What did you do in the shop today?

[Jo_Bai]

32 minutes ago, George N. M. said:

The books are always heavier than you think and the shelves are not as strong as you would think.

I second that! In my old shelf, I bent the boards. 

[JHCC]

Buckled down and dug into a big shop project I’d been putting off for some time: rebuilding the stock storage on the back of my vise/bender/shear stand. This first involved adding a pair of broad feet to improve the stand’s stability. 

And then welding up a low table from two halves of an old cargo carrier and a few bits and pieces that turned out to be perfect as its feet. 

This whole thing sits down on the I-beams on the back of the stand:

To this is added a big piece of plate:

Along with several buckets of scrap and quite a lot of bar stock, leaf spring, C-channel, and shafting:

I also welded on some 1/8” plate to the front, both to serve as bracing and to keep the underneath from reverting to its former status as a junk collection zone:

And while I was at it, I welded some brackets onto my bench vise stand, to hold my big bending forks:

With luck, the twin problems of the stand moving around too much and of the stock storage being inefficient and unstable are a thing of the past. 

[Jo_Bai]

Looks great JHCC Is this your normal everyday chaos or did you clean up for the photos?

Edited December 31, 2023 by Mod30
Remove @name tag

[Gazz]

Junk collection zone aversion - a noble thought.  Now it will end up on the floor.  Ask me how I know.

[Frosty]

I was visiting my folks in S. California sometime in the 70s (wiki says 1974) and Mother gave me the Basic D&D book that has been out of print since before AD&D 1.

The one friend who I game with anymore and I play AD&D 2 no newer, though we do adapt things from later versions. Monsters, scenarios and such keep getting more imaginative and interesting but the newer games are getting to set. What investment does a person have in a character that rolls up with near demi-god abilities and powers? We both much prefer to start with a level 1 character and build it rather than pick someone else's idea of coolness out of a hat.

We used to change up games to keep from burning out with just the two of us playing. It looks like Traveler is a bust, Sean just isn't into sci fi and even though he suggested the game hasn't been enjoying it. Last thing he said after making a bad move in the game. Not that I couldn't have made it into good gaming but he all but stomped off. Players doing the unexpected and screwing up the GM's game plans is part of the fun. Good game masters have to be able to come up with . . . stuff on the fly. Of course some blunders can only result in total party kills. This wasn't one but I'm afraid Traveler is over for us. <sigh>

I learned to read because Mother brought a sci fi book home from the library for me. She said as she came in the door, "Look Jerry, space ships!" My teacher told her I wasn't doing well reading but not to worry there were plenty of things below average people could do. MAN, talk about a way to get my folks to put the spurs to ME! I wasn't doing the Dick and Jane work sheets because I was bored, I'd read it and didn't see any reason to do the exercises. I was a dumb kid, what can I say.

Anyway, I learned to read and I mean REALLY learned to read because I discovered Sci fi in the 2nd. grade. 

Mother was one of the smartest people I knew and she hit on the PERFECT formula for teaching a child to read. Give them something to read that interests them. I don't care what it is within reason, no hate, pornography, etc. but anything else is good. Cars, Horses, gardening, cooking, what ever and give them a magazine. Pictures are good for stirring the imagination. 

One shining example always comes to mind. An old and dear friend has a son who was doing very poorly in school, Cory just could not get reading. At home all he talked about was football and cars so I picked up a Motor Trend and a Sports Illustrated, gave them to him and told him if he read a couple pages in the book I was reading out loud I'd buy him a year's subscription to the mag he chose.

I was down for 2 weeks and dropped in a few times before catching a flight home. In less than a week Cory WANTED to read a couple pages for me, Cory NEVER wanted to read anything, he was always embarrassed to try. Anyway, he read several pages, didn't want to stop at 2 and did really well. He stumbled a few times, Sci fi is full of weird words and names. 

His Mother and Dad were all but stunned, he hadn't read for them but that's a different story. Cory handed my book back with a big fat grin on his face, he'd earned his subscription fair and square and knew it. That look was all the reward I needed or ever will. However I wasn't done with his job.

You should've seen the look on his face when I asked what it meant. HIs expression went from triumphant to crash and burned, tricked out of the reward. I told him there is more to reading than turning marks on a page into sounds. You can re-read it if you like but don't worry you've earned your reward, it's yours. So, what did it mean, just the basics, don't worry about technical details and such, you can look those up if you're really interested.

