Stocking up (for me). Order came to just over 600 pounds. A little
less than 3.40 per pound delivery included. For more reasons than one I
wish I could order this quantity every time I need aluminum. That's
what you guys on the other side of the pond would call aluminium.

--
Bob La Londe
CNC Molds N Stuff

--
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On 1/10/2024 3:43 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:
> Stocking up (for me).  Order came to just over 600 pounds.  A little
> less than 3.40 per pound delivery included.  For more reasons than one I
> wish I could order this quantity every time I need aluminum.  That's
> what you guys on the other side of the pond would call aluminium.
>

Mr. Small Potatoes here , I just ordered some 2" round stock . A
whole foot of it for probably a lot more per lb than you . It's going to
become some "reducer sleeves" to reduce the bore diameters of a Holley
Sniper EFI throttle body .
The mechanic's theory is blah de de blah blah . I don't know , I just
do what the customer asks if I can and it doesn't break the law .
--
Snag
Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum

"Snag" wrote in message news:unn4p8$2ljnd$1@dont-email.me...

On 1/10/2024 3:43 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:
> Stocking up (for me). Order came to just over 600 pounds. A little less
> than 3.40 per pound delivery included. For more reasons than one I wish I
> could order this quantity every time I need aluminum. That's what you
> guys on the other side of the pond would call aluminium.
>

Mr. Small Potatoes here , I just ordered some 2" round stock . A
whole foot of it for probably a lot more per lb than you . It's going to
become some "reducer sleeves" to reduce the bore diameters of a Holley
Sniper EFI throttle body .
The mechanic's theory is blah de de blah blah . I don't know , I just
do what the customer asks if I can and it doesn't break the law .
--
Snag
Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum
-------------------------

I can play this game. I bought all of 8" of 1/2" copper rod, to make custom
spotwelder tips.

On 10/01/2024 21:43, Bob La Londe wrote:
> Stocking up (for me).  Order came to just over 600 pounds.  A little
> less than 3.40 per pound delivery included.  For more reasons than one
> I wish I could order this quantity every time I need aluminum. That's
> what you guys on the other side of the pond would call aluminium.
>
After I moved back to the UK from the US my local engineering supplier
said they could get me aluminum if I wanted it but it would be much more
expensive as it had to be shipped in the from the US ;) , I opted for
the local aluminium they could offer instead. Here we pay for aluminium
in pounds as well.

On 1/10/2024 6:22 PM, Jim Wilkins wrote:
> "Snag"  wrote in message news:unn4p8$2ljnd$1@dont-email.me...
>
> On 1/10/2024 3:43 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:
>> Stocking up (for me).  Order came to just over 600 pounds.  A little
>> less than 3.40 per pound delivery included.  For more reasons than one
>> I wish I could order this quantity every time I need aluminum.  That's
>> what you guys on the other side of the pond would call aluminium.
>>
>
>   Mr. Small Potatoes here , I just ordered some 2" round stock . A
> whole foot of it for probably a lot more per lb than you . It's going to
> become some "reducer sleeves" to reduce the bore diameters of a Holley
> Sniper EFI throttle body .
>   The mechanic's theory is blah de de blah blah . I don't know , I just
> do what the customer asks if I can and it doesn't break the law .

I need to get myself a spot welder... one of these days.

--
Bob La Londe
CNC Molds N Stuff

--
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"David Billington" wrote in message news:unp1fe$31j8c$1@dont-email.me...

On 10/01/2024 21:43, Bob La Londe wrote:
> Stocking up (for me). Order came to just over 600 pounds. A little less
> than 3.40 per pound delivery included. For more reasons than one I wish I
> could order this quantity every time I need aluminum. That's what you guys
> on the other side of the pond would call aluminium.
>
After I moved back to the UK from the US my local engineering supplier
said they could get me aluminum if I wanted it but it would be much more
expensive as it had to be shipped in the from the US ;) , I opted for
the local aluminium they could offer instead. Here we pay for aluminium
in pounds as well.

---------------------------
How many pounds per pound?

I never understood farthings, shillings, florins or crowns, though I know
enough Latin to get denarius and libra.

Alumuminimum

On 1/10/2024 2:43 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:
> Stocking up (for me).  Order came to just over 600 pounds.  A little
> less than 3.40 per pound delivery included.  For more reasons than one I
> wish I could order this quantity every time I need aluminum.  That's
> what you guys on the other side of the pond would call aluminium.
>

I had not bought anything from this vendor in over a year. They no
longer had a regular truck coming by, so I quit buying from them. It
would take a full day off during the week, and a fair amount in fuel to
go get material from them. I figured I'd need to buy about 12-1400lbs
at a shot to make it worth while.

