New job.

Fencing in the bathhouse. Sent it to Moscow.

I put the new hammer to work today. Started drawing out a roller bearing to make my wife a kitchen knife. Then a made a quarter inch drift. After that I made my first attempts at a basket twist and a drop tong weld. Neither of which went smoothly, but I did succeed. The main thing is I had fun learned a few things and discovered that I like the new hammer!

Summer's soon. Florists, gardeners do not allow to work in peace. Another almost finished chandelier.

Alexandr, What materials did you use for the bathhouse fence?

21 minutes ago, DHarris said:

What materials did you use for the bathhouse fence?

Hi! Oak. 

What about the railing?  Is it solid or pipe?

 

And have you ever posted photos of your shop and equipment?

3 minutes ago, DHarris said:

 Is it solid or pipe?

Solid. 

Ok, I'll take a photo. I'll just clean up first.

Yesterday after work; I removed 3 hooks from the 9% vinegar soak and scrubbed them with a stainless wire brush in a large bucket of warm water with some baking soda in it, rinsed them and hung them on the fence to dry.  Later power wire brushed them and dunked them in BLO and hung them up in the shop to cure.

This morning I hung them on the old wire clothesline to let the UV help along the cure.  1 more to go after I finish forging it. I hope to work on the oak mounting board tonight.  I'm going to stamp each one so if the grandkids decide they all want one from my estate they will all be marked.

I still need to do the drilling, counter sinking, and patch the finish and mount them.

Clean up?  That’s what teens are for. My first real after school and Summer job was working in my Dad and my father in law’s shop. In addition to cutting flat bar and punching holes in it with an Iron Worker, my job was to sweep up every building.

On my first day of work, I got a little lazy and swept some dust under a fatigue mat. I thought nothing off it, but a few minutes later, my Dad came up to me and told me to go sit in the truck. He left me out there in the truck all day. At 16:30 he came out and we had a very quiet ride home. When we pulled in the driveway he killed the truck, but made no move to get out, so I remained in the truck as well. I knew he was peeved about something, but had no idea why. 
 

After a minute or so of silence, he finally said, “If you think you can avoid sweeping dirt under the mats, you can come back to work in the morning.”

I think every 13 year old should learn the same lesson. Always do the job you are paid to do. No shortcuts, even if you think no one is watching.

The same applies to all areas of life. Don’t do something in the dark you would not do in the light. It will be found out. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but it will be discovered someday.

22 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

I still need to do the drilling, counter sinking, and patch the finish and mount them.

When will you post pics of them?

When they are on the wall!

2 hours ago, DHarris said:

Clean up?  That’s what teens are for.

I work alone. There used to be a team of 3 workers. Several years ago I decided to work alone. It's much more comfortable and convenient for me. I come to the workshop whenever I want, I can sleep during the day. Work is fun.

I am amazed that you don't have a crew!  I was always impressed by what you put out, but now I'm astounded!  The volume of large projects with that quality is amazing!

I agree with Cannon--Alexandr's work is outstanding! 

Working alone would certainly be less stressful. When you need to make a business decision you only have yourself to convince that your way is the best way. Profits have only a one way split, once the government gets their piece. No one to fight with over the music.

Not in the shop and not today, but I have debarked and cleaned up the logs, three of them will become the beams of my new shed / smithy. Two largest ones will be side beams and the smaller one the main top beam, as it will have the least weight on it, the side beams will take the majority fo the load. Chainsawing and hewing in the future. They are all around 5 meters long, the smaller ones I am not sure what I will do with, the short one hiding behind the biggest log I am wondering if it could be made into a stand for my post vise.

Beautiful Work Alexandr.

I managed to get out in the beautiful weather and get the forge lit.  I was able to keep the fire hot which was promising.  The first thing I worked on was taking the angle grinder to the old, broken tongs and grinding down the bits so they could maybe hold something.  they now hold stuff.  Not perfectly, but well enough.  Then I went back to work on my own first tongs.  I managed to get the area from the bit back to the boss formed.  Now I need to work on drawing out the reins.  Since the stock is roughly 1 inch by 1/4, I'm debating cutting it off and then drawing it out, or maybe doing something else.  I don't know.

Then I was able to use a 12 inch spike to draw out and make a leaf thingy from start to finish (without breaking the leaf part off).  This is kind of a first for me, so I was pretty happy. So one down, 99 to go

Your work looks amazing Alexandr!

I'm looking forward to see how those hooks turn out Thomas!

I bet the shop will look amazing using those logs Dennis.

Had a busy week so no shop time until today. Spend the time fixing my forge, as the blower was acting up lately. Opened the blower up and gave it a good clean, and put it back with some tweaking to make sure it was all in the correct place. Oiled the thing up, and now I can comfortably run the forge again. I am thinking of getting a hand-cranked blower or modify the existing one to be hand cranked, foot-pedaling is not the most fun thing to do.

 

Guys, thanks for your ratings.

Another new job. I installed a fireplace set today.

Tried to canister weld some copper. Managed to waste gas,time,and effort. Didnt quite get enough heat i think.

Why not melt and pour?

Made a hangy thingy for next to the campfire. 

Then a new slitter. Still needs some work on the grinder. Made from A-2.

Also managed to lop off  a hunk of my hand with my coal axe, still sharp. 

 

11 hours ago, DHarris said:

Why not melt and pour?

Tried that could only do very small amounts. Thought i might be able to contain more heat. And i really wanted to try a canister.

Brought my forge out of it's winter hibernation (I just left it outside all winter...)

Reshaping the clay firepot, got soaking wet over winter so I just had to get rid of all the old crud and reshape it, a lot of ash has been worked into this "dough" as I've reshaped the firepot over and over again. I never really had a chance to test it once I fitted the latest change, which was a bigger air hole, now 1" diameter instead of the old 18mm. 

Set a wood fire and dried it out. Ready to be used with coke, of which I bought two more 22kg bags (95 eurous, ouch, but it seems to last a good while).

Sounds like you've  had a pretty full day Billy. You  know the old saying, "It ain't fun till somebody gets hurt." At least you should be able to keep a bandaid on it without heroic wrapping.

On the up side, I'll remember your pic if I think of using a hatchet to break up coal. I've always had good luck with a hammer but you never know what sort of thought will go through my dented brain. 

Frosty The Lucky. 

 

On 4/8/2021 at 1:58 PM, DHarris said:

Clean up?  That’s what teens are for. My first real after school and Summer job was working in my Dad and my father in law’s shop. In addition to cutting flat bar and punching holes in it with an Iron Worker, my job was to sweep up every building.

 

hey thats gonna be my job to start this summer then il be moving onto the production floor at a shop that makes sawmills

M.J.Lampert