What did you do in the shop today?

[ThomasPowers]

One of my favorite P-A stories is "Alas Babylon" by Pat Frank. Written just before 1960 and it hits a LOT of the things later stories do.  (Including refrigerated insulin going bad after the power goes out.) It is a very positive P-A story. Unlike "On the Beach" where after a Nuclear War everybody left slowly dies. (Which was written around the same time as A B.)

One of the issues with 90% die off is what happens if the only local Dr's capable of removing an appendix don't survive?  I've had both my appendix and gall bladder out, either of which would have probably killed me pre 1850.

Before I became diabetic, (LADA), I used to enjoy working out how to do things P-A with what I have on hand.  Now I just tell folks I will have it easy and *they* will have to figure things out!

One big item:  You can survive winter and summer out here without heat/ac; though a local abandoned mine would make the summer more tolerable.  Means that a LOT less time and energy needs to be spent on getting enough wood to keep from freezing. 

[BillyBones]

Chad, in theory yes. There are a lot of youtube videos of people doing just that, also rewiring motors to make generators. An alternator though will only supply AC voltage where as a generator can supply both AC and DC voltage. An alternator also must have a battery that supplies DC for it to work. You can however still find generators for old cars.

Thomas, i was thinking more along the lines of a few years after apocalypse when people started living in small communities once again. I do not think we will go back to a time of neo lithic man but more towards the 17th or 18th century.  While at first yes it will be a struggle for survival eventually people will form communities, when that happens communities will start trading with each other. 

And our current civilization, no its done. We will have to rebuild anew.  

 

[ThomasPowers]

If I were to survive; I don't know if I would end up being a "scrounger" finding needed items in the wreckage of civilization or end up "chained to the anvil"  as I have a nice pre-electric set up---though I am going to try selling off my post drills!

2 Miles away from us is a windmill repair and sales company---If I can get the old well that was shared with our neighbors retrofitted we can have running water!  (And being on a septic tank, flush toilets!)

[Chad J.]

No matter what, PA, firearms will be around but those who are smart would likely conserve ammo for the times when you can't use a blade or arrow.   I would prefer to avoid attention in my actions in PA wilderness situations and we all know how much attention a gunshot gets. 

I think a good scrounger or handyman would be able to make themselves valuable enough to communities and raiders to avoid...unpleasantness.  

[Bantou]

Spent several hours working at and on the JABOD today. I cut the fire backer off to give me better access to the fire (forgot to take pictures). FYI, a thin metal cutoff wheel doesn’t work well on brick. I burned off a 1/4 of the wheel for two ~1/2” cuts; then I went and bought a masonry wheel. 
 

I Worked on a new to me technique for finials. It didn’t turn out great but I have a good idea of what went wrong. I’m going to try again tomorrow and hopefully have better results. I ran out of time to finish the second side. Not a big deal since it was just a practice piece anyway. 
 

The top side is the new technique, bottom is old.

 

Edited May 15, 2021 by Bantou
Forgot to add the photos

[Donal Harris]

Probably won’t be able to forge today. Mud bugs. 
 

Laissez les bon temps rouler.

[Frosty]

Mmmmm. I do LOVE me a mess of those little fresh water lobster arachnoids. I can't eat shrimp anymore, developed a severe allergy from one batch to the next a few days later. 

I CAN eat mud bugs and lobsters though. While mud bug etoufee is a long time favorite of mine, just boiled and a little butter is even better. 

Enjoy Brother, have a helping for me please.

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

I got a wicked bad case of food poisoning from a bad clam once. I knew in the moment of swallowing that something was wrong and that I’d be seeing it again. 

[Donal Harris]

I’ve never had a clam. Fried or otherwise. Plenty of fried oysters though. As for raw oysters, nope. Not gonna. That Vibrio vulnificus is serious stuff. Kills one in five. Those it doesn’t kill often have to have limbs amputated. And you cannot tell the good clams or oysters from the bad ones. 
 

These crawfish boiled up really well. I haven’t had any crawfish since moving back to Oklahoma from East Texas. I have been missing them. Another thing I’ve been craving is boiled peanuts. I used to eat them all the time when I lived in the Florida panhandle. 

[JHCC]

Did you keep it all for yourself? That would have been rather shellfish!

Getting back to the shop, I (mostly) finished my welding cart:

And used the torch to straighten a twist in my vise jaws:

Spot-heated the middle:

And closed the vise:

I had to use a small piece of metal (not shown) between the jaws on the right hand side, otherwise the play in the mechanism would have absorbed the twist without moving it the other way. 

Also played around a bit with spot-heating to make tight bends. This is 1” rebar; heating only took a minute or two. 

I’m liking this oxypropane thing!

[pnut]

10 hours ago, DHarris said:

10 hours ago, DHarris said:

Another thing I’ve been craving is boiled peanuts. 

 

Last ones I had were horrible. They were in a can. When I seen them on the shelf my curiosity got the better of me. They were just as bad as I thought they'd be. I like fresh ones though.

Pnut

[Les L]

14 hours ago, JHCC said:

Also played around a bit with spot-heating

JHCC, I use a #4 brazing tip to spot heat items like that, you can concentrate your heat in a smaller area and it uses a lot less gas and oxygen than the rose bud, a little slower heating the metal, but I find it works better for me.

[JHCC]

Noted, and thanks for the advice. 

I don’t know if you’ve been following my Thinking About Oxy-Propane thread, but there’s been some good discussion there about brazing tips for propane; they’re not as common or as inexpensive as those for acetylene. I do plan to get one fairly soon, once there’s room in the budget  

 

[BillyBones]

I have no clue as to how anyone willingly eats boiled peanuts, or them Brussel sprouts either. 

