February 14, 20233 yr 7 hours ago, JHCC said: I discovered that the torsion spring that counterbalances the door had snapped. Had a side spring break before. When I closed the manual garage door it shot off, put a big dent in the corner of a metal cabinet and knocked over other stuff. Thankfully I was on the outside when I closed it. After "fixing" the spring and after a while it doing it again I bought new springs. New ones come with a safety cable so they cant fly off to inflict damage. But yes, they are quite heavy without the springs to help.
February 14, 20233 yr Started a sign bracket for the yarn shop (not the one shown previously, which we put out when the store is open), continuing the yarn theme. Also made a mounting bracket for the Hossfeld bender on top of my post vise stand. With a handful of bolts and wedges, I can mount either the vise or the bender. Did my first test bend; an eye bent cold in 1/2” square:
February 14, 20233 yr My garage door spring i currently broke. I did not even know till i was wiring up the new breaker box and had to climb up to rewire my outside light. The door is so light i could provably pick the whole thing up and throw it across the yard though. The spring is of the kind that is at the top and wrapped around a bar. Works kind of like a clock spring i guess(?). Twists the spring rather than pulls it. We had the same style at the last tranny shop i worked in. We replaced them about 3 or 4 times a year. 8 doors. When they would break it sounded like something hitting the door really hard. And those doors were very, very heavy. Of course a couple followed me home. They make good scribes and drift pins for hinges.
February 14, 20233 yr Never had a broken spring. Not even when i rented a garage with the original door of 1968 when the building was build. Moist garage was well. The tools i bought new than all rusted in the 3 years i had that unit. Now in an unheated shed, no extra rust appearing.
February 14, 20233 yr 2 hours ago, BillyBones said: The spring is of the kind that is at the top and wrapped around a bar. Works kind of like a clock spring i guess(?). Twists the spring rather than pulls it. And those doors were very, very heavy. I had the same kind on my old shop, Lol.... One day it broke and I had to use Hi-Lift jacks and 2x4's to lift it up. One big, long door.
February 14, 20233 yr Never had one of those coil springs break, but have had the tension get out of adjustment. Don't know why the set screws get loose. A forklift is needed to lift the doors I've had to fiddle with. I've got a couple of springs on hand, made a few letter openers and scratch awl / scribes from them.
February 14, 20233 yr Finished a small wrought kindling axe. It started out much larger but pre-heat treat I noticed a decent crack on the cutting edge so I had to improvise haha.
February 15, 20233 yr Yesterday I started an anvil hardy fuller that Debi wanted for making the Russian wrapped roses. Started with a sucker rod end 4130 steel. Roughed out the basic shape. Also tested some new coal the club just acquired. We had to switch coal suppliers as the mine we were using closed down. At the BOA meeting Saturday, we used some of the new coal and weren't really impressed with it. The pieces of coal were large and a lot of clinker that had to be cleaned out as we used it and it didn't coke up very well.. Yesterday I broke up the larger pieces to about the size of an acorn and it did better as far as heat and only a couple of small pieces of clinker about the size of a penny. Today I did the same as far as breaking it up and I worked with it for an hour and 30 min. It produced a little more clinker, two pieces but didn't need cleaning out while I was forging the rest of the fuller. It also coked up as normal around the fires perimeter. Anyway here is what I did in the shop today. Starting the fire with yesterdays coke. Today's clinkers. The finished fuller but needs dressing with the belt grinder.
February 15, 20233 yr Knocked out a quick spring fuller last night with 3/4 round welded on for the fullers. I ground them down a bit to be flatter as I well be using these for blades when I get that urge, which is actually really frequent. I also started a new Oakeshot 12 the other day. Learned my lesson on the first and started much closer to what I wanted my final measurements to be. So I got the blade rough forged in about 4 hours as opposed to 2 weeks. Started hammering the fuller and it's looking great.
February 16, 20233 yr I got the grinding and hand sanding done on the blade I’ve been working on: The edge is at 0.008” and spine is at 0.080”. Tomorrow my epoxy arrives and one of the guys at work is giving me a piece of walnut for the handle. Maybe I’ll get a chance to finish it this weekend. Keep it fun, David
February 17, 20233 yr May just be camera angle, but I would shorten up the RH link to make it hang level. Looks good though.
February 17, 20233 yr I tried that, but it wasn’t quite enough, so I adjusted the curve of the bracket a bit. It’s too dark to take a photo, but it does look better now. (Also, the wind was blowing it a bit when I took the photo.)
February 17, 20233 yr (Thumbs up) Heaven help me if I try and hang a picture without Debi's supervision. She can tell if something is crooked by about 0.06 of an inch.
February 17, 20233 yr Heaven help me if I sing within earshot of Lisa. Not only was she a professional musician for thirty-some years, but nineteen of those included teaching music theory and ear training at a world-renowned conservatory.
February 18, 20233 yr looking great all, that knife looks very professional goods, Chad looks like handy tool that spring fuller, I’m reading up on hardy tool forging. None of the ones I own actually fit in my slanted hardy hole, all used in the vice. (After a common sense comment by Frosty) Great sign bracket, I’ll be watching the wind tomorrow when I attach this weather vane to a fence post to test it out.
February 18, 20233 yr That is a very good looking weather vane, may have to copy it, just have to change the flag image to Arkansas diamond.
February 18, 20233 yr This probably comes under the heading of anything worth doing is worth overdoing but I'd think about cleaning up the entire flag with a wire wheel to a silver color and then making the field outside the St. Andrews cross blue oxidation color with a torch. and then rust proofing it (important in your wet, mairtime climate) with BLO or clear coat. Possible too much work for the result but that was my first thought. GNM
February 18, 20233 yr 10 hours ago, Irondragon ForgeClay Works said: may have to copy it, Thank you, if you get round to doing it and have any head scratching moments give me a shout. It spins well on a single ball bearing. 9 hours ago, George N. M. said: worth overdoing Hope you’re well George. Great idea, worth making another for that, the customer wants this one all painted though.
February 18, 20233 yr Great job everybody, as Irondragon said, might have to copy your design MacLeod.
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