I took a class at the local adult school, Art Welding. 9-noon on saturday's for 8 weeks. Lots of discussion about mobiles, yard art and negative space. and while I did stickweld together some scrap that kind of looks like a frog, what I really made was tools for smithing. A mini forge, guillotine fuller, bending fork and twisting wrench. Instructor was happy to see what I can turn out in the forge and had no problem with me making tools for that purpose. Got to try Stick (my favorite) TIG, MIG, Flux core and OA welding, also had some fun with the OA cutting rig. Great fun, and the teacher gonna email me when the plasma cutter is set up.

Michael, SF Bay Area

Michael, cool!

I like the guilotine idea. It's so simple it's elegant...and one of those idea's you don't realize are so simple until you see them pointed out.

Looks great Michael! I recently took a stick welding class and plan on doing a lot of similar things It's neat to see some nice pictures of it. I'm still kicking myself from passing up on one of the wrenches you used for your twister. I saw one at a flea market this weekend, but had already spent my cash. No atms at the market.. I did pick up some good clamps and a set of tongs though :)

I don't know about your area chaos, but around here in saskatchewan, every farm has at least 10 pair of those wrenchs kicking around in their sheds collecting dust. Most farm auctions throw them into the $2 bucket or random junk that nobody would buy. Just figured I'd let you know because I've had flea market experts try to tell me they are a rare antique item and fleece me out of $10 for one.

2 dollars.. Cheap enough to save me time for now. I do plan on making some tongs in a bit though.. I need to make a cutting hardy too..