather use a pipe capscrewed on to keep air leaks to a minimum. Nice anvil. Mine came off my family's farm. Unfortunately I know nearly nothing about it, I lost the last one on that side near 10 years ago now. Never thought to ask. That gives me hope a hair dryer will get it that hot, I've been told that it wouldn't make enough pressure. Will use electric until I find an old blower local for sale and scrape up the cash.

 

I made a shrinking disc from some scrap 18 ga stainless.......wanted a smaller one for my 4 1/2" grinder. Works great!

 

@RMR&C is the disc anymore than a circle of steel? What thickness did you use?

 

Yes, just a round piece of stainless 18 gauge with a hole in the center. I'm using an old grinding disc for a backer,