> Hij Go > >> Thanks Keith, >> >> Loved the blacksmith with a cold slant, it struck close as I do a bit of >> hobby smithying myself > > Ah, do you? I'm just about to, I guess that's why I made that joke. I > need to make a sickle. Or two. I have some worn blades from a tractor > rotavator that should do, tough steel, hope it's not too tough.
I have made machetes and scythe blades from worn out metal saw blades which can be had for free from mechanical workshops they can be had in 10 and 15 centimetre widths. This steel is hardened and will allow excellent sharpness but if you want a particular shape ask them to plasma cut the form you want, if you cut with acetelyn/oxygen the heat will spoil the hardening - you can re harden but it's not that easy. If you want to get into hardening an alternative material source would be vehicle leaf springs from the junk yard. > And I don't have an anvil. I'm really sorry I didn't get a cheap one from > China when we were in Hong Kong. They cost an arm and a leg here in > Japan. I do have a two-foot length of heavy steel girder though, I > guess it'll do for now, Yes it will be fine for a lot of situations - an alternative is a length or two of railway track. > but I'll miss the fancy bits, the pritchel > hole, hardie hole, the table An upside down bit of railway track makes a reasonable table. >and especially the horn. A right way up railway track piece can be acetelyn/oxygen cut roughly to shape and ground down to your needs. Oh yes, and in my opinion these bits should be mounted on a piece of tree trunk rather than a steel girder for example because the wood will return a readable 'feedback' in time which a steel pedestal can never do. > Actually I don't have any of the tools, but if I can make a sickle then I can > make tools too. Yes, that's the fun thing but if you are setting up a forge please remember that all coals are not suitable and that your raw material must contain sufficient carbon to be forgeable and not all suppliers these days know the difference. > I do have a couple of really good books, and there > are good blacksmithing sites on the Web. >> - never heard of Advil before though. I went through >> my medicine cabinet and sure enough there on some of the smaller jars were >> the letters HDPE and on others something called DUMA. > > I don't know that one. > >> I am on a very slow >> modem connection but I did some searching in Swedish with a view to being >> able later to find local sources - I didn't get very far, though I did get >> very frustrated waiting ages for a download only to find it irrelevant. > > I know the feeling! No broadband here either (we're out in the > sticks), but it goes at about 64k, not too bad. That's not bad at all - the bummer for me is that nearly 90% of this country is broad banded but I too choose to live in the 'sticks' and it will be years if ever before we get hooked up unless satellite or radio takes off. Klipp.. > Stand by to be unsurprised... it's on our website, in the biodiesel > section in fact. And most of it came from those good folks at the > Biofuel list, in their wisdom, because my situation was the same as > yours: What's HDPE? How do you tell? It's here: > Identifying plastics > http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_make2.html#plastics Well, I must say I am not so surprised - I have followed your work for a while now and I am extremely impressed and grateful and pleased. I have past on your site internet address to the 4 libraries in my county and I will be suggesting to my local schools that they check you out > > To save you the trouble: > > Identifying plastics > > What is this "HDPE" plastic that people use for mixing chemicals, and > how do you identify it? What sorts of plastics can withstand what > sorts of chemicals? > > Identifying different kinds of plastic and their properties, American > Plastics Council: > http://www.americanplasticscouncil.org/benefits/about_plastics/resin_c > odes/resin.html > > This helps even more: Plastics Identification -- Society of Plastics > Engineers, Mid-Michigan Section > http://www.midmichiganspe.org/education/identification.pdf > > Chemical compatability -- Chemical Resistance Database, Cole-Parmer: > To search, select at least one of three criteria to search on, > Chemical, Material, Compatibility Level. If you wish to search by > compatability level, you must specify a chemical or material. > http://www.coleparmer.com/techinfo/ChemComp.asp > >> The relevancy is primarily to gain insight as to the suitability of various >> plastic containers for use with SVO/WVO, bio diesel processing and the >> various chemicals associated therewith. > > That should help then. I think there's more to it than this, you also > get different grades - one grade of HDPE or PVC might have better > heat or chemical resistance than another. OK. Fantastic - that will shut me up for a while :-) Thanks very very much I have booked some time at the library to get some broadband access and I am really looking foreword to getting into this thing. On a very serious note I remember a report on TV a while ago explaining Danish research which connected Danish males diminishing sperm quality and quantity with the plastic bags we in Europe always pack and tote our foodstuffs in and which ere getting into the ground water table, dikes and waterways. And there was a connection to strange fish caught in the kattegatt with either double genitalia or none at all! The statistics were alarming - sorry - I don't have an url. > >> Also I am very interested in the environmental impact of the different >> plastics which are commonly available with a comparison to the newer >> biodegradable plastics, the why's and wherefores and so on..... if some of >> these plastics are genuinely non degradable is that necessarily a bad thing >> if that longevity can be utilised would it not be better to have a few >> indestructible containers than a multitude of degradable (degradable into >> what) products requiring energy and raw materials to continually manufacture >> and distribute a stream of new ones? > > Yes, it would be better. Unfortunately (IMHO) what we have instead is > a packaging industry gone insane, along with a throwaway society, and > bulging landfills. The Three R's of the Environment: reduce, reuse, > recycle, yes indeed. What a pity shrinkwrap doesn't actually shrink > what you wrap in it or we could parcel up the packaging industry > rather conveniently. Well, people do collect nearly all the PET > bottles here and they get turned into stuff like flowerpots, sports > goods, fabrics, carpets, and, um, wrapping material... Everything but > new PET bottles, it hasn't reached that standard yet. But they're > strong and last well, why not just wash them out and reuse them? > Well, the Aquarius bottles are different from the Pocari Sweat > bottles from the Green Tea bottles and Coke bottles, you see, the > wonders of capitalism. I guess that might happen to a lot of > brand-name HDPE bottles too. Styrofoam boxes and trays and so on are > recycled to make new styrofoam boxes, hooray. The rest I don't know. > Polyethylene burns well, some 3rd World projects have tested PE bags > as cooking fuel, but the difficulty is in telling which are PE and > which PVC or whatever. The bags are a problem, with various countries > trying to take action to curb their proliferation throughout the > biosphere. In South Africa the wind blows them into trees, they're > now called "the National Flower" there. Klipp.... Again - much obliged. Ha det sΠbra Go. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Yahoo! Domains - Claim yours for only $14.70 http://us.click.yahoo.com/Z1wmxD/DREIAA/yQLSAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biofuel/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! 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