Dax Hewitt

I would have real problems if I found a snake in my workshop. Not posted on here for a while, I lost my login details and not be in my forge so far this year (too busy at work) but I had a couple of hours today. For the first time ever my fire failed to light, I think I cut the kindling too thin so it burned off before the coke caught but second time lucky. Anyway I made a bolt for the rabbit hutch, tied a knot in some 3 mm stainless bar to make a necklace, made a rough snail key ring for a mates Mrs and whilst trying to make a leaf I broke the stem off so I used it and a home made rivet to fix a set of broken bbq tongs (bought the tongs for £1 from a car boot sale last year) All in all a decent first days hammering.

The skills and attention to detail of all you guys is a constant source of inspiration.

Nice hair grip. I would love to make the Mrs something like that but the last thing I want to do is arm her with a robust pointy metal stick. I wind her up too much to do that.

Yay finally found time to light my fire again. One of my customers sent my mobile compressor back with broken clasps so I forged new ones, but rough and ready but will do the job. One of my lads wad interested so I let him make a keyring snail and made one myself at the same time to show him the steps. The 2 hooks were 1/2 stainless steel rebar (yes I know but it's what I had) the snails are 6mm (1/4) round stock. Mine is on the right, Zaks in the middle. He did a cracking attempt for his first go with a hammer concidering his teacher knows next to nothing.

The key word is men. Most men will want to try Smithing but unfortunately men seem to be an endangered species in these touchy feely metro sexual times.

Das that tree is excellent. Deffinatly inspiration.

I have changed many a bladder in a pressure and surge vessel tank and they all have one thing in common. They are all quite a bit smaller than the tank to allow the water to stretch the bladder from the inside and compressed air (typically a couple of psi below the water pump pressure) to compress it from the outside giving a reservoir of usable water pressure and stopping the pumps banging on and off every time a tap is opened.There won't be close to enough rubber to line the entire tank. On a side note I'm changing the bladder on a 1000 gallon (UK gallon) tank in the next couple of weeks, it's going to be a right pain in the bum.

Sent you a mail with the number of a guy with a 100kg anvil forsale for £120 in Sheffield. I know nothing about it other than someone sent the number to me but might be worth a call.

Having seen a grinding wheel explode and tear a hole in a sheet metal locker door 5 feet away I doubt the typical perspex guard would do much to save you. Best thing to do is go on a grinding wheen course and learn how to use them correctly before you go near one and then use the guard because it's better than nothing and will protect you from sparks and debris even if it doesn't do much for an exploding wheel.

Thanks for posting the link Das, it made interesting reading. The rotors looked quite a bit bigger but all is clear now seeing them in context like that.

Those critters are excellent, great tutorial too thank you.

Running low on butter knives? What about the what I assume are starter motor rotors.

Das you creativity known no bounds. I love that little snowman.

The old fence for the display was a cracking idea. Really sets the stuff off. Some top looking stuff too. It's great to see a young person actually doing something. I don't know what it's like in the USA but in the UK the majority of kids I come across are only interested in games consoles and their phones and think the world owes them a living. Top marks for rolling your sleeves up and "forging" your own way in the world.

Ben your first leaf looks about as good as my 6th, seeing as I haven't been able to use my forge for 2 weeks now it's probably better than my No7 and no8 will be

First forging with your new set up. I burned a few bits of steel when I got my own fire but it didn't take long to lead the difference between my fire and the one I was using on the course's.

As always some great stuff on here. Particularly 58ER's vines, they look amazing.

That's a beast. What's the hammer shaft? Any chance of it starting to bend at that sort of weight.

The value of any given product or service is all dependent on what someone will pay for it. I had a sales rep in last week trying to convince me that his companies £1000 a day training course for my sales guys was excellent value for money because of the return on investment when they brought in more sales (despite the fact they already bring in more sales than I can cope with). I wanted to know how a 1 day PowerPoint presentation is good value at £1000 when I just paid £750 for a 3 day course to qualify me to work in potentially explosive areas. Yes and no. I had an argument with a dentist customer of mine recently. She called me out at 8am on a Monday morning because her compressor didn't work so I dropped the job I was doing, battled the rush hour traffic to get there to find it had blown a fuse (I have advised before it needs a 16 amp supply but she runs it on a 13 amp plug). I changed the fuse carried out some tests to make sure it was okay and went back to my shop. Before I left she said she hoped I wouldn't be charging her £100 for the job just to change a fuse. I said that with the travel there and back plus the time on site testing etc it was a 2 hour job. £50 a hour is a fair rate. I also pointed out that she charges me £20 for a 10 minute check of my teeth so that works out at £120 per hour. Ahh yes she says but that covers my premises and equipment, the nurse, the reception, on going training etc. I pointed out that my £50 per hour covers my time, my offices time to process the job, my workshop, stores and office space, my van and tools, the minimum of 10k in spares in my van and a fleet of loan compressors in case we can't fix it there and then. We also undergo training multiple times a year for both technical skills and health and safety regulations and myself and all my guys have done 4 to 5 year apprenticeships. Finally I pointed out that when I need a dental appointment it's normally a few weeks wait but I'm expected within my price to offer 24/7 cover with a 2 hour response time. She paid the £100.

I wondered what caused the pattern, thank you. Galve is rather annoying for me. I can get hold of loads on site, brackets, pipe, flat stock, bolts, nuts etc but 99% of it is galvanised with a good thick coating.

Galve steel has a dull gray colour to it. It's quite distinctive if you know what you are looking it. Sheets of it like in the attached photo would typically have a pattern to it but pipes and smaller items don't tend to but the colour is a dead giveaway.

That looks really good but you have broken the compact that all men have had since the dawn of time. Never let her know you are capable of finishing a project. She will come to expect it and she will tell her friends, the next thing you know it will be expected from all of us.

The local garage that looks after my work vans saved me a few springs. 4 in this bag and a second bag of 4. As is normally the case with me I don't know what I am going to use them for at the moment but it's not in my nature to turn down free stuff. Though I will scrounge anything I can I also believe in sharing so if there is anyone in the Leeds area reading this that could use a spring or 2 let me know.

Being very bearded I wear a powered positive pressure hood. Even though I can get a face fit with a rubber mask the UK HSE won't allow facial hair. Someone mentioned lying on the test, to prevent this there are 2 types of test, qualitative where it relies on the users saying they can detect the taste of the test liquid and quantitative that has a probe in the mask that counts the particles. Quantitative testing is interesting. I pass qualitative no problem but when I did a quantitive test to see the actual measured results the test showed x ppm coming through, I can't remember the exact number but it was high enough to be harmful. My mask is a bit old fashioned, you can now get them with everything built in to the hat rather then the belt with the battery and fan.

There are 3 main things you need to take in to consideration with dust masks. The protection rating, ffp3 being the best (in the UK). I have seen "proper face masks" rated at lower levels than good paper masks. The second thing is has it been face fit for you? The best mask in the world is no good if it doesn't fit you properly. The third thing is facial hair, it's almost impossible to get a face fit with facial hair.