Quote Originally Posted by hemmjo View Post
I am surprised he was able to turn that. Aren't axles pretty hard. I have some steel in my collection I have collected over that years that I cannot turn. It is just too hard for my equipment. Some are pins from excavating equipment, a few broken axles, one very nice 2 1/2" diameter x about 30" long hydraulic cylinder rod.

"Some day" I hope to get a broken ceramic kiln I have put back together to use for heat treating, annealing, etc. So for now my collection of steel lays patiently waiting to become useful again.
Depends how much heat treatment you want to do, but ordinary house bricks can often stand repeated heats. The base and sides of my forge are of loosely laid, salvaged hand thrown bricks.