What did you do in the shop today?

[JHCC]

Well, I'm currently laid up with COVID, so no proper forging for the foreseeable future. I did sneak out to the shop to do a little repoussé test piece in brass, but discovered that my pitch was way too soft. Melted in some more rosin, and we'll see how that does later.

[ThomasPowers]

Finished running the conduit for the 220 VAC and 110 VAC lines; had to buy 3 boxes *new*.  Luckily I have all the 20 amp receptacles on hand.  I need to wait till the weekend to have help pulling the wires though.

[Les L]

Thomas, it sounds like your retirement is going about the same as mine. The first month I threatened to change my name to “ I need “ because every time I answered my phone that’s the first thing I heard. Two years down the road and I’ve only completed about 1/4 of the projects that I had put off for retirement, I’m not complaining, because it sure beats showing up every morning to a place that doesn’t appreciate your work and I don’t hear any complaints when I say “not today, but it’s on the list and I’ll get to it when I can”

[George N. M.]

John, I'm so sorry to hear that.  I hope it is a mild case with no lasting side effects.  My best friend has had it twice now and has come through it OK both times.  Do you have any idea how you contracted it.  So far we have avoided it but Madelynn is very covid cautious and we are still keeping pretty locked down.

You are in out thoughts and prayers.

G&M

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[JHCC]

Thanks, George. I'm about 98% certain that I got it Saturday night/Sunday early morning at an overnight church service for Pascha (Orthodox Christian Easter). My son was also there, but my wife was not; he got it too, but she didn't. When I texted a friend whose family we'd been standing close to, he told me that they'd gotten it, as had about 15 other people in the community. 

I'm fully vaccinated and boosted, so I expect this won't be terribly bad. A lot of dry coughing, fever, runny nose and sneezing, chest congestion, tickle in the throat, muscle aches, and a lot of fatigue. Oh, and things taste weird.

The biggest challenge at the moment is making sure that my wife continues to not get it. She just opened her yarn store two weeks ago, and this coming Saturday is Local Yarn Store Day. We are all keeping to separate parts of the house and masking when we go into the other areas, and so far, it seems to be working. 

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Max caught covid at daycare then shortly after me an ash caught it, 

ash lost her sense of smell for a few days and had a cough, 

max was positive but never did have symptoms, 

I had it but never had a symptom either

My brother caught it, an he was pretty rough for a  week, my mother caught it an was sick for a couple days

but my dad caught it an it wipped his hind end pretty bad for a couple weeks, it’s crazy how it effects people differently!

anyways I hope you get to feeling better John!
Hopefully y’all don’t run into any trouble with it

[JHCC]

I'm fortunate that my job has a pretty generous sick time policy and that my son doesn't have anything going on. So long as Lisa keeps testing negative and can go to the shop, we'll be okay.

[Frosty]

Sorry to hear you've been bugged John. Here's to it being a mild case being vaxxed and boosted. Keep it to yourself will ya? 

I'll say a few words with higher for Lisa's continued negativity. 

Get well soon John, Stay well Lisa.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Mothman_c3w]

On 4/24/2022 at 4:34 PM, George N. M. said:

Mothman, when making your candleholders on the press do you use some sort of softer backing to get the dish shape or does the thinning and expanding of the metal under pressure against a hard surface cause the dishing?

Thx,

GNM

George,

It's a two step process. The press has a 1-1/2" shaft and I use a thick plate with a 2-1/4" hole as a swage of sorts underneath. I use 1/4" plate for the candleholders, so there is some clearance between the press shaft and the swage. I press the plate hot; the center recesses in a steep, tapered curve. The area of the dish outside the swage hole gets pushed upward with a gentle sweep. With this process the bottom does not stay perfectly flat so, for my final forging step, I slide a scrap 1/2" plate underneath the dish and squish the bottom flat.

I hope that makes sense the way I wrote it.

[George N. M.]

Yes, that makes sense.  Thx.

GNM

[SLAG]

John,

I just heard the revolting news about your health.

I have full confidence that you will survive this pestilence, real soon.

You have I.F.I. on your side.

Keep Lisa safe.

Best regards,

SLAG.

[JHCC]

Thank you, SLAG.

[Les L]

John, I just saw your post on getting covid, I hope all goes well for you and your family. I got it last September, after being vaccinated and boosted, but had very little symptoms, just a scratchy throat and a cough in the evenings no fever or aches. I got the infusion after the positive test. The worst part was convincing my wife that I could quarantine in my shop instead of the back room to keep from going crazy.

I'll keep you and your family  in my prayers. 

[JHCC]

Thanks, Les. 

[ThomasPowers]

John; I checked, Covid is NOT on the list of acceptable Easter Gifts; don't do that again!  Good luck with the yarn shop! The Yarn shop over near Yellow Springs had a picture of a skeleton in a rocking chair on a front porch of a store titled.  "Husband waiting for his wife at the yarn store".

We were supposed to go to a sheep shearing today, but my wife pushed it a bit much yesterday to get ready and had a bad night and cancelled around 5:30 am our ten year age difference is beginning to show up more.

