What did you do in the shop today?

[BillyBones]

That is actually a pretty good idea with a piece drilled and tapped. Of course had i just used a nut i would have gave it a good acid bath to remove the plating. 

i work in a machine shop so obtaining the proper drills and taps is no problem. And of course we have about 3 dozen posters hanging up with the information on what drills to use with which taps. Not to mention all the books. 

As a side note you think taps are expensive at the local hardware store, the job i am currently running, the tap is a special cut, oversized 1/2 - 13 ( cut to about a 33/64). Cost is around $110 each. I go through about 1 a week, when i first set up the job and i was working out the bugs it was 3 or 4 a week. 

[Deimos]

Nail on the head sir, P=U*I

So 230Vac * 16A = 3680 Watt

The man with the food truck was about 50, so I blame it more on him being very dense. 

20 minutes ago, BillyBones said:

As a side note you think taps are expensive at the local hardware store, the job i am currently running, the tap is a special cut, oversized 1/2 - 13 ( cut to about a 33/64). Cost is around $110 each. I go through about 1 a week, when i first set up the job and i was working out the bugs it was 3 or 4 a week. 

Drool...

I love special tools, and taps are very prone to damage if you make even the smallest error. 

[Paul TIKI]

You can lead an idiot to knowledge but you can't make him think!

[Deimos]

thinking is one thing, understanding another. 

[JHCC]

Thinking you understand is another entirely!

"I am wiser than this man, for neither of us appears to know anything great and good; but he fancies he knows something, although he knows nothing; whereas I, as I do not know anything, so I do not fancy I do." -- Socrates

[bluerooster]

Spent a couple hours at the forge today. Thought about trying my hand at pattern weld.  I don't know if this will work, but I'll give it a go anyway.  I have a chunk of 52100 (bearing race), and a bar of mud flap hanger, (presumably 1060-1080).  I figure I'll attempt to mate the two into a billet and see what happens.

 Pic 1 is the 52100 that I started with.  Second is the flap hanger ready to form a billet with attached handle, and the 52100 drawn down and squared up.  Third is the billet cleaned, stacked, and wired together, ready for welding.  Tomorrow, I'll clean out the forge, and see if I can bang 'em together.

 Had another chunk of bearing race that decided it wanted to become a hawk bill blade.  I've gotten it to the point where I'll grind from there. It will be a small blade compared to the size of stock. So I can save a piece for something else.

[ThomasPowers]

What flux will you be using?

[alexandr]

Finish!  It remains to paint.

Chandelier and mirror frame.

[bluerooster]

I have a can of brazing/welding, good for brass and steel commercial flux.  But thought about making some anhydrous borax. I have plenty of borax, and a pot to melt it in.   But I'm open to suggestion.

Nice work Alexandr. :D

[JHCC]

If you haven't yet, please read this:

 

[ThomasPowers]

The chrome in 52100 may make it harder to weld.

[bluerooster]

JHCC; I did.

 And the chrome may present an issue. But the contrast should be awesome.  I've had good success welding it to it's self in the past. But this will be the first time trying welding to a 10xx.  I'll try almost anything, once.   

[Daswulf]

Very nice Alexandr. That is a lot of tedious welding.

 

[Daswulf]

Nephew asked for a knife for christmas and my brother is willing if not egged it on. First a knife then a machete. Ok..  how about a chopper then?  Front spine has a false edge.

Made of leaf spring. Probably 4140. I dunno. So he can sharpen it. The kid is a brute. Almost ready for heat treat. 

[bluerooster]

Thomas, you're right, the chrome did present a problem.  But I did manage to get it to stick together except one end that simply refused. I figured I'd sacrifice that end, It's to be a pocket knife anyway.  I drew it out and folded it, got that welded, and that's when the wheels fell off.  As I was drawing for the second time, I noticed cracking throughout the billet.  I don't know how deep the cracking went, but the chunk of steel is pretty much worthless now, so I decided to play with it for a minute.  I drew out to about 3/8x3/8, and put a twist in it. That showed me all the flaws.  Everywhere there was a crack, it opened right up.  I dropped it into the "bucket of shame", put the fire out, and went to the house. 

  And so goes it in the life of a beginning smith.

