Ted Ewert

Thanks Ausfire, I'm glad you like 'em. The punch is made from an old grounding rod, which happened to be made from some mystery steel. I turned it down on the lathe to a .5" end, rounded it off, then heat treated it. Nothing special really. I start the punch back on the handle and angle it towards the ring to move the metal in that direction. It makes a cleaner groove and adds a little metal to the tab. Once I get the tab punched out, I clean it up a bit with a Dremel tool to remove the ridges. I found a little beveled grinding bit which fits nicely into the groove. Ted

Nice twist Billy, those can be tough to get even. I wanted to try some wood handles. I had some old exotic hardwood from my woodworking days, so I put a couple of 1/4" pieces on this opener. I forgot to darken the steel before I glued it up, but it didn't turn out too bad. I was also goofing around with some brass rod and made a simple design on a basic opener. I like the contrast of the brass with the dark steel. I'm working on another one with a little more interesting design.

Thanks Hoj

Very nice roses! Are the thorns from the stem stock?

Thanks Pete, it's nice to get some positive feedback. I've finally built enough jigs and tools that my range of creativity has expanded. I also spend a fair amount of time finishing my work on the wire wheel, grinder, filing and cleaning up the surface. Nobody says that you have to be done after the anvil work.

Yeah, I read up on it and ordered some new hose today. For just heating steel, propane works really well with oxygen. Acetylene is almost too hot as I found out the hard way. Started melting things...

Thanks, these are the first openers I've done in a while and I sort of forgot how fun it is.

Thanks Frosty, I didn't realize that. Apparently there are 2 different ratings of hose: type R and type T. Type R is the older stuff you mentioned, but type T is tolerant of a wider variety of gases, including propane. The rating isn't listed on my hose, so I'll assume it's the R type. I'll pick up some new hose.

I finally got around to testing this thing and it worked well. The mortar didn't crack and the dies didn't deform. Here I formed a simple arc Here is a 60 degree bend And here I just beat a 3/8" square bar round on the end dies. All in all it should suit my moderate needs. I did need to put a hardie bar on it because it likes to dance around. Should I form anything else in it, or should it fail, I'll post it. Ted

I don't have the propane going through the acetylene regulator, just through the hose. The hose seems to be made of a similar material to the propane hose, but I don't know for sure. I disconnect the hose when not in use so I'm not real worried about it blowing the house up. I also shut off all gas valves before leaving the shop. Thanks for the warning though, you can't be too careful.

Here's a couple of openers I made recently. The one on the left was a bit of an experiment. It started out like the one on the right and then I twisted it to see what happened. I like the simple design on the right better.

I converted my Oxy Acetylene torch to also operate on propane. It's an old rig and I'm in the process of upgrading it. I bought a new set of hoses, regulators and tips, so I removed the hose connector on the old acetylene regulator and went to Home Depot and bought a couple of adapters to fit it to the propane hose. If anyone is interested all you need is a 3/8" FL (male) X 3/8" FIP coupling, a 3/8" MIP X 1/4" FIP (female) Hex Bushing. The fitting from the regulator fits in the 1/4" FIP and the left handed threads fit on the hose. It only ran me about $8. The oxygen regulator should run low, about 5 lbs, or it keeps blowing out the flame with small adjustments. Otherwise it works great for heating metal, which is all I use it for. Tank upgrades are coming nex. Here's the flame on a welding tip.

I sold my wood cutting bandsaw and bought a Makita metal cutting chop saw. This thing goes through steel like butter. It has a carbide blade, 15 amp motor and spins at 1300 RPM. Much faster and more accurate than my portable bandsaw.

It turned out as planned. How well it works is yet to be determined. Those lines in the mortar are not cracks. They are indents left by the wax paper which crinkled a bit.

I'm letting it cure a bit more before I start pounding on it, but it turned out quite well. I'll give it a workout this weekend.

I use one of those big stainless steel milk cans for my slack tub. I have three more sitting unused if anyone in the Bay area is interested. I made my first corkscrew with a Valentine's day theme. I need some practice on twisting the screw (and twisting it in the right direction!), but I like the general design.

Welding the stem on leaves has always been a problem for me, but I think I found a better way to do it. It's a simple butt weld, but a small gap is left between the stem and the sheet metal. This allows a much better weld as all the surfaces are welded together. I like to bend my leaves in the middle, which puts a big strain on the weld (usually resulting in cracks where surfaces are not connected). I still get little pin holes and irregularities, but the connection is solid. Here's a quick leaf I did this evening to test the weld I ground the weld flat, then put it in the oven and pounded it flatter still and at an orange heat. The outlines of the weld are visible at that point which can then be ground out smooth with a flapper disc on the grinder. Then it's ready to be shaped however you like. The hammering of the weld spreads it out which makes for a nice transition from the stem into the leaf. You can also get rid of pin holes this way, although the bigger occlusions need grinding or filing. If you're a halfway decent welder you won't have those problems. Ted

Nice video, thanks. Ever consider some narration instead of text? I loved the " I knew it was wrong but I did it anyway ". What is it about human nature that causes us to do that? What size bar was that, or did I miss it? I've been sticking to smaller stock but your upsetting technique looks like fun.

Thanks Das. It's about a foot long and fits nicely on the anvil. I may weld a bar on it to fit in the hardie.

I got both the ends finished, and assembled the unit. It was difficult to keep everything square and flat with so many different pieces having to be welded together. I did the best I could and it's functional anyway. I added a 60 degree V swage, and a block containing 1/2", 3/8" and 1/4" slots. I reinforced the inside of the block with lots of rebar. The load is distributed both laterally and linearly for all the different dies. I managed to make one side of the block flat and level so it would sit in the pan during pouring with minor leakage. Since it's fairly small, I decided to use mortar instead of concrete. I didn't see where concrete would buy me anything, and the mortar fills the little voids better. I mixed the mortar pretty thin and did a lot of tapping on the outside of the block to settle and pack the sand. I found that this produces a very dense final product. You can see how much water it displaces. I also use more cement in the mix to compensate for losses. I'll let it set for a couple of weeks or so to harden sufficiently. I'm pretty confident with all the rebar that it should work just fine. Ted

I agree that plugging up some holes is the easiest way to go. You'd be surprised at how few holes you need to have a nice hot forge. I wound up plugging about half the holes on my burner and still have to throttle it back or I have welding heat. Fewer holes save fuel too. With your blower I would plug the bottom row. That way you maintain a better swirl.

I use a piece of sheet metal, draw out the leaf on it, cut it out as close as I can with a portable bandsaw and finish it on the belt grinder. I can knock one out in about 10 minutes, which is fine for me. The grinder removes a lot of material if needed and also allows for finer contouring if you use the rollers and edges.

Thanks JLP, I drilled the holes as I find it so much easier and accurate. I've done a bit of machining over the years and old habits die hard.

That's a good question. I plan on using plain high strength concrete unless things start getting crowded. Then I may pre mortar the tight spots and crevices, and fill the rest in with regular concrete. I don't think adding small steel reinforcing pins will buy me anything. I may do a custom mix if warreted. The aggregate size in the high strength is pretty small which is good. It should work fine.

I've been thinking about this one for a while and finally got started on it. It will be a steel, 4 sided box with concrete as a filler. It's going to be about 12 inches square and 3 inches wide. I have one end completed and another side mostly there. I have still to make a 60 degree V swage and I would like to make some dishing swages too, although I don't have any steel in that shape . The rest of it is just pipes and angle iron so far. The strength in this design will be mostly dependant on the rebar configuration I have planned. The concrete will provide stiffness and support. If it works, it may provide an economical alternative to all steel units. We'll see how it goes...