Things that make life easier

[rthibeau]

R Funk.....are you describing a cross pein and straight pein on the same hammer??

[Shane Stegmeier]

Keep the shop CLEAN... put things away while you are working, clean up really well when you are done working. Nothing is more discouraging to me than the idea of having to clean for 20 minutes just to clear enough room to start working... Its safer and you can get right to work... I like Bruce Wilcocks idea of scrapping out the stuff you aren't honestly likely to use, and if you have a scrap yard which will let you have a credit like Bruce was saying, Rock ON;-) I have too much good scrap I can barely get into or through the shop to work... Now I just need a week out two to follow my Bruce's advice...

[Ten Hammers]

Ruben, I have a hammer similar to yours that has a ball end on one side and a radiused face on other. 3 # engineers hammer I believe. You may have seen it at Threshers as I use it to make ladles.

I build a fair amount of tooling for production work. Small pieces of 3/16 - 1/2 rod/ square are handy and I'm my fathers son ( I hate to throw good stuff away ). For years this stuff ended up in buckets or I ended up using a new cut off piece. I guess 6-8 years ago I started using empty cardboard bolt boxes ( 10 lb bolt box ) from the local farm store. I will wholeheartedly agree that a clean shop is nice but is asking a lot from me. It seems that every few years I end up spending a couple of full days doing a clean up. The bolt boxes have 3/16 -1/2 square and rod pieces in them along with short bar pieces and small plate pieces. I keep first part samples of lotta stuff in these boxes ( writing on the inside of the lid referring to what tooling etc ). A paint pen ( carried in the tee shirt pocket in winter ) is awfully handy to mark tooling.

[tzonoqua]

R Funk- Do you have a pic of this hammer? I am finding it hard to picture what you mean, or like rthibeau wondering if its a cross pein/straight pein on the same hammer?
Sounds very useful anyway.

[Archie Zietman]

A clean floor is indespensible. Mine gets all the fall leaves blown in through the un-walls, so I have to rake around the forging area. Keep it, and the table-where-I-keep-stuff clean.

[matt87]

I just built a little electric blower... amazing! I can work with 2 or 3 irons in the fire and spend most of my forging time actually forging rather than pumping! Also it reduces the temptation to work the iron at too low a temperature, which is also beneficial.

[R Funk]

Unfortunately I do not have a camera to post a picture of the the hammer.

In fact the radiuses are gentle enough that they may not show up in the photo. Remember these are a 5" cylindrical radius which may be only 1/8" removed from the 2 edges of each hammer face

Yes what I am describing is essentially a cross pein and straight pein hammer. However instead of "pein" it is a large cylinder radius (not a spherical radius) ground on the hammer. They are very very blunt peins. So blunt it can be used for finishing but yet it moves metal significantly faster than a standard hammer. By flipping the hammer over as you use it from the "cross pein" side to "straight pein" side you can easily control which way the metal is moving.

Of course a large spherical radius, as Ten Hammers describes would be beneficial in moving metal in both directions as would be desired for ladles.

I trust this helps clarify the concept. I feel I am not doing the best job describing....


Ten Hammers:

I don't remember seeing the hammer you are referring to, but a combination spherical faced and ball end hammer would be good for making ladles and similar in concept. From what I gather from your description a combination of the ball end and the radius end is used to draw the ladle to size and the ball end to form the ladle shape.

[hdwarner]

my life is made easier by three drill presses , one with a permanent mount cross slide from the palmgreen company with a quick acting palmgreen vise so minimal set up is needed to drill a hole
one is standard duty that i can set up and leave for like 1/4 inch holes in
brackets and what not

i have a steel rollaround table with a 1.5 thick top with a grid of holes drill and tapped thru out for fixturing , with a machinist vise mounted , and a floorlock for stability
built by me .

i have my aircompressor mounted in the attic of my garage with hardpiped lines so
i only need about 10 foot of hose where ever i am .

i keep all the accessories and spare blades either hanging or close by all my power tools
with wrenches also hanging.

i try to store everything in a visual line of site , one thing i hate is rebuying something
becuase i forgot i bought two years ago and have in a can somewhere and rediscover next week
i have a whole wall of those open bins large and small {acro}
from screws to electrical outlets

i have somesort of tape measure about every 5 square foot of my home and shop
i am always measuring something it seems

i have scratch pads everywhere also

to name a few things that make my life easier,
as you get older lost energy in looking for stuff or doing it the hard way is not an option
if i spend 15 minutes looking for something i am exausted and frustrated

[R Funk]

I have multiple 4.5" grinders to prevent the effort of changing wheels

(1) for a grinder wheel
(1) for a flap wheel
(1) for a cut off wheel
(1) for a cup wire wheel
(1) for a radial wire wheel

Plus several spares.

These are all essentially identical older style Dewalts and Black and Deckers
Thus I can interchange parts as they fail.

I bought these all at various pawn shops over the years with a average price of about $20. So far I have not had one fail.... I guess I don't work enough...

I was going to buy some new China grinders but as saw these in US made in pawn shops I quickly changed my mind.

[Ice Czar]

at the shop each table has a similar grinder setup
1 each of sanding disc, cutoff and hard wheel grinders
a large hardwheel (on a big grinder) for cleaning up the tables
and we share the various wire wheel grinders around
we dont do that much buffing so those just get hung up on the board along with brass wire wheels, ect.


so this modified engineers hammer is sort of a cross between a peen and a rounding hammer?

[skunkriv]

There are two things in the shop I use daily. Both of these ideas I got from Jerry Hoffman many years ago. First is white charcoal pencils (found at art supply stores). Though I also use soapstone constantly and a silver pencil quite a bit for many jobs the charcoal pencil is the best choice by far in many cases. You can see the line at a little hotter heat than soapstone and since it is pencil size and shape it is better for drawing. Easier for me to see than the silver or the red pencils some guys use. They are pretty fragile but you get a feel for that. Sharpen both ends on the grinder or the belt grinder or a handheld grinder.

The other thing I use daily are pieces of cut off tape measure. There are three hanging in the shop from magnets place overhead. They are cut from the ends of worn out or broken tape measures. Two are 30" and one is 48". The 30" ones cover a majority of things I measure to cut, drill etc and though I also have numerous metal rules, hook rules and squares there just is nothing easier than putting that hook over the end of something and then looking for your number. My 25' tapes is always hanging where I need it but honestly doesn't get much use. I also carry a skinny 10' tape in my pocket at all times along with some soapstone.

[Blackbeard]

G-clamps! I clamp my post vice to the forge table using a g-clamp, that way I can move vice and table separately. Should be handy for demos where you dont want things to be too heavy to move. The clamp secures the postvice quite securely.
Bb

[fat pete]

I hate to ask a dumb question but how does a g clamp differ from a c clamp