BillyBones

Goods, maybe i missed it, but how did you do the sockets for the middle bar? Christmas fast approaching. Seem to be running out of time but got another book stand made and 2 outdoor sconces. Yes the one sconce needs a bit of tweaking on the basket. Dropped my form tool i was using and it rolled under my toolbox, my back hurts, my feet hurt, i was getting frustrated, a few bad words and i called it a day. Also on todays episode of need a tool, make a tool. Was trying something new today and it was small and finicky. I did not have any way to hold it very well so i made 2 sets of small light duty tongs. Made of 3/8" round and they hold surprisingly well for their size. Top ones are set at 1/4" bottom at 1/8".

When i bought this house one of my preconditions was an out building to use as a shop. A garage would be fine as long as it was not attached to the house. If something like a fire were to happen i would rather lose just the garage than both the house and garage. This place has a 1 car garage and a 30x30 barn. The garage is one of those small 1950's type that is actually to small for my truck. So the garage became my workshop and the barn my garage. My dad picked up one of those prefab sheds a few years back for $100 from a moving company. Some moving companies have warehouses to store people stuff in. Sometimes that stuff never gets claimed so the company will sell it. You can also pick up a conex, used, for less than $2,000 if that is in your budget. Congrats on the new home though. I, like everyone else would say wrong time to buy, but if the price is right and you can agree on terms to your liking, more power to ya.

When we made spud guns we used starting fluid, no need to shake since it was an aerosol. Small little hole just big enough to spray into and a BBQ igniter. How about a jai alai mitt or whatever they are called to throw the ball with? Maybe a catapult or a ballista? It is also quite easy to build a pitching machine, an old riding mower wheel attached to an electric motor and a trough to funnel the ball. We went through a sling making phase as well when i was a kid. I was never much good with one but they are fun. We also tried the Atlatl, they were ok but did not work as expected so we gave up on them. Had we kept trying we provably would have gotten them worked out. But you know young teenagers, lost interest and moved on to the next implement of destruction.

Tim, need a tool, make a tool. Like that swage block. Chad, very nice indeed. My grandfather was a cabinet maker, never caught on with me though.

I think that may translate to the American saying "I hate Monday" Just always keep in mind that if it were not for Monday then Tuesday would the hard day.

Well it is almost Thanksgiving so it is time to start getting geared up for Christmas. My mom and my aunt are quilters and like to cook. So this year they are getting book stands, or i suppose you could use it to hold an i-pad. No, i still have not cleaned my bench off, but at least i can see part of the top.

my first anvil, the arm off of a lift that we replaced in the garage i worked in. I still have 2 of them.

Hondo, is the copper visible along the spine and underside of the handle as well? If so i am thinking a faux cap on the but end by bending the copper like the faux guard would look quite nice as well. I prefer drop point rather than up swept, just my taste, nice job regardless. Alexandr, i do not envy your driving spikes into frozen ground.

I did not have a "job" back then but i did do things like mow grass, weed gardens, shovel snow, rake leaves, whet ever. My dad actually bought my first car for me, that Nova, when i was 13. I still think it was becuase he wanted it. My dad back in the late 60's and through the 70's drag raced. Most of the cars him and his friends had they built. It had been about 5 years since he had built a car so i think that is why he actually bought it. 1983, that was the year i became a professional mechanic. The first time i had ever been paid to work on a car. My dad's freind let me put brakes on his car. My dad of course supervised and made sure i did it right but i did all the work and got paid... so i could put that money into "my" car. We tore that car down, did the body work, had a bit of rust here and there. We built the engine, somewhere around 4 maybe 450HP, locker rear diff, then jacked it up in the front, a bit in the back, set of Hookers with cherry bombs and nothing after. As a teenager i ran a 13 flat in the 1/4 my best, my dad never drove it but i am sure he could have gotten into the 12's. Anyway when i turned 16 my dad gave me 3 boxes. 1 had a Pioneer radio with cassette player and 2 6x9"s, another had the keys to the car, and the third was full of receipts. He said that is how much you owe me for the money "we" put into your car. So i got my first real job and paid him what i could. As i have become older i do not think it was so much that i paid him back but that i went to work and learned what responsibility is. My dad and i still work on cars together. He turned 74 this year but still gets under the hood. Right now we have a '72 Monte, it is in a shop for paint over the winter though. I will have to post pics when we get it back from paint. We do not build drag cars anymore just mostly clean them up and dress them up. Then find something else someone is willing to trade us for, or sell this one and find another project.

