Hello All,

I'm looking for #30 crucible furnace. I would prefer a good used MIFCO, Johnson or equal. I would consider home made one if it were a real good one. I want one that is safe and serviceable with off the shelf parts.

After a little reading I decided to see how vinegar worked for cleaning slag, rust, and other gak off of some pieces I just welded up. Just a room temp soak over night. I could see mill slag and the white gak from welding floating off pretty quick. If this works I really like the idea of a vinigar soak to clean stuff up before a final wash and finish. If it works I have several pieces to do it with.

Hello all! 

I'm an artist, woodworker, and metalsmith (I'm also Senior Preparator at an art museum).  I have slowly been building my collection of tools for metal work since college, and I have recently found and purchased a few hundred vintage chasing tools.  I have never actually done chasing (yet), but I basically understand the the process. (I minored in metalsmithing at Syracuse U.  My question is:  Do the marks on the sides of the tools have any significant meaning?  Many of my tools are marked with hatched lines which look similar to Roman numerals.  I didn't know if they were simply maker's marks, of if they indicated a size or shape code.  The tools are from many different makers like Dixon, Grobet, Stubs, and others.(most appear to be 19th or early 20th century).  Any help would be appreciated.  Also, and recommendations on good instruction books on chasing would be useful.  Many thanks.

I've been wanting to find a good technique for getting specific colors into my steel items and still have the underlying steel surface show through a bit. I had an interesting experience with using ink and then coating that with Rustoleum Clear Enamel. It looked great initially but then the ink seemed to fade over time. I've thought about using some oil based paints mixed into varnish. I've had good experience with soaking steel items in vinegar for a day, then wire brushing with a knotted wire brush in an angle grinder. This gives a bright shiny surface to start with.

Hello,

I have some problems whit vacuum casting and I need some help. I work with silver and the problem is that on the end of the casting silver comes out BLACK ?! Silver temperature is 1080 degrees and flask temperature is outside 120 and inside 270. I heard, when it comes out black that the flask teperature is too high. Does someone know the perfect temperature? And also with what sholud I clean silver after?