Mothman_c3w

Das, I was enlisted, so I like to give officers plenty of grief. Just good-natured smack-talking, as is tradition.

I appreciate the support guys, really. I was in the shop today working on a welding project and it was very strange and kind of sad to not have him coming over to check on me every so often like he used to. It's very bittersweet but I know he feels much better now. George, some cool pictures there. I'll try not to hold your commissioned status against you haha. That quad .50 setup is pretty nice. Also, how did that boar taste? When I was stationed at Ft. Benning (now Moore), we encountered plenty of wild hogs all over the base. I've eaten my fair share of them. We rolled up on a herd of about 50 once during a night training exercise and had to go the long way around to the target. Not something you want to face down when all you have is blanks.

George, Frost, Das, thank you for the kind words, I needed them. He was as good a dog as anyone could hope for. This one hits a little hard for me. We got him shortly after I separated from the Army and right before my wife and I got married, so it's like a major chapter of my life just closed, well before I was ready. I didn't have any dogs growing up because my Mom was scared of them. Partway through my enlistment, I was "voluntold" into my unit K-9 section and was assigned my first dog. He and I were together for three years and as many deployments, but that was more of a working relationship. Buster was my first dog who had no responsibilities other than companionship. I currently have another dog and will likely have many more through the coming years, but Buster will always hold that special place for me. I can't wait to see him again and meet all of y'all's good boys and girls that have gone on before. I hope y'all don't mind one more picture of Buster helping me unload some good scrap.

I hate to post bad news in such an uplifting topic thread, but I wanted you all to see my wonderful friend Buster Posey, who we lost to cancer a few days ago. He was a five week old, $20 brown mutt we found through Cragslist. We got to spend nearly 11 years with him, which is nowhere near enough. We miss him so much. I made a marker from tin-plated copper plate salvaged out of an industrial switchgear and a steel rod. I dug far enough down in the packed red Georgia clay to plant the largest tea olive we could find available over his head to shade him through his long rest. I look forward to seeing him again on the other side.

Billy, that latch is beautiful, nice work. John, smart idea using the c-channel for a bridge tool; I'll have to keep an eye out for some that size. I threw together this boot jack yesterday out of some scrap 3/8"x1" bar. I will admit to cheating a bit and adding weld on the underside for additional strength. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how it works. I have been trying to come up with a few good boot jack designs and I gotta say, I have surprisingly not turned up much in the way of inspiration, both on this forum and in other groups. Perhaps I'm not using the right search terms, but I figured it would be a popular project category. I got these bars from work; a contracting crew left behind a couple sacks of them after a job. I wasn't a part of the project so I'm not sure what they were used for, but they appear to be some sort of fabricated clamp. There were some included clips that slide along the bar and presumably catch on the bar teeth. Not much room for adjustment though, so I assume they have a pretty narrow scope of purpose. I tried to keep the original profile, since I always like to see elements of the original purpose of the scrap I use.

Believe it or not, both the brass and copper started as round rod and I hammered it out flat; no rolling mill involved. I had to anneal the brass pretty frequently. I used grounding wire for the copper, and old brazing rod for the brass. It is hard to see in the pictures, but it's a lot less flat than it looks. I do agree some more faceting could look really good.

George, I'm not sure what steel the links are, I am pretty sure it is something better than mild steel though. I like to make bottle openers out of this type of link and I once broke one with a pretty light tap after dunking it red hot in water which tells me it hardened somewhat. I believe the pins are some sort of mid-carbon like 4140. I can also tell you that the rollers out of Roller Chain are bearing steel. ... You got me curious so I did some research. I found one manufacturer that claims they shot-peen and heat-treat the links, so presumably something better than low-carbon if they heat-treat. Looks like the main standards governing the manufacture of leaf chain are ASME B29.8M and ISO 4347. I don't have a copy of those standards, but there's an off chance I may be able to find it at work. That's not my industry though, so I doubt it's on the shelf. Unfortunately that info seems to be hidden behind paywalls on the internet, but the descriptions of those standards seem to indicate they cover dimensions and minimum tensile strength. I imagine it's a lot like the standards for rebar; it doesn't matter what steel the manufacturer uses as long as it hits the minimum design criteria.

George, I'm already feeling the squeeze. Unfortunately the way my lot sits dictated the size. I couldn't go any bigger without a) needing to bring in fill dirt, and b) going up significantly in price on the trusses. I am already planning a dirt-floor lean-to off the side for storage though.

Yes, that's right. I cut out more than I thought I needed of steel sheet, folded and unfolded, then curved it. I had to trim it a few times for length. I did all the forming and fitting on the steel before adding the brass and copper.

Thanks guys, I am excited to see how she likes it. George, now that you say it, that is pretty much the vibe I was trying to capture, though I couldn't have put it in words at the time.

Brought home about 40 feet of this forklift leaf chain from work. It's about 17 lbs/foot and about all I wanted to handle getting it into the truck, even in two separate pieces. During our last planned maintenance outage at the manufacturing plant where I work we replaced the lifting chains on our Taylor "Big Red" forklift and they let me take the old stuff home. Anybody need some ridiculously oversized holddown chain? One day they'll replace the forks on that thing and maybe I'll get to make off with some 12"x6" cross section 4140...not sure how I would ever cut it though.

Finally got my new shop all finished and wired in right around Thanksgiving. It's been in process since August. It's so nice to have all the space and outlets I need. Needs organizing already, but the last couple weeks I haven't had time to do anything but make Christmas gifts. I'll get it cleaned up after the new year. It is 20'x26 with a 10' ceiling, on a 5.5" slab reinforced with #4 rebar on 12" centers. Doors are 8'x10'. It's taken a few years of planning and saving up, so it's very exciting to finally have a dedicated shop space. My wife is thrilled she can park her car in the garage now.

Today I finished and waxed this cuff bracelet I made as a Christmas present for my wife. It took me about six hours total to do the metal work. This is my first time making something quite like this. I think it turned out nice and I am pretty proud of it. The design is heavily influenced by Mike Edelman's incredible jewelry work. My wife knows what she's getting, but not what it looks like. I had her close her eyes and try it on multiple times while I tweaked the sizing and shape. I used Renaissance Wax as a finish; we'll see how it holds up.

Thanks so much for the info Julian. I know it doesn't really affect the use, but I do like to have a clue as to the provenance of my old tools.

Julian, Any info you find would be much appreciated. I did a reverse image search on Google which turned up an old antique ad that indicated it may be of German origin, so it makes sense that you have seen it.