He didn't have to re-read it, he got more than enough of what was going on in the book and thinking about what he'd read made him want to read the whole book. Some paperback sci fi novel I don't remember. I left it with him when I finished it. 

Sorry for the long ramble but that is one of the best memories I have. It's hard to describe what it feels like to take a kid who was sounding out simple words like paper and working hard over things like describe and in less than a week have him reading above his grade level and getting the gist of what he'd read. Cory wasn't the last but he's my most memorable. I had NO idea that little trick would work so well. I think back on how well it worked for me and it's hard to imagine it was a surprise.

Anyway, I've been reading sci fi my whole life and much prefer hard sci fi, it gives me LOTS of things to look up. Fun and educational, win win.

Frosty The Lucky.

[BillyBones]

Here i go showing my age again. When i was a kid i loved to read the Encyclopedia Brown mysteries and the chose your own adventure books. 

When i was kid my uncle also bought me a collection of books. One of those books was "Treasure Island". I got hooked on pirates and the swashbuckling tails, hence the screen name "Billy Bones". He is the pirate that gave Jim Hawkins the map to the treasure. 

When my daughter was young i would read to her, still to this day her favorite book is "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". Another book i got her was "Irish Fairy and Folktales" by W.B. Yeats which she wore out. I used to make it a point to buy her books for birthdyas and Christmas. But i always got her the classics. She has read may of the epic poems, Homer, Gilgamesh, Beowulf,  Fionn MacCumhail, the stories of King Arthur (which of course led to watching Monty Python) She is also a big fan of Poe. 

[Frosty]

Nothing like hooking them on reading when they're young!

Frosty The Lucky.

[DNADave]

Played around with a towel rack this morning.     Made from a pice of stock, a pipe hanger, and a coil spring.Need to rivet it all together next. 

 

[bluerooster]

DNAdave, Nice towel rack.

  I was a voracious reader from about second grade on.  I would read almost anything written on paper.  Mom had a set of encyclopedias that also had a set of books filled with short stories, and longer stories. I read almost every one of them by the 5th grade.  Some of the books that were required reading for school, I didn't read simply because they didn't hold my interest. Just not my type of reading.  If it wasn't a story that I could relate to, it didn't hold my interest. 

 

[JHCC]

A little more shop work: adding hooks to the side of my big tool chest, to keep my main measuring tools ready to hand. 

And finished adding a tong rack to the side of my anvil tool cart:

Also started work on another stair railing commission, flattening some schedule 40 pipe to make the handrail. 

 

 

[BillyBones]

Yes, nice rack.  may have to steal the idea. 

I kind of got lucky or pushed her but my daughter has the same reading tastes as i do. Which is mostly fantasy and horror/macabre. I did of course buy her the Harry Potter books becuase she was of that age when they came out. She still loves them and my granddaughter is named Luna after one of the characters.  I read them with her, i actually found them, in my opinion, well written and quite enjoyable. They were kids books but not so dumbed down that an adult could not enjoy the story. 

So as far as what did i do in the shop today... anyone have any suggestions on cleaning up acid? I managed to spill a gallon of muriatic acid. My first thought was to dilute it with water until i remembered the big box of baking soda. That, and washed away with water took care of the larger portions. My problem is that it managed to also coat my post vice. My old, old vice that was my great grand dad's. Of course i covered it in copious amounts of baking powder then rinsed water. What i am concerned with id the spots that i could not get baking soda nor water into, the nooks an crannies. The screw box, around the screw box, the wedge and collar, etc. I would just take it off the bench and out side to the water hose, execpt it is winter and no hose available. I though about the shower, but i prefer not to face the wife's wrath over that. So what i was thinking is a spray bottle filled with a baking soda water mix that will get into all those places. Then when dry a good coat of oil. Or am i worrying to much? 

[JHCC]

Yes, a spray bottle with a saturated solution of baking soda is probably your best bet.
 

[BillyBones]

JHCC, thanks. I was actually thinking that it would be you or Frosty that would say "yeah do that" or " no do this instead". 

[Goods]

Honestly, I’d go with the “worry too much” over the possibility of excessive corrosion from a strong acid. (I would also do what I can to avoid my wife’s wrath!)

Sounds like you’ve been doing exactly what I would.

Keep it fun,

David

[George N. M.]

If you spray it with the baking soda solution I'd then spray it with either WD-40 (WD="Water Displacement') or alcohol to get all the water out of the nooks and crannies.

