Need some advice on making a square hole.

[Daswulf]

My buddy Boots would do about the same. He was old in this photo. I miss my shop cat. He passed a few years ago. 

[BillyBones]

I think the term "skinning cats" refers to pole cats, skunks. Trapping skunks for fur used to be big in this area i know for sure, and you could always tell when someone spent the weekend skinning them, boy howdy what a smell. 

I got i think 6 cats that hang out here. We just call them by how they look. Big black cat is a pretty cool guy. Huge black tom cat that always wants an ear scratchin. That is the only one that lets me touch him. My wife is their buddy. When she goes out they all come and greet her. But it could be becuase she is the one with the food also. 

I have never skinned a cat but i sure have felt like it sometimes. 

[Glenn]

In 1840, American humorist Seba Smith indicated in her short story “The Money Diggers” when she wrote: “As it is said, ‘There are more ways than one to skin a cat,’ so are there more ways than one of digging for money.”

In the 1855 classic, Westward Ho!,” Charles Kingsley wrote, “There are more ways of killing a cat than by choking it with cream.”

Mark Twain in his 1889 “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”: “She was wise, subtle, and knew more than one way to skin a cat.”

[rustyanchor]

Glenn,

Anyone can teach me something if I am willing to learn...I got my learnin' for the day, now I'm good for the rest of the day !

Billy,

Had my share of skunks a couple of years ago, they seemed to be all over the property, big ones and little ones running rampant. I had a primarily white one with black trim, really pretty, from a respectable distance.

As proof of concept for my 5/8" with a hole drilled in it, I made a doodad.

5/8" round stock with a centered 11/32" hole drilled length wise. Mine was a bit off, I was using my mini wood lathe to try to do a good centered hole. Heat the newly formed 'pipe', put 1/4" sq. stock (mandrel) in the hole and forge the 5/8" down to 1/2" square. I had orig. thought to push the mandrel out, but the door handles already have a 1/4" square hole, so why push it out?  Any way here is my crude attempt, it could be cleaned up and tweaked to work, I think. 

[BillyBones]

I went to work last night and walked into a mess. Day shift had wrecked the machine i am running. Cut off tool broke, bar hit the top of stock stop and broke it, which crashed into the dovetail and broke it, (carbide dovetails are about $400 too) spot drill wiped out, anyway my super was telling to do what i could to recover the wreck and mentioned that the material was just too hard to be running that fast and to slow it down. To which i replied "Too hard, 12L14?" to which he said it is not 12L14 but 1035.

I bring this up becuase i now have access to thick walled tubing that i can forge i believe. And seamless. I can get peices from about 3" long up to 10'. So with that i am now going to try something like rusty there has done. May not end up on my doors but i am sure i can find some use for it. The O/D is a little under 1/2", .435" if i remember, and the I/D is around .200", slightly less than 1/4". Photo of it on page 1. 

Rusty anchor, i guess you have earned yourself a mint fudge cookie. Well i guess i can give all of ya'll one for the input.

[rustyanchor]

Billy,

Sorry your machine is OOC, hopefully it gets back up and running fairly quickly. On the bright side, you found a good resource to play with.

If I ever get to your neck of the woods, I will take you up on a cookie!