I made a bolster with holes of diameter 3/16", 1/4", 5/16", and 3/8" in the middle.  I left one spot for future use.  After making this tool, I converted 1/4" hex head lag bolts into square head.  They turned out okay.  I need to get one of those "As Seen On TV" sockets with all the spring loaded pins that will fit odd shapes, because it took a while doing quarter turns with an adjustable wrench on a 2-1/2" lag bolt.  Still need to paint the square heads, but otherwise, it's ready for succulents.

Blacksmith Bolt & Rivet Supply sells 8-point socket sets for square-headed bolts.

(Photo credit: company website)

And now I'm wondering if one could make an 8-pointed mandrel around which to reforge standard sockets...

 

(Old ones without plating, of course.)

You can also buy square sockets. Some of the machines i run have square head bolts. You could also weld a bar into the business end of a socket, put a "T" on the end and use the drive end to turn the bolts. That is how we make 1/4" and 3/8" T-handles for making adjustments on those machines. 

Not to mention drain plug sockets are both internal and external square. 

Ooh, good point.

13 hours ago, BillyBones said:

Copper rivets would look pretty cool in that. And if you use copper you could get by with just drilling the holes. 

I like this idea. I rarely do mixed material projects but I like the look. I don't think I have any copper wire thick enough to use as a rivet but I do have a length of brass rod from something or other. I don't recall the diameter but pretty sure it's less than 1/8". I'll have to look into working with brass (again). I know I looked it up before but the knowledge didn't stick, lol

Shaina, you can usually buy pretty heavy copper wire by the foot at hardware stores.  It may be used as grounding wire.

G

Yes, I did know that. And if I decide to do more of these then I'll go grab some. But just as a fun "I wanna try" project, I don't want to buy stuff. 

Plus - I'm currently without a vehicle, lol. So impulse buys have been drastically reduced! 

Another good source of copper "rivets" is in the copper nail / brad section of a real hardware or specialty carpentry supply. 

Frosty The Lucky.

The Square Wheel grinder I picked up the other day was missing the knob that holds the side door shut. This meant that I needed to keep the upper guard down, in order to keep that door in place.

So, I made a replacement from one of the knobs from the cannibalized bandsaw:

 

This allows me to flip up the guard if I want to do any slack-belt grinding:

Which works perfectly!

(I also removed the “WOOD CUTTING” label from the side of the table. It applied to its parent bandsaw, but not to the grinder.)

I ran out late in the day to make a flatter for my power hammer.  I radiused the edges.  Anything else I should do to it?  Don't know why it looks purple in the picture.  It's ground pretty flat and is silvery.

I'm tempted to ask if the hammer is there in case you get tired of dealing with a problem part. But I'm sure it's in the pic because you just dressed and polished it. Right?

Frosty The Lucky.

Indeed. 

I possibly finished a hold fast today. My other holdfast was made from a spring steel, apparently got too hot and broke on me. This one I made with mild steel. 1/2" square made octagon and drawn out until it slid freely into the pritchel hole. I only worked down the length that would pass through the hole. The rest I left as 1/2" square. 

I say "possibly" because it suddenly started raining just as I was getting ready to test it. Heavy rain too, not even a few sprinkles as a warning. So I rushed to get everything put away and closed up. I'll test it tomorrow. 

I also finished the pendant I was trying out. I ended up finding some copper wire and the holes needed to be smaller than the brass rod I had anyway, so I used the copper wire. 

Edited July 17, 2025Jul 17 by Shainarue
Added detail regarding the pendant

Pretty cool. One in the center would have looked really nice but i do not blame you for not doing it, that would have been a real PITA. 

 

Indeed. I am considering wrapping it though if I can find smaller copper wire.

The week was very busy. Packed and sent. Coped alone. Made new doors with glass on the stove. The owner of the house likes to cook in it, wants to watch the process without opening the door. Installed a canopy on the cat house. The rich owner of the house loves animals. Feeds homeless cats.

Started work on a commission for a forged lawn flamingo. 

Alex, are the pictures of the stove doors as installed in the commissioner's kitchen? These are replacing solid iron or steel doors, yes?

What it looks like from here is what we'd call an oven and the smoke stains above and around it maybe wood or coal fired. We use ovens to bake, roast and braise in generally though you can make slow simmered dishes like baked beans, chowders, stews, shepherd's pie, etc. in an oven. 

I tend to think of a stove for cooking as heating from under the pot, pan skillet, etc. However, the term stove can be many different appliances to heat, cook and such.

I like the doors, they're beautifully made as I expect to see from you. I'm mostly hoping for a little more understanding of the very different culture, customs and simple household work like cooking a meal and such. 

