Got my exhaust hood installed and it works great!  Did some welding on my swage block stand. Sucked every molecule of smoke outside.  I just crack the window for some makeup air, leave the A/C on 72F, and melt my socks in comfort. 

Wife needs a hook to hang a humming bird feeder off the end of a 2x8 beam so I figured I would give her a choice. She chose the lower one for the ‘schwoops’. Lots of fun, started with 1” x1/4” scrap. 

I like them both Pedro but the bottom one a little better you can mount it so it'll carry two hummer feeders.

I'd mount the top one vertically scroll on top of course.

Frosty The Lucky.

Good Morning,

Yes, I also have square Sockets.When I went to School, we learned that 12 is divisible by 4. 12 point Sockets will work on square stuff. I'm sure it is by accident (LOL). Unintended Consequences??? (LOL)

Neil

Very nice, Rojo. I prefer the top one, as the proportions of the bicorn spiral work better to my eye. The bottom one has potential, and I think it would be substantially improved by having 2/3 of the two limbs’ combined mass in the upper and 1/3 in the lower, rather than the current half and half. That’s a minor point, though; very nice work.

I started a sheet metal work for the body of the flamingo. Gotta love a throatless shear.

 And by some miracle, my tucking fork was where I left it sometime last year.

 Which helped greatly with the initial shaping:

Also reattached my bench grinder and its support to the back of the base of my metal cutting bandsaw.

You can see that old wheel covers from the cannibalized bandsaw worked very nicely for covering the belts and pulleys, shielding them from grinder dust. 

The big performance differences between 4 and 12 point are, 12 pointers are much easier to get on a nut or bolt head in a tight spot, they're more universal and fit 4, 6 and 12 hex heads. However their contact area on a hex or 4 point nut / bolt is much less so it's more likely you'll strip the head breaking a stuck bolt / nut.

I hadn't thought of that John, 1/3 is close enough to the Golden Mean to work well. 

I haven't thought about the Golden Mean in a long time and it works for a lot of things besides visual. Thanks for reminding me. 

Frosty The Lucky.

On 7/17/2025 at 1:50 AM, Shainarue said:

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

Craft section of the Wallie world carries it, but my personal favorite is old starter solenoids, the kind that mount on the firewall. In old Fords with misaligned hoods they'd go out sometimes if it looked like rain and if you'd been doing it awhile, you'd keep two and a wrench in the glovebox so you could fix it in two minutes at a redlight.

They're basically just a big electromagnet that pulls a washer against a spring to connect the thick starter wire to the battery without running a huge bunch of wires through your dashboard, and the wire around the magnet is fantastic for crafts - it's often even coated so it doesn't corrode readily.

Good morning, all.  I hope everyone is surviving the summer heat.
Made some texturing dies for the treadle hammer this week.

 

Nice texture dies BillyO

They look like a lot of work.

I make textured hand hammers for jewelry making.

Not sure how you make yours, but I take old hammers and use nail polish to make designs and then use dilute nitric acid to dissolve out every thing that isn't protected by the nail polish. I'm guessing you have a lot more labor into yours than I do.

That’s a clever idea. Might have to give it a try. 

Along the same lines, here are some repoussé texturing tools I made by heating the end of the stock and hammering it against an appealingly rough spot on my garage floor:

I have been known at times to sprinkle scale onto the piece before hammering it to get texture. My favorite hammer is a harbor freight double sledge that I cut lines in with a cut off wheel. Makes for a nice pattern.

VW uses 12 point bolts that are both internal and external. The tools used on them are are called triple square. 

I have fixed the solenoid on a few older Fords at the gas pump. 

So, i got started on making bench dogs (actaully a completely different tool than what i have been calling a bench dog). My forge hood could be better, it gets 90% of the smoke out but still a bit it misses, especially if i have green coal off gassing. While i was working on them i did not notice till i looked up but the shop was filled with smoke. Looked up and my exhaust fan was not working. So i had to shut down and get a new fan. Got 1 done, just need 5 more. 1 more this size, 2 medium, and 2 small.

I'd like to see the results from your texture dies guys, there's always a bit of a quest for good textures with lower effort.

The way I cleared smoke when coking coal was was to put a window fan in a window pointed inwards to increase pressure in the shop. It worked pretty well but the trick is to aim the fan so it doesn't create a breeze that blows and mixes the smoke. Think of it as super charging the make up air.

Frosty The Lucky.

I don't have many finished pieces lying around but I found something on my bench to illustrate texture.

Background of this piece:

Billy, how are dogs like that used?

Thanks,

G

Last thing for today was making a new hold down for my Holland.  I wanted to practice those Brian Brazeal taper techniques, too, but the wife got home from arts-looking, so I called it a day.

 Nice dies Billy, cool tools John and love the texture Florida man - that is how I feel about it anyway  

Socks I have also been playing with Brian B’s taper technique. Is very effective but I have found I need to go slow or I end going too deep in spots. 
Good times :-)
 

 

George the one spike is driven into the end of a piece of wood, the 2 spikes are then driven into the bench top. They are mostly used for planing wood. And actually hold remarkably well. Also if used you want a bench top that you can replace periodically. So no you would not want to be driving them into a nice walnut bench. 

Now that i have my ventilation problem fixed i got some work done. Another dog i like much more better and hold fasts. I am not pleased with any of the holdfasts. The one on top the inside corner has no radius, thinking it may break there, the middle the upset corner is almost non existent, and the 3rd, to long and to ugly.

 

Also cleaned off my bench some. 

On 7/18/2025 at 8:40 AM, Frosty said:

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

 

On 7/18/2025 at 8:40 AM, Frosty said:

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. 

This is a gazebo with a cooking area. Many of us make these now. Yes, this is a house for cats. Inside there is a heater, rugs, a surveillance camera and lots of food.

On 7/18/2025 at 10:37 AM, BillyBones said:

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

Yes)))

On 7/18/2025 at 10:37 AM, BillyBones said:

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. 

My fireplace set and doors and wooden beams.

On 7/18/2025 at 3:41 PM, MeltedSocks said:

And it goes without saying, outstanding work!

Thank you !

You've shown us pictures of your gazebo before and I'm still as envious now as then. Thomas Powers would've loved this kind of stove. Heck I wouldn't be surprised if he had one or more. He called it "down hearth" cooking, basically cooking in a fireplace hearth. 

Thanks for another look Alex.

Frosty The Lucky.

I quenched some coil spring treadle hammer tools and made some little tongs to hold them. Turned out good and into the toaster oven they go

Had a demo today at the local historical park.   Great day,  really busy, and had better than expected sales.  They had civil war reenactors there and they made their way over to me.   Asked if I could do boot plates.  My reaction was,  what are these, do you have an example.  Hooked them up and they are going to be contacting me for more.   If you don't know what they are like I didn't, they are basically horseshoes for old boots.  Other than that I made a couple spike knives when the crowd got big for something loud and flashy.  I didn't get any pictures of the crowd but I'm about to go buy chairs. 

Btw, I didn't understand the kilt thing until I got one a week ago.  Today it a as hot but with the breeze, I didn't have to worry about swamp butt.

They look good Pedro. What temp did you temper them to? I have a dedicated toaster oven in the shop. I have an oven thermometer I use with it as toaster ovens aren't terribly accurate and have a fast spiky thermal curve. It worked great for my power hammer dies but they're good thermal batteries and I left them in for several hours.

Frosty The Lucky.