New member and new to smithing

[HogHearse]

What's up everyone. Just wanted to introduce myself. I'm jack and 37 from Katy Texas. Decided to give blacksmithing about 6 months ago. I went and bought an anvil, coal forge and some tongs from an estate sale. 

Ever since my first hammer strike and seeing the sparks I was hooked. YouTube and self taught. But 3 months ago I had a bad injury involving an angle grinder. I was building a hitch Mount deer hoist for a trade and the wheel exploded. 18 stiches and a partially cut tendon. It didn't stop me. The next day my fiancē found me in the garage welding up some cowboy card holders. I have 80% of hand movent. Started hammering again 2 months ago. Slowing getting my strength back. 

I'm very green with the smithing. I take one project at a time. First was the leaf and now is the horse head bottle opener. Started to make some tongs but the demand for the bottle openers is really high since I work in the industry. 

Anyways sorry for the rant. Just excited to learn and keep progressing in blacksmithing. Thanks for reading. 

 

Jack

 

 

 

 

 

[Frazer]

OOOF, a little warning there bud! I'm just scrolling along thinkin', "that's a nice little horsey bottle open-o-my-gosh".

Anyway, nice work. Exploding wheels are no joke. I've had a piece of shrapnel fly right by my head.

[Scott NC]

  Welcome.  Very graphic.  Did the grinder have a gaurd or did it ricochet?  Gloves?  We have a safety forum section.  Also, down the road when you feel more comfotable here, please post something to this thread:

https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/3577-story-behind-your-screen-name/

 

[ThomasPowers]

Buying used tools I find that so often the guards have been removed that when I found 3 different guards at the scrapyard I bought them on spec!  I'm getting too old to heal well and decided that I could learn to use them with a guard.  I had a Cousin that used to live around Katy on one of the lakes; now in Bartlesville OK IIRC.

 Nice looking anvil, is your horse head key ring also a bottle opener?  I've found that to be an "extra" that helps sales.

[George N. M.]

Welcome aboard from 7500' in SE Wyoming.  Glad to have you.

Is Katy, TX named after the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad?  I know there is a RR museum in your town.

On your horse head bottle openers have you tried putting on ears, either by just with a chisel mark or cutting and lifting the ear?

Glad you are healing up.  Power tools have to be respected if a person wants to avoid spilling precious bodily fluids and even then accidents can happen.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[arkie]

HogHearse...

I like your horsehead bottle openers; simpler than the ones I make...I just stole your idea, BTW, LOL

That hand injury....ARGHHHHH!!!!  I hope you heal up well.  That should encourage anyone to use a guard on their grinders and wear safety glasses.  I have a picture in my files of a guy who had a wheel explode and about 1/2 of the wheel hit him in the face right along his nose and between the eyes...I don't think a face shield would have prevented that.

I used to goose hunt around Katy in the rice fields...back before it turned into a mini-Houston.  "The times they are a' changin'"

 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Welcome from the Ozark mountains. All I can say is ouch. Hope you heal up and get back on track, looks like you have a handle on things. There are some very good YouTube video's listed in reference material section. https://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/174-reference-materials/

Some I follow are jlpservices (Jennifer is a member) and even though I have been hammering on hot steel for 30+ years, I always learn something from her video's. Even an old dog can learn new tricks.

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard Hoghearse, glad to have  you. Uh yeah, disk grinder injuries . . .  That looks like it really smarts, glad you weren't injured worse. We have a saying around here that we aren't going to believe a thing unless we see the pics. I believe! I think that's more than enough pics of bloody carnage to convince anyone. 

You do nice work, the horse head openers look darned good and the horse shoe openers look great. Know horse people do we?

I'll be looking forward to hearing the story behind your login. See if the truth and my imagination match even a little bit. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[HogHearse]

12 hours ago, Frazer said:

OOOF, a little warning there bud! I'm just scrolling along thinkin', "that's a nice little horsey bottle open-o-my-gosh".

Anyway, nice work. Exploding wheels are no joke. I've had a piece of shrapnel fly right by my head.

Ya sorry about that. Should've given a warning. Grinders do not mess around. I knew what I was doing was dangerous and the inevitable happened. I appreciate the compliment. It's cool to see the opener getting better each time. Always room for improvement!

12 hours ago, Nodebt said:

  Welcome.  Very graphic.  Did the grinder have a gaurd or did it ricochet?  Gloves?  We have a safety forum section.  Also, down the road when you feel more comfotable here, please post something to this thread:

https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/3577-story-behind-your-screen-name/

 

No grinder did not have a guard. I knew going in it was sketchy but did it anyways. Definitely learned a lesson. No gloves. I'm not sure they would have helped much. I'm a firm believer in gloves can do more harm than good. Only time I wear them is when I pull a piece out of the forge that I can't bear to handle. I'll look into that. Thank you!