I was in the shop past 9pm---*LIGHTS*!  Rebuilding and improving her prototype weed break and will probably get to reinstall it today with more C clamps to hold it in place.

Since I got the conduit run yesterday I was thinking of trying to pull some wires today; hopefully an easy section to get ready to do the more complex ones tomorrow with help.

[Scott NC]

  I hope it is a mild case for you.  Probably so as you are vaccinated and boosted.  My brother had it and he to was vaccinated and boosted.  Mild case.  However a friend of mine back home refused to get the shots and he didn't fare well.  

[BillyBones]

The plague swept through my work this past Jan. Everyone got it and i do mean everyone. The worst part was the missing of almost 2 weeks of work for it. I had a headache for about 2 days, no cough, no fever, no congestion just a headache,  but my employer said i had to wait 3 days from the symptoms showing to get a test, then the test took over a week to get back. My employer would not accept the results of one of the rapid tests. 

 

[Dax Hewitt]

This is a response to Buzz Kill from a few days ago. 

I agree entirely. Once I got rid of him things improved drastically. 

It should have been picked up on sooner but my business partner had a heart attack and was off for months then another one when he came back taking him off for months again then when he came back he was doing a bit of DIY and cut all but 1 finger off his left hand and was off for more months. 

Whilst all this was going on our head service engineer crashed his mountain bike and not just broke, he smashed his leg so he was off for months then when he was due back they gave him an appointment for a shoulder operation he had been waiting 2 years for so that took him out again for months and just as that was healing they decided to do his other shoulder. 

Picking up all the slack from that meant I had to trust my sales director was doing the right thing because I was run ragged for over a year. 

[Dax Hewitt]

On 4/29/2022 at 12:39 AM, JHCC said:

Well, I'm currently laid up with COVID, so no proper forging for the foreseeable future. 

John, don't try rush things, like you I'm double jabbed and boosted and had a very mild infection. I was back at work the day I got a negative test but 4 months later I'm still struggling to breath if I exert and when I went in the forge about 6 weeks ago I struggled to breath for the next 4 days. Last weekend we had a bbq and the smoke from that left me struggling for 5 or 6 days. 

[JHCC]

Duly noted! The arch project needs to be finished by the end of May, but I don’t have any forging deadlines other than that.

I did sneak back into the shop to do a bit more on my repoussé project. Adding more rosin definitely improved the pitch.  

(This is going to be a two-sided tag — “EMPTY” on one side and “FVLL” on the other — to hang around the neck of my spare O2 bottle.)

[swedefiddle]

Good Morning,

Use a soap stone/chalk, write "MT" on empty bottle.

Neil

[Frosty]

Dax, John and other folk recovering from Covid, ask your doctor if an Albuterol inhaler might help. I have one to help cope with COPD and it does wonders. It reduces inflammation swelling so you can get a full breath and clear your lungs. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

That’s way too practical, Neil. 

[Tim695]

Today, since I know have a viable piece of Damascus thanks to everyone's help, I figured I would need an etch tank. So today I made an etch tank out of a 3" piece of clear pvc I had laying around the shop. I also made a mount for the tank out of 2 pieces of hpde plastic that I welded together.  Iade the mount bigger than was needed as I may add other tanks to it in the future.

 

Please ignore the ugly welds as I haven't had to plastic weld in over 5 years.

John and all the others with Covid, get well soon.

 

[ThomasPowers]

 Went to the scrapyard; only 46 pounds out. Got some sucker rod of two different sizes, a few electrical parts---now that I went out and bought the last pieces needed for my wiring project! Some bolts ranging from guardrail size to electrical receptacle.  Picked up some screening for my wife's dirt scoop project along with a worn out masonry tool---she wanted me to "find a handle" for her scoop and there was it was---now to mount it on her 3# coffee can and put the screen on the bottom so she can scoop/sieve compost for her garden...

Yesterday I worked a couple of hours trying to pull some cable through conduit.  Had no luck. Had to stop early as the Electricity is off to the shop for obvious reasons!  Today after getting home from the scrapyard I tried running it from the other end,  No Problem!   So made the connections and ran the next section.  10 AWG is a pain to pull through bends!  I have a bendy section getting it across the shop to the new 220 outlets; but as it's 3/4" EMT and nothing else in it I should manage it with a friend feeding or pulling.  I'm REAL happy that I had the cable squirreled away, copper wire is $$OUCH lately.

First project once I get the 220 wiring finished is to get my 2hp drill press running on 220, then the jointer (1951 Delta, weighs 200# with stand). I think the jointer motor needs to be replace---happy I picked up the TEFC motors at the scrapyard for US$10 apiece, good American brands too.

Next is running the 110 over to the other side and hooking up a couple of receptacles for that too. Got some nice 20 amp ones from the Wally World remodel---they are scrapping stuff at "my" scrapyard...

Thought TW had made a sneaky visit to the scrapyard, looked like someone scrapped out their equipment repair boneyard, mowers, tillers, weed whackers, even an outboard motor hulk.  Wish I had made it out thataway earlier this year, it's getting warm in the steel shop building  and a chicken house fan would be nice...