Dax Hewitt

It didn't hurt at all, that's why I was in hospital, I cut through the nerve and had zero feeling in my little finger and half of my ring finger. 1 surgery and about 10 years and the feeling came back. Some excellent stuff being made on here. It's so frustrating not being able to get in my forge. The sooner my lungs recover from Covid the better

On the subject of internal hardwear, years ago I spent a night in hospital waiting to get my hand stitched up and I got talking to the guy in the next bed as you do. He had had his hip replaced a few weeks previously and was in agony and back to get it sorted. He told me to have a look at his xrays that were in the folder at the bottom of the bed. One of the screws had been put in too far and the pointy end was rubbing on one of his testicles internally. No wonder it was hurting.

Pipes, a toe jack or 2 and crowbars. The old compressors we used to move around were between 2 and 5 ton, Jack them up and slip pipes under, lever with the crow bar and your off. An old boy who had a workshop next to mine used to install weaving machinery in India many years ago, he was showing me photos one day. This loom was the size of a small house and was to be situated on the second floor. There was a hole in the floor to lift it through. 50 or 60 Indian blokes on each side, they would lift one side and slide blocks under then lift the other side and do the same, 12 inches at a time the loom rose through the floor and once through long beams were put through to span the gap. He always said he could move anything no matter how big it was, the only variable was how many Indian chaps you needed.

Mr Rooster, that dragon is looking cool sir.

Mid 2019 my business partner was fitting a kitchen with his brother and went to grab the work surface bro was cutting to stop it falling and lost 3 fingers plus split his thumb down the middle. Hospital put 2 fingers back and fixed the thumb perfectly but the saw went through the knuckle of his index finger so they fused it crooked so it wraps round things. Makes his job very hard and would be better without it but they won't take it off.

As my shop is only 10 foot square I put a rack on one wall, I'm only a hobby Smith so I don't need much stock. 1 rack is for round bar, 1 for square bar, one for flat bar and tube. Under it are a couple of 5 gallon drums for short off cuts and just outside is a 45 gallon drum full of random stuff I have acquired.

I love that snail. Definitely going to have a go at making one once my long covid clears up enough to get back in the forge.

The wealthy get wealthy by not parting with money. I find with our customers that the more expensive the cars in the car park are the more they will plead poverty and chase a bigger discount. Frosty, it was the same owners. They went bust after I stopped dealing with them. It's quite interesting because they were one of these large facilities companies with loads of government contracts. I don't know about the US but in the UK large companies have to be audited and at the moment the auditors are being taken to court for not flagging up the issues they were having. When the company went bust it took down a lot of smaller businesses. These facilities companies really wind me up they have zero assets, typically zero experience in doing the actual work and a massive marketing team that wins tenders that they just sub out to people who can do the work and take a big slice off the top.

The Blist Hills Victorian Village in Ironbridge have a working foundry that does sand casting. It might be a good PR project they could be interested in.

Drilling works but there are some things I don't like to use power tools on, there is something satisfying making something just using fire, a hammer and random bits of steel.

Quality weather here at the weekend. Heavy wind and it didn't stop raining on Sunday, On Monday morning I had to re arrange a load of work due to the number of waste water sites that I was supposed to visit but they were under water.

Round punch by eye. I never thought of flattening the bar a bit. I will give it a try once my lungs recover from Covid (mild dose over Christmas but it's left me with breathing problems) Would a slitter and drift work on such a small hole, it's only 6mm 1/4?

When I say perfect I meen vaguely the same bend radius on each side. Basically something that looks pleasing to the eye. I have tried punching before and after bending. My problem is keeping the punch central. If its not bang on a 6mm hole in 12mm bar bulges one side out more than the other. I don't fancy them up, I like a plain buckle that if needed could be used to beat a rhino to death.

How do you manage with so few hammers?

I blew them out in the first place because it took me over 6 months to get paid the 50k they owed me. We had a contract worth 500k a year with company A, company B bought company A and payment went from 30 to 90 days if you were lucky. I had to keep working for them because it was a massive part of our income but only for a year or so whilst we developed enough other work to close their account and start legal proceedings to get the remaining 50k.

It's not single piece but belt buckles are one of my favourite things to make. Bending the D shape with consistent bends takes a bit of practice, punching consistent holes for the cross bar is something I find very hard but I'm getting better. Riviting over the ends of the cross bar is easy to mess up and finally drawing down and shaping the tang. 12mm round bar for the D, 6mm bar for the cross bar and 6mm bar drawn down to 4mm for the tang. Very east to make, very hard for a beginner like me to make perfectly.

I do that, an ex customer came on to me to do a job, they were one of the UKs biggest building and engineering contractors who I blew out because I got sick of chasing money. Apparently though I was the only person on their framework for this type of job so I quoted £500 for a £250 job money up front. They paid it. They came back the next year so I quoted £1000, money up front. They questioned the increase and I said "I told you last year I don't want to work for you" they paid it. They came back year 3, £2000, same question, same answer. They paid it. Year 4 would have been £4000 but they never came back. The entire company went bust with debts of 7billion pounds.

My business partner was holding a wooden worktop whilst his brother cut it to size with a hand held circular saw.. He repossessioned his hand to stop the off cut falling and breaking the wood and the result was 3 fingers on the floor and a thumb split down the middle. 6 months before he came back to work and 2 fingers plus the thumb look and work perfectly but the saw went through the knuckle of the index finger so it's now fused crooked to assist picking things up, it's also shorter and a bit wizened, has zero feeling yet hurts like the devil when cold. It's basically worse than useless, it's a hindrance for someone who works with his hands but the NHS refuse to remove it because they spent a lot of time and money trying to fix it.

Love the hook rack. Looks great. Also love the large fishing hook. Needed to find a whale to test it.

Anyone who finds themselves around Leeds in the UK are welcome to drop in for some steak.

This arrived in the mail on Christmas eve, a gift from a friend of mine. 90cm diameter and 6mm thick steel. Never had a Christmas day BBQ before but it would have been rude not to light it up. Need to make myself some man sized BBQ tools now. I singed all the hair off my arm using the normal short ones.

Frazer my tongs are way beyond straitening in a vice, each attempt is better than the last though so it's only a matter of time when I can recover a pair. On the subject of hammers, my go to is a 2lbs cross peen for lighter (most) of my work and a 3lbs cross peen if I want to move bigger or tougher stuff. The chisel I made is 7/8's medium carbon round bar, the 2lbs was hard going but the 3 brought it down fast.

Tongs completely illude me. I know the theory of making them and I have made some on a course but can I make any in my own shop? No. I keep twisting the Jaws when I try to offset the boss. I'm sure it will come in time but it's very frustrating.

Thomas, that's a good idea. I will give it a try on the Mk2 version's.

Bingo. I will give it a go with a blunt chisel and whilst hot It will be a good excuse to make another chisel because I don't have the heart to blunt my first one Again thanks for the advice.