[JHCC]

19 hours ago, Daswulf said:

Ok..  how about a chopper then? 

Nice blade, Das. Good proportions.

[BillyBones]

Finished an axe for a friend, gads i hate grinding. I have a guy near here that says he will buy all the draw knives i can make so i started with these 2. 

A lot of learning this weekend so a nice productive weekend so far.

Das, i like that knife very much

 

[Daswulf]

Billy, then you are pricing them too low or he is rich and obsessed lol. Either way, good deal. Know what you'll be making any time youd like a lil extra cash.  They look well forged. 

And Billy, John, Thanks. Will see once I get it heat treated, final gound/cleaned up and handled. I'm kinda digging the shape myself. 

[Dabbsterinn]

I finished the other half of my dads christmas present today, a gigantic fishing hook with a bottle opener for an eye, the first half is one of those pen fishing rods, I'm tying the hook on it

and I got a new pair of bolt jaw tongs started, I realized when I was about to cut up some 16mm square that I don't have any good tongs that hold that size and since I'll be making 6 pairs soon for selling, I figured I could get two birds with one stone by brushing up on my tong making skills and get myself a tong that actually fits.

I managed to draw out one rein and then I heard that the eggnog was ready at home so I quickly packed up and called it a day, tomorrow I'll draw out the other one, cut the jaw and maybe draw out the swan neck some more, then punch and rivet them together and start cranking out some tongs

 

Also patched up my vice, going by the looks of it the original handle and handle to screw attachment broke at some point so a new one was machined and lightly tack welded on but those welds broke a few years ago so when I tried to tighten something in the vice, the handle just spun around while the screw did nothing.

so I just laid a short bead on the screw and handle assembly and now it works just fine

 

I'm very grateful for the wood stove, it was -11°C (12°F) outside today and with the forge running on full blast and the wood stove burning well too, I got the temperature inside up to 26-ish°C (78°F)

[Daswulf]

Nice work Dabbsterinn. I like the fish hook bottle opener idea. 

Here's one I ended up selling at my last show. The bait worked!

[BillyBones]

Thanks Das. Not sure about the giving a price but lets just say north of 50 but south of 100. But i do have to split that with a friend who will be handling them for me. Also becuase it is his landlord that wants them. My friend does a lot of wood working and i made him one a while back ago. His landlord saw it and got a hold of me. He will then be taking them, marking them up some and reselling to local craftsmen and artisans. I have learned that "all you can make" usually translates into 15 or 20 at most though. 

12*, burr thats chilly. Here i was complaining about 40*. My granddad spent some time in Iceland after WW2. He told me it was one of the most beautiful places he had ever been. One of these days i may get to visit. 

[ThomasPowers]

As promised the barbwire basket icicles for hanging on a Christmas tree; as usual my archaic phone's poor grade photos:

 first try;

  

spray painted and ready to ship to the kids for Christmas!  Now if I just make one for each of the Grandkids; I'd probably get good at making them!

[Arthur210]

After last week's trivet, I decided to make a scrolling jig.

That took me about 3 hours to forge and weld together from 3 different pieces of flat stock, plus a piece of angle iron to put it in the vise.

Only problem is that my vise is mounted close to a wall, so I can only do 1/2 of a turn at a time. Then I need to rotate the jig for another 1/2 turn.

I will probably add a stem to it and use my anvil as a base next time.

A bit of advice for new smiths making a scrolling jig like that: take your time and make it as even as you can. Any defect will show up on all scrolls made using it, so it is worth the extra hour.

Check your curve often, making sure the first part is good before scrolling it some more. Don't hesitate to uncoil it some to correct a problem.

Of course, I tested it by making the pieces of another trivet, this time with 3/8" stock. This one is about 8" wide.

I did not have time to assemble and finish it, but my scrolls look good.

My plan is to make several of them as Christmas gifts. 

[JHCC]

Spent a couple of hours designing and building a bit of tooling for The Pressciousss, only to discover at the moment of completion that I had made a fatal and unfixable design error. Back to the drawing board!

[MacLeod]

7 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

barbwire basket icicles

I was waiting for that

nice, I love the idea of using barbed wire

2 hours ago, JHCC said:

fatal and unfixable design error

JHCC, I crank about 3 or 4 of these out a week