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What did you do in the shop today?


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Last night, making scalloped potatoes, I discovered how sharp mandolins (the cooking utensil) are. It took the tip of my thumb right off... wish I could sharpen a knife like that. It was able to cut free floating paper. No question as to what it would do with the paper test.

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Had a very frustrating time with the Forge yesterday.  I decided to try something new with the air supply.  using a standard brick as the basis I thought I would try a firepot 1 1/2 bricks long with a tuye on either end so I could increase the volume of the fireball.  I was losing a lot of air, so I spent a lot of time chasing down gaps and leaks.  I got fed up, yanked the 2 new pipes and flexible hose arrangement and replaced it with one larger diameter pipe.  The new pipe is the same size as my redneck engineered fan nozzle (Bathroom exhaust fan plus a wide mouth sports drink bottle held together with duct tape).  Air control now is the simple expedient of changing the alignment of the nozzle to the pipe.

That solved the air and thus the heat problem.

So I started working on another leaf.  Basics, you know.  I found that I was having a hard time hitting the piece accurately with the hammer.  Then, just as I got the  leaf shaped, one errant blow snapped it off at the stem.  Started another and was having troubles getting it to draw out.  Then I burned the end of it because the dog wanted attention.

All in all, I'm thinking I need a lot more practice.  Since I just started last fall, I don't think I really acquired the muscle memory to be truly consistent, and then an enforced couple of months not really doing much because of the weather just left me with a frustrating day.  Oh well.  With the spring I'll be able to get out there more often.

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Chimaera, that sounds awful! Man, I cringe at the thought!

 

This weekend was spent with the in-laws who visited from Kentucky. Tim and I worked on a desk for my wife who spends most of her work week at home now. Tim is a better carpenter than I am blacksmith, so he helped me build a very nice frame and desktop with temporary 2x4 legs.

He was also my temp-apprentice at the smithy for the weekend, assisting me in measurements, leveling ("he's level on a level"), and multiple snow quenches between working pieces. Despite using a scroll jig, I still need to tweak my scrolls with a fork and bick to achieve a better visual of uniformity on the legs. We also attempted to hot-collar the scrolls to the legs, but I certainly need more practice on smaller stock before I continue with that. I followed Francis Whitaker's instructions in "The Blacksmith's Cookbook: Recipes in Iron" in my attempt; math was not the issue with Tim at my side, but rather prep and application. To be continued. 

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Sunday, I cracked a weld on the chunk of metal I got to make powerhammer dies from. It was welded into a much heavier assembly; but I was betting it wasn't done very well and I was right, now I can maneuver the 80# chunk a lot easier and get it into a bandsaw The 120# chunk will probably need a torch.

After lunch a couple of my friends in my "Forge Bubble" stopped by and we ran for about 3 hours: tent stakes, two different coat rack hook projects---his was pineapple twist, mine were different heads and I was working on the scorpion bottle opener. (Made from an old steel buggy tyre. Not WI unfortunately.)  I also wire brushed and BLO'd another dozen tools; going at this rate I will be done by Christmas!   

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Oh Chimaera, don't you have the spiky, veggy pusher, thingy for your mandolin? I've learned via similar lessons not to use a mandolin bare handed once it's less than maybe 2"between blade and fingers.

Heal quickly and no, it won't remove finger prints so cancel the bank heist!

Paul: Keep it simple until you have a good handle on how your forge works. Fire management isn't really about the forge. Hammer control is a perishable skill, especially in the early stages. Leaves are good practice, they're just basics in combinations that keep you on your toes. Keep the elbow of your tong arm pinned to your side so you aren't chasing the work around.

Same with your hammer arm, keep your elbow touching your side. You don't need BIG blows to make leaves and long tapers, you need accuracy and you can't be accurate if the work keeps moving or your hammer arm is all over the place.

Do you fish with a spin casting rod and reel? If you practice the same kind of snap with the hammer as you use casting a lure you'll develop more power with better accuracy because you won't have to reach so far for power.

Make sense? Keep at it, you're doing well for how much time you can devote.

Frosty The Lucky.

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Another body mechanic suggestion is: the tongs don't need to be in between you and the anvil; your tong hand can actually be behind you; so you and stand close to the anvil and swing your hammer  up and down instead of an arc at full arm extension---a weaker and less accurate swing.

Had a student recently trying to knock an end towards themselves with the tongs totally floating out in space. I told them bed the tong hand in their hip crease so when you hit the workpiece it bends and not just pushing your hand around in space.

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37 minutes ago, Frosty said:

Oh Chimaera, don't you have the spiky, veggy pusher, thingy for your mandolin? I've learned via similar lessons not to use a mandolin bare handed once it's less than maybe 2"between blade and fingers.

The slicing gadget is "mandoline", not "mandolin". The mandolin is exceptionally hard to use unless you're barehanded.

2 hours ago, Chimaera said:

It took the tip of my thumb right off

My left index finger has a nice bevel on one side of the tip from an extremely ill-advised attempt to open a bag of flour with a meat cleaver.

