Mainely,Bob

My thoughts are with you and your family too Jeff.

Words are insufficient to say what my heart feels Larry. I will be keeping you and your family in my thoughts and ask the Goddess,God and Great Spirit to hold you in their arms. With your permission I will put your family`s name into our healing circle during the full moon ceremony tomorrow evening. Much love to you and yours Brother.

My best advice now is to just do it. You seem to be committed to doing it your way. At the very least you`ll learn why you shouldn`t do it that way again. Good luck to you.

The warpage will take place because the edge you will be welding will shrink as it cools and it`ll distort both the flat bar and the plate. If you use the press you`ll only be chasing the distortion around the edge. As was stated in the posts above you`ll need to shrink the unwelded edge to match the welded edge in order to straighten it. Think of the distortion you`d get in a welded rectangular tank made of sheet metal. You can`t press that kind of distortion out,you have to shrink it out. Proper welding sequence will minimize distortion but the amount of heat you need to crank into aluminum will still cause some,it`s unavoidable that it`ll move as it`s heated and it`ll scare you if you have little experience with it. Experience will tell you how to use one weld to pull back against another and cancel much of that distortion. Chances are there will still be some to shrink out though,especially the way you plan to do it. If you don`t have any experience then best to find someone who does.Once you find someone with experience then watch what he does and pay close attention to how he shrinks the material to straighten the distortion. That`s why the expression "Experience pays but it`ll also cost ya" was coined.

Looks like all that clean livin` finally paid off for you. Nice score.

Like the contrast. Nothing wrong with reheat and rebeat,especially if you have more raw stock. Try throwing the rebar into an acid bath to rid it of the zinc and also give to a bit moire texture next time around. I just know you`re going to do this one again(I saw how much rebar you have left). :D

Larry`s work is just incredible and he`s a wealth of knowledge on how to do this sort of thing. I can tell you up front that it`s much harder than he makes it look. He has an eye for line,form, balance and detail that is hard to duplicate. At least for me it is. Don`t let that stop you from trying though. I figure with a few more years of practice I may be close to his rough renderings of the human face.

Step away from the dark side and treat the Crowley quotes as you would sleeping dogs my Celtic brother. Even this Irishman has enough sense to not use them here. :ph34r:

I really like this one Mac. Takes a good eye to see that common material can become something exceptional when moved in the right direction.

No open toed shoes though. :)

The only thing I`d change on the stand would be to round the two back corners. You may not be as easily distracted as I am but sharp corners always seem to sneak up on me and bite me when I least expect it. :^(

You are just a slave to fashion, Larry.

Well Southy, you speak like a true Long Islander. It`s always easy for someone who hasn`t invested the time to fully develope the skills required in the field they`re commenting on to completely misunderstand the level and spectrum of skills needed and be dismissive of those who have mastered those skills. Your crackhead may be adept at shooting fish in a barrel (most are) but put him up against me and my rifle at 500 yards and he doesn`t stand a chance no matter how much ammo he has. I can put him and 10 of his buddies down and still have plenty of rounds left in my 20 round magazine. Like most skills, shooting takes months if not years of practice and thousands of rounds sent downrange to master and apply with any accuracy and I`m even talking about effective fire with something like an M60 machine gun. People who don`t understand the entire picture and yet make blanket statements are like the guy who picks up a finely forged object from your table and says "anyone can do this,all it takes is fire and a hammer". I`d be willing to bet I can out shoot you with any weapon you own. That kind of ability only comes from spending several decades learning skills,theory and application of those tools (and a firearm is a tool just like a bayonet is a tool) as a recon soldier and sniper. In that type of real world competition(combat)the second place award is a body bag. Kind of puts a different spin on things now doesn`t it.

The guns can`t do anything without a finger to pull the trigger. Destroying the guns does nothing toward correcting the thinking of the people who would use them as offensive weapons. If you could do an act of magic and make all the guns in the entire world disappear people would still go on killing each other. Sad but true. :(

Pretty simple mechanics;"the energy you put out is the energy you get back". I will freely share anything I know with anyone who wants to keep an open and objective mind. I have always seen my efforts returned at least in kind if not doubled. Besides,if I show someone how to do something then I know I`ll have to step up my game in order to stay ahead of them . Does that count as self motivation? :)

Just go to yard sales held by guys who used to race flat track motorcycles. :)

How much you gonna charge me for room and board if I move back down the coast?

