What did you do in the shop today?

[BillyBones]

5 hours ago, Gandalfgreen said:

may I ask what it started from?

1" x 1/8" flat bar i cut 18" long. The hooks are 3/8" round. 

IDF&C, nice dragon. 

[lary]

The start of a 6x3x3 inch ribbon burner....

 

 

[Gandalfgreen]

thanks billy think found next project.  nice start lary.

[Pat Masterson]

22 hours ago, Frosty said:

The outside of your forge should NOT be glowing. Did you put a layer of rigidized and KOL covered ceramic blanket in the bottom for the floor? Having an extra inch of INSULATION where the flame impinges keeps the outside cooler at that point. 

Thanks for the tips Frosty. The kaowool was not rigidized. Maybe a layer of that green patch stuff would help. Ultimately I still have more than enough kaowool and another 30 bucks or so for some rigidizer and more kastolite might be in order to redo it but it’s working ok and getting very hot for now. 
 

Gotcha on normalizing too many times and I do have a bucket of vermiculite so I’ll just anneal next time. I was mostly cutting hot and into a black heat. When you say the break looks “grainy” is that a bad thing? I thought small grain structure good large grain structure bad…

So other than the globe I made I started what is I think my coolest project so far. My brother has been constantly hinting that he wants a tomahawk. First try from a rail spike didn’t go so well. Decided to try again yesterday, this time first drilling a hole for the eye. But on my first hammer swing to start upsetting the very hot spike flew out of my tongs and went at least ten feet in the air, landed a good ten feet away and immediately set those bushes on fire. It could have very easily hit me right in the face so I’m done with railroad spikes until I have proper tongs. But then while looking through my tools I found this very small ball peen hammer that was my late grandfathers. It had a very large chip off of it and would no longer be good as a hammer. The handle was also in bad shape. So I decided to turn that into a little camp axe. So not only will he get an axe but it will be made from something my grandfather held in his hands for countless hours. I fear I made it a bit too thin but my brother lives in an apartment and this will most likely be more of a decoration/cool factor thing than something he uses. Drifted the eye just a bit larger so the handle could be a bit thicker. Cooled in vermiculite over night and I’ll start the profile soon. 
I was wondering though…does that chip make anyone think this may have been case hardened? If so what does that mean for me when it comes to heat treat? Very ugly fullering jig which I forgot a picture of worked really well once I put a few shims in the hardy to hold it in place. Will get some better pictures when I’m a little further along. The blade ended up a tad bit crooked and I’m having a really tough time correcting that but I’m hoping I’ll be able to mostly mask that with grinding. 
 

[JHCC]

Looks like some good progress. Regarding the chip, I'd be a bit more worried about microcracks within the steel that might lead to additional cracking in the hardening, but the only way to find out is to go ahead and do it (unless you have access to a powerful X-ray machine). I would suggest giving it a quick grind to see if there are any visible cracks, but it's already pretty thin. 

[Pat Masterson]

Thanks JHCC. I also meant to add that there were no visible markings anywhere on the head or handle to do any research on so I have no idea what it’s made from. 

[ThomasPowers]

Spark test; rather than case hardening I'd guess it did not have a  differential temper and so the entire piece was hard as the hardest part and so chipping happens.  Look at how anvil edges chip without being case hardened.

Saturday: scrapyard and packing for my class

Sunday teaching all day, boy is it nice to have a light to unload by!   We also started plotting a pattern welding extravaganza over the upcoming holiday.  (Well they wanted an extravaganza, I was just going to do some simple billets...perhaps a Turkish twist...)

And warm sunny T shirt weather for the class.

 

[Dax Hewitt]

Not been here for a while, life gets in the way from time to time. Just looked over the last 10 pages of this thread. 

Some very good looking projects that you all have been working on. Makes me feel like I'm slacking. 

[Jobtiel1]

I love the fire set rack Billy, really simple and cool finials. 

Over the last couple of days I have been working on different stuff.

First up one of my first paid commissions, a drawknife! It's as if a curse, but for every drawknife I made one had to break first. The left pick is after the piece just broke in two during forging, made from an old file, so my guess is that I overheated it. The one one the left is the finished forging, and is made from old coil spring.

 

I also worked on some tooling to make my life easier for when I'm going to start making some axes to maybe sell.

Axe eye tongs and an eye drift, the previous one I had was small, and I was unable to hold on to the drift during forging, I believe both the tongs and the drift makes it easier to keep everything straight during forging. 

Next time I'll try making an axe again! I got some more practice in with forge welding, especially in fire maintenance during forge welding, so I'm quite confident everything is gonna work out well this time!

~Jobtiel

[Chad J.]

Anyone else ever have to remake a part because you misplaced it in the shop?  I lost the guard for my Arming sword and had to reforge it.  Granted I like this version better.  I drilled it out yesterday and I'll be doing a bunch of file work today.  

