What did you do in the shop today?

[M3F]

Those railings are something!  The architectural work you guys do blows my mind. 

As far as the pendant and arrow head go I'd like to know what the "contaminant" was so I can accidentally contaminate my acid with it!  Clean, sharp work. 

Table done. To me it's nothing to write home about, but the customer is always right. Right?

 

[gewoon ik]

Small table. 

[alexandr]

19 hours ago, Irondragon ForgeClay Works said:

Is the sword part of the design, it really caught my eye and I like it, especially if it is detachable to use in home defense.

Hi!  Thanks!

The idea with the sword came to the customer later.  We didn't plan at first.  The sword was bolted to the grate.

[M3F]

Maybe I need to look at it differently. The customer sent this so they must be happy and that's all that really matters.

[Donal Harris]

12 hours ago, George N. M. said:

I may have to try something similar for the 1st Cavalry Division, my old outfit in Viet Nam.

BTW, why the 3 extra holes in the arrow head?  I

A 1st Cavalry Division insignia would be cool to make, but probably a little harder to get right. One of our main guys in our state artist blacksmithing association is a retired SGM. Artillery. He joined up after high school and did at least one tour there. He was an E-5 when he was sent over. I haven’t talked about it much with him, but have always assumed he was better off getting sent there as an E-5 than as a private straight out of high school. But perhaps not.

I was a medical lab specialist and was stationed at Ft. Riley as my first duty station after lab school. I was assigned to Irwin Army Community Hospital there and thus wasn’t actually part of the 1st Infantry Division. I wore a MEDDAC shoulder patch. My second and final assignment was at the 5th General Hospital in Bad Cannstatt, West Germany, now just Germany and the 5th General Hospital is no more. 
 

I am proud to have been associated with both. The 1st Infantry Division has an incredible history. So many lives sacrificed to retain the freedoms too many take for granted today. The 5th General Hospital was the first hospital to in Normandy after D-Day. They didn’t sacrifice as much as those doing the actual fighting, but many of those who did were able to go back home only because the hospital was there. 
 

You are overthinking the holes. Their purpose is much simpler. It is two pieces, wrought iron riveted to copper.  The copper side has BOSS chiseled into it. It is a keychain for my boss. 
 

Thanks for your comments and your service. Walter Cronkite was an idiot who totally misunderstood everything he saw there. 

[Donal Harris]

12 hours ago, M3F said:

 As far as the pendant and arrow head go I'd like to know what the "contaminant" was so I can accidentally contaminate my acid with it! 

 

 

 I had my hotdog tongs that I use sitting beside by grinder. I have been doing quite a lot of grinding on copper lately. It could be that. But I think it was most likely the fact my acid bowl was sitting underneath the deck chair I was sitting in while cutting out the copper side of the arrowhead. Of the two, I suspect the latter to be what caused the contamination. 
 

It is just displacement of the copper dissolved in the solution with the iron particles on the surface of the WI. Sort of copper plating without electricity. 
 

 

[George N. M.]

Donal, I was an Infantry Platoon leader with 1/C/1/12 Cav, 1st Cavalry Division (airmobile), 1970-71 for the first half of my tour.  For the 2d half I was S-5 (Civil Affairs) for the 186th Infantry Brigade of the Americal Division.  There I was working with Vietnamese civilians and doing things like disaster relief and taking medcap teams out to remote villages.  The 2d half was much more rewarding than playing hide and seek in the jungle with little brown people who are trying to kill me (and vice versa).  That is not to say I never got shot at in the S-5 job but I guess I was pretty good at it because shortly before I came home I found out that the local VC and NVA had a price on my head because I was improving the relations between the GIs and the Vietnamese.

After I got back I stayed in the National Guard and Army Reserve (Field Artillery) and finally retired as an LTC about 30 years ago.

I have noticed that there seem to be a higher percentage of vets on IFI than in the general population.  There is probably a PhD dissertation in psychology or sociology in that fact.

Thank you for your service too.

GNM

 

[Scott NC]

15 hours ago, M3F said:

must be happy

  I'd be happy with it too.  It looks good and is perfectly suited to it's space and use.  I have a very long window with a bunch of cheap wire plant stands and may make a long one of these and re-purpose them all. 

[BillyBones]

I could see those key chains with 1st ID, or any unit being quite marketable. I know my dad would get get one if it were the 20th engineers (i think that is who my dad was with in Vietnam), the diamond with the castle in the middle, and i would of course take a 3rd ID. 

George, my last duty assignment was with 3/8 Cav 1st Cav. We were the first unit in the military to get the M1A2 Abrams tanks and the SINGARS (frequency hopping) radios. The radios set up a commo net between vehicles so that info could be transmitted digitally between them. The commander could set things like way points, preplots, unit locations, obstacles, objectives, etc. on a map on a computer scene. Then that could be transmitted to each vehicle over  the network. 

We also had the first gen GPS which was a little screen with an arrow on it pointing in the direction you needed to go.

