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.

Thanks! Gotta be honest, not sure yet what I'm going to do with the jeweler's stakes other than admire them. I don't do much small work, but I have a soft spot for small tools so I couldn't pass them up. The guy I got them from gave me some advice: he said "Get the heavy ferrous forging out of your system now while you're still relatively young, then when you're older get into non-ferrous repousse work." Not sure I'm ever going to want to get away from iron as my primary medium, but I thought it was an interesting perspective.

I went back to the same guy that sold me the tin-knockers kit and picked up some of his jeweler's and repousse tools. Not sure what brand the stakes are, and there are no markings on the mini anvil. Of the hammers, there is a peddinghaus, two "Crafttools", and one marked with "C.D." inside a crown/spike sort of logo. Anybody know of the maker?

I just picked up this MacGowan & Finigan 30? lb "Perfect" Power Hammer last week; really excited to get it set up. I found it about 20 miles from my house for 3K, and the guy said I could borrow his gantry crane to get it out of the trailer. I couldn't pass up that offer. It runs, but it needs a good cleaning and a general once-over. I'm definitely going to rewire the motor and replace the switch, and I may replace the motor and belts altogether. The motor mount looks a little thrown together, so I may redo that as well. I can tell the spring arm linkage has been modified, but I don't know yet if I'll try to return it to the original design, or run it as-is. The previous owner ran it for almost 20 years off-and-on as it sits. One step at a time, I guess. Maybe I'll paint it, maybe I'll re-pour the bearings, blah blah blah. I'll get there eventually. I have been researching the hammer, but I haven't turned up much besides a couple sales brochures and the patent info. The previous owner claims it was made in 1903, but I am not so sure. A M&F sales Brochure from 1905 calls out three sizes manufactured (not specified), but it seems that they went down to two sizes (40 lb and 80 lb) by 1912, possibly earlier. Mine is supposedly a 30 lb, but I have not yet weighed the ram to be certain. The hammer casting says "Patent applied for", but the Patent website says the inventor applied for a patent in Feb 1907, receiving the patent in Sep 1907. The company definitely existed in 1903, but who knows if they quit using the old casting molds right after being awarded the pamphlet. I feel comfortable saying it's pre-1910 though. Is there anyone out there with any other info on these? They seem to be relatively scarce but I would like to see if there are any manuals, user's notes, or other documents floating around.

JHCC, that honeycomb is stunning; I need to learn repousse. I just picked up a few embossing hammers and a jeweler's stake set; I have some beekeeper friends that would really like something like this.

Scott, the titles are as follows: Sheet Metal Workers' Manual by L. Broemel, 1st Printing, 1921 Sheet Metal Workers' Manual by L. Broemel, 3rd? Printing, 1942 Art of Coppersmithing by John Fuller, Sr. Mathematics for the Sheet Metal Worker by Clayton Buell Copper Work by Augustus Rose Builders' Hardware by I.C.S. Staff How to Make Mission Style Lamps and Shades, published by Popular Mechanics, a reproduction of a work by John D. Adams New Departure Hand Book, Vol. II: Tables - Formulae, Bearing Principles, Load Computation, Bearing Installation for the use of Engineers and Machine Designers

Also, I met a man last night who took all the money I had in my wallet...and he has a lot more stuff I plan to get from him. Apparently he is moving back up north and is downsizing. I only regret not knowing he was in my area. I could have learned a lot. The crosspeen is a William Bastas, reportedly made back in the early 90's. I was unfamiliar with Bill's work until I started researching the hammer. I feel honored to be the current steward.

Caotropheus, I think Frosty is on the right track: I concur that is likely out of a crusher/shredder/hammer mill. We recently installed a couple new hammer mills in the Shred area at my plant (aluminum recycling). Your chunk of mystery metal looks like the "anvils" on the "breaking" side of my Shredders. In this case, "anvil" refers to a large casting that is static during operation, usually directly in the line of fire between the material fed into the Shredder and the hammers on a spinning rotor (they are wear items). The manufacturer of our Shredders told me that the wear plates and anvils in my hammer mills are made from a manganese alloy, but they did not specify the composition. I have also seen AR400 plate used in this role.

I needed something to better display my vendor table sign so I put together this little easel/display stand over yesterday and today. It was a good exercise in (attempted) symmetry for me. It didn't turn out quite like I saw it in my head: I misplaced a rivet, applied the beeswax finish too hot in one spot, and had to adjust the design as I went but overall, I am proud of it. It does tend to slide on slick surfaces; I may add a chain or a leather strap to keep the pivoting leg from rotating past about 15 degrees from vertical.

I have accumulate a few hundred pounds of industrial roller chain in various sizes. The individual links make really fantastic bottle openers. It's a fast, easy project that has that cool industrial salvage factor. Pictured here are bottle openers made from Size 140 chain. I have made them from Size 140, 160, and 200. The openers made from the Size 140 links are my favorite because they are big enough to be a statement, but small enough to carried in a pocket without discomfort. The Size 200's are pretty much wall hangers.

Goods, the hammer looks great. I had a buddy request one from me a couple weeks ago so that project is on my to-do list; it'll be a new experience for me. Do you plan to leave it annealed or heat treat it? I noticed in Torbjorn's video he used spring steel and then heat treated it. Seems to me his hammer could be dangerous in use, but yours, made from a RR clip and annealed, seems to be a pretty good recipe. Any thoughts from the experts?