KRS

Oh I think having some more chains around me fits the theme perfectly

I have lifted enough heavy stuff to appreciate every little help

I will give it try with a L shape pry bar trough one of the holes, that should do the trick for now.

the engine hoist is not a permanent solution, that´s for sure 

Thomas,

yes the stand was included.  Its well made, got some beef to it. Once I saw it in person I was glad to take it with me.

Frosty,

I gave it a try with a long pipe, but it didnt feel very secure. Almost tilted the stand. Maybe I need to work on my technique or it was the rust that prevented it from sliding on the base.

Another thing that made me think of the eye bolt is that it makes turning it easier, how I face the sides once turned up.

I want to turn it fast and easy and not think  "do I really have to"

For now I have a engine hoist nearby. But even folded it takes space and belongs in the other shop.

Bought one by your recommendation, great mobile tool to have around.

I am considering making two triangles to secure it on its front side when its standing up, other ideas?

Chris.

I have been looking at used and new Blocks for quite a while.

New Blocks are ~1000€ for 400x400mm- biggest of-the-shelve Blocks I found. (15.75"x15.75)

Used I found where most of the time in fair price range, but I let them go simply because I managed to work around not having one.

Over time this created more and more individual tooling, but it takes time and money for material, fuel and welding.

Then I found this Block with a bad description (wrong keywords- it was pure luck that I found it) online for 200€

550x550mm 110mm thick.  (21.5"x21.5" .4")

Guess its about 200kg (440 pound) but I have not had it on a scale.

Its in perfect usable condition, only the smallest round hole was stuffed with slugs and bird poop welds. No idea why...

Now I only need a solid eye bolt mounted trough the roof to turn it on the edges

I do work with lead sometimes, like casting lead hammers. Still alive. Contact with liquid mercury is not dangerous as far as I know because I cant breach the skin barrier.

Eating it will cause damage. (some fish have high levels) Vapours will cause damage. Dimethyl mercury will kill you on contact

Lead is most dangerous to children, its effects on the child brain are documented. I will lower the IQ.

What I am trying to say is that know what you deal with, act appropriate and don´t play down dangers because you handled it safe.

Happy Birthday to your Grandfather Mister Powers

I would not do it because it makes mounting anything to the wall harder if you have to drill trough it.

I have sheet metal behind the firepot, not tidy nor clean but rusty and dirty

Edit: a former neighbour of mine had tiles on his concrete floor without expansion gaps. those that had contact to the wall shattered all around after a few years

49 minutes ago, Gergely said:

Spent the whole day in front of the computer learning FreeCad. My head is about to explode, this was tougher than a good day at the shop. I need a cold beverage...

I'm not sure that this software is totally suitable for sketching my ideas but it does some things real cool.

Bests:

Gergely

I gave FreeCAD a try and it takes more time than other commercial Products to learn. I use it for fabrication and sometimes to get dimensions for forged pieces but I would never attempt to fill a frame with scrolls or anything like that in FreeCAD.

If you do a lot of similar parts and create a Library it could work, kinda...

Only thing I did today (this evening) in the shop was clearing a hole in a new old swage block

Reminder:

The Grinder pictured is only for illustration, the fact that the blade is mounted backwards should tell us that it may not be exactly what is used in the ship yard.

Picture credit is by another author from the page, Julie Dermansky.

Kozzy, "Meat Axe" has helped me to find this thread:

Link removed due to language

Exactly like you explained:

Quote

We were cautioned never to use this blade on an electric grinder. There is to much torque and speed in an electric grinder. Of course one of my guy had to try it that way. He jammed it in a corner and it jumped out at him at 10,000rpm. He was lucky only the grinder hit him in the head. ( no blood or stitches )
 

This shop still advertises this specific blade to be used in a electric grinder:

4-1/2x30t aluminum miller blade part # sk4-1/2-30tcg for back gouging aluminum when welding. Leaves a clean "u" shaped channel.

used for milling, clean up and grooving of aluminum welds and cutting out welding tacks.

used mainly in the marine industry in a hand held grinder.  these are custom made by skookum tools to industry specifications. May be sharpened many times.

"other names this tool is known by are: the skookum, meat axe, meat eater, lethal, miller, back groover, aluminum groover , back gouger, aluminum gouger."

Stay safe

So much for polishing a piece pf dung.

In general I would agree to the point that dangerous tools used correct are controllable, but when you say that for those that use this specific tool daily its not a issue I disagree.

  By the numbers given in the article there is every Month one injury, while 4000 use it.

The later number is bit fishy and if correct disturbing because:

Quote

Austal leaders have said they expect to -- increase employment from 1,800 to about 4,000 over the next few years.

http://blog.al.com/press-register-business/2012/03/austal_usa_receives_2_more_con.html

This would mean that every single person on the yard would work with this tool.

Circular saws are far safer but I acknowledge that there are restrictions to the tools and if you need to get it done you get it done.

But the practice in this yards give me the impression that they just hand it to everyone and say go with it, because its cheap and fast.

