BillyBones

TW, i agree with all of that. Like when i was working in a garage, many people get by just fine with that $25 dollar wrench and socket set they buy at the local box store but for me professionally... well i have seen tool boxes that cost as much as a new car. When i lived in Lake Charles i rebuilt the transmission in an F350 that was owned by a professional fisherman. It was a new transmission that none of us had any experience with, after building it, it made it 50 miles down the road before blowing apart. Came down to how the cooler was flushed. Real learning curve. But i digress. The truck had a complete wrap around sticker with a whole slew of sponsors, he had a boat that matched. I was explaining to him what had happened and why the trans failed, along with how we would correct the problem. This was on a Thursday if IIRC and we would not be able to get his truck back till Monday at the earliest. He said something along the lines of he was going to miss a tournament and that would cost him $15,000 just for not showing up. I said i am in the wrong business. I can see him having a fishing pole that is thousands of dollars. When we got the tranny done the second time me an my manager took it for a test drive and got it stuck in a ditch. When the back end of the truck went into the ditch the trailer hitch caught the side so the rear tires were off the ground. Just put it in 4wd and pulled it out but still kind of funny. Oh, and yes we went across the ditch on purpose not an accident.

I am no angler so to me $100 for a fishing pole is a bit pricey. That $30 wally world special does me just fine. I lived in Louisiana "The Sportsman's Paradise" for a couple years and did some fishing. That fish Max is holding is about as big as anything i caught there. That is why i am not an angler. When you take him to the creek you are teaching him to catch crawfish right? Need to take a beer or pop can with you, cut out the top, scoop up some creek water, and boil those crawfish. Bank side meals are always tasty.

My buddy's mom made an out door table like that. The top was the fly wheel, i think the base was mounted in a rim if IIRC, all nice and welded up. She found the crank and stuff in the garage, the crank was a forged steel stroker for a big block Chevy my buddy paid a pretty penny for. As far as bird stuff, how about nice elaborate French baroque style bird cages? From looking at them on the interweb machine most look as if they would be a lot of tedious welding of small round bar with a bit of sheet metal work.

One of my daughters favorite books is "Irish Fairy and Folktales" by W.B. Yeats. When she was little before bed she would get story time, the Yeats book was one she liked, but i used to tell her stories as well. One of her favorites is a traveler is walking down a road, hungry and thirsty he comes to an old house with an old man and woman sitting on the porch. The traveler asks for food and water on for his journey. The old man says that he has a well by the house but food will cost the traveler a story of his journeys. The traveler says that he has no stories to tell. So the old man directs him to the well. While reaching for a drink the traveler falls into the well. "Adventure ensues". At the end of the story the traveler is again walking down a road where he comes to an old man and women sitting on a porch. The old man asks, Now do you have a story to tell? The "Adventure ensues" part is where you start making up the story. As long as the story begins and ends at the old couples house the rest is just what ever you can come up with. It changes every time you tell it. You can make it as long or as short as you want, set in any place you want. I think that is why my daughter and my grandkids have enjoyed it over the years is becuase it is never the same story twice.

I tried modelling it after my hammer. I left a bit of material so that it could be modified for the user. The polished shin spots on my hammer are from use.

Made a hammer for a freind. Came out just under 2#,. Soaking in linseed oil right now, after a few days i will take it to work and test for hardness. Made from 1040, hickory handle. Also made a small cross pein for an iron in the hat at an event i will be attending the end of April. Worked on a couple ideas for a scroll on an upcoming project. This is the one i am liking most.

You can make percussion caps from a piece of pop can, or beer your choice, and some of those caps on a paper roll like we used to use in our toy cap guns. You can buy the tool that punches and forms the aluminum into the cup shape for them. Punch out your cup, then use a paper hole punch so that you get just the part of the paper cap that "pops", insert 3 of them into your cup and you have yourself a percussion cap. One of my cousins had a flint lock. That was pretty fun to shoot and definitely takes some practice to get good with. Back when flintlocks were the choice of rifles bird hunting was considered one of the hardest kinds of hunting. The reason was the slight pause between the time the pan was ignited and the rifle actually firing. Birds could see the flash then change their direction. So you had to anticipate where the bird was going to be. Or so i have been told. Speaking of bird hunting the guy on the KY ballistics you tube channel has a punt gun. That is pretty fun to watch and see what it can blow holes through. Every August here we have a sweet corn festival. The corn is cooked in an old steam tractor, then dipped in melted butter. Quite yummy.

