Doug Lester

First of all alloying will decrease the melting point of the steel as compared to iron. The exact melting point will be governed by the exact alloy Another thing to consider is that investment material, the stuff that you make the mold from, is not the same thing that you would use for casting cupric alloys, gold, or silver. It's rated at a higher temperature and it may be harder to find (nope, see below). It's been a long time since I've priced any investment mix, it comes in a powered form, but when I did find any investment mixes rated for the temperature that you'd be operating at it came in large barrels. Like 50-100 pounds. (nope, see below) Any crucibles that you need to melt the stainless steel in might need to be higher rated than those needed for cupric alloys or gold and silver and I imagine that they would run more in cost. If you haven't read up on casting get some books and do so then, when you have everything plotted out build the furnace to melt steel in. Doug Ok, as an afterthought I look investment material up on the web and I ran into two products. One is Pro-HT Steel that is designed for jewelers who make stainless steel jewelry. It appears that it comes in smaller bags than what I used to see probably over 10 years ago. Another is Omega investment powder. The add didn't have a lot of information but it did say it was rated for higher temperature. I'll still stick with my advice that you work out all the issues with casting steel, like the furnace, crucibles, tools for handling glowing yellow crucibles full of molten steel, burn out ovens and tools for mixing investment, which might include a vacuum chamber. Then and only then build your furnace/foundry to melt the steel. I'm a little slow tonight but if all you want to is cast cylinders you might want to look up sand casting. The cope and drag (the frame that holds the sand for compacting and casting are easy to build.

Excellent, as always. Doug

It's a little hard to tell from the picture but the Battersea Seax looks really thick at the spine and it seems not to have much or any taper to it. Doug

It's been a few years but there was a WIP on installing some huge industrial power hammer in a barn where the smith had to put in a five foot thick rebar reinforced isolated bed to mount the hammer on to keep it from shaking the barn down. I always have wondered what happened with that setup. Doug

Wayne Coe and High Temperature Tools and Refractory both carry the the connections you need to go between the propane tank and the brass nipple for the injection tube. The set ups come with the POL fitting to hook up the regulator to the propane tank and the regulator. No guessing if they'll work, they will. Doug

Great job on the shell guard. That must have been a real effort to pull that off. Doug

I would say that you nailed the design. Nothing that could be but a tree with Spanish Moss hanging from it. Doug

A regulator on the tank to regulate the pressure and a needle valve on the line to regulate the volume. I would also put a 90° ball valve on the line for an emergency shut off. Just a quarter of a turn and you've shut everything down without having to adjust the other two. Doug

WOW. Even if it's not quite what you wanted I think that anyone who sees it will know that it is. Especially if they've lived in central Florida. Doug

I'm going to probably take my machine into a computer shop here in town that I trust to see the same thing. I would have taken it in earlier except I wanted to give the roads a bit of a chance to clear up. The tech I talked to on the phone said that he'd have to see my machine to see if I could just switch out the operating system. I'd hate to have to replace it, the only problem I had with it was with my anti-viral program shutting everything down. That ended up being a $300 problem. Doug

My blower, before it was stolen, sat lower than my forge and the gas injector and I never had an ignition in the blower the next time I used it. I think the reason is that I always turned off the gas before turning off the blower so that the air line was purged of any gas before I turned the blower off. Doug

Great job on the carving on the handle which matches the great job on the blade and bolster. Doug

If anyone can do it you can. Anxious to see how it comes out. Doug

That's incredible. If that's for book IV you've evidently found a new publisher. As far as cutting yourself it can be a little difficult to remember that both edges are sharp. I got myself good on a double edged curved dagger that managed to end up in the mistake drawer. I can identify with being a broken down old man with my essential tremors and using a walking stick just for safety. Still won't keep me from going dancing tomorrow. Doug

I'll have to save that to a file after I see if I have to get a new computer or not because of the Windows 7 no longer being supported by Microsoft. It's off topic, but if anyone else is looking at the possibility of having to buy a new computer for the Windows 10, be careful because a sellers out there are trying to dump their machines with Windows 7 on them even though the support for ends January 12th. Doug