What did you do in the shop today?

[ThomasPowers]

SinDoc; just remember that Russia is *BIG*; it has 11 timezones!  So visiting it generally boils down to visiting a tiny subset of it.  (St Petersburg for example). We see the same thing out here when European colleagues would visit NRAO and tell us they were going to tour the USA.  They were very surprised to learn that all the time they had allocated would be used up in going to one place and back by car.

[SinDoc]

St Petersburg is one of the places I would like to visit. The other would probably be Moscow of course. I play a game that is from a Russian dev and (supposedly) uses actual areas in Russia for their map design. Pretty fun, yet hardcore FPS (Escape From Tarkov) and is probably one of the best shooter games I have ever played.

[alexandr]

4 hours ago, SinDoc said:

My whole life is a lie! 

Alas! You was wrong.

There are enough drunks, but there are a huge number of visitors in gyms and swimming pools.

The last time I saw bears in the Arctic Ocean was in 1981. Polar bears.

[JHCC]

I've never seen polar bears in the wild, but I did find myself uncomfortably close to a black bear mother and cubs in Alaska (about four degrees south of the Arctic Circle) in 1987.

[Jobtiel1]

Found some time to be in the shop again, I finished up a pair of tongs that I've been working on. Made from flat bar and the jaws are twisted.

Quite happy with them! I think I made them the fastest of any of my tongs, and might be the best as well.

Also I forged a little gift for my girlfriend, no pics of that one though.

~Jobtiel

[ThomasPowers]

Yesterday: I came home from work and there was a "passed inspection" sticker on the Meter Box.

Today: called the Electrical CoOp and they won't set the transformer or install the meter without my electrician being present.  He's out of state till June 15th, at least.  (I told them I was really hoping for power before the July 4th Holiday---shoot I might even fire the cannon if that happens.)  High 90's possibly 100's this week  Having lights to work at night is a *good* thing!

[JHCC]

Nice pair of box-jaws, Jobtiel1. Good proportions around the boss.

[Jobtiel1]

JHCC, Thanks, I fullered in on opposite sides to isolate the material for the boss, from there I only knocked down the corners to make it a bit more round. I always read here that you shouldn't leave it too thin, and only my first pair has a boss that's too thin, it broke too, so that's good advice.

Thomas, I hope you have power soon too, looking back at the time you said you might have had power in the shop in a week or so was a tad bit too optimistic after all.

~Jobtiel

[ThomasPowers]

And yet it's so much simpler here than in some other places!  I don't get charged for the transformer and I will have 200 amp service which will give me a lot of future flexibility!    Some folks here have been following this saga for 15 years now and hopefully are not holding their breaths for a denouement!

[Steamcheng]

Hammered out my first set of tongs, courtesy of Ken's Custom Iron.  I have a lot to learn and need a lot of practice, but these will get me started.  I sized the jaws to let me hold the 5/16 blanks to make the rest of the tongs in the set.  Then I'll resize/shape as needed.

 

 

For comparison, here is a photo showing the gorilla tongs I had (was in an auction lot I won some time back).  They're awful heavy for anything I'll be doing for a while.  The ends of the reins are about 1/2" round - these things are heavy.  Glad to put them down now!

[JHCC]

Don't be afraid to grind or sand the reins of your tongs: smooth reins are much easier to use for long periods of time.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

I had a couple of old tongs that had the reigns like that, too big a diameter. I heated the rivet head and drove it out then drew the reigns out to a comfortable diameter. Then cut the reigns to the length I wanted and had enough in the cut off pieces to forge weld them to other tongs I made without reigns.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Das a gator jaw has that web at the rear, and that could be welded in to act as a brace.

 

http://aminus3.s3.amazonaws.com/image/g0036/u00035074/i01728977/00d0dae91974dfdb0008b8241249f0c3_large.jpg

 

 

 

 

DHarris, the flatter handle eye is at an ERGONOMIC angle for a more comfortable hold.

[Donal Harris]

On 6/7/2021 at 1:02 PM, BillyBones said:

Then made a swivel.. 

 

Would the swivel allow you to spin a grill hanging from it? I am going to copy that chain on the left if you don’t mind. I rather like it. 

 

 

On 6/7/2021 at 2:28 PM, alexandr said:

The original plan was to put this countertop on a finished wooden table. Perhaps I will make a new one.

 

Russia is a civilized country.

Everything that is sold in your country is also sold in ours.

I am looking forward to see the completed table. 
 