Frosty, on the plus side of that though we rarely even turned the TV on. There were much better or important things to do. Like launch your little cousin 30' through the air from a bent down tree. One of the worst but whoopins i ever got. Me and one of my cousins went up on the hillside one day. One of our other younger cousins wanted to come with us. We tied her up to a tree and left. An hour or so later grandma asked where she was, me and my cousin both said "i dunna know". She spent about 2 hours tied to a tree in the middle of the woods till my uncle found her. Grandma did not even make us cut the switch before she wore our xxxes out.

She seemed to have missed one that i would have put up much sooner than "content" creator. That is making blanks, or other items like that. I have noticed a lot of smiths investing in plasma tables lately to make blanks with to sell to other smiths. From frying pans to hooks to Christmas ornaments and even tool racks.

Our antenna then was on a long pole so no going up on the roof. When we lived in KY we had a wire, one of those that looked kind of like a ladder, that ran from the house to the antenna that was on top of a mountain about a mile away. If the TV went out it involved a hike up the mountain following the wire and then repairing the place it broke.

I remember those adjustment knobs. When i was a kid it was my job to go out and turn the antenna to get better reception. My dad or grandpa would be in the living room yelling "A little more, more, more, OK! that's it. Nope, to far, back just a bit, nope to much, ok that is good." This past week Brit Turner lost his battle with cancer. That would be the guy on the drums in this cover the Rolling Stones. Again one of my favorites, Blackberry Smoke.

The house i grew up in at night you would hear footsteps on the basement stairs. My grandma called it a haint. You would just hear weird noises at times and the like. Now, my aunts house on the other hand, they had paranormal investigators there a few times. Things would happen like mirrors breaking in the middle of the night. They came home from visiting one weekend and every drawer in the house had been pulled out. Not emptied just pulled out. When i was stationed in Kitzingen the barracks we lived in was haunted. During WW2 they were built as a hospital for German troops. There was a tunnel in our basement that led to all the other building in our area. There were tunnels all over that post. One week our scout platoon went to the field. They lived on the top floor, seperately from our company and would lock up and secure the floor before they left. They came back and all the weights in their weight room had been laid out on the stairs. I was on the CQ desk one night, the desk was in the foyer but i could look over my left shoulder into the gig mirror (you old vets should know what that is) and see all the way down the hall. I heard a commotion and looked into the mirror and saw 2 guys fighting. Thinking great who is drunk tonight and fighting i get up to go and break up the fight and put them to bed. When i turn into the hallway there is no one there. So i sit back down that is when i realize that both were in uniform, strange to be still in uniform at 2am. And one uniform was brownish green and the other grayish, not the woodland camouflage that we wore. Like WW2 uniforms of the Americans and Germans. I woke up the Pvt. that was my assistant and told him to get up and come keep me company cuase i was about to fall asleep. Aint no way i was going to say i just saw a ghost and i am freaked out now.

George that may be true, unless your early teen years it was the disco era. Oddly i was not into what was popular when i was a teenager. Yes i did like some of the 80's metal hair bands, Anthrax, Metallica, Ozzy, etc. but i was more likely to be listening to Muddy Waters, BB King, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, or some other blues guitarist. A lot of late 60's rock because much of it was blues based. Janis Joplin is one of my favorite singers ever because of the gritty, gravely blues voice.

I agree with Das on that most likely being steel and not wrought, especially because it looks like there is remnants of broken weld on the ends. However i dis agree on the usefulness. It is really not that difficult to take the twist out of. I had a whole bunch of old porch railing a while back and i got to where i could get the twist out pretty quick. Also if you want something with a twist, well you have them premade. Any way, if i could get them pretty cheap, say $30-$40 US, i would by them. The biggest hassle you will have is getting the paint off of them. That is some pretty tough stuff.

They hide their existence by being ghosts. Cars would go right through them, bullets right through them, ghosts i am telling you. Seriously though, this is why i love these kind of things. As long as the discussion stays civil and does not devolve into childish name calling and the like. I love seeing others opinions Bigfoot, among others, i have seen enough evidence to say that they may be onto something but i have not seen any thing that makes me say yep, 100% for certain.