GNM

[aaamax]

JHCC, those pics are dynamite and a shop to be envied.

cheers.

[Gazz]

I never bring muriatic acid into the shop - just the vapors will cause things to rust.  I learned that years ago when my mother used some in my dad's wood shop to clean up some antique thing she had.  Several days later every bit of exposed iron or steel in the shop was covered with light rust.  I don't know how saturated your vise got with the acid but if it was truly soaked, you may want to take it apart and clean it all.  Any lubricant on the screw etc. should protect the parts from vapor but if it was soaked, pockets of acid may continue to rust stuff for years.  As far as I can tell, muriatic does not freeze readily so I keep a pvc pipe with a cap on it filled with dilute acid outside my shop to clean knife blades before putting them to the belt grinder or any other bit of stock before putting it in the mill.  Scale is hard stuff and is tough on milling cutters and abrasive belts.

[alexandr]

Final point.  A few hours before the New Year, the customer installed the lantern.  I made the canopy in the summer.  Happy New Year everyone!!!

[natkova]

Made this coat hook and mounted it on brick wall

[Chad J.]

Final assembly of the kriegsmesser happened.   I'm mostly happy,  unfortunately the handle is skinnier than I'd like.  Not sure how that happened.  Anyway here it is.   5160, 42 inch overall,  32 inch blade, weighing in at 4 pounds center of gravity 7 inches from the guard, handle is maple.  Guard,  nagel, pommel, and pins are all mild steel.   The Nagel is peaned in place, as is the pommel.   The only epoxy I used was on the wood.  Just have to do some finish work.   

[White Fox Forge]

I worked on a few projects yesterday evennng. All of them were very frustrating but I learned a lot it. I tried my hand at a hatchet/tomahawk with a wrought iron body. Didn't realize that the wrought should have been refined before hand. It started flaking around the back of the eye. Don't have any pics of that unfortionately. I also tried making my fourth, unsuccesful blacksmith knife from an old file. It broke at the handle stem. Grain growth. It may have been left over from a demo that I never got to finish. It was sitting in my forge while I was cleaning up and talking. Ik what most people would say, that it's mystery steel and that it's a beginner mistake but what can I say I like talking to people lol.

My third endeavor for the day was a san mai broken back seax. It is 8670 clad in wrought iron. I've had good results welding and heat treating up until this project. The welds were fine but it kept warping during heat treat. I made an accidental inverted distal taper on the blade while grinding due to the blade shape and bevel angle. I think this is part of the problem in addition to grinding the edge too thin. The tang needs to be refined a little more before I add a handle. I'm really frustrated as I had a hard time keeping the core centered even tho i forged both side equally. The grain is pretty cool I think but it's pretty weird. Even tho the pic doesn't show it the core is on  both sides. 

Tips for future attempts? Friendly criteques?

 

Nice sword, Chad. You could wrap the handle in leather or steel twisted wire to add girth. Just a thought. The balde and guard look wicked as heck 

[BillyBones]

I am no bladesmith so i am definitely no expert so this is an honest question, but shouldnt a seax have a flat blade with out a belly or up curve, what ever you call that part of the blade? 

[BillyBones]

Well, not being a bladesmith guess what i did today, made a couple knives. 

A freind asked if i could make him a couple steak knives. I replied i can barely make a knife much less a serrated edge. So we decided on a 4 piece set of i guess dinner or table knives they would be called. 1095 with 1/8" brass pins and padauk wood handle.   This the first one, #2 i had to re-epoxy one side of the handle. I glued the handle on before the pins and when i drilled the holes one side came a bit loose. Blade is ~8" and handle maybe 5 or so.

[White Fox Forge]

I'm not entirely sure either. I've seen seax knives both with swoops and without. I certainly wouldnt say mines a traditional seax lol.

Your kitchen knife looks nice. I really like the shape of your blade. 

Hammered out two spike hawks today. These are my first ones. Once I get more practice with making these I'll probably sell 'em at some craft fairs.  The eyes need a lot of cleanup and filework. I also need to grind the bevels. Does anyone know of a good way to make tomahawk handles from lumber?

[George N. M.]

Anglo-Saxon and European seaxes are most connonly found with a flat edge and a curved or angled back but other forms are known in the archeological record including this one.  You also see this form in Viking knives. "Seax" is an Old English word for "knife."

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

White Fox, do you do any heat treating of your RR spike hawks, such as quenching the edge of the blade in super quench?

Thanks.

GNM