alley cat

Didn't mean to offend any one. By the long hair it should be in a ponytail or something because you could be bent over a drill press or a lathe and next thing you know your caught up in it. It happens I don't wear a wedding ring for this reason always hearing stories about those as well. I guess it depends on the child. I know some people don't have enough sense to run loose. I knew one time of a young man and he was with some friends and they were using an auger attachment on a tractor and he got caught up in it and it killed him..So yeah I could go on and on with other horror stories But I won't. Seems like I remember having metal shop and making a chisel when I was like 13 years old as well. I suppose doing small work on smaller items would be advisable. I could see just physical strength handling tongs on heavier items could pose a problem and while he probably wouldn't be running a grinder or other powertools. We all know how often we ourselves drop a piece of hot metal out of our tongs on occasions. I'm not saying it can't be done I know over in Mexico they have child welders at that age working in sweatshops. And they ain't doing it for the love of the craft. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I hear ya maybe I'm jealous as well cause I'm getting thin on top too!

Of course proper safety glasses,gloves and leather apron and steel toe boots goes without saying.. But ten years old is awfully young. I remember back when I was a teenager back in the welding shop. I was using a small handheld grinder. Well those things can get away from you real quick and get wrapped up in your shirt. Same with a drill press no long hair or jewelry. You could have him do other things like designing and maybe get a drafting table, I still don't like the ideal of my son using a skill saw and he's nearly grown! Just gotta have a healthy respect for power tools and what they can do. I use to know a young black smith who was exceptional but years earlier he had a big grinder get away from him and it went across his face really tearing up his lip. I've known of countless individuals who have lost fingers on iron workers and saws. I just feel that at ten years old the hand eye coordination plus maturity level probably isn't what it should be with a child of that age. When I was thirteen years of age I remember using a bench grinder to make heavy metal spikes for leather jackets and other crap. I not saying he couldn't do it. but he would need expert supervision for quite a while. You know back in the days of blacksmiths and I'm sure over in third world countries that they still have kids churning out nails and working the handcrank on the forge blower. Don't mean it's right though.

I learned a lot about designed from an old man named Joe..I spoke about him in my thread.but the key to making great sketches like say we want to do some scroll work inside a gate frame.. well you would get out a bunch of scrolls that you might have that are left over from other jobs anything close to the size you might think you might need.. and after you drew your square frame you could trace these scrolls.. or heck let's not build a gate..let's make a fancy New Orleans stair rail.. Let's say it's a pitched of 35 degrees.. and the space 28" inches in between top and bottom rail..let's say this thing has a gradual curve to it as well..it's a curved staircase..pretty intimidating huh? Well it shouldn't be.. What we do is first off we worry about the curve later.. we first draw 2 lines representing our vertical post and however long these panels may need be say..four foot long panels. well after we got our post lines drawn..we then get the speed square out and make our top and bottom rail lines drawn on the work table remember we said 28" inches in between using the speed square we get our 35 degrees and away we go.. We then treat it like it was an old gate and we do the same thing we draw and trace the close fitting scrolls inside our panel. But then here's the secret we sketch out all the other stuff we want to put in it with a bunch of short little strokes and we see how it looks.. and we are constantly erasing lines and making new ones constantly dialing in our drawing to where it looks like the blueprint which by the way was how and old master like Joe would do it.. He always did a drawing on paper and he did it the same way with a bunch of short little strokes.. He would spend hours making it like how he wanted it on paper and we're not talking single line drawings but no it was "SKETCHED" too with a bunch of short strokes and there would be eraser marks too where it wasn't what he wanted but it was close.. Joe treated the blueprint drawing that he would show and sale to customers to the actual drawing on the table the same way.. You don't have to be a great artist don't get me wrong it helps to be able to make the correct line the first time..sure the hecks a lot faster..but if you take your time you can sketch out pretty much anything by trial and error..and then erasing that error and fixing it! Oh yeah I said curved stair rail.. well after you got it drawn out on the table .you then build it smith the scrolls and what not..weld it..but then we get the rose bud and a piece of pipe a little bigger than the radius we want then you and another buddy start heating that thing up and start man handling it into that radius that it needs to be to match the stair rail.. we also have what's called a "Radius bar" which we use to make sure we get it bent right.. I know sounds like fun huh? or maybe sounds like I'm crazy..a little of both I guess lol..