Maybe Bigfoot, like the Loch Ness Monster, it the ghost of a prehistoric creature and that is why there is no remains, scat, or other such things. I used to watch Mountain Monsters all the time. I rolled laughing when they built the giant bug zapper to trap Mothman. I know for a fact that aliens exist. My grandpa worked at Wright Patterson AFB, he told me and all my freinds when i was a wee lad that it was his job to feed the aliens in hanger 18. (by the way if any one does not know, there is no hanger 18 or ever has been.) On a serious note i will not say it is proof positive of alien "life" but i had an uncle that was a research scientist for the federal gov't. Back in the 80's he was doing research on some sort of single celled amoeba like thing they found on a craft that had returned from space. I never did find out if it was something they took with them or brought back. I am a pretty opened minded person but i usualy go with the simplest explanation is usually the right explanation.

Ok, got me on the plaza thing. I should have said "one of" the most stable structures. I love a good conspiracy theory though, even the tin foil hat brigade and the crazy haired guy that is always on TV. From big foot to ancient aliens, flat earthers to moon landing deniers, quite entertaining. There was a web site that i loved going to and reading about the but since 2016 it has all become politics there. That will ruin a good website in a heart beat in my opinion. If i want to read politics i will go to a political site or if i want religion a religious site.

Jennifer, thank you. It was you among the many others on this site that have encouraged me, challenged me, and inspired me. With out you guys here my skills would still be rudimentary. TTB, using that for a forge you should be able to heat 5" diameter stock. My whole forge would fit inside that. Using a campfire is still the same principle as using a forge. Good hot coals, supply air, stick the metal in. I keep a pipe in my backyard firepit for when i need to get a really long even heat or to melt metal, mostly lead for shot but i have not done that in a long time now.

One thing i can not stand about the "alien tech" people is that they take away so much from human ingenuity. Human beings are capable of great things. It does not take a rocket surgeon to figure out how to stack 2 rocks on top of each other or that a pyramid is the most stable of structures.

Same with brake cleaner. Used to be made with trichlorethylene, now is just basically nail polish remover.

The traveling craftsman, isnt that where we get "Journeyman" from? I have had 2 great days in the shop. Fire burning blue, very little off gasses, and hot, metal moving like butter, welds setting with little effort. Then on top of all that the house next to me is going up for sale and the owner asked if i could make some railings for the outside steps. 2 total, for the stairs from the street and the steps up on the porch. So today started a outdoor sconce. Got the shaft made, the flat bar for the scrolls tapered, the plate for the wall or post, and the standoffs tenoned. Also made a candle holder, still needs riveted, and a basket twist for another candle hold i need to make. Tomorrow will be the cold work. Drilling the holes, setting rivets, etc.

The Outlaws, i have always liked them. "Green Grass and High Tides" has always been one of my favorite songs. Fun story, when i lived in Florida there was a radio station that did a request hour. They would play what ever you requested if you could get through to the DJ. One night as the time was set to begin i called wanting them to play a Ten Years After song. When the guy answers the phone he say "CONGRADULATIONS, you won" Me, having just turned on the radio and no clue said "won what?" It was 2 tickets to see Molly Hatchet and The Outlaws. I took my dad. I also took my mom and dad to go see Crosby, Stills, and Nash when i lived there.

I was at Deercreek for a Grateful Dead show in '95. A bunch of people decided they were going to "storm the gates" at a sold out show. The news called it a riot. I was on the other side of the parking lot, had tickets to the 2nd night, so i can not sya for sure what happened, but there was a line of police cars at least a mile long and you could smell the CS in the air. The 2nd night got cancelled, the only concert the Dead ever cancelled. At Buckeye lake in '94 there was a huge thunderstorm during the show, the band played on through driving wind blowing the rain almost sideways. I still have my ticket to the '95 show. I figure when i breathe my last i will get to finally use it. I call it my ticket to heaven, tongue in cheek.

Never was much of a Rush fan. Dont get me wrong, they were one of rocks and rolls greatest, H... of a drummer. Just not my cup of tea. A bit of 80's throw back, a time in my life that coming home from a concert could also include broken bones.

I do about everyday. All of our surface grinders at work have magnetic chucks like that. Das, the magnetic feild should release when "off", we use a soft bristled brush to clean dust off with. Also with any magnet the contour of the piece you are working will matter. If you put a 1/2" ball bearing on a magnet it is much more easy to pull off than a 1/2" piece of flat bar. That is the reason the pliers will pull off easier. From what you describe it sounds just about as strong as any i have used. Even at work sometimes i have to lay pieces of flat bar to brace what ever it is i am grinding. Also, yes as a machinist i would have the same reaction watching you weld on one of those as i would as a blacksmith watching you use a cutting torch on an anvil. But i also have to say nice looking "outside the box" at what can aid you in your endeavors.