JeremyP

Hey guys, I might get flamed for this but thats ok, I need to air out my frustrations and perhaps you guys can help me work through my frustrations. I'm an independant contractor so I work for about 4 major industrial companies. One of them is rather large and heavy on beaurocracy. They are an oilfield service company engaging in pumping operations of fluid and chemicals into the ground. Their business motto however is "safeguarding people and the environment" even though their true objective is to stimulate oil wells to produce more oil.... Anyway they have a clear and comprehensive safety programme with which they try to mitigate all risks involved in their operations. They supply everyone with plenty of literature and propaganda on safety and rules of conduct. Initially I was impressed at the level of investment they put into convincing use lowly grunts to actually value our lives and our bodies. In fact it prompted me to look more into safety myself and start designing my own safety procedures and guidelines for myself, to remind myself of some of the things I've learned that are dangerous or unsafe. Thats when xxxx hit the fan. After applying some of what I learned I began altering my behaviour and equipment to better protect myself. This turned out to be a no no. Included in their safety programme are lists of rules to be followed. After noticing my new protective PPE. It was made clear to me that I was not allowed to deviate from their rules even if it ment I was better protected. I even had the safety dude admit that some of my behaviours and equipment went a step above their rules, however there was nothing he could do. 'Rules are rules'. So now I'm left feeling betrayed and dissapointed. I started embracing a culture that they created to protect myself, but their own beaurocratical system prevents progress and infact impeeds it. So really is their safety programme about safety at all? Or is it just an elaborate propoganda scheme designed to protect their own legal liabilities? Now that I have learned what I've learned and gotten used to my new found protection and self worth. I have refused to cave to their demands that I abide by their rules. I believe my time with them is coming to a close and it sucks not only because they are 75% of my livelyhood but that ultimatly there is still nothing a grunt like me can do to truely protect himself. Sure, I can refuse to do an unsafe job, but they will just find someone who will. And who am I to argue with the guy in an office tower 900km away about what safety procedure works best for me? How can a lowly grunt possibly have a better idea (or even a good, different idea) about how to proceed safely? Those clearly are concepts that are best left to the professionals. The beaurocrats.

It really depends who you are dealing with if they appreciate your time and the craftmenship you posses. My motus operandi is usually to do the first small job for free if its a small personal item or a minimal fee if its larger. Their reaction to my generosity is what I guage to see if I want to work for them again. You can usually tell on their immediate reaction what they will expect in the future. I agree with the walmart mentality though. A lot of the items I get asked about would end up costing several times the amount they could get from stores like walmart. Its frustrating for me because I would love to attempt them but I cant do everything for free.

Joking about theft and advocating it are two different things. Lighten up guys. You might be a blacksmith if... when you goto a fancy restaurant, but instead of complimenting the chef, you end up more interested in who built the balcony raillings

I usually use this method if doing a one time job or repair. If i have multiple plates to do I'll make a jig.

Not really fix-its but upgrades to the new place I guess. I've built a few door handles, and coat hangers. Made some door latches for the shop doors as well out of 5/8 square that I twisted and tapered down.

I've seen them used as presses. the small electric/hydraulic splitters wont move fast enough to be an effective hammer but 4tons should be enough to press forge smaller pieces.

I agree with Dodge on the hearing protection. For me its an absolute must when working for any length of time. The noise of a mig welder on short circuit is definatly at least 100db. A hi freq tig arc is nearly as loud, not to mention when you fire up a grinder or chop saw. If I dont put them on before I start working the sound drives me up the wall. Especially if someone else starts cutting or grinding near me! As far as needing the 'hear the weld' I dont understand that at all. Is there also a special ring in the anvil I should be listening for when I'm forging to make sure I'm getting the best possible strike? Everything you need to know about the welding process can be seen while your welding. If you can't see it, you either need a different shade in your helmet or you need a few thousand more hours behind it :)

I usually use mig, its faster and simpler and less likely to distort the metal if you are doing larger patches

Depending on the grade, cast aluminum generally does not weld as nice as your typical t6 extrusion. A lot depends on what the cast aluminum has been exposed to. It will soak up oil and grease and other contaminates over time. Cast aluminum also is more likely to have voids and contaminates in it from the casting process. A very thorough cleaning is recomended. Wash with acetone and brush with a stainless wire brush, use a lint free cloth. If its still not welding well, stop and clean it again.

Wow, 500/ton seems expensive. My friend who runs a coal fired boiler for heating his house and shop gets coal for $30/ton. Not sure if that includes delivery, but I think it does. He just gives me 10 gal of it at a time for free. I'll ask him next time I go over.