I love the canopy over the cat house door. 

Uhhh, Alex. The term Cat House is another way of saying house of ill repute over here. Not that we don't know what you mean but it's still kind of funny. 

AARRRGH, I submitted this 4 hours ago and it didn't upload! At least I can comment on John's flamingo start and not have to submit another post . . . Or something. 

Are you going to pose the flamingo, perhaps make a couple few? The was they feed is distinctive and pretty to watch. I'm looking forward to seeing how it come out.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

10 hours ago, alexandr said:

The rich owner of the house loves animals. Feeds homeless cats.

My wife would get along with him. She also feeds the homeless cats. That is a heck of a cat house, best we do is some boxes and cubbies in the barn filled with straw. 

I see Frosty already beat me to what a "cathouse" is here.

Is an out house the same thing in Russia as it is here? A toilet? 

In the pic of the oven doors i see off to the right what looks to be a set of log tongs. Can i assume that you made the fire set as well? Like to see a pic of those. 

9 hours ago, JHCC said:

Started work on a commission for a forged lawn flamingo. 

If you paint it pink and put it on your lawn, it's cultural appropriation (belongs exclusively to Florida).  Better play it safe and do the black wax finish. 

Seriously, that's a project my wife would love.  I can't wait until you post pictures of the finished work....so I can copy you! 

15 hours ago, alexandr said:

 Installed a canopy on the cat house. The rich owner of the house loves animals. Feeds homeless cats.

I did a kitchen and bathroom remodel for a couple who ran a cat rescue in their home.  Dozens upon dozens of cats and litter boxes.  They tiled every square inch of that house, including the first four feet up the walls due to the spraying and marking.  The stench was awful.  Had it not been during one of those "famine" times (from the phrase "feast or famine"), I would have turned and walked out when I came for the consultation.  But, I was hungry.

When I did the demolition, I found cat urine running down the backside of all the upper cabinets, on the backside of the countertop backsplash, down the back of the base cabinets, and even inside the cabinets.  It was making my eyes water. The next day, I rubbed Vic's Vapor Rub inside the face piece of a charcoal respirator and all in my mustache and beard.  That's the only way I could tolerate such a hazardous dump site. I was well past caring about offending them.

What shocked me more than the 100+ cats inside the house was the fact they had several outside utility buildings the size of what you posted that were also full of cats.

Those people had to have been mentally deranged.  Looking back, I guess I'm lucky that I only have an AirBnB on one side of my home and a veritable frat house (due to the partying) on the other side of me.

And it goes without saying, outstanding work!

One of the nice things about being a kitchen remodeling guy is that I can snag some nice items that the homeowner doesn't want.  I got this practically new range hood and a heavy gauge, large single bowl deep stainless steel sink.

I'm in the process of installing the hood above my welding table.  It will exhaust straight out the back.  So, instead of opening all the doors and windows to this hot, humid weather to do a bit of welding, all I have to do is crack a window and turn this vent on.  It'll be a little higher than I'd like, unless I decide to extend the cabinet downward, and it is off-center due to the stud, and that will forever bug me, but I'll get over that.

The wife wants me to make her a succulent potting station, with that sink in the center to hold her soil mixture, a hinged cover to keep the rain out, countertop sections on both sides, storage for her pots, and a canopy of some sort to shade her while she works.

Hmmmmm.  Maybe a simple forged steel and canvas canopy that will demonstrate how inadequate and unimaginative I am compared to Alexandr.  

I know what you mean about kitchen remodels socks. I fabricated and install corian countertops for a decade until corian fell out fashion with the rich folk here in Windsor and John's island. I snagged a nice downdraft from an expensive cooktop. I built a laminar flow hood with it. The best part was the wiring was perfect for plug and play with a normal duplex outlet with a selector switch with 3 speeds.

3 hours ago, MeltedSocks said:

If you paint it pink and put it on your lawn, it's cultural appropriation (belongs exclusively to Florida).  Better play it safe and do the black wax finish. 

The client lives in a town* where everyone has pink flamingos on their lawns and specifically asked for “a bada$$ flamingo”. It’s going to be painted black with red eyes. 

 

* Parma, Ohio, described to me once as “the town that people in Cleveland talk about the same way that people outside Ohio talk about Cleveland.”

If you wish to build a truly naughty burro flamingo, go prehistoric on them. All the way back to the time birds had teeth and have a pair of saber tooth flamingos guarding your lawn. 

For the non-birders. Pink coloration is due to shrimp being their main food. 

https://birdfact.com/articles/where-do-flamingos-live

Frosty The Lucky.