On a gamble I contacted one of their sales people to see if they would
ship pieces common carrier, and I discovered they are running a truck
again. I also discovered that one of the local metal yards had lied to
me about how much aluminum they are buying. They had told me I was
about the only one who bought aluminum from them. Turns out they were
the ones purchasing enough to bring the regular truck back to town.
They also lied to me about cost/pricing. I know what I paid, and if
they are buying more than double that amount on a truck load. They ARE
paying less than I am.

For the last year 99% of my aluminum had been coming cut in half on a
Fed-Ex or UPS truck. I bought a couple pieces fromt he local metal yard
at crazy prices, but avoided them because it was usually (always)
cheaper to ship.

I will say pricing really surprised me. Their price adjustment per unit
was rather granular. For example the difference between one stick of
1/2 x 6 and 4 pieces of 1/2 by 6 was about $50. (My local yard wouldn't
offer a penny even if I offered to buy every piece they had on hand)
When I sent over a bigger quote request everything was priced similarly
or cheaper, and even an increase of one piece made a difference in
price. I'd never experienced that before with this vendor, but I was
dealing with a different sales rep. Midwest is like that, but they are
absolutely terrible about shipping. If I order something from them it
might ship in two weeks (the fastest they ship) or it might not ship for
several months, and you have to ask before you order how long it will
take. They will not tell you otherwise. In the past Midwest has always
had the best price on the worst service. My old vendor was comparable
in price with Midwest for the first time ever, and the delivery charge
is zero. The best part. They had EVERYTHING I wanted in stock.

I'm not going to name them just yet. It seems every time I brag up a
vendor something goes south.

--
Bob La Londe
CNC Molds N Stuff

--
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"Bob La Londe" wrote in message news:unpcj4$33g7v$1@dont-email.me...

I need to get myself a spot welder... one of these days.

----------------------------

I thought I need one for car rust repairs underneath, on seams where two
flanged pieces join a vertical one, like
|
--+--
|||

The verticals are the inner side walls of the hatch compartment, the inner
horizontals with downward flanged edges its floor. It turned out to be
easier and maybe better to bolt the repair panel joints together over
caulking. Stainless bolts and Nylok nuts. Water had entered somehow and
rusted its way out the bottom, between the layers.

I think the water entry points were guide pin holes in the D pillars for the
tail lights. I piled grease on the pins and screws before reinstalling the
assemblies. If that isn't the fix I can open up the repair to redo it.

Recently I caught a milder second case of RSV and a more serious one of
Lackawanna, despite a cloth mask, so other projects like spotwelding coin
cells for laptop CMOS replacements went on hold. The spotwelder timer I
built works on 120V or 240V and the welder can run from a Variac to further
reduce the power, hopefully to battery tab level. 120V for 0.2-0.3 seconds
was good for the 22 gauge galvy. The only mod to the spotwelder for this is
a sheetmetal hook that can hold the manual switch closed. I was tempted to
use an On-Off-Mom switch but the accident potential is high. The HF is a
cheaply made ripoff of a 240V Miller.

"Jim Wilkins" <muratlanne@gmail.com> writes:

> I never understood farthings, shillings, florins or crowns, though I know
> enough Latin to get denarius and libra.

But you probably used 10-penny nails, from a box marked "10 d" without
a second thought.

--
Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada

"Mike Spencer" wrote in message
news:87eden3spc.fsf@enoch.nodomain.nowhere...

"Jim Wilkins" <muratlanne@gmail.com> writes:

> I never understood farthings, shillings, florins or crowns, though I know
> enough Latin to get denarius and libra.

But you probably used 10-penny nails, from a box marked "10 d" without
a second thought.
Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada
---------------------------------
I would have when young, before studying Latin. Since then I pay attention
to measurement systems, their names and histories. For instance metal gauges
are the number of times a wire passed through a die or sheet metal through
rollers. Steel plate may be listed by its weight in pounds per square foot,
which is useful to track displacement and balance in shipbuilding. 1" thick
is rounded from ~41 down to 40 pounds for ease of calculation. Aircraft
engineering dispensed with gauges and measured aluminum in thousandths and
tubing in 16ths, the AN- system.
https://www.titanfittings.com/articles/what-are-an-fittings-and-adapters

"Mike Spencer" wrote in message
news:87eden3spc.fsf@enoch.nodomain.nowhere...
"Jim Wilkins" <muratlanne@gmail.com> writes:

> I never understood farthings, shillings, florins or crowns, though I know
> enough Latin to get denarius and libra.