[JHCC]

I tend to be much better at losing my tools, usually because I put them down and immediately forget where I put them. This is why well-stocked hammer and tong racks are such a plus.

[Buzzkill]

I have the uncanny ability to be unable to find something that was in my hands 30 seconds earlier and I have moved less than 10 feet from the last location that I know I had it in my hands.  Along with that ability I can intentionally put something in a place where I know I'll be able to find it - and then promptly forget where that location happens to be.   Normally I'll find the lost object at a later time when looking for something else I've misplaced - or stashing another object in a place I can't forget. 

I can't be sure, but I suspect there are shop gremlins whose goal in life is to cause (or intensify) insanity in anyone focused on a project.

[Les L]

Buzzkill, have you been sneaking around in my shop while I’m distracted with my work? I thought it was me, but I’m having second thoughts now. 

[Gandalfgreen]

I can vouch for John losing things as soon as it leaves his hand I have witnessed the magic.....then we both end up looking for the tool.  

[ThomasPowers]

I was looking for a favorite teaching hammer---dead soft French crosspeen with a short handle.  Students can't dent the anvil's face with it!  Wasn't in the hammer rack, turns out it was on the punch plate attached to the hammer rack...hiding. (I picked up a couple of these steel plates at the scrapyard to hold punches and drifts---even came with a couple of bolt holes I could reuse!)

[JHCC]

22 minutes ago, Gandalfgreen said:

I have witnessed the magic

Laugh while you can, youngster!

[Gandalfgreen]

Haha I lost my hammer a few times Saturday blamed it on the turf monster.

[Daswulf]

Im blessed with losing things as soon as I set them down or try to put them where "I won't forget" as well. 

Last forging event I looked all over for minutes for a specific pair of tongs I needed. It got to the point I was assuring myself no one would have walked off with them and they Had to be there somewhere. Turned out they were in my hand.....  

I'm too young to have reached that level. Atleast I thought.. 

[ThomasPowers]

It's not necessarily the years; the mileage counts for a lot too.  I was doing much better before I had two concussions within 1 month. (Insulin crashes => falls => noggin/concrete bounce tests.)   Taken years to get back some of what left. (On the other hand I've had the fancy 4 day test for epilepsy, negative, and my favorite used bookstore really appreciates that I told my insurance company that they had NOTHING to do with my "accident" and refused to give them their name!  ("But they have insurance to cover such things..."  "It wasn't their fault it would be immoral to make them pay!")

I'm working on the "everything in plain sight" storage system.  I still have to hunt; but there's a sporting chance I will recognize it by the 4th time I've seen it!

[Gandalfgreen]

Hey there was a study done by some bored scientists that concluded smarter people like clutter because organization is to simple for their brain and the clutter is like a puzzle that allows their brain to work more and also showed some clutter to certain people isn't clutter at all and the person that created it knows exactly where everything is. I love geniuses that have time to tell me I am messy cause I am smart........

[JHCC]

That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!

[Daswulf]

34 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

"everything in plain sight"

That new found electric lighting in your shop should help.

Hmm. If it is My clutter, and intended clutter I'm pretty good at finding things or knowing where they should be.  Its when I "try to" clean up or am very intently focused on a problem or task that I tend to misplace things from where my brain thinks they should be.  I do not claim to be smart or genius tho. Just not my style. I'm very flawed and a mess and do things right with luck or on accident and things wrong by habit and trait.

 

 

[Hefty]

59 minutes ago, Daswulf said:

Turned out they were in my hand.....  

I'm too young to have reached that level. Atleast I thought.. 

I had a similar experience recently, having dinner with the extended family at my sister's place. I was walking, with my dinner, from the kitchen to the outdoor table on their deck when I asked everyone/no one in particular "Has anyone seen my wine glass?" They all looked at me funny and someone pointed out "It's in your hand!"

At least with tools you can blame working too hard. Losing the drink in my hand really shook me!!

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

As my wife says, organized folks are just too lazy to look for things.

The last time I was in the shop, as is my habit to stage the hammer on my anvil. While I was cranking the blower, I knew the hammer would be there when the steel was ready. I pulled the steel out of the fire and took the one step to my right to the anvil and the hammer was not where it should have been. I looked around thinking it had fallen off the anvil, no hammer. Then I turned around and I had staged the hammer on the wrong anvil, the one that is behind me when working the blower. Steel back in the fire and hammer placed properly.

[Gandalfgreen]

I don't claim to be smart at all but my clutter and messes in my work area I also know where everything is. things go wrong when I clean then I never find anything.  I am a genius with food besides that I get by. not sure what it is with food but It just clicks lady says to me today i know every cook that works this station uses all same ingredients but tour food just tastes better. she made my day.