Mice, men and slack tubs

[ytuyuty]

About every month I go out into the shop and find a dead mouse floating in my slack tub. Anyone else have this problem?

[FoxFire]

4 minutes. That's about how long a mouse will try to not drown. So I've heard at least...

[Daswulf]

nope. lol

cats take care of them before they can drown. 

 

[SLAG]

Mr. Marinakis,

Allow me to offer a suggestion If you want the rodents to live. Try this. Attach a cord, to the inside of the tub. Attach it to the  edge that is farthest away from where you quench iron. Use a non plastic material. Attach the cord at the top of the tub and have the rope descend into the water. When the miscreant falls in, it can now climb out and hopefully leave. (most likely). The cord should be of a material that the animal can grasp to climb out. This humane maneuver should give a neighborhood cat a chance to catch said rodent and dine in style.

Then again you may have a dislike for rodents and want them to drown. The beast could add extra vitamins to your slack tub.

It's your choice.

Regards,   SLAG.

[HEAP of JEEP]

You could look on this as an omen from the forging gods.  I believe I read about this from the ancient Japanese sword smiths.  The correct time for quenching a katana is when the moon is the same color as the underside of a hawk's wing.  The wind will be blowing in the direction of the spirits. The voices of your ancestors will be seen in the stars... oh, and there should be a dead mouse floating your slack tub.  So, by my reckoning, you're a quarter of the way to turning out an amazing forged masterpiece to be rivaled by smiths for centuries to come.

[Nobody Special]

Not in slack tubs. I've had them fall in feed bins and can't get out again. Dang rats have sharp teeth even through welding gloves.

[Michael Cochran]

After the second one I found (first one dead and second one very much not) I started placing a cover over it. 

[arftist]

Slack tub is a stainless steel barrel.

Never had a critter in it.

[ytuyuty]

Sorry, I guess that I didn't make myself clear.

I am looking for recipes.

[Jim Coke]

Greetings Harry,

Mice swim poorly ...   Just forge up a mouse eating dragon.. End of problem .. 

Forge on and make beautiful things

Jim

[ytuyuty]

^^^

Sweet!

 

[ausfire]

Nope. The snakes get  'em first.

[Bud in PA]

How about tiny life jackets?

[ausfire]

On 5/15/2016 at 10:54 AM, Jim Coke said:

 

Jim, that's a cool looking mouse. I don't want to hijack Harry's thread but  could you give us some idea of how you went about it? One piece of course? What size stock did you start with? (I did search for 'forging mouse'' but only found lots about Mousehole anvils).

[Jim Coke]

Greetings Aus, 

              Just a chunk of 3/4 round stock. Isolate the tail end to about 3/8 and forge square.. Taper the body to a point , the bottom will end up flat so it sits well on the table.  Mount the tail end in the vise against a taper support and form the ears and eyes.. Complete the tail to taste.. Cute lil fellow ..  Have fun.. 

Forge on and make beautiful things

Jim

[Nobody Special]

My favorite recipe for this is a lid.

[odblacksmith]

do you by chance have any antifreeze in the mix to prevent freezing that may be attracting them?I'd say use a lid or leave them something to climb out depending on your wishes.i'd hate to find a dead mouse once a month thats for sure.

 

[Mark Ling]

just stick a piece of rebar sticking out of slack tub so they can climb out, its good for nothing else. I'm just kidding, rebar has its uses, like in concrete. I'm just kidding again, in can be used in blacksmithing, just isn't typically preferred for most projects.

                                                                                               Littleblacksmith

[ThomasPowers]

As I tend not to have a slack tub The mouse issue is moot.  Do you really need that much water around?  I came into smithing through blademaking and so having a slack tub is DANGEROUS when you work a lot of High C.  Desert normalization works for me and I only bring a little water out when I'll need it for isolating heat or cooling tools. After the forge session it gets poured on the tree on the west side of the shop to encourage it!

I may have to install one just to keep them out of the sandpaper and buffing wheels though. I've also been thinking of building a cat stair to allow the barn cats in the shop and keep the skunks out; but 20x30' of the shop had a nice sandy floor and I don't want a litter box issue...

[ausfire]

23 hours ago, Jim Coke said:

Greetings Aus, 

              Just a chunk of 3/4 round stock. Isolate the tail end to about 3/8 and forge square.. Taper the body to a point , the bottom will end up flat so it sits well on the table.  Mount the tail end in the vise against a taper support and form the ears and eyes.. Complete the tail to taste.. Cute lil fellow ..  Have fun.. 

Forge on and make beautiful things

Jim

Thank you, Jim. I'll give that a try.

Cheers.

[RedTail]

My "shop" is beside the mews I keep my red tail hawk in ( I move him to a weathering pen when I work ), nothing smaller than a housecat survives for long

[ytuyuty]

On ‎5‎/‎17‎/‎2016 at 11:45 PM, ThomasPowers said:

Do you really need that much water around? 

I do a lot of other work in the shop - a lot of grinding - and I need the tub to cool off the pieces so that I can hold onto them when they're too small to hold in the vice. Even with welding gloves the metal can get too hot to hold.

[gote]

Yes I do need water. When I can, I use stock long enough to hold in the hand rather than using tongs. It is so much easier. However after a few heats the part I hold starts becoming unpleasantly hot. I then dip my left hand with the "handle part" of the stock in the tub (whichis longish) to cool it. (no glove) I also cool all hot stuff when I have stopped beating it. For safety and sometimes I need to hold that end. Sometimes I pre-cool parts that do not need to be hot in a particular operation but are adjacent to parts that need to be - this to avoid extra scaling or in som cases burning. I mostly use mild steel in applications where there is little need for normalisation. Bladesmiths obviously cannot work this way.

[ytuyuty]

I dumped 4 (FOUR) drowned mice from my slack tube today. Water must have a smell to animals, and the mice must be looking for water.  

I am going to put a cover on my slack tub and add a second tub just for catching mice!

[SLAG]

Mr. Marinakis,

Drowning is a terrible way to die. Please reconsider.

I do NOT believe that you are a sadist.

(you have a very pleasant & benevolent face. My opinion).

Best wishes for 2017!

SLAG.