What did you do in the shop today?

[M3F]

The monkey tool I made is NOT stout, it was made from the same 3/4" bar I'm using in the project. I didn't think about that so I'll make another one.

I've never heard of a chisel cut in the mortise. So with the tenon in place just before piening where would the cut be made?

Thank you very much for the tips!

 

[JHCC]

Made a flat-faced radius block for the Hossfeld and put it to good use. 

 

More details on my Hossfeld bender thread HERE.

[BillyBones]

M3F, if the technique Frosty is describing is what i am thinking, just on the edge of the hole. Place the chisel so one corner is in the hole, slightly angle it on the corner of the hole so that the corner of your chisel is down in the hole just a slight bit, and drive the chisel away from the hole.  Drive it away so that you do not push material back into the hole. This will create a "V" notch on the corner and slightly on the face of the bar. When you peen over the tenon material will be pushed into that notch making a kind of key. 

By the way nice work on that. I usually have to use files to get mine that square. 

[Frosty]

M3F: You're welcome, it's my pleasure. 

Billy has it about right. A chisel cut in the edge of the mortice you'll be peining the tenon into causes the tenon to fill the notch keying the joint. 

If you do the same thing when you rivet a pair of tongs together only one side of the tongs will rotate on the pivot (rivet) and they'll stay tight longer and the rivet will last a lot longer.

Frosty The Lucky.

[M3F]

I'll try that technique for sure thanks again.

BillyB I was able to get it pretty square on the initial set downs with die I made for my guillotine tool. They're 45 degree butchers with a 16th of an inch radius instead of a sharp edge. Suggested in a video by my hero Mark Aspery lol. After that I used squaring dies (also 16th of an inch radius) to draw out the tenon.  The monkey tool really didn't do much since it was already pretty clean. I suspect if it wasn't that's where Frostys tip of a stout monkey tool would come in handy. 

I will admit at first I tried to "wing" it and it was BAD,  after realizing there's a reason some techniques are done a certain way I made the tooling. Now it's my new favorite thing and everything is going to have a mortise and tenon joint. Kinda like how everything had a brass finish when I learned that technique. 

[anvil]

M3F, nice. I make my monkey tools out of drill rod. It has a hole down the middle which can be drilled out bigger if needed. Its a tool steel and just needs to be normalized. Also, heres a "secret" to getting a tight fit around the edges. Slightly round the working end of your monkey tool. This will make the tenon face slightly concave. When you set the tenon, the outside edges crush and form a tight fit with no gaps. 

[Michael]

On 3/23/2023 at 1:34 PM, JHCC said:

Hmm...I've been toying with ideas for a phone stand for my office, as making one would probably be easier than getting the office manager to give me a longer cord. 

From the "big folder of project ideas"

[Shainarue]

I finished the phone stand for my wife last night. I had sent her 3 or 4 ideas and this is the one she liked - "J-style". The original J-style design was made all out of one piece and had lots of bends back onto itself. She wanted "less bulk" and asked if I could just do the two sides separately and then weld it to a base. I sent her an in-progress shot and she reminded me she wanted room for a charging cable to be connected while in the base - so I found another piece of scrap bar, pounded it flat and bent it to make a 'table' of sorts to raise the pieces up. 

I'd do a lot of things differently if I made another of this style. But she's happy to have this one and that makes me happy too.

 

[JHCC]

Ah, I was thinking more along the lines of a small table to go by my desk in the office. I already made a bracket to hold my phone in the kitchen. 

[JHCC]

(Shown attached to the underside of one of the upper cabinets.)

[Scott NC]

  Today I re-build my burner and tested it in a forge mock up with some hard bricks I had laying about.  I sure hope it gets hotter in a proper forge body (not a brickpile).....   My old forge disintegrated and went to the dumpster.  I might make a viking bottle opener yet.... 

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Sweet!!

[gewoon ik]

Cool. 

[alexandr]

I took the chairs to their place, and made a firewood rack.

[ThomasPowers]

I had one of my forge buddies drive me to the scrapyard.  He filled up the bed of my truck. I got one handful of stuff. I only had to sit down about 3 times walking around the small pile. 

[JHCC]

Converted the wheeled base I picked up earlier today into a mobile grinding station: 

This drops my 2 x 90 belt grinder down to a better working height and frees up a bit more floor space elsewhere by putting both grinders on one base. 

[BillyBones]

Mad a serving fork for a friends Easter dinner, then started some drive hooks for and upcoming project. 

[Frosty]

John If you put a table across the old top of your new grinding station you won't have to even turn if you're grinding a quantity. It'll also be a handy place to put . . . stuff.

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

Another horizontal random detritus accumulator? That’s the last thing I need!

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

One can never have enough flat surfaces.

 

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sails. ~ Semper Paratus

[JHCC]

Oh, another detail: I mounted the wire wheel outside the side of the stand and removed its housing.

Now I can bring workpieces against it from below, where it’s turning away from me. 

[Glenn]

DO NOT use the wire wheel until you replace or make a guard for it. 

 

Paw Paw Wilson was using a 6" braided wire cup brush on a shaft that's pulley run by a 1750 RPM motor.  The wire wheel grabbed the metal out of his hands, around the wheel and threw it back into his face. 18 stitches in four separate lacerations, most over the temple.

Ophthalmologist checked him and said no retinal separation, but would have definitely ruptured the orb and fractured the Maxillary Process without the glasses.

He did have a small, star shaped fracture of his skull at the initial impact point and not one, but two concussions, one at the initial impact point, the second on the top of his head where he hit a five gallon bucket of concrete when he dove away and hit the ground.

The accident effectively side lined him for almost two years. He suffered almost constant traumatic head aches for nearly 18 months. Its only in the last six months that they have slowed down enough to permit him to start working again.

Please DO NOT use the wire wheel until you replace or make a guard for it.

[JHCC]

I’ve got a guard that I think will work; I’ll keep y’all posted. 

[Frosty]

 

oops

[BillyBones]

That proves just how quickly things can go south when working with power tools. You can go from fine and healthy to no longer among the living in the blink of an eye. One slight distraction can change your life forever. This is why it is of great importance that even though we may sound like a broken record, us older guys and gals need to stress at al times the importance of PPE to the younger generation, and even correct that guy who is older if need be. 

Like the Grainger commercial says : Safety, Safety, Safety.