What did you do in the shop today?

[Purple Bullet]

Descartes - "I think, therefore I am."

Purple Bullet - "I irritate, therefore I be." 

Les - See you in Prarieville! ?

[ThomasPowers]

A grate is a holy thing!

Went out after dinner and pulled/pushed the last cross shop cable to run several 110 V receptacles on the west wall of the shop.  I was hoping that it would be easy as there was a lot fewer bends involved; but of course the 1/2" EMT made up for that. Couldn't get a good pull with the fish tape but I could push it a short ways, cross the shop to pull the fish tap taught, recross the shop and climb 3 steps on the ladder and push again.  I think one of the big problems was that there wasn't clear space under the boxes to get a good inline pull or push.  After 50 or so double trips I got the wires through and decided to do the connections today; went in and celebrated with coffee ice cream and self prescribed muscle relaxant know to the elves as Cruzan Blackstrap Rum.   It's heating up out here and I will be able to hook up some fans now.  When the connections are made the shop wiring project stage 2 is complete and stage 3 has not been even thought of----I even have enough of the 10 AWG wire and conduit/fittings left to do another cross shop run!  Probably save that for when I install a chicken house fan in the gable.

[Purple Bullet]

Early Mother's Day gift for for the mother of my children:

I call it a Wind Gong, but a but a better name might be a "Micro-burst Alarm". In a gentle breeze it will give an occasional "ting" but come a thunderstorm it really lets you know its coming!

It was an O2 bottle with the top cut off (that makes a nice bell on its own) and the dimple cut out of the bottom, flipped over and welded back on. This makes it center on the stake. The butterflies are stainless and I'm considering coloring them with a torch. Maybe I should add a few repousse' lines and circles too. But my wife is happy with it. Sometimes you have to quit while ahead.

 

[Scott NC]

  Very nice Purple Bullet.  I've never made one, but could you weigh it down somewhere between breeze and micro-burst?    Or doesn't weight affect it's motion much?  Probably pretty heavey anyway.

[Les L]

PB, The gong looks good, she’ll love it. 
I’ll see you in Prarieville, Buddy works with copper, it’ll be a good meeting. You can’t see the house from the road, take the path through the woods, between the mail box and electric pole, and follow it to the end 

[Purple Bullet]

Nodebt - (laudable handle btw) - it kinda works that way. The gentle breeze spins the butterfly until the wing <tings> on the gong. In a good wind the butterflies start swinging and the circular saw blades (teeth torched off with plasma cutter) <bong> on the cylinder. 

One more thing I really NEED to do is take it back off the stake and put a sharp point on the stake. That will keep it always centered and might allow the whole thing to spin in a good wind. The chain suspension is not solidly attached so I can lift the whole thing off in case of hurricane.

Les - sounds like a place I'll like a lot. See you there. 

[Scott NC]

  "laudable handle"

  More of an aspiration than a reality.  I should probably change it..... 

[Trevor84]

Well I fell asleep before I posted but I took inspiration from someone here and started on a cane head from a carpenter hammer 

A few langetts and a war hammer from a RR spike.... 

 

I haven't been at the forge in this capacity in almost 2 years and dang I live it buuuuut my back says I may have to take up a seated smithy like GS tongs..... 

[JHCC]

21 hours ago, JHCC said:

we’ll see how it settles over time  

Eighteen hours later:

[Frosty]

I love the wind gong PB! You always refine things, we can't help it. The wife will LOVE it!

That's a very cool cane head Trevor. Well done! If Deb sees thing I'll be making a dachshund version for her. Might anyway.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

5 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Couldn't get a good pull with the fish tape but I could push it a short ways, cross the shop to pull the fish tap taught, recross the shop and climb 3 steps on the ladder and push again.

Been there and done that, until my FIL a retired master electrician, who was inspecting the work, gave me a bottle of Ideal clear wire pulling lubricant. It made pulling wire so much easier.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Today I finally got around to tearing down an old firepot I found awhile back, bolts twisted off an had to be drilled an drove out with punches, 

Ive been wantin to build a clinker breaker for it an found some 5/8” round for the shaft, 

I originally wanted to go with the stacked triangle breaker idea, JHCC posted last summer but I didn’t have any 3” flat bar stock to work with,

But I do have piles of sucker rod! so that’s what I used lol,

here it is… the super duper, high speed, low drag, sucker rod clinker breaker! 