Of course Russia is civilized. I wasn’t implying it is not. I was more curious if you have “big box stores” like Home Depot or Lowe’s and if so, what I would see lining the shelves of the tool department. 
 

Also, unlike most Americans who think the Allies won WWII because the US Army, Navy and Marines are the best of the best of the best (which they are, the Army at least), I know differently. The war was won because of the 27 million or so Soviet soldiers and civilians who died during the war. 8.7 million of those were Soviet soldiers and partisans, with over 1 million Soviet soldiers and civilians killed, missing, or wounded at Stalingrad alone.  As for what Leningrad or St. Petersburg had to endure, just indescribable.

So no, I would never say Russia is uncivilized.  Without the sacrifices made by your people, the Allies would have lost the war. 

[BillyBones]

DHarris, i do not see why you could not hang a grill from one. I would attach 3 or 4 chains to the grill though so it would not hang sideways. Or maybe 3 or for hooks about 12" long or so. That could look nice with some twists or maybe a wheat twist type thing, kind of wide hooks. The possibilities are there as long as the grill is balanced. 

Copy my chain... WHA, WHA, WHAT? No just kidding, copy away, aint nothing new in the world of blacksmithing i am sure i aint the first to do it like that. I really got inspiration to look outside the box to make chain from an English smith on the youtube. His name is Rowen Taylor and he did a recreation of a chain found in the Sutton Hoo burial site. The chain took him i think he said a month to make and there are 14 videos of him making it. I was fascinated by him doing it. I highly recommend it. 

About Russia, i found it fascinating how quickly they were able to turn factories that made tractors into factories that made tanks. Also one of my personnel kind of heros came out of the battle of Stalingrad, Vasily Zaitsev, 225 confirmed.   

[Steamcheng]

Man, I love those hooks and swivels!  Great stuff!

 

After making some tongs yesterday, I fiddled around in my shop and made a rivet setter to use on the next set.  It is nothing fancy.  I just used a ball endmill to make both parts out of a couple of pieces of steel.  The largest ball endmill I had was 3/8" so it isn't very big, but should do for the next few sets of tongs I make.

 

 

[JHCC]

3/8" is much too small for tongs. Get yourself a 3/4"-1" bearing ball, heat up both pieces, put the ball between them, and hammer them together to create the top and bottom divots.

[Chad J.]

Started in on my work bench for the belt grinder.   Making it out of salvaged wood from a fence I took  down.  My 6 inch delta jointer got a workout last night cleaning up the wood for this.  Felt good to really brush off the woodworking skills.  I'll post pictures this evening when I'm done with it. 

[ThomasPowers]

The ball endmill is a good starter dimple to hold a bearing ball in place to size it for use.  You can also take a piece of round stock, (I'd suggest medium to HC), and forge and grind the end to a hemisphere and use that to forge a dimple into the rivet set stock.

[Steamcheng]

Thanks Thomas.  I buy used cold chisels (among other things) at yard sales and swaps, so have a decent place to start on a round end punch like that.  I can't for the life of me find a large enough bearing ball in my shop right now!  Need to "go to the source" and pick up some scraps.

Originally, I settled for the 3/8 ball mill, since the rivets that came with the tong blanks are only .406 which is only about 1/32 bigger than 3/8.  Since now I'm learning a new hobby, perhaps I should think more about how I'd do things in the forge than on the lathe or mill.  Of course I could use a rounded profile tool bit on my lathe and make larger domed dies for setting rivets, but I ought to be thinking about creating them with a hammer. 

 

[Frosty]

A quick rule of thumb I use for rivets is, Head dia = 2x rivet dia. To supply enough material to form the head 1.5x rivet dia. stick out.

Your 3/8" header would be good on 3/16" rivets.

Wider than the above rule of thumb on tongs is a good idea, tong pivots get a lot of work and bending moment. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

Keep in mind as well that Frosty‘s rule works best when the rivet stock is a good fit in the hole. If it’s a loose fit, some of that length is going to upset inside the hole, reducing the amount of metal available for the head. 

[PHDforge]

Steamcheng: I too come from a background in machining and find it difficult to let go of the lathe and mill processes to make tools. It’s amazing how much can be done by forming and forging. I try to focus on little to no machine work and more hand work as I learn and practice the blacksmithing techniques. 

[JHCC]

Is that what the PhD is in?

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

I found this set of Pexto rivet sets at a yard sale for $2 US dollars years ago. Online auctions usually want in the $20 dollar range for each one. I sort of copied the design using 3/4 inch square stock (right now can't find it) to make a set sized for the rivets I use in making tongs usually 3/8 round.