I usually make the L head nails/spikes in the post vise.

I can see that being easy 

Took a walk in the farm scrap yard today and found 2 10’ lengths of flat bar. 5/16x1” and 1/4x3/4 so I split out a set of tong blanks before dinner 

one boss is a hair long and one jaw is a hair long but should be able to even them out

Always spark test scrap. especially farm scrap!  (I once removed two straps from opposite sides of an implement. One was zilch carbon real Wrought Iron, the other looked to be 1080---probably a depression era repair where they used whatever was to hand.  Luckily I had a use for both materials!) 

Wasn't in the shop last night; but after work I drove 50 miles, picked up the new range and drove back and unloaded it and moved it into the house---by myself, (and a skateboard).  My spouse wanted me to wait until I could get help.  I pointed out that that meant I would lose 1/2 my shop time Saturday and I wasn't willing to give that up for a project that should have been completed a dozen years ago.  Luckily I can back up so that the tailgate overhangs the steps on the walk to the back door. and so move the range's box from the bed of my pickup to a pallet and from the pallet to the skateboard, push it to the doorway and angle it up and get it in the house and put the skateboard under it again and move it to the kitchen. (Would have been a lot easier if the walkway was concrete rather than loose flagstones of random shape...)

Now to change it out for propane rather than natural gas, tune the burners, (where have I heard that phrase before?), and install it----removing the 50 year old stove my wife bought when I told her to get a propane stove when she complained about cooking on an electric one---a dozen years ago.

Wearing my red shirt and Santa Hat today and sore and grumpy enough to be Santa's evil twin Skippy!  (So it wasn't a total waste of effort...)

I did spark test ( learned that the hard way as usual) and the larger stock does have some carbon but not much, the other is mild.  Wish I could find some wi.  Will do a snap test on the heavy stock.  I don’t quench my tongs so not a huge issue.  

I think I may have found some wi 

old horseshoe we dug up at work

Looks like you have some WI there. Going to do some more digging? 

I've found it's easier to head nails and rivets with a lighter hammer than I'd use to forge the shank or tenon. I bend a lot fewer and get a nice even spread on the heads. 

Frosty The Lucky.

I wish I could find more!   Site was over looking the Spokane river right by the paper mill.   Big retaining wall there now. Haven’t played with the nails cause I’m pretty much out of small stock. And I’m distracted by the shear build

Finished up the split rein tongs.  5/8” square on the diagonal 

Split rein tongs rule. 

Or should I say, reign?

I like them a lot.  They definitely are king in my shop.  

Long rein the king

Also finished up the slitter from O1 and made a smaller drift for my handled struck tools.  

Nice, I love seeing your updates to your work.  It's like watching a person grow up.  Really cool. 

Thank you jlp.  I look at some of the stuff I first did and go wow that’s terrible.   As long as I’m learning I’m having fun 

 

just finished fixing my bending fork and im thinking wow this stuff is hard to move if it’s not orange to yellow.  May have to make another one and use this stuff for hot tools. It was a old crowbar and man is it tough to forge!

Price was right so I picked up a 250amp arc welder today.  Now to figure out how I’m going to get 80 amp in the shop. Got about 150’ to go from the meter.  Will probably have to wait till spring as the ground is frozen good now.  

That is going to be some pretty chunky wire to run that distance.   Lincoln tombstone? 

I looked up a wire gage calculator and it recommended 3 AWG so about $300-400 just for the wire.  I’ve got 100 amp going to the conex right now and really only need a 20amp at most in there (light and a freezer) so I could use that breaker panel for the shop and just run 20 in there from the meter panel.  Also have 120 going to the well house and only a 30 and 20 in that panel.   Probably set up the conex to run the welder till spring.   It’s a hf brand welder but for a c note I couldn’t say no. Plus it was brand new in the box. Never been used. 

Which model?   The amperage needs might be lower than thought.. 

the new inverters are pretty good with amperage..  I have a huge 3ph 500amp mig that only uses 50amps to run..  I  also have a Miller Dynasty 350 that takes a 60amp fuse. 

I ran number 0 from the main panel out to the shop to supply a 100amp sub panel.  with the 40hp rotary phase converter it draws 400 instant amps the draw is so fast it won't trigger anything and its just a standard breaker vs motor starter or slow trip.  The Capacitors contribute to the softening of the start up. 

The largest safety thing is just to make sure the breaker is rated for the wire used vs what the machine will use..    putting a high demand 50amp welder on a 14G wire with a 50amp fuse is not a good way to go..  Not saying this is what you will do. but the safety police will come back and tell me that I should keep my mouth shut since I'm not a paid professional electrician. 

amp draw, wire size for a given run, fast trip, regular breakers, slow trip, motor starts etc, etc, can all be learned online or from books.. Like anything good ol common sense is useful for sure.  

sounds like you have it under control.. So added the last part for the safety police. 

Owners Manuel states 50amp but I may as well get as much to the shop as I will need in the future.  I would like to get a gunsmiths lathe in the future as hand chambering my barrels takes forever!   We only have single phase here as 3 phase is still several miles away

Not bad for not touching a welder in 25 years. 

Started making a  guillotine tool 

Congrats. 

Finished up my Guillotine tool today.  Got a set of fuller dies made and a few blanks cut for more

Well the guillotine tool works great. Can now do the blanks for my leaf coat hooks in 3 heats and had enough heat left to punch the hole and cut it off from the parent stock.   Used to take 5 heats with my small spring fuller.  

Just got an order for 16 of these

Very nice Jasen. And great that you got an order to make. I really like seeing your work

Thank you cgl