I put ATF in my champion hand blower but the oil slowly seeps from between the case so Im thinking I might lube it with some lubriplate assembly grease instead

Yea! show us pics! :D

That true, just the other day I had to fix an aluminum hand railing that a customer had damaged on one of those portable platforms they use to unload passenger jets and such. When I got the new peice welded up I noticed that the one end wasn't completely lining up with rest of the railing. As I was just about to cut it all apart, the customer arrived early and thought it was done. When I mentioned that something wasn't perfect with it, he couldnt tell at all what I was talking about. The flaw was blaring in my face, yet he couldn't see anything wrong with it. Sometimes we are too hard on ourselves I think. For me though, if I let something go thats under par, I do not feel good about that job, and often times it wrecks the rest of my day. I literally can't sleep at night lol

For me "good enough" is when the object I'm creating ends up in its finished form able to perform its function reliably and it looks proffessionally built. "Great" is when I've built that item to the best of my ability. "Perfect" is what I try to achieve but always come up short.

All my welding benches are 32" high, 40" seems a bit high for me, especially if I'm working with a peice in the vice. I'm a short guy tho. I would say if 40" works for you for fabbing, it will probably work just as good for your forgings as well.

Congrats Marc! They turned out great! A nice original and elegant design, I love it. Those railings just added another 100k to each house :D

I actually kind of stumbled into 'smithing last year when I decided to take a coarse at the local trade college for a chance to do something different. Even though a lot of the basic skills in 'smithing, I've used as a fabricator over the years. After I took the coarse I've been obsessed with forging and the artwork and skill involved. I am mostly drawn to the art of forging because a lot of it is a detatchment from the straight and square, measured angles I do as a job everyday. It's been a challenge for me to change my way of thinking and let the material move beyond the straight lines and defined angles to a more fluid organic unique shape. My earlier inspiration would be shawn cunningham, a master smith to be sure and an excellant teacher, and now all of you. As well everytime I see a forged piece I love examining it to figure out how it was made and to appreciate the work and skill that went into it.

Yea cement can be hard on the feet if your standing on it all day thats for sure. I got some rubber matting in front of my benchs for when I'm at the drill press and welding station. I also have a wheeled work bench which I like to wheel into the middle of the shop for layout sometimes, other times I like using sawhorses, so cement was the way to go for me.

Well this weekend was turkey weekend for us Canadians! MMM what a feast!! Before hand I managed to finish forging the desk legs for a friends office desk and we mounted it to the table top and installed it in her office. I'm happy with how it turned out, especially since it was my first ever forging project. More importantly, she is also happy with the result!

Why would someone prefer a dirt floor to a concrete floor? I'm curious, I just moved into a 30x50 wood shop that had a dirt floor, just cemented the floor this summer. I hated the dirt.

Thats true, and as I was thinking today, 'heckling' is actually pretty common in everyday life anyway. Its not uncommon for me to get heckled while I'm doing a welding job on-site. The difference for me I guess is that I'm experianced enough and confident enough in my welding abilities to put them in their place and not have it bother me, however if someone heckled my smithing abilities I would take it to heart as I'm still green to the trade.

Friday I was able to fire up the forge and build the prototype crossbrace for the office desk I'm working on, unfortunatly saturday I got called in to rebuild an aluminum crossmember out of a fluid pumping truck, then sunday was cleaning the chimney and stacking firewood. Hopefully this week after work I can get some hammering in. I'm suffering from withdrawls, I'm starting to get headaches from the lack of ringing in the ears :p

Speaking of smartxxx bystanders, I was watchin an old guy demo at a local fair the other day, I never really talked to him except to watch and try to pickup a thing or two. He was always surrounded by others and I couldnt think of anything to say to introduce myself other than the typical "my grandpa was a smith" or "I can smith too" that a few loud mouth hotshots had already used. So I just watched and thanked him for the show. I don't think I would bother demoing after seeing some of the comments he would get. It seriously annoys me when people feel the need to belittle others and their work. I mean, do they go home after, proud of themselves for that?

I agree that 6013 is not the ideal electrode for your cap, try using 7018, it is common to buy, cheap and easy to use. As for your root... what kind of joint are you welding? Are you butting the plates together? If so did you prepare a v groove onto each plate? If its possible to lap the plates together consider doing that for greater ease in welding. Regardless of your joint setup, 6010 (and 6011) requires a bit of a technique to successfully weld vertically up. The best way I can describe it would be to 'whip' it up and down cycling between a long arc (up and away) on the up stroke to a short arc (depositing weld just slightly above your previous weld) while keeping a consistant inclination on your electrode. I find if I keep a 60 deg inclination pointing up I get good penetration and deposition rate. By up and away im talking millimeters here, when you whip it up and away from your work, move your electrode up about 1/8 of an inch and move it away from your work half that much. When I say down and deposit literally place the electrode into the puddle just enough to see the puddle grow but not too much that the arc stops. For your cap, if you insist on using 6013 you can try the whip action there as well in conjunction with your side to side movement. Instead of depositing for a full second from left to right, try whiping up and away, down and deposit on one end then move to the other end, whip up and away, down and deposit then back again. Hopefully that helps!!

Hey guys thanks for the input! I didnt get a chance to build any prototypes last night but I hope to get the forge fired up tonight. I really like your vine idea mike! Unfortunatly the arch idea doesnt work with where the desk is being situated. I'm trying to make it fit in a tight spot where there is a floor mounted radiator. The radiator comes up quite high so the arch would have to start pretty high up on the leg. Thanks again for all the input. what a tremendous help!