But you probably used 10-penny nails, from a box marked "10 d" without
a second thought.
Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada

----------------------------

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_(unit)

That's the first I've seen of a "long hundred".

You also have "Long Ton" of 2240 Lbs or 20 Hundredweight.

My anvil was stamped 0 1 8 in the Stone age. It was plainly of a useful size
to someone long ago, and still is for me.

"Jim Wilkins" <muratlanne@gmail.com> writes:

> "Mike Spencer" wrote in message
> news:87eden3spc.fsf@enoch.nodomain.nowhere...
>
>> "Jim Wilkins" <muratlanne@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>>> I never understood farthings, shillings, florins or crowns, though
>>> I know enough Latin to get denarius and libra.
>
>> But you probably used 10-penny nails, from a box marked "10 d" without
>> a second thought.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_(unit)
>
> That's the first I've seen of a "long hundred".

Same here.

> You also have "Long Ton" of 2240 Lbs or 20 Hundredweight.
>
> My anvil was stamped 0 1 8 in the Stone age. It was plainly of a
> useful size to someone long ago, and still is for me.

So it's a small anvil, even smaller than the typical farrier's anvil.
Hundred-weights/quarters of cwt/odd pounds = 36 pounds. My Peter
Wright is a 2 2 25. The Hill I gave to my son is a 1 1 4, my first
anvil bought from a drunken junkyard guy in '67.

In the era of hand-forged nails, a good nailer could make 100 nails in
an hour. In 1976, I met a blacksmith [1] who ran a smithing school
where he instructed novices:

+ Make a nail [repeated until good nail made]

+ Make 100 nails [repeated until 100 good nails made in a run]

+ Make 100 nails in a hour

the notion being that by the time the learner had made 100 good nails
in an hour, [s]he knew how to use a hammer and could go on to other
challenges/tasks.

An interesting aside: in England in (I think) the 18th c. many nailers
were women. Great strength to wield a heavy hammer not needed (for
small- to medium-sized nails) but manual deftness, a good eye and
willingness to endure tedium were assets. Even in the 19th c. some
people leaving New England for the California gold rush burned their
houses so's to collect the nails. Nails were a big deal.

[1] Slim Spurling. Later abandoned blacksmithing to devise widgets to
manipulate subtle cosmic energies.

https://slimspurling.com/about-slim-2/
--
Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada

--
Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada

"Mike Spencer" wrote in message
news:877ckd4rwe.fsf@enoch.nodomain.nowhere...

"Jim Wilkins" <muratlanne@gmail.com> writes:

> My anvil was stamped 0 1 8 in the Stone age. It was plainly of a
> useful size to someone long ago, and still is for me.

So it's a small anvil, even smaller than the typical farrier's anvil.
Hundred-weights/quarters of cwt/odd pounds = 36 pounds. My Peter
Wright is a 2 2 25. The Hill I gave to my son is a 1 1 4, my first
anvil bought from a drunken junkyard guy in '67.

In the era of hand-forged nails, a good nailer could make 100 nails in
an hour.

---------------------------
I wasn't the first around here to seek old smithing tools for use instead of
decoration. Large anvils and portable forges were gone from the
antique/scrap shops and I was lucky to find a box of tongs, a good leg vise
and variable speed electric blower. The anvil was in a friend's garage. They
were a family of lawyers, not craftsmen, and let me have it, especially
since my name was on it "WILKIN..", the "SON" lost in a low area. It lacks
the crossroads stamp.

I don't know which craft that size anvil was intended for, perhaps a copper
or tinsmith. Outside of blacksmithing a lot of thin steel is bent cold, for
which my anvil serves well. My training on bend radii and allowances was all
for cold bending on a brake. I've read that armour was mostly shaped cold,
retaining its work-hardening, and tinned or galvanized sheet has to be. I
made a closely fitted costume helmet from stainless without heating it and
losing the luster.
https://colonialbrewer.com/the-whitesmith-or-tinsmith/
"The British Iron Act of 1750 prohibited the erection of rolling mills in
America."
"Despite the restrictions of Parliament, whitesmithing shops still managed
to crop up in the Colonies."
See below. I saw a slitting mill at the Saugus Iron Works museum.

The blacksmith at a county fair was making small items on demand so I asked
to see a chain link. Turns out he had made lots of large link 3/8" chain for
ox pulling and he whipped one out in maybe 2 minutes, on a bending jig. The
skill with which he scarfed the ends for the weld with a single blow to each
told how much he'd done before. I noticed that he rolled the hammer a little
as it struck to round the scarf surface, which he said few people would
catch.