Complete with a manual shift and 4x4 clinker breaking abilities! 

made with the toughest material an cheapest welder available in peavine Oklahoma! Lol 

it’s been storming all day so I wasn’t able to fire up a forge, out in the smithy

so I did the next best thing an lit a fire in the shop stove, an heated up the 5/8” so I could bend it, an quenched it in a rain puddle lol

I precision cut four pieces of 7/8” sucker rod to 3-1/2” long by eyeing it with an angle grinder, and welded them to the 5/8” shaft! every thing turns smoothly completely around with no catching, 

I hooked up a champion midway spiral blower I’ve been wanting to test out, an it seems to be getting more than enough air flow, so when it dries up out in the smithy I’ll fire it up an see how it works, 

It will give me an excuse to forge a tool rack to weld on that new forge, 

[JHCC]

Looks good, TW!

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

That should do the trick and necessity is the mother of invention. (or something like that)

[Purple Bullet]

I like the way it fits the shape of the tuyere opening. However, I would think that three lobes on your breaker would allow more air through. If you block off too much of your opening you have to use higher velocity to get the same air flow, which is not always a good thing IMHO.

My blower is hand cranked and I love to crank hard for a while to get everything really hot, then open the flow (I can somewhat retract my breaker) and maintain with a slow, easy crank.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

10 hours ago, JHCC said:

Looks good, TW

Thank you John! 

I agree Randy!
that’s why I make so much stuff outta sucker rod lol 

PB, thanks,

ive got various forges around here with different setups for clinker breakers or grates,

I’ve seen 3 sided triangle, round shaped, disk shaped, square shaped, an cup shaped breakers before, 

 it’s hard to tell from the pictures but this firepot has a very large inlet into the fire pot like 4-1/2”x3-1/2”,  one of my other forges I’ve built only has a 1-1/2” diameter inlet/outlet and ive forge welded using it, 

the breaker is actually recessed down in the tuyere, and there’s around inch clearance all the way around it,

Just testing, it feels like it’s getting plenty of air at a slow crank with one of my 12” blowers, but I won’t know for sure till I fire it up!

if it don’t work we’ll always think it should’ve!

 also if it don’t work, it’s only two nuts to pull the tuyere off and throw a different one In There! lol 

[JHCC]

2 hours ago, TWISTEDWILLOW said:

I make so much stuff outta sucker rod lol 

There’s a sucker rod project born every minute!

[ThomasPowers]

Yes I was dreaming about wire pulling lube; but that would take a visit to town and all the hardware places were closed by the time we started Sunday afternoon.  Got 'er done anyway; brute force and massive ignorance for the win!  ('This Immortal', Zelazny).  Was a  bit slow yesterday, Monday; but got all the receptacles wired in AND TESTED, neat little plug in tester that checks that you have ground and hot and neutral connectivity and on the correct screws!    So 3 boxes with 2 receptacles == 4 plugs a box---not expecting to use them at the same time; I just like not having to plug and unplug stuff all the time when doing a job that takes cyclical sequential tooling.  Now to build some holsters for my more common corded tooling!.

Next on the list is getting my drill press wired for 220 and a spot made for it by one of the 220 plugs---a lot fewer of them only 3 on the 20 amp circuit.  Of course every thing was wired with the 10 AWG wire.

I had made a couple of Q&D coat hooks for my late Office out of RR spikes as there was two holes in the back of the office door when I moved in.   Took them when I retired as I didn't want them to represent my talents when I was gone.  Threw them out on a sale table and *BANG* someone snatched them up and wants MORE!  I'll make a nicer set and see if I can convince them to go with those.

[Frosty]

23 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

I was dreaming about wire pulling lube

Are you taunting me?

HAH!

Frosty The Lucky.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Steady on there Jerry! It’s a trap! Lol

[Frosty]

And I've been moderated twice already this week! 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Purple Bullet]

...so no one can call you immoderate.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

 Well why'd ya go an do that for Jerry?

Sheesh Ain’t ya read the read this first thread? 
no fussin no cussin an no gifs of snoopy!

[Purple Bullet]

TW - THAT was immoderate ... but in a good way. BTW aren't there any gifs of snoopy at his forge?

I made myself look. Check this out. Snoopy on anvil.

[Frazer]

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