Free sources of materials.?

Roy - sounds like the dull ones are probably very slaggy and as such might as well be discarded.

I have 20 of these weights of which just 3 are soft enough to saw yet they ring like a bell. The other 17 have hard skins. Last week I set to on one of these hard ones with an angle grinder as Jon Bogs on here recommended. Went in about 6mm deep all round, held it up by the other end and whacked it with a big hammer. The end broke of easily.

Gripped the other end in the chuck and tapped true and centre drilled the snapped of end. Running centre supported I attempted to get under the skin with one of those cheap brazed carbide tipped tools but my poor little lathe (WARCO 250) really objected with both saddle and tailstock visibly doing the jelly wobble.

I finally managed to get down to the nice stuff but only for a 6mm length before the tool tip blunted big time. The length sticking out of the chuck is approx. 250mm so if I am going to tame this thing and skin the full length I will have to attack it with another type of tool.

This is not being made any easier because the weight has been cast more with an elliptical cross section than circular.

Jon swears by this method but I suspect he is using a lathe somewhat heftier than mine.

Don’t know whether you have machined cast iron before but a face mask comes in handy (unless you have black pillow cases).

Rik

Rik, after you whack the end off with the hammer, it pays to look at the break, if its grey OK, but if it's bright and crystalline forget it, although there is half a chance that the other end is OK. Get the fattest weights you can, there are some about 2" diameter, mine have 18 cast on them, I did not check, but that might be the weight in pounds.

Ian S C

For a long while I obtained a lot of short ends of steel in the grades that I required from my local Corus depot. The foreman in the warehouse would allow me to select what I wanted from the scrap ends bin. Steel grades are colour coded on the ends by the steel manufacturing industry, and since the short ends were all coded it was easy to select the right grades. Crossing his palm with a few pounds made the foreman happy. Don't know if one would even be allowed in these days with all these 'elf an safety regs.

Nowadays I get my steel and brass from local small engineering firms who usualy carry small stocks and will oblige and cut off short lengths. I bought a large stock of aluminium alloy from the AALCO depot in Gateshead recently at a fraction of what the Ebay model engineering suppliers charge, but in 4 metre lengths, which I split with a friend.

I bought one foot of HE15 ( Twice the tensile strength of the usual HE30) from a supplier at the Harrogate ME Exhibition for £2.20. I was asked £8.80 for a one foot length by another suppier. Needles to say I told him to s----f it.

I have just finished machining some drive shaft components for a 1923 Bugatti. The steel bar was a flame cut piece of 3" diameter hydraulic ram. Super stuff to machine once you were under the hard chrome surface.

BobH

Sash weights were recommended for making valve guides for some old motorcycle engines that wouldn't have had much (or any) lubrication apart from an odd squirt from a grease gun. The theory was the weights with the most graphite were also the most porous and the grease collected in the pores.

This:

"Good scrap yards are very hard to find, but once you do find one, make friends with the chaps that work there, and if they do a bit of gas cutting or guillotine work for you, don't just walk away, at least give them enough for a pint or two, and when you come back, they will remember, and if you ask them nicely, they will hide choice bits of metal for when you come in again."

I have a terrific place down the road a ways. I just drop stuff off, the odd motor, coil, box of non-ferrous swarf and of course plenty of lead. The owner lets me wander about and pick up whatever I want. I pay him whatever he asks as it is always scrap value plus a pound or two. I have walked out with some really nice pieces. I have found a box of donuts works well too because then everyone gets a bit of something, not just the owner.

graham.

Neighbour gave me a couple of brake discs from a small sports car. Hope to be able to cut small flat bits out of the rim which is only about 1.25 in. Not sure if it will be plain cast or heat treated. Might just try a wallop with a sledge and see how easy it breaks. I guess lorry discs might give better sized sections.

I'v used disc brakes for making piston rings, good fine grained metal. Ian S C

always worth talking to computer repair shops as old hard drives have great rare earth magnets in, also good bearings etc.

But when at MCDonalds, Kentuky fried etc always stock up on those free coffee stiring stick- great for epoxy and some are nice and long so you can get in places .

Never had any luck with sash weights- just bunted a bandsaw blade ! Car tyre shops often have old valves which strill work and the truck inner tubes make great slide covers / draft excluders.

Ian

Hi All A few years back after I purchased my Emco Super 11 I needed to make several chuck back Plates. The training weights purchased at ASDA and Tesco are a good source of cast iron a couple were so hard it was impossible to machine them but most turned up quite nicely once under the skin. I second the dust mask recommendation the dust does go every where if you do not wish to upset SWMBO it is worth showering after a big cast Iron machining session.

Peter

Two halves of a single sash weight, one still in the "raw" and one cleaned up and ready for use. Each one yielding a 10" long by 1.5" diameter length of silky smooth seasoned CI...........

............and another small selection of brass and CI ready for re-cycling.

Acquiring materials like these for next to nothing puts a big smile on my face.

Rik (somewhat filthy after turning that bit down)

Did you mean 0602 John? 0206 didn't google very well but 0602 came up with round ones on ebay which look interesting.

This wet bank holiday has come up with umpteen rusty pairs of garden shears that will never get used. I assume they are high carbon steel. Perhaps too awkward a shape to get used and just become clutter in a different shed. The handles will do nicely for files though. There are some modern ones too that might be a more specialised steel.

Anyone know what steel rebar is, I have a load of big thick offcuts I found under a motorway bridge, is it any use for anything , or hardenable ?

It's handy for holding motorway bridges up.

The Americans love rebar, especially knife makers - apparently it forges really nicely and tempers beautifully and holds an edge really well.

Neil

Wos rebar then?

Rik,

It's that twisted steel or stamped knobby edged material they cast inside concrete to make it re- enforced concrete hence re-bar.

Thanks for the enlightenment John. Whilst on the subject, I dug up (literally) a bit of ancient old gas pipe which I turned a bush from some days ago. I used my best sharp knife tool and the stuff came of as ragged as a witch's knickers. I fully expected such old stuff to turn quite nicely so was surprised. Never can tell can you?

Rik

The old gas pipe will be like water pipe, quite soft to allow the pipe to be bent easily, it will cut not too bad with sharp tools. Sometimes if you'r unlucky the weld will pop, I'v had that happen when I bored the inside, I rewelded it from the outside, and it's still in use as the power cylinder of a hot air engine built in 1992. Ian S C

Ian - I think we might be talking about two different things. You'd never bend this stuff as the walls are to thick and its seamless as well. My best knife tool will slice through tool steel a treat but not this stuff.
As far as I know, gas pipe over here does not get bent - it is threaded and then fitted with a cast iron bend. If I'm wrong I'm sure someone will take me to task. (Thinking about it, this might not be gas pipe at all - but it's still c**p stuff to machine.)
Rik
27mm dia.