I've examined this chain and am very glad I didn't have to swing a hammer to
help forge it. Some of the more rusted links plainly show the slag layer
grain of wrought iron.
https://hvmag.com/life-style/hudson-valley-chain-american-revolution/
At the time Britain had tried hard to keep us from developing any local
industry, we (my ancestors arrived very early) were to be only a source of
raw material and consumer of finished goods. They came close to succeeding,
we had the innovative minds to participate in the Industrial Revolution but
little of the production capacity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Evans

On 1/13/2024 12:24 AM, Mike Spencer wrote:
> "Jim Wilkins" <muratlanne@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> "Mike Spencer" wrote in message
>> news:87eden3spc.fsf@enoch.nodomain.nowhere...
>>
>>> "Jim Wilkins" <muratlanne@gmail.com> writes:
>>>
>>>> I never understood farthings, shillings, florins or crowns, though
>>>> I know enough Latin to get denarius and libra.
>>
>>> But you probably used 10-penny nails, from a box marked "10 d" without
>>> a second thought.
>>
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_(unit)
>>
>> That's the first I've seen of a "long hundred".
>
> Same here.
>
>> You also have "Long Ton" of 2240 Lbs or 20 Hundredweight.
>>
>> My anvil was stamped 0 1 8 in the Stone age. It was plainly of a
>> useful size to someone long ago, and still is for me.
>
> So it's a small anvil, even smaller than the typical farrier's anvil.
> Hundred-weights/quarters of cwt/odd pounds = 36 pounds. My Peter
> Wright is a 2 2 25. The Hill I gave to my son is a 1 1 4, my first
> anvil bought from a drunken junkyard guy in '67.
>
> In the era of hand-forged nails, a good nailer could make 100 nails in
> an hour. In 1976, I met a blacksmith [1] who ran a smithing school
> where he instructed novices:
>
> + Make a nail [repeated until good nail made]
>
> + Make 100 nails [repeated until 100 good nails made in a run]
>
> + Make 100 nails in a hour
>
> the notion being that by the time the learner had made 100 good nails
> in an hour, [s]he knew how to use a hammer and could go on to other
> challenges/tasks.
>
> An interesting aside: in England in (I think) the 18th c. many nailers
> were women. Great strength to wield a heavy hammer not needed (for
> small- to medium-sized nails) but manual deftness, a good eye and
> willingness to endure tedium were assets. Even in the 19th c. some
> people leaving New England for the California gold rush burned their
> houses so's to collect the nails. Nails were a big deal.
>
> [1] Slim Spurling. Later abandoned blacksmithing to devise widgets to
> manipulate subtle cosmic energies.
> > https://slimspurling.com/about-slim-2/

I've seen hundred wt mentioned before, but only in reference to anvils.
I follow a few black smith channels on YouTube when I need my fix of
mind numbing video blather. Alec Steel, Will Stelter, Black Bear Forge,
Daniel Moss (no longer making videos I believe), and a few others. I
used to follow Essential Craftsman, but he has been doing house building
and other contractor based stuff lately drowning out his black smith
content.

--
Bob La Londe
CNC Molds N Stuff

--
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"Bob La Londe" wrote in message news:unun8a$21ah$1@dont-email.me...

On 1/13/2024 12:24 AM, Mike Spencer wrote:

I've seen hundred wt mentioned before, but only in reference to anvils.
I follow a few black smith channels on YouTube when I need my fix of
mind numbing video blather. Alec Steel, Will Stelter, Black Bear Forge,
Daniel Moss (no longer making videos I believe), and a few others. I
used to follow Essential Craftsman, but he has been doing house building
and other contractor based stuff lately drowning out his black smith
content.
Bob La Londe
------------------------

I think I explain things best in mostly text with embedded sketches, photos
and brief videos. Except for the videos that's how I wrote the paper
operators manuals for equipment I'd designed. It's significant that a
moviemaker can describe his work in only words although he tells stories in
images - derived from the author's word descriptions. Arthur Clarke's book
for 2001 tells the story much better than Kubrick's nevertheless brilliant
movie.

Hundredweight is part of the Stone system Brits use for body weight. Eight
Stone is one Hundredweight, 8 * 14 = 112.

I collected and read a few books on blacksmith toolmaking and then took a
class in it. It's obvious that a critical element is muscle memory learned
from practice, the hammer makes what you don't want at least as easily as
what you do. I concluded that smithing is a good way to make artsy stuff I
have no talent for, while welding on and machining away would serve me
better to make repair and custom parts.