I can think of nothing on a car, especially modern cars, that is heavy and big enough to use. Maybe the rear axle of a large truck. What i would do is start by looking at the improvised anvil thread for ideas on what to look for. Like fork lift tines or the counter weight. Also just describe to the people what you are looking for. You may also try your local steel supplier. I bought a 6"x6" cube of 4140 as a drop iirc ~$10, that was 4 or 5 years ago so may be a bit more expensive. I use it on the floor to upset long bars or set it on my forge to weld small stuff.

When we bought the house here a couple years back there was a washer and dryer left in the basement. I had just about a year earlier bought the wife a brand new set and she did not trust the dryer i "scrapped" them. That is several square feet of sheet metal i was not about to just throw away. It is kind of thin as well but i use it to make ladles with or wax catchers on candle holders. Small stuff like that. I can usually work it cold as well. I tried a piece for a fire place shovel but to me it just seemed to thin and it may have worked now but down the road i do not think it would have held up. I remember those days of the banana seat and puffy black Huffy seats. Having to hold the front wheel between your legs and straightening the handle bars. Ooooohh, the plastic 5 spoke rims. If you were fancy you had pads as well. Me and my freinds would go and find old bikes at garage sales and stuff then build our own. Fun times back in those days. Then i got a drivers license and a 1970 Nova SS.

The place where my wife works has a huge parking lot. When i would pick her up from work it would be late and no one in said parking lot. So of course that meant doing doughnuts in the snow and rain. Quite fun. Then i got a new truck and i turn off the traction control and the stabilitrak but i can only get about 1 1/2 good spin. Me and my ex-wife used to sit in candle light a lot. If a Betty Lamp is what i am thinking it is, we made them out of mason jars when i was kid. Fill the jar about 1/4 way full of lamp oil. Cut a wick about half the depth, a bit less, of the jar. Take a piece of wire and make a spiral, pull it up so the spiral is a cone and the top small enough to hold the wick. Put the wick and holder in the oil in the jar. You could make a hanger or sconce to hold it, or just set it on a flat surface.

My grandad had a spud bar, good 6' long and weighed at least 50#. Me and my cousins used to get it out from the barn and see who could throw it the furthest. To find an old one i would look at barn sales, estate sales, garage sales, flea markets, etc. If you are looking for a tool to use, you can buy them new as well.

Everyone wants to thank the vets. While the thanks is appreciated there is one group of people that i do not ever see get the recognition they deserve. The wives, mothers, and grandmothers of us vets. My grandmother watched as her husband went to Europe to fight a war, her son to Vietnam to fight a war, and her grandson sent to the ME to fight a war. Every step of the way they supported us. Everyday spent glued to the TV or radio hoping for a bit of news. Long nights wondering if their loved ones were safe and if they were coming home soon. And then on top of it all they also cared about those we were there with. The care packages sent, the letters wishing us well, they were never for me alone. They were for all my fellow dog faces that had my back. So thank you to my brothers in arms, give your mom a hug for me and tell her thanks for the chocolate chip cookies. 19K, Abrams tanker, 3rd ID, 1st AR, 1st Cav.

We get black ice in the cold spots. Bridges are a prime example as well as under trees. Most of our winter is spent on that edge right at freezing or thawing. So just that 1 or 2 degree drop in temp in the shade is enough to get a thin sheen of ice in that spot. The bridges is becuase there is no ground under them to insulate. Slush is what i hate. If we get a decent snow fall the roads get slushy pretty quick. Then that night it all freezes and the next day it is like driving on one of the roughest roads you can imagine.

Who ever forged the ink pens did quite a nice job. Gewoon, yup i agree, that is cold.

Goods, that would have been sometime around 2008 or so. I think the same year that hurricane Gustov hit. Frosty, my daughter has 2 plates and 17 screws in her ankle from that black ice. That happened a few years back but i still joke about wasting my time teaching her to walk when she was a kid.

About temps. -40F is the same temp as -40C. That is the point where the 2 converge.

I was changing cloths the other day when i looked over and about shot the old, fat, naked guy in my house... then i realized i was looking at the mirror over the dresser. When i lived in LA, just east of Baton Rouge in Denham Springs, woke up one morning to about 3" of snow. Got in the truck and drove to work. The other 2 guys i work with show and we get the shop fired up and ready for the day. That was when our boss called and said he decided to shut down for the day and for us to go home becuase the roads were so bad... after we had already drove there.