Here`s what I did to solve our problem. Went down to the local post office and picked up the federal specs for mailboxes(they have them there for just such reference and will provide you with a copy). I followed the instructions to the letter for the multiple mailboxes on single post installation and then flanked my mailbox with 2 other regulation boxes I got from the dump and straightened out after they had been bashed. I filled the flankers with concrete and anchored them by running welded steel rebar thru their base and up into the concrete inside so they cannot possibly be torn free. Our delivery person knows the two outside ones are fakes and the center one is made from schedule 80 pipe that has been slit and fabbed to resist any "retaliatory techniques". I too found pieces of bat for the first week this rig was set up. They now leave it alone and move on. Several local friends have commissioned copies. :)

Man what a deal! If I only had a spring loaded anvil with a round tenon on the bottom I`d be all set. Anybody have any tips on how to keep one of those types of anvils from spinning? :rolleyes:

We will ask the Lord,Lady and Great Spirit to look after them.

That one undoubtably has an out of sight warranty. Soon as you`re out of sight the warranty`s up. :)

My favorite way to serve them is as a Walleye sandwich. Here`s how I do it; take 2 polishing wheels and spread the side of one with assembly lube,place the fish (after lightly toasting over a coal fire to give it some color)on the prepared polishing wheel and garnish with brass wool,sprinkle a little cutting oil on the garnish, add a dash of rock salt to taste,cover with the remaining wheel and serve. Some people like to toast the wheels while cooking the fish but I`m a straight up kind of guy. This approach work as well with Steelhead trout as it does with Walleye. Shave some ice into a tumbler of slack tub water and you`ve got yourself a hearty blacksmith`s lunch or light dinner. Nice work on the fish BTW. I have to agree with the others who said it needs teeth. Any steel fish should have teeth at least as big as the guy who made it. :)

I thought he had some experience with your machines,you make it sound like he`s just been thrown into this as his first real large project. If that`s the case then he definitely needs to be doing everything that doesn`t involve the actual forging. When he`s not doing the peripheral jobs he should be watching you and finding out how you can control the machine and move metal like you do. In the end if you brought this job in so he`d have an income then the only way he`ll be able to shoulder it is to have that time behind the controls with you supervising till you know he`ll be safe alone. With new hires the progression has been; Phase 1- explain the task and the standards,demonstrate the task performed to standard, ask if there are any questions after the demo. Phase 2- break the task down by the numbers and demonstrate at an easy to follow instructional speed,then have the new guy perform each step to standard regardless of time while you supervise and coach,once he can execute the step to standard you begin to combine steps till he has completed the entire task to standard. Phase 3- gradually increase the speed while maintaining safety till he can perform the task to standard in the required time. It`s been my experience that talking/listening part doesn`t help much except to get the progression straight in their minds,the hands on doing is where the real learning takes place. I try to get the work out of my hands and into theirs as quickly as possible so they can learn to feel how it`s done. The only time I completely take the work back from them is to re-demonstrate what needs to be done or if they are being unsafe. Better to have their hands and my hand(s) on the work so their hands can feel what the "right way" feels like. If there is one particular type of bit that he is good at handling and can pound out quicker than the others then I`d let him master that type first. Nothing is as motivating as success. If you try and get someone working a wide variety of tasks right from the start then you only increase their likelihood of them getting confused and lost and then make mistakes. Take the easiest first and then build upon their success there and add more complex tasks as skills progress. I`ve found this progression works for everything from fab work to final assembly during shipyard work, to drill and ceremonies and basic rifle marksmanship in the Army. I`ve had excellent luck with it.

Phil nailed it. Your son will never get any faster if his Dad doesn`t leave him alone to work it out for himself. You are being your own worst enemy again Larry as I`m sure you know. The key to this whole thing is to let him see you doing the process and then showing him the end results at each milestone along the way. Once he understands it all,WALK AWAY!!! The fact is it doesn`t need to be done your way it just has to be done. Let him have the leeway to decide for himself what the quickest way from point A to point B is. To paraphrase General George Patton: "Never tell a man how to do something,tell him instead what you want done and when you need it. Then stand back,give him room and prepare to be amazed". Your son`s advantage is that he isn`t looking at this thru preconceived ideas based on all that past experience. That gives him a freedom to see alternatives that you will never see. Take that freedom away from him and you only make it harder for him to exceed your expectations. He shouldn`t be in competition with his father,which he is now. He only needs skills and abilities that compliment the work at hand and he should be encouraged to see the things his boss fails to see. Things like a faster,more efficient and safer ways to accomplish the work.

Glad my words were of help brother. I know what it`s like to be stuck with a couple "dubs" and expected to salvage the job. I usually pull them aside and explain my version of how things are going to happen,then ask if there are any questions. Folks like your 2 co-workers are followers so they`ll recognize a "lead dog" when they see one. Sometimes the talk is as simple as "I do the smart work,you do the grunt work. When you decide to be smarter come see me". 20 years as a shipfitter/welder cut the small talk with the non-motivated to a minimum. I saved my breath for talks with the boss aimed toward increasing the numbers on my paycheck.