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Well, I'm not using tongs at the moment.  I have been using some longer chunks of rebar and some long 12 inch nails as stock at the moment.  By the end of the day I was deciding that I need to stop with leaves for a little while and just focus on getting some nice tapers and just generally drawing the metal out since it was the point where the leaf ends and the stem begins that was causing such a problem.  I was trying to do the SORS method, but with the fire control problem and other stuff....

My one set of tongs is just an old pair that my son brought home and they really don't hold the metal still.  I have some material to make those really easy twist type, but that's a project for a later date.

Thanks for the hint about hammer control guys.  That's one thing I'm sure I was not doing.  I guess it's a little like keeping your elbows in when boxing.  A couple of good shots to the ribs broke me of that habit really fast way back when.

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I made a bunch of "cubical hooks" out of 12" nails---non-galvanized of course!  When I was working IT in a cube farm in Mexico; we didn't have a place to hang our coats/laptop bags.    So I measured the cubical wall thickness and I had found a bucket of used large long nails at the scrapyard and forged a simple hook for the wall---flattened out the shaft to bend around the wall and left it round with the head for the termination of the "hook".  Painted it with whatever rattle can I had to hand and brought it into work. Ended up selling about 30 of them.  I always had an extra on my cube wall and when someone wanted one I'd do the deal on the spot.

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8 minutes ago, Paul TIKI said:

A couple of good shots to the ribs broke me of that habit

Better the habit than the ribs!

2 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

When I was working IT in a cube farm in Mexico;

Never had good luck with cube farming. I think I may have been planting them too close together.

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20 minutes ago, Paul TIKI said:

  A couple of good shots to the ribs broke me of that habit really fast way back when.

Try telling that to the younger generation, previous martial arts school I went to had some young'uns that would rather complain about me hitting them then keeping their elbows in and their groin guarded.

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Yup, best way to learn, by getting the snot kicked out of you. It only took me 2 shins to the face to remember to either keep my head down when I went for a leg sweep, or my guard up. We train without protection so every time such a thing happened I am very glad my trainer has perfect control over his attacks.

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We always sparred with foot and hand pads and mouth guards.  If we went into western style boxing, we put on the heavier boxing gloves.  Doesn't seen like it should, but those things get really heavy after a couple of rounds. 

It has been decades since I made any effort to do any martial arts.  Time, Kids, and life just got in the way.  I have been contemplating trying Tai Chi as I get older. Ten years or so ago I was at the park with the kids.  I watched this Lady running about chasing after a 3 year old and just she was exceptionally graceful.  She sat down and told me it was her Great Grand child.  She didn't look much older than mid to late 40's.  She was 75, and she moved better than someone in their mid 20s.  She grinned at my surprise and told me that she had practiced Tai Chi since she was a little girl in Singapore.  I have tried it a few times and it's a heckuva workout but not so painful on the joints.  Also, much less chance of a shin to the face.

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Both Tai Chi and Yoga are great for keeping the body strong, there is this amazing video of a vet who is able to walk again thanks to just doing Yoga.

 

Since Silat is so fluid and dance like it has done wonders for my motor skills and it has strengthened my joints to the point that the physical therapist is baffled every time I go see how (had to get myself loose again after 2 years of 13h+ workdays) The training has also saved my skin more then once now if I lost my footing on some kind of machine.

Chimaera: only Bacon and ham is what I tell my wife to make.

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When I was studying the martial arts the only protection we wore were cups. Cup and mouth guard in full contact tournaments. We kicked with the ball of our foot, never the instep. When we spared with other clubs we were sure to block to the instep. Our blocks were two knuckle blows when possible. 

Gotta tell ya, a snapped block to the instep takes the fight right out of an opponent. Every block was a strike. I got hit so often I almost stopped bruising at all. Nothing improves a person's performance like getting the snot kicked out of them for falling short.

Good times.:)

Frosty The Lucky.

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16 hours ago, Irondragon ForgeClay Works said:

the safety jacks stands that is.

Normally they would be there with just using a normal hydraulic jack. This bumper jack is securely mounted to the frame and has a mechanical lock, much like a lift. It is lowered to lock the mechanism into the notch. It has to be jacked back up to release the mechanical lock then while holding that open it can be released back down.  I've used this jack many of times previously being double cautious using jack stands but it is very stout and secure. If I were to be laying under the vehicle I would double up the protection with jack stands but I trust this particular jack with the mechanical lock to work from the sides without extra supports. There is Always some risk we accept. I've seen lifts fail at dealerships but usually some tech error or unchecked/inspected equipment was at fault.

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6 hours ago, Frosty said:

Gotta tell ya, a snapped block to the instep takes the fight right out of an opponent. Every block was a strike. I got hit so often I almost stopped bruising at all. Nothing improves a person's performance like getting the snot kicked out of them for falling short.

that is 100% how my trainer has thought me, if you need to block, the attacker should be the one in pain. Once had to do conditioning drills with some army guys (Airmobile Brigade) and after just a few minutes he had lumps the size of lemons on his arms... 

That then is the complete downside of conditioning, you lose all feeling and you have a very very hard time controlling your strenght.

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