Thomas, I've had a few bits of ballistic metal in my body (all removed) and nothing surgical (yet) except dental work.  I've known some folk who will set off airport metal detectors.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

4 minutes ago, Chimaera said:

Very nice. Is it welded together?

Yes welded across back to the 2 inch angle then a spot between each vertical tube in the back.  even from the ends the appear to be floating.

Hheneg very nice! I may steal this idea for my shop. I need a way to organize my punches and chisels, and I have a bunch of scrap tubing at work

Very nice and neat!  Looks like you may even have room on the front to add another row if needed.

There was an ornamental iron place that used to tack weld a bunch of pieces together to saw them all at one time on their BIG saw.  I collected several "arrays" of short tubing and pipe to use for tools. 

Offsetting them from the bottom makes clean up easier and you can tell what the end is---you don't want to put hot ends up!

Building one with sections of pipe gives a nice place to weld the length on one side and not interfere with the next one.

So here is the "after" shot. I wonder if an MRI would setup induction eddy currents. The doc didn't know what that was but assured me that MRI's are done with more metal than that in proximity. 

I have to wait for the plate to get processed before I can have it.

Jason - That is one area I have no problems being beaten by a girl!

I need to post this under "What I learned today" but for Digital Phase Shifters bigger is NOT better!

PB, so they left the broken screw, will that give you problems in the future?

I hope you get well soon, I could see you were having trouble the last few months. looking forward to seeing the boot knife finished 

Its just a stud for attaching the boot knife sheath to.

I have broken bolt and screw extractor sets. Come on by, I'm a professional... in auto repair. Haha. 

Part of my wants to suggest putting a magnet in your boot knife sheath to grab onto the screw, but that might make the blade harder to draw.

PB, glad to hear it all went good! 

hheneg looks good!

well I didn’t do any smithing today but i did help a new smith with building his kit 

a longtime customer of mine retired recently an he started getting interested in smithing and built himself a forge an got some railroad track for an anvil

he had been asking around about blacksmithing stuff an someone told him to come see me 

lol he knew me but didn’t know I smithed so he ran down here and we had a nice long visit an talked about blacksmithing,

he mentioned he was looking for a post vise an a blower for his forge but everything he was finding was priced crazy

I laughed an said that’s because your looking in the wrong places!

I offered to loan him equipment but he didn’t wanna borrow any tools

so I offered to sell him a post vise and blower cheap so he could get up an going we went out to the smithy an I dug out a 5” iron city post vise an a canedy otto royal western chief blower for him  

he’s excited to tool up an I’m happy to have another smith here locally! So good day all round!

Spent a little time at the forge tonight, finishing a pair of chisel for a touch mark.

Had some nice tempering colors. 

Tested them and the touch mark on a piece of 1/2" square. It is a fairly simple mark, a composite A. The alignment is a bit off, but I should get better with practice.

Then I started practicing forge welding. First attempt was a fail. I think the steel was not quite hot enough, and there may have been a little scale between the pieces - there were sparks shooting from the sides when I tapped them together. Next time I will add a little borax.

PB, glad everything came out alright, or at least most of it. 

 

On the subject of internal hardwear, years ago I spent a night in hospital waiting to get my hand stitched up and I got talking to the guy in the next bed as you do. 

He had had his hip replaced a few weeks previously and was in agony and back to get it sorted. He told me to have a look at his xrays that were in the folder at the bottom of the bed. 

One of the screws had been put in too far and the pointy end was rubbing on one of his testicles internally. No wonder it was hurting. 

ooowwwwww that hurts to even think about it. I'd want to smack someone. Really hard.

Steve

Chopped up some charcoal into smaller pieces for my next attempt at forge welding and made a small flux spoon from an 7" piece of 3/8" square.

So tell us Dax, did your hand hurt as much after talking to your hospital neighbor? I can't even visualize how a screw in a hip could come close to a testicle. Just the thought is enough.

Nice flux spoon Arthur, I'd say more but your timing stinks.

Frosty The Lucky.

Had a productive day in the shed. My son joined me and worked on a leaf key ring for a bit

I continued working on a knife for my Head of Department who gave me some coil springs. I'm working on a superglue finish on the handle but I keep sanding through it in certain spots.

And I kept working on a small RR dog spike hatchet idea.

The spikes appear to be WI. I've got one that I've tried to punch, drift and prep for a steel bit entirely hot at the anvil and vise and one that I've drilled, slit and drifted and I'm trying to upset the end a little before prepping for the steel bit. Both have pros and cons so I'm interested to see how they both turn out. The slit and drift has opened up much more easily.

Mods, sorry if the photos are too large, I wasn't sure how to reduce them because I'm posting on my phone.

Cheers,

Jono.

When you select a photo to add it from your phone, you can change the size before it uploads. First, click “Actual Size” in the lower right-hand corner:

This will give you some choices. Select “Medium”:

The selected size will now show instead of “Actual Size”:

Click “Done”, and you’re ready to upload:

If you not select additional photos, they will all upload at the new size:

Click “Add”, and the files will be uploaded when you save your comment. 

Be ready to go back and re-order your photos once you’ve saved, though. I’ve seen photos get shuffled in the saving process, and I haven’t yet figured out how to fix that, other than adding them one at a time. 

You can also resize a photo while editing a comment, by doubleclicking on it and changing the pixel values in the pop-up window. 

12 hours ago, Frosty said:

Nice flux spoon Arthur, I'd say more but your timing stinks.

Thank Frosty!

I could say that my timing is digital, but I'm not sure how many will get the reference.

Nice tutorial on uploading pics John. Well done!

Hefty: Your son needs a higher anvil, one easy indication is the angle between the stock in his hand and the work on the anvil. His grip looks good about waist height but the angle being forged tells the story.

I've never tried a super glue finish on anything though it does last. I've used 2 part resins diluted with the appropriate solvent (Acetone for polyester resin, Tolulene for epoxy resins) for better penetration. The solvents retard curing until the solvent evaporates. This allows it to penetrate more deeply into the wood. I used the technique for applying fiberglass on plywood by pre treating the plywood with a thinned coat of resin. My fiber glassed pieces didn't delaminate.

The real knife guys use heat curing epoxy and a vacuum chamber for 100% penetration to stabilize knife handles.

You get a groan for that one Arthur, we'll have to keep a cyber watch on you now.

Frosty The Lucky.

Got a leaf spring to work. Unfortunately i still have to take it out of my truck and put in the new one today. Broke on the way home from work the other night. 

 

Bummer. Be sure to watch for micro fractures when you forge the old one.

Here's a perfect opportunity to illustrate the old adage. "We learn from our mistakes, a wise person learns from other people's mistakes."

Rather than using a broken spring from your truck, use the broken spring from someone else's truck next time. Eh?

Frosty The Lucky.

Max just turned 2 yesterday and one of the things he got for his birthday was a swing set…. In about 400000 pieces… I’m really wishing I had just welded up an a frame and thrown some swings on it…

If you read the instructions, it says "some assembly required" (grin)

Once you find tab A you're home free. In truth this looks like a 12 beer job from here. 

Frosty The Lucky.