BillyBones

Finished a coat rack i started this weekend for my daughter. 

Juts had to screw it down to the board after staining the wood late last night.

Had a pretty bad day so after i just sat down opened a beer and turned on Dr.John.

Now, i may be posting this in the wrong place, but i was not real sure where to post it. Any way here goes.

I found this piece of 3/8 round bar in my scrap pile. About 3' long or so an i figured i could use it for something, specifically for a foot on one of my garden stakes. Any way when i started heating it it turned yellow. Almost looked powder coated. The entire bar is rusted and i figured rust is my friend so i used it. When i saw the yellow i decided maybe i should not use it. Oh i layed heat to it one more time just to get the photo. I will post tommorrow if something from it has made me die to let yall know not to do it. 

Any way here is the yellow stuff and the second pic is just how the bar looks. (other end obviously)

As another note before i knew much about metals i put a piece in that was zinc plated and i do not remember it turning yellow so i do not think it is galvanized. 

I also figure it is better to error on the safe side and take it to the scrap yard on my next run if i have any question as to safety. But i would still like to know what it means. 

D-2, incredibly tough stuff. Looking up the heat treating process it looks like you need a science degree. I am pretty sure this is beyond my current abilities to do anything with. So for now it will be a #6 paper weight until my skills get better or i can trade it for something more useful to me. 

Billings and Spencer tool company has a pretty cool history. The founder got his skills for drop forging from the Colt firearms company. 

Pretty cool Gazz, i am also glad you left the open end with the logo. I love tools. The Snap-on and MAC truck are like shoes store to women for me. (yeah like i am the only one here) 

I would bet money that Alexanders scrap pile looks better than anything i can do.

Stopped by the old stock supply today and while picking up some more bar stock i was given this. 1" x 1 1/2" x 14" ( or abouts 14") hunk of D-2. 

I am thinking hardy tools, fullers, cone mandrel, etc. to use it for. Any yall ever use D-2 for tooling? It is a nice big hunk and i would like to figure something out with it. I tried to cut a piece and thought i was going to burn out my angle grinder. Pretty tough stuff. 

Small bass, heck i would fillet that thing. Oh, wait it may be a little hard on the teeth

So i finished my hammer today. While tempering i dropped it on a rug. Man that rubber stuff they make them out of now is hard to get off. keeps clogging the grinder. (dont ask, the old lady wanted to see the "pretty colours") 

Anyway, like i said 4140 steel, hardened very nice. came out at just a couple ounces under 3#. i can not beleive the difference in using a good hammer. I just used it t taper out a couple pieces of steel. 5/16, 3/8, then 1/2. moved the meta real nice. It is a little crooked, but that is because my rasp skills need some work. And yeah i know it should go all the way to the split but when i did my last fitting i could not get it back off. I will just wait for it to break then re-do the handle. Put a little ebony stain on him. feels good and most importantly i like it. 

Ted, nah just into the weeds behind the shop.

So i made my first hammer today. Started with a block of 4140, 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 x 6. Of course i had no drifts for such a critter so them had to be made also. One is the pin from a Jeep rear end, well a piece of it. The rear end blew up and i rebuilt it about 2 months ago. One is a 1" ball punch from harbor freight that came in a set, quite good steel i was not expecting. then a piece of spring steel at 5/8 round. I first cut off a piece to make the peen end, then drilled a 1/2" hole in the middle. I would have had it crooked as all get out it i just tried to punch. Got him good and hot and drifted the holes. 

So here it is, the punches are ordered spring steel, diff pin, ball punch. The ball punch made the hole hourglass shaped for me.

Ran out of time to finish dressing. But over all including making the punches, 5 hours. A little more clean up then to heat treat.

Any suggestions on heat treating 4140?

Oh i almost forgot as it sits 3# on the nose. So after dressing just a touch under. 

Built a "bathroom" in the shop today, for some reason the old lady wont use it.

CC, completely missed the trowel. That is looking great. What kind of wood? 

That old Imperial looks like it is in really great shape. Does it run? Tranny, auto or stick? That would look great with some skirts, lowered a tad, chop an inch out the body and 2 out the top. Flat black paint, maybe with some ghost flames. Put a spark plug in the exhaust and get the blue flames going on. Like a 50's tail dragger. (go greased lightin, go greased lightin.)

With a flat black paint job you can also get away with polishing or re-chroming the bumpers and just black out the rest of the chrome if it is in bad shape or missing. 

Also from my understanding the 4 door hard top is a rare car. 

I will have to ask the old man the name but there is a place here in Dayton that specializes in finding old hard to find parts. I will post it when i find out. 

Pretty darned cool door knocker there Ted. 

JHCC, thanks for the pic of what a yarn bowls purpose is, i had no clue and was going to ask how it was used. Now i know what to make mom for mothers day. She is more into quilting but i know she will figure some use for it. 

Not much shop time today but i managed a couple latch hooks for my swinging barn doors that had just some wire twisted up holding them closed.

here is another in place.

And the swinging doors i have just to show what i mean. Sliders in the middle then swinging doors on the sides. Both ends have the same set up.

The door handles i made about a month ago. Next is handles for the swinging doors. 

I worked in a machine shop for a few years and there i learnt how to sharpen drill bit by hand. 

Invest in some good cutting oil also. A few drops can make a world of difference sometimes. 

What i have wondered about that forged in fire show is why do none of the smiths punch their holes? 

This is about balcksmithing, but then again it is not. 

I was watching a demo on fire starting with out matches or lighter. One of the methods used was with a peice of steel and a hammer. The guy doing the demo said that Japanese smiths would start their fires by taking a small piece of steel and beating it cold on the anvil until the metal would get hot enough from friction to start an ember in a tender bundle. 

