Michael Cochran

Little update, the fever has broke but they still don't know what caused it. Still waiting on some real news. 

Thank you both. Right now he has a bed in the ER and they running tests. Hopefully it'll be quick so they can do something to help him. 

My son hasn't been feeling well lately. Truth is every since he started K4 he keeps getting sick. A couple weeks ago my wife took him to the dr and they told her he had asmatic bronchitis. We've been giving him his medicine and he seemed to be getting better until early this morning. He got hot and threw up this morning twice but seemed to be feeling better after that for a little bit. He started complaining about being hot so my wife checked his temp, 102F. She snatched him up and took him to the local urgent care to get looked at. After almost 2 hours they finally see him and immediately call for an emergency transport to Children's Hospital. The urgent care said his heart rate was really high and felt he'd be better treated at Children's. So now I'm waiting on news of what's going on. I'm sure all the parents out there can imagine how we feel right now. At this point I don't even know what to say so I'm gonna go. I'll post updates as they come. 

If I could find a deal like that I'd have a plasma cutter. Probably more so I had a "toy" to brag about but I'm sure I'd find some good uses for it. 

11 hours ago, Steve Sells said:

I use mine for steel billets and blades

Thank you for that quick answer. I might have to try building one now. 

I hate to ask what's likely to be a stupid question but I can't help myself. Other than slimming down nonferrous metals, what use is there for a rolling mill? Is it good for drawing out billets? I'm sure I'd find a use for one on occasion if I had one but I don't know that I'd want one not knowing what they're actually good for. 

Steve did you ever get in touch with Mr. McDonald about distributing his plans?

2 hours ago, Irondragon Forge & Clay said:

I too suffer from "flat surface syndrome" which compels me to place something on it.

Show me someone who doesn't suffer and I'll show you someone that's disturbed lol. 

Depending on how tough it is you might want to try using it with it normalized and see if it actually needs to be hardened. Unless you're going to be using it to split some kind of super hard exotic woods or splitting off large pieces of hardwood you'll probably be ok without a harden and temper if the hammer was made from decent steel. 

1 hour ago, yves said:

Michael,

It was a pleasure. And when you make one do let us see. It is a lovely piece. The elegant product of a village blacksmith accustomed to making lovely things for clients happy to commission him to forge them.

I'll definitely share it. It will no doubt be much less refined and elegant but nonetheless I will share it.

Thank you, yves. That's a wonderful piece and I might have to take a shot a making one.

3 hours ago, yves said:

In French, it is called a "servante".

Personnaly, I would love to see more information on this one.  

While working on a small axe head (motivated by a post on here a little while back) my favorite tongs for 1/2" square came apart. When I bought the tongs the woman said her husband (recently deceased ) bought them 20+ years earlier from a man who had them for 40+ years. Looking at the sheared rivet I see what looks like a worn spot that caused a stress riser. 

Before I go on, I want to ask how others would proceed. Would you immediately fix it and go on with your current project? Or would you instead take the opportunity to see and handle the halves so as to reproduce your favorite tongs?

I grabbed a new rivet and put in place and then stopped. I decided to do the latter of the choices I gave above. I brought one half in the house and weighed it on my postage scale (3.5 oz) and did the math to see just how much coil spring is need to make an exact copy (10" of 3/8" coil spring should be adequate). So now I'm back out to try to reproduce them. 

I'd highly recommend staying in school and not dropping out. I have a GED myself and it has slowed me down a little bit. People see that you have a GED and assume you're stupid which isn't the case with me. I dropped out of school because I had to go to work to help pay the bills at home. I got my GED and scored higher than an average high school graduate would because I studied and retained enough while I was in school and I'm always learning and studying what I can to this day. 

Jim, I'm working on the beard but the wife assures me it's time to cut it off. 

That's the most calm and still he ever gets unless he's asleep. 

He weighs all of about 5 oz for now. 

Garfield. He has the appetite and the coloring so why not.  

18 hours ago, Tubalcain2 said:

2 more shop cats followed me home. just what i needed. more cats.

I had one follow me home from work a week ago. Best I can tell he's only a couple weeks old. He was abandoned and I couldn't let the little guy starve. My wife has given me some grief because I don't hear it crying at night when it gets hungry so she has to deal with it. I'll try to get a better picture when I get home but he wiggles so much it's hard to get a clear picture. 

Finished working in my truck today and got everything out back together. The guy that came out to help yesterday came back so he could get some forge time. I obliged and lit the fire and off we went. He wanted to make a knife, I assured him it's not the best beginner project. None the less we took a stab at it and it wasn't long before he got frustrated and I talked him into trying something else. We made a hook for him to have something to show off and get his gears going. Started with 1/2" square simple because that's what I had on hand (would've rather used 3/8" or 5/16" instead but currently out of stock) and I did a taper on the top end and he did the hook side all by himself. We put a half twist in it and punched a hole for hanging. I think the punching was the best part because he just couldn't believe you could do that so easily. I'm gonna have to adjust and/or make some tongs and get some more steel before he comes back so we have some more projects we can do. 

Ok now, quit showing off. Two pairs  of functional tongs in two days is hard enough for some of us. Doing two of those in two days isn't acceptable. lol

I've wondered about tongs with a joint like that. I've seen a few smaller tools with similar joints before and saw a video on YouTube where a guy made a small wooden pair of tongs from one piece of wood and that made me want to try. I haven't taken the time to try it yet but that may have to change after seeing this. 

I spent some time in the shop working on a belt buckle this morning. When a buddy come over to help with my truck we spent the rest of the day trying to get to bolts off my exhaust system. When I decided it was gettin late and it was about time he should probably go home (his girlfriend kept calling Adkin where he was) he said, "let me see your furnace." So we to the shop and I put a piece of 1/2" round in the little gasser so he could hit it a couple times. There was a light in his eyes I recognized from the first time I hit hot steel. He tells me I'm gonna have to teach him a some stuff. I guess I need to figure out how to do something where I can get some of the people together wanting me to show them some stuff and let them get their hands dirty. 

I started out with an 8'x8' storage building I did my cold work in. I had a little corner just for that leaving the rest full of other stuff. Hot work was done outside in a roughly 10'x10' area walls see a do kennel with tarps on the (I'm not a fan of people staring at me while I work). I had a dirt floor and loved it. If I needed power I had an extension cord I'd drag out. 

I ended up adding an 8'x12' addition to the building and cleared all the stuff out of it and used it for my shop. I had plywood floors and electricity in this setup. Cabinets from an old house on three walls and two custom workbenches. 

I moved to the very back outside corner of my property after clearing the wild growth that was here when I bought the place several years ago. I tore down the old shop and my current one is 12'x12' with pea gravel floor. I have a 10' garage door on one wall and windows on two other walls all of which can be opened for ventilation or whatever other reason I need. Again, I have electricity ran to this one. I don't have nearly the cabinets in this one as the last as I found I don't use them enough to have them take up so much space. I have debated on expanding but for now I'm relatively comfortable in my space. 

1 hour ago, jlpservicesinc said:

I appreciate the correction of gender,,,  But I try to follow that skill set is gender neutral..   skills are skills regardless of , race, color, gender, age.. etc, etc..  As such it's a man's world and women are in short supply in the trades so I have no issue with being called "Man"..  Or even toots or Honey if used in a friendly non derogatory manner..  

Makes sense but I'm a little old fashioned at times. I don't like using gender specific words and phrases improperly unless unavoidable. 

48 minutes ago, GandalftheGold said:

sounds like a plan, thanks man

Jlp is not a man, just in case you didn't know.