When i was a kid we used to catch crawfish and cook them right on the river bank. Usualy in an old beer can with a little river water to boil them.  

[JHCC]

I absolutely hated Brussels sprouts when I was a kid -- my mother always served them boiled -- but I discovered oven-roasted as an adult, and life has not been the same. Split them in half, toss with olive oil and salt, roast at 375F until crispy on the outside (turning as needed), and then toss with balsamic vinegar and fresh ground black pepper. Truly delightful.

Never had boiled peanuts.

[Frosty]

My folks were Depression era and everything had to be cooked well done, sometimes twice to be sure. Veggies were canned and boiled for a while to be sure, canned peas are the worst with canned corn a close second and canned creamed corn is . . . well worstest of all. Dad loved his canned creamed corn and if it was on the table everybody had to have some. 

Then Mother discovered frozen veggies and if she boiled them long enough Dad was okay with them. I'm thinking the reason My Sister Shannon and I have always loved veggies is because the contrast between over cooked canned made. over cooked frozen wonderful. There's no telling what kind of raw plant will end up in one of our salads. No tomatoes for Shannon though.

I love Brussel's sprouts, Sliced on a mandolin raw they are good as is. My favorite way to cook them is sliced in half lengthwise, buttered and garliced and fried in a HOT sautee pan. When you smell them gaining golden brown and delicious I kill the fire, toss in a healthy splash of 1/2&1/2 white wine and water, cover and let them steam to finish.

Doing them under the broiler is similar but you can put a bit of bacon on each one for some WOW. Bacon makes anything better.

It does NOT need to be pork bacon, it's the smoky saltiness of the cure that makes it so good. Turkey bacon absorbs the smoky flavor really well and is Mmmmmm. Nobody has to violate dietary laws to enjoy this dish.

Roasting and broiling veggies is tastebud heavenly.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Donal Harris]

It isn’t really the peanut that makes fresh, boiled peanuts so good. It is the salt. I would pop a few in my mouth and suck on them until the salt was gone. Only then would I break them open and eat the peanuts inside.
 

When I first bought a bag I was only cracking them open and eating the peanuts inside. The shells I just threw away.  When I told a friend I couldn’t see what people saw in them,  he told me I was doing it wrong and was tossing away the best part. 
 

As for boiled peanuts in a can, that sounds like a way to ruin perfectly peanuts. 
 

When I was a kid, on our way across town to football practice, we used to fill our pockets with fresh peanuts that had spilled to the side when the farmers unloaded their peanut wagons at the peanut plant. Eating raw peanuts now doesn’t sound appealing, but back then they tasted alright. 

4 hours ago, JHCC said:

Noted, and thanks for the advice. 

I don’t know if you’ve been following my Thinking About Oxy-Propane thread, but there’s been some good discussion there about brazing tips for propane; they’re not as common or as inexpensive as those for acetylene. I do plan to get one fairly soon, once there’s room in the budget  

 

Does yours automatically shut off when you hang up the torch?

[alexandr]

It got warmer.

Decorated the entrance to the workshop with flowers.

[Les L]

7 hours ago, JHCC said:

Thinking About Oxy-Propane thread, but there’s been some good discussion there about brazing tips for propane

JHCC,
No, I haven’t been following that thread, but I will look for it.  I use both types of brazing tips on a regular basis, for heating metal and silver soldering, I prefer the a/o tips because I have a much wider range of adjustment with each size tip. I can use my #4 a/o to do the same work of having to swap between #2-#4 propane tips. I would not try to braze thick metal using the a/o tip with propane, but it’s fine for brazing thin metal and heating for twists and bends. 

[JHCC]

3 hours ago, DHarris said:

Does yours automatically shut off when you hang up the torch?

Once I get everything set up properly, the gas saver will do two things:

1. Shut off the gas when the torch is hung on it, as usual. 

2. Work in conjunction with a bracket and pedal to allow the torch to be used as a foot-controlled torch stand. 

[bluerooster]

Finally, today I built the gate for the hinges and thumb latch I made a couple months ago.  Got it installed, and works just fine.

[ThomasPowers]

Turkey Bacon violates all sorts of my dietary laws! Didn't forge this weekend; went and saw my Mother for a belated Mother's day.  Spent 2 hours shopping in a single store.  Mother had made a list but it was in the order that she had thought of things and so we went back and forth a LOT of times.  She didn't get my suggestion of getting all the needed things in one area before going to another. I expect she will be moving in with us within 5 years.

I also spent a lot of hours with a pole saw and bow saw cleaning out dead trees and limbs---packed it all neatly in my little pickup and it will be heat come this winter.

I took her to buy a plant for a mother's day gift and found them selling some heat tolerant tomatoes; I'm going to try a couple and see if they can do ok in New Mexico.  (So after driving 165 miles and unlading the wood to be trimmed smaller I got to put a layer of rocks in a large container, then some bark, then some sand & gravel then 4 cubic feet of garden soil mix and plant them.   Now I have to rest up for dinner...

[JHCC]

Finished the bracket on the torch stand. 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

10 hours ago, JHCC said:

I absolutely hated Brussels sprouts when I was a kid -

Same here, however my wife fixed that for me. She sautes them in bacon grease and garlic, split in half the long way. I now have a greater appreciation for cruciferous  vegetables.

[Chad J.]

My barn has several small rooms in it.   Three of them are chicken coops.  I started tearing them out today.  I pulled wooden crate, followed by particle board with a wall paper pattern, followed by drywall,  then tar paper, 1 by furring strips, and cardboard.  This area is going to turn into a stock room.  I am going to salvage a bunch of the wood for various other projects.