My youngest daughter is half my age now. I tell her that just a few years ago she was 1/10 my age, then 1/4, 1/3, now half and at this rate soon he will be older than me.

My twin grandaughters have recently lost their first tooth. Grandma hates it when i tell them they are going to loose their fingers and toes for the adult ones to grow in. 

Ok, so after checkin with the old lady it was in '09 i chopped off my finger. (aint it amazing how much faster time moves as you get older. I swear somebody is moving the clock hands and lowering the floor on me.) 

Frosty, this is the honest to God's truth as to what i did. I laid my finger flat on a bench, with the heal of my other heal off my other hand i smashed it 2x and back into socket it went. I then dosed it in peroxide. Then i soaked a piece of paper towel in peroxide, wrapped it around my finger. Then wrapped a piece of gauze over that and wrapped it all up in electrical tape. Went over and finished pulling out the transmission from that truck. 

Here it is today:

If you look close you can see the scar, i guess i could have washed my hands. (yeah right, like they would get much cleaner)

On to what i did today

Made a mini-hatchet out of an old ball peen:

And i re-planted my pineapple. Yes i am growing a pineapple in Ohio. I have had it for about 5 years. I take it inside in the winter and put it under plant lights. The cat chewed on it this past winter so the leaves look a little scraggly but it should be OK. 

Das, that is a lovely young lady you got there. Cute as a button. Give her another Happy Birthday from me. 

Kids, ya spend 2 years teaching them to walk and talk, 16 tellin them sit down and shut up. When my youngest turned 18 and moved off i thought great me and the old lady got the house to ourselves now. Then the oldest one came back... with her kids. Once ya get one they just keep on multiplying like cats in the barn. The cats are not near as mean as the daughters though. 

Seriously though treasure every minute with them, 18 years goes by in the blink of an eye. 

So about accidents in the shop. This happened a while back ago, 5 or 6 years maybe, but i was pulling the trans from a bucket truck that had a sub-frame. While unbolting it one of the bolts broke and the frame fell on my hand. It pinched 3 of my fingers between it and a drive on rack. The middle and ring got a pretty good cut. The first joint of my pinky was hit just right to dislocate it. It was on the corner of the rack and the frame and that corner acted like a  hammer hitting steel on a cut off. When i got the frame back up it was dangling by the skin on the bottom side. 

My old lady made me get an apron after catching my self on fire the other day. 

Sarge, that is cool ya got the kid doin it. My granddaughters are 6 and love to be in the shop with papa. They mark the anvil, but cant move steel for nothing. 

So today Alexandr makes a master peice of a wicket (thanks i learnt a new word today) and me i set my self on fire.

Thanks for the kind words about my dog. 

Frosty thanks for the tip on carving up stones. If i ever do it again i will try that. 

Cannon cocker, thanks for the compliment. 

My mud room is barely big enough for a bench much less cabnets. I still track mud though cuase i mostly use the kitchen door. I keep telling the old lady that that i only do it out of love and want to make her feel needed around the house. I even bought a sink that my finger tips will not touch the bottom of standing straight just so she would be more comfortable doing dishes. It is a normal sink, just the counter top is only 31" high. 

So, not today but this past weekend. 

I am no stone mason, far from it. But i had these 2 old foundation stones lying about. I posted a couple months ago about my dog passing. He now has this new spiffy head stone. Took me 3 attempts but i am satisfied with the result. I sure as you no what was not going to try and date it. The 5 letters were hard enough. I just used an old cold chisel. The other decorations are courtesy of the old lady.

It is straight, the photo angle makes it look lopsided. Spend a lot of time in the barn so i buried him next to it.

Did get a little forge time in and started a fire place set for my mom and dad. Got the tongs and poker done. Used to take me about 8 or 9 hours to get a poker done. I can now do it in about 3. The tongs i am just glad i can finally make 2 items that are that close in resemblance. Started a shovel today. Got the blade made and i was going to just rivet it to a handle but then turned the rivets into plug welds instead. My first time trying a shovel shaped object. Yeah its bad. No pics yet of the shovel but here are tongs and poker.

Local sherrif came by one day just as i was putting my boat in. He said i got some questions for ya. I said well i am kind of busy so get in and lets talk. We rowed out to the middle of the lake and he asked about fishing. I said i been doing good. He said any thing illegal? I lit a stick of dynamite and handed it to him. I said you gonna talk or you gonna fish? 

Yeah, ok old joke from i think it was Andy Griffith originally, got a love Ange, but we did however do the same thing with artillery simulators when i was in the Army. 

Frosty, Anvil, thank you. I am one of those vets and it means a lot.

Yes i still live. But i have noticed quite a few companies trying to sell her life insurance in the mail. 

I did it the same as i have done my chisels. Hardened about the first 2" - 2 1/2" then let the color run to "peacock". 

I know ice can be punishing and i figure it is kind of like hammering a chisel so  wanted the middle a little softer. I did not want it to hard as my luck, a chunk will fly into her eye and i will never hear the end of that. Heck i still hear about the time i stabbed her in the hand in a bar one night. You would think they would let things go...

The old lady will not drink the water in the house, nor will she make ice with it. The closect place she can buy ice at they seem to let it melt somewhat so instead of cubes you get a bag shaped block. I have gotten tired of hearing he gripe about it, beat it on the floor, the wall, the fridge, get a hammer, or what not. So today she gets a new ice pick. No biggie, a piece of 1/4" garage door spring. Drew out a piece about 8" long or so. Then used a piece of an old hammer handle that was made of hickory. Sanded it down smooth and put a couple coats of tongue oil on him. 

Hardened up pretty nice. Yes the little angle is supposed to be on the end of the handle so it fits a little better in the palm. The tip is straight but the light from the filing makes it look crooked.