Jerrod Miller

It would fit better in Tools Supplies and Materials.

That is the same one as the HF one Cody referenced, but at twice the price.

Straight resin, and resin with objects in it (including micarta) would be something that you could fairly easily do to make money. Your labor and artistry is the value added component that some makers would possibly want to pay for. Lots of options and 100% control over the process. Adding yourself as another middle-man to store bought wood is just going to needlessly add cost.

Planers do not make things flat, just parallel. Small, but important difference. You'd need a jointer. A hand-held anything isn't going to be a great option, because even clamped in a vice, you likely won't have a work-rest. And if it is small enough to be hand-held, it isn't going to be a very large disc, thus limiting the size materials you can work. Modifying something like a bench grinder to hold a disc could be a cheaper option. I assume someone sells kits for that already.

Breakers are incredibly easy to change, as long as you can kill power to the panel. But definitely only do what you are comfortable doing. As long as you are the only one in the shop, more outlets can't hurt you, because you can only use one at a time.

Hand held angle grinders are more likely to be moved from a good angle, to a bad angle, and catch what is being worked on. With a cutting wheel, this causes the blade to explode. If you have the proper guards on the grinder, this is just loud and scary, not overly dangerous. With a buffing wheel it will throw the angle grinder, which you will likely still be holding onto. That means it will throw your hands/arms at least, and maybe make your body move, possibly into the blade. You have much better control with holding the work piece and applying it to the stationary buffer. I should note that cutting wheels on angle grinders tend to be dangerous because the proper guards are rarely kept in the proper place.

That sounds far more dangerous to me.

I had to search the shops for "MulkeyKnives", and it popped right up. It didn't want to search for it on my phone as a general search (it just searched "knives").

The ASM Heat Treaters' Guide (referencing ASM Metals Handbook, Heat Treating, Vol 4, 10th Ed., ASM International, 1991, p. 325) says: "Pack Hardening In this process, carbon monoxide derived from a solid compound decomposes at the metal surface into nascent carbon and carbon dioxide. Carbon is absorbed into the metal; carbon dioxide immediately reacts with carbonaceous material in the solid carburizing compound to produce fresh carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide formation is enhanced by energizers or catalysts such as barium carbonate, calcium carbonate, potassium carbonate, and sodium carbonate present in the carburizing compound. Energizers facilitate the reduction of carbon dioxide with carbon to form carbon monoxide." So, both barium carbonate and calcium carbonate are good to use when trying to add carbon to steel via diffusion.

Also consider 5160 purchased as new stock from a local automotive spring manufacturer. This will likely be your best bet for cheapest material and a pretty good one.

You could add more outlets on the same circuit. As long as you are only running one thing at a time, it won't trip the breaker.

At this stage of the game for you, I 'd say your heat treat skills aren't high enough to get the most out of them, so I really wouldn't worry about optimal properties. I'd suggest the 80CrV2 (or 5160) as they are most user friendly with beginner heat treaters. 1084 would be the 3rd choice.

Not necessarily. If you heat from the top down, it seems to be pretty safe. The other thing people do is put a graphite cone in the liquid before it freezes, so that it has differential melting during heating. You could also pour it out while it is liquid and break it up after it solidifies so you are melting a powder/grain again, not a solid block. The problem is when you have a solid plug stuck in a pipe then heat expanding liquid below that. Pressure builds...etc. So whatever you do to prevent a solid cap that would cause pressure to build should eliminate that issue.

The benefits of salt include good thermal control (due to the mass of the salt), and really good heat transfer (making a uniform HT easier). The downsides include the salt vapor rusting everything around it, having liquid that hot is dangerous (especially the hidden dangers of remelting a large slug of it), and needing a stainless steel pot to melt it in to begin with. You can have high temp salts for austenitizing, and low temp salts for quenching (especially useful for mar-quenching).

Also, what's wrong with spring steel?