Hello everyone. Wow I've not been here in a while.. think I last logged on back in 2011.. A lot has been going on. My mother passed away this past November. I'm fixen to start building a tire hammer..I really like the one Trip made and has for sale on ebay.. and I built this page where you can see some jobs my dad and I have done over the years. And I guess the real reason for this shameful plug is I wanted to share some stories about some of the old men that I have had the privilege of working with and learning from. You can check out the link on my profile if you want to see my website.nothing fantastic..those scrolls on the opening page where all bought from Kings supply..and my father did it when I wasn't around..we we're mad at each other at te time..He should of used collars haha..but no It's all good we love each other. But here I'll just copy from my mentor page these following stories ya'll might dig it..heck you might of even known these old cats. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I have been really fortunate to have been trained by some really wonderful teachers. I worked several years under an old man named Bill Sherry. And at one time in his life he was a supervisor in the construction of the world famous “Reunion Tower”. Every time I see that big ball in the Dallas Skyline I think about Bill Sherry and how sharp that old man really was. He didn’t really need a calculator for anything. He was the calculator, and he even worked into his late 70s! Another thing I would like to say is that I met Bill while working at another shop but when that shop went belly up. Bill and my father really took to each other like two peas in a pod and so naturally he went to work with us. Not many companies would give an old man like Bill Sherry a job once you reach a certain age. The usually thing is to put someone like that out to pasture like some old horse. But no we loved that old man and he greatly enriched both of our lives! Not to mention quite a few ingenious jigs he taught me to make. Naturally we did the heavy lifting haha. But more than a few times I had to chastise Bill for trying to lift something way to heavy not that he wouldn’t try when I wasn’t watching. But no we would just let him come to work whenever he took a notion A few years before I met Bill Sherry I actually worked for an old man named Joe Nestro. He was a Russian immigrant and his family had ran Dallas Iron works for over a hundred years. After hours we would hang out and talk shop and he would tell me about WW2 and when he fought in the “Battle of Bulge”,Just how tough the German tanks really were and he would also tell me about his father running the shop during the Great Depression.And how he would have to send the men home because he just didn’t have any work for them,He would tell them “Go home.. You are wearing out my brooms.” But no he still kept his full crew on and didn’t lay anybody off. That had to of been very hard. I really feel very fortunate to have known both of these men and to be train by such masters is truly a very great honor indeed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- But yeah I'm not telling a tenth of the story to be honest. Bill was really really sharp.. xxxx yankee! He was from Pittsburgh he had been a lumberjack He had even worked for Joe Nestro's brother and they were old friends.. Back in those days..you didn't have Hilti core drills .. If you needed a hole in the cement to put up your guard rail you got out your hammer and star bit chisels and got after it! Joe Nestro could do a 4" inch deep hole 2" inch's in diameter in under 10 minutes! What I really liked about Joe's shop was they might of had an old buffalo iron worker but almost all bending was done by hand in the forge..I'm talking everything from up to 2" solid.. occasionally like on a grand-staircase if he just had to he would go get the junior channel iron rolled but any hand rail and almost all things we built we cold bent it on site..or took small stock and bent that then matched the radius with cardboard and then transferred that over to molding cap rails and the channels it required.. It was a trip and a honor know these men.. I'm a lucky guy!

Great post but I'm still kind of in the dark about using the sideset,butcher,monkey tools, tendon in a heel joint ect..you couldn't possible post a video could you or at least point me in the right direction with an online artical that would have futher information? thanks so much! Jerry

I hear you,I can see where they would freak out if they saw somebody halfway up the mountain but that was years ago when I got that I was young then!! I'm starting to become frends with a couple of scrapyard owners here in Dallas and the other day the other day I was selling my cans and wound up buying 2 sheets of 4'x8' by 3/16s. Dad took one of the sheets and used it in his bed of a 54 ford that he's been rebuilding..He sprayed that "Rhino lining" in it when we were done welding it in and it come out really nice.

You might want to drill a 1/4" hole at the end of the crack to keep it from spreading and take it down to the local muffler man..He could probably mig weld it up for you and add those other peices,But I'd go 7018 on it..weld a little bit then cool it down. Buy a cracker box and learn to stick weld!! just like striking a match,then hold the rods about 1/8 away from the work,drag 7018s flat,and like you can whip 6011s, never did care for 6013s. but just stay in you're puddle and control the puddle,be one with the puddle,lol. just playing but yeah you're doing yourself a great disservice You'll love welding!!

A bunch of years ago I was selling some junk, mostly the skins off of hotwater heaters, I was making smokers out of the tanks. and someone threw away a Whitney Angle Iron notcher..I had to climb this 50 foot tall mountain of Junk risking life and limb..but I got it and brought it home to my dad who's a better mechanic than I am because it wasn't screwing down for some reason. Anyways he had to take it apart and said he had xxxx getting these ballbearings back in it. but now it's works great and we've used it for many years. I keep hoping& praying to find a Beverly shear ,or a Hossfield bender lodged off somewhere in some mountain of Junk. and when that day comes I guess it will be time to climb the mountain again!!!

I resurfaced my fisher anvil,but it wasn't near as bad as the photo above..but it had sat outside for about a century from the looks of it. Rust had took off some of the plate up front and on the hardie hole and the sides were rounded and poor shape..it had been sold as junk in at a scrapyard my uncle worked at here in Texas. And he knew I was on the lookout for an Anvil. Anyways rather than buy special hard facing rods,I just used good ol 7018's! But what I did was I soaked a towl in water and layed it over the face of the anvil, I was working outside in sand now, not standing in water lol! and I would weld about and inch at a time... and immediately cool down the weld, then jump to the other side and laydown another weld and do the same thing. chiped and brushed the weld and another thing I like to do is this.I take an old welding rod and sharpen it to a point and I'll dig slag out of a weld in little pockets, when I'm gonna lay down another pass on top. Just something I picked up in trade school,I had a good teacher and he felt that while he/me and everybody else would grind out like say a 6011 root weld before laying down a 7018 cap weld on Plates that were for "Certifying" U-bend and xrayed tested, that just running a grinder in the weld just slams rocks into weld and would show up in the xrays as "Inclusions" and was the cause of cracks in the ubends. Anyways yeah took me about a day I did use a sander to dress it back down. just used a square and level for reference didn't have it milled or anything. Of course I was concerned with taking the temper out of the anvil but to my surprise it worked great and I did quite a bit of welding I would say about 80 percent of the plate was in tack, but there were parts that over 2 inches wide and 3/4 of inch gone! In fact I just did a front yard fence for my mother and it has the 1/2X1/2 twisted pickets and like 250 scrolls that I beat out of 1/2X1/4 flat stock and it was a real pleasure to work on good rebound didn't wear me out. I use just plan old wood in my forge for the scrolls not coal, ie.."dirty fire" but for mildsteel it was fine. Don't have a camera but maby someday I'll post photos of my outdoor setup. Jerry