[JHCC]

Please remember that (generally speaking) the US government owns the trademark on all its logos and insignia, and their unauthorized and unlicensed use (especially for commercial purposes) is technically illegal. Since IFI does not condone or support illegal activity, we encourage our members who want to explore such opportunities to contact the licensing department of the relevant branch of service.

[Frosty]

M3F: I'm pretty sure the comment about your table being small is because there was no context to judge size. I thought it was tall and narrow but had guessed right about it being perfect in front of a window. I'll bet a nickle that a couple more words in the description would've landed you nothing but compliments. Not that the "small" comment was criticism it was an observation and frankly true. It IS small but it's supposed to be the size you made it. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Scott NC]

  I think the photo they sent says it all.  Perfect.  I love it and like I said, I'm going go build an exact replica to fit my space if M3F dont mind.  

[M3F]

Thanks guys yes I could have been more descriptive.

The table is the exact size the customer wanted it to be, I wasn't impressed with the design (which is also per the cutomer) so I shot it down which I really shouldn't have done.

The last pic like I said was from the customer and they loved it, I need to learn to not be so hard on myself. After all they did comission me to make it, when they could have bought something at a big box store.

Scott build away good sir. 

[gewoon ik]

The small was about the width. 

The height no idea, i somehow was thinking barheight. 

I like it. I get why you don't like the X, but the feet with the connection and the support of the top are nice.

I really like the upset ends. Gracious ends.

[Frosty]

Yeah, it's never good PR to question a customer's taste publicly.  'I just finished this commissioned piece.' Would've covered much of the why nicely.

I figured it was so narrow there must be a reason but just watched the thread instead. It's a nice piece of work, you deserve bragging rights AND the check! 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Donal Harris]

10 hours ago, JHCC said:

Please remember that (generally speaking) the US government owns the trademark on all its logos and insignia, and their unauthorized and unlicensed use (especially for commercial purposes) is technically illegal. Since IFI does not condone or support illegal activity, we encourage our members who want to explore such opportunities to contact the licensing department of the relevant branch of service.

I don’t really sell the things I make. I make what I want and if someone wants it, I give it to them and make something else. Even at higher than market rates, I wouldn’t even be able to put gas in my truck or pay the light bill if I was to try and make a living at this. I probably spent at least 6 or 8 hours over a few days making that Big Red One keychain. At say $45 for the thing, not factoring in materials, equipment, consumables, or fixed costs, that works out to less than minimum wage. 
 

As for this one, I posted it to my Facebook account and a friend I met at Basic and then went to AIT at Ft Sam Houston and later Ft Riley as our first assignment told me he wants it. So I am making myself two more. One to use and another to have in reserve for when I invariably lose the other. 

[George N. M.]

Yeah, even though I sell things I would not sell these, if I made something similar, out of a sense of respect.  I might make some for myself or friends but if I had them on my sales table I would have a sign saying, "Free to vets or family of vets."  If someone said that their great grandfather had been in the Battle of the Meuse-Argonne in WW1 with the X Division I would probably drop all other projects to make a key fob of the X Division insigia.

As the guys on the website of my Viet Nam company say, "Boot to Boot!"  This is very similar to how the Saxons referred to the man who stood beside him in the shield wall, "Shoulder brother."  That pretty much sums up how I feel about all other veterans.

GNM

[jlpservicesinc]

Couple days ago unloaded early 50lb hammer into the school.

[alexandr]

I took the woodshed to the place and installed the cornices.

[JHCC]

Made a couple of Hofi-style twisting wrenches (1/2”).

[Paul TIKI]

I had a busy day experimenting.  A local auto shop gave me a car spring, so I cut some off and tried to make some fire strikers.  I'm learning bit by bit, and the muscle memory and arm strength is coming back.  I also used an altoids tin and some cotton facial scrubbing pads to make char cloth.  I need to find some flint and these might make neat stocking stuffers for campers

[anvil]

JHCC, Nice twisters. The problem with those is that it is really hard to not edge bend your stock with a one handed twister. I prefer, for that reason, a two handed type that fits two different sizes of stock.

[jlpservicesinc]

Anvil, looks like a tight S  each side is different size. 

 

Handles extend from each end of the S.

[JHCC]

1 hour ago, anvil said:

I prefer, for that reason, a two handed type

I generally use a two-hander made from an old adjustable wrench with an extra handle welded on. However, I was intrigued by THIS VIDEO and thought I'd give these a try (although I do seem to have gotten a couple of details a bit off).

Also, made an unusual custom coat hook for my office; it hooks on the top of my bookcase (with the help of some double-sided tape) and accommodates both my jacket and my hat. 

[anvil]

Nice job on the tool and a great vid! Making them is worth it just for learning the process. I can see some pretty cool uses for a set of them. I've been looking, but I must not have, a pic of my scrolling wrench. It's Pretty simple. Basically its a set of them made from one piece with two open slots for twisting. When the snow melts, I'll get a pic.  I've still got 2' of snow on the ground between me and the shop. 

My first twister was a pipe wrench with a handle welded on and the teeth filed off the jaws. I found when using them that the jaw opening tended to change during use and that became a pain in the,,, forge.