25.4mm to the inch. I have to do conversion just about every day where i work. In the USA we actually use the metric system a whole lot more than people realize. Yes in general we buy a gallon of milk and not a liter, we travel in miles and not kilometers, etc. Just as an example though going back to the 90's just about every American made car now uses metric bolts rather than SAE. In the military at the rifle range our targets were set in meters not yards. Basically while the general public uses the imperial system, industry, science and the government uses metric. I would say though that has more to do with the ease of doing business, research, and the like on the world stage than anything else.

So, i am not the only one that turns on subtitles so i can hear the TV? Frosty, when you are talking 3' of snow in one snowfall, i do not think 6" is much of a difference. Then again i live in a place where we are lucky to get 2' total all winter. I have had that rain stripe right over my house. One side of my porch getting wet and soaked the other side dry. Time seems to have changed as well. I get up and look at the clock, a few minutes later look again and 6 months has went by.

Here is one for Twisted Willow, well just becuase it is the only other song i know of that mentions Oklahoma than "Oklahoma!" Oh, wait and "Oaky from Muskogee"

I road marched 20+ miles in the Army, i used to hike and backpack through the woods, me and my cousins would race, and i mean flat out sprint, to the top of a mountain when i lived in KY. Today i have to sit and rest between taking the garbage cans to the road for pick up. All of 50 feet. My problem is ankles and knees. The trick is to make getting old fun. Try and guess tonight what will hurt in the morning that you did not even know you have today. As i have gotten older i have also noticed that somebody keeps lowering the floor.

TW, that was back in like 1975, no way i can recall what the station was. A good place to look for old records at is thrift stores. My wife used to work in one and they had hundreds and hundreds of records. I used to go through them occasionally and pulled out a few gems here and there. I actually learned a few things about finding old rare albums so that was what i would look for, the majority was more stuff like 80's rock that my wife would buy, or 70's. There are still records being made today also. You have to go to the bands web site and order them or if you can find a specialty music store they may carry some. As well as you can buy new turn tables. I have a pretty decent one, unfortunately it needs a needle and that i am having trouble finding. I do like that one though. I have a 78 that Metallica released back in the early 80's. Me and a couple freinds were jamming out to it, thinking man this is great. One of our other freinds came over so we decided he needed to hear it. So we put it on, loud and start rockin. Our freind gets up and switches the stereo from 33 to 78, we had it on the wrong speed. For those of you old enough you know that made quite a bit of difference. I also have a few old wax recordings, again you would be surprised what is in a thrift store, and my mom has them in storage but a few glass records as well. Irondragon, if you have records from back in the early 1900's those are most likely not vinyl. Shellac if iirc. Vinyl did not become widely used until around WW2, again iirc. Frosty, i believe it was on the History channel back then where i saw it as well. I am so glad that you remember seeing it. Sometime i remember things like that and have to question my sanity cuase i am the only one. Das, smells can be nostalgic that is for sure. My next door neighbor's mom came over to me one day and said that she loved when she would come over and i was working in the shop. She said the smell of the coal burning reminded her of her grandfather's house. A smell that always got me was that smell that comes out of your vents the first time you turn on the furnace when it starts getting cold.

This is coming from what i was learned many years ago, which may not hold true now, but a record had much better sound quality that tape or CD. The grooves in the record are literally the sound wave and the needle follows the wave to give you all the little nuanced sounds that you do not get from CD or tape. I watched a documentary many years ago where some researchers took ancient pots and "played" them. They discovered that some of the grooves in those pots picked up the sounds that were going on in the place they were made at that time. Take everything above with a grain of salt, that is 25+ year old memory and like i said may not hold true now. When i was a kid my uncle had a radio station out west in Oklahoma iirc, he would send me and my parents his "old" records. I have quite an extensive collection of "ONLY FOR RADIO RELEASE, NO PUBLIC SALE" records. Full albums that were only released to radio stations. My favorite is Carlos Santana and Buddy Guy live. When i was a kid i also used to play DJ. i would sit for hours playing the next hit song on my imaginary radio station and talking to the listeners. There is something i love about old albums, the smell, the feel, the cover art, etc.