Edit: If they would have given a limited number of people instructions & better PPE and only those are allowed to use it maybe there would be less injuries.

What they did is like handing a chainsaw to everyone (in my humble outsider opinion)

https://www.revealnews.org/article/this-tool-cuts-fingers-and-gashes-faces-but-shipbuilder-still-uses-it/

Would not have expected this in the land of OSHA.

3 hours ago, Daswulf said:

Great picture ( all of your pictures are great) what is that tho? Hollowed out piece of wood? 

I guess its a dried banana leaf

Excellent work, would put it in my Lederhose

I would heat up the shop to be above the outside temperature, let it soak until the tools are warm and then ventilate, the warm air will carry the water out and the humidity from the outside won´t condensate on your tools. 

If you go the dehumidifier route still heat up the shop to increase efficiency

I have a hand broom for the power hammer, naturally it is oily. Everywhere I spot rust I give it a brush with that broom

About the jaw angles,

you can make them always parallel if you have a sliding front jaw fixed in a box like so:

what you see in this CAD (cardboard assisted design) is the fixed jaw to the right.

It is welded to a piece of tine. the distance from the fixed to the moveable jaw is set by the screw in the bottom. You said you got lots of them.

To prevent the front jaw from rotating when you spin your thing it is boxed in with some flat stock welded to both sides of the ground plate.

The stronger the box is the better you can prevent misalignment of the jaws

Some thrust washers are not drawn.

Now this is not tested because I got enough ready made vices, but if it works it should be better then a leg vice in terms of parallel jaws?

With analog temperature control make sure you have a buffer between your blade and the heating elements

If the blade is close to the elements it could get uneven hot and hotter than your setting

I know you coined anvil envy Mister Powers, but has it ever occurred to you that library envy is a much more serious threat for some of us?

20 hours ago, Frosty said:

It warmed up to -14f this afternoon but it's on it's way back down passing -17f right now on it's way to maybe -25f tonight.

my 5f just got demoted to  a little inconvenience, compared to your temps

On 16.1.2017 at 2:10 AM, Anachronist58 said:

KRS - do you have a picture of your set-up?

Robert Taylor

Aluminium angle iron:

80kg leg vice with back support jaws ( got a bunch different jaws, those are new as I got the vice recently):

Another style with a V-notch to hold Pipe, I swear its a set but I could not find the second one when I took the pictures today (bought)

Phone pictures in a hurry, sorry bout that.

Chris

I use angle iron with stops to the left and right to prevent them from sliding out and for soft jaws aluminium profile. Or you can cut some sheet metal, place it in the vice and hammer it all around.  

There was a recent study that I can not find at the moment which would fit this topic.

In the study people where asked to do unethical tasks for different payments.

The ones who got paid little still judged the task as wrong, but with higher payments the job was more justified.

If the payment is high enough you find reasons to justify whatever you do because your work is valued by others.

And obviously someone else would do it worse than you do it. All in all its a blessing for everyone that you do it, maybe not because the job you do is ethical but you are the least bad person.

So if you competition sends someone to screw others he will think after a while that everyone does that, and that is why his job exists. If others where not crooked he would not have such a job, would he?

And he is even so fair and kind to tell you that its rigged. Thats how good of a person he is!

22 hours ago, Tommytaptap said:

I have a  6" concrete floor to work with and I have this plate I would like to use as a base. Its 23" dia. 1/2" thick mild steel and weighs 24.5kgs. and am thinking of welding a suitable 4 or 5" square tube to the base and fix the vise to that and perhaps fix the bottom of the leg through the plate too. Are there any issues with doing it this way please?

In my opinion its better to have a piece with a hole welded to the base that receives the leg.

If you drill a hole and put it inside it will in the best case wedge itself in the hole, worst case sit hollow above the ground or destroy what is under the plate.

Just bend a collar around the leg, put everything together and then weld the collar to the base plate.

explicit for belt grinders there was this topic:

Oh boy, do I have to restrain myself to not point you to the search function

9 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

can you tell me what is wrong with my pickup---it's making a noise?

Noise is no problem, come back when you can smell it. its easy to find the problem once it smokes

Looks great,

if I would have to guess by the pictures the weld could be at the corner where the two horizontal bars meet. Little accident while drifting the holes?

Your question is to vague in my humble opinion.

a 3 inch square ram has little space for mounting the top die. How do you plan to mount it, V groove and wedge? bolts and a mounting plate?

Make a drawing of the ram assembly and give some numbers for bpm. Without details no one should judge if the guide is long enough.

It depends on lateral forces caused by the swing arm, what tooling you want to use and the type of bearing surface.

I would not recommend rollers. you need a tight fit to avoid impacts on the bearing. A tight fit leads to a constant motion which causes in my mind spots in the bearing to be worn out more than others.

Read, compare, calculate  and sketch. And state clearly  what you want  to do with your hammer, because there are many hammers out there and no other will be like yours