11 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Buying used tools I find that so often the guards have been removed that when I found 3 different guards at the scrapyard I bought them on spec!  I'm getting too old to heal well and decided that I could learn to use them with a guard.  I had a Cousin that used to live around Katy on one of the lakes; now in Bartlesville OK IIRC.

 Nice looking anvil, is your horse head key ring also a bottle opener?  I've found that to be an "extra" that helps sales.

I just moved there a year ago. It's very congested. About to move out to the country here soon. I got that anvil from an estate sale for $350. Needed a little tlc but it's working great. Wish the face was a little wider. No it's not. I was worried I didn't have enough material to stretch it out further. I'm going to try it on my next run. 

11 hours ago, George N. M. said:

Welcome aboard from 7500' in SE Wyoming.  Glad to have you.

Is Katy, TX named after the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad?  I know there is a RR museum in your town.

On your horse head bottle openers have you tried putting on ears, either by just with a chisel mark or cutting and lifting the ear?

Glad you are healing up.  Power tools have to be respected if a person wants to avoid spilling precious bodily fluids and even then accidents can happen.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Thank you. I have no idea. Only been here for a year and about to be moving again. Yes I take a chisel to do the ear. That's the best method I've found so far. 

[HogHearse]

9 hours ago, arkie said:

HogHearse...

I like your horsehead bottle openers; simpler than the ones I make...I just stole your idea, BTW, LOL

That hand injury....ARGHHHHH!!!!  I hope you heal up well.  That should encourage anyone to use a guard on their grinders and wear safety glasses.  I have a picture in my files of a guy who had a wheel explode and about 1/2 of the wheel hit him in the face right along his nose and between the eyes...I don't think a face shield would have prevented that.

I used to goose hunt around Katy in the rice fields...back before it turned into a mini-Houston.  "The times they are a' changin'"

 

I appreciate it. Have any pictures of yours? When I moved here I had a few buddies from Ohio tell me that they would smack the geese there. After I told them what it's like now they were in shock. All I did was duck, horse and turnkey hunt in Ohio. But when I found out about the hog problem here I switched. Haven't even thought about duck hunting lol. These hogs keep me busy year round. Plus they are great eating. 

5 hours ago, Irondragon ForgeClay Works said:

Welcome from the Ozark mountains. All I can say is ouch. Hope you heal up and get back on track, looks like you have a handle on things. There are some very good YouTube video's listed in reference material section. https://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/174-reference-materials/

Some I follow are jlpservices (Jennifer is a member) and even though I have been hammering on hot steel for 30+ years, I always learn something from her video's. Even an old dog can learn new tricks.

Thank you. I really appreciate it. That's awesome. I'll look into those. 

3 hours ago, Frosty said:

Welcome aboard Hoghearse, glad to have  you. Uh yeah, disk grinder injuries . . .  That looks like it really smarts, glad you weren't injured worse. We have a saying around here that we aren't going to believe a thing unless we see the pics. I believe! I think that's more than enough pics of bloody carnage to convince anyone.

I appreciate that sir. Yes I do. A lot of them. I work with Hunter jumper horses so these things have been a huge hit. And you're right, it could have been a lot worse. I'm grateful that nothing else happened. Here's a little hint....

And I'm sorry for all the late replies. I had another order of 10 bottle openers that I had to knock out for tomorrow. I'm whooped. Y'all have a good night!

[Frosty]

I got your login's back story from the description, I didn't really need another blood dripping pic. 

Part of the learning curve for Iforge is minimizing the quote function except for instances it's necessary to maintain the subject. Iforge has some 50,000 members in around 150 countries around the world, many don't have broad band connections and pay for data. Out of consideration we try to hold file sizes down.

Not picking on you, it's just part of the learning curve. 

I agree, loose clothing, long free hair, gloves, etc. and rotary tooling is B_A_D idea, getting snagged and sucked into machinery isn't my idea of a good time. Gloves and disk grinders are a sometimes for me, a lot depends on what I'm grinding, sanding not likely but wire wheeling or buffing is HECK NO!!

Almost the only time I wear my leather apron is when I'm using a right angle grinder, whatever is mounted on it. I wear safety glasses and a face shield regardless, I've had too much flying debris bounce off the shield not to. Sanding wood makes me wear bug eye goggles that seal, wood dust REALLY irritates my eyes.

A shattering disk is always a B A D event, I don't know how many times it's happened to me. Much less since I started checking them closely and tossing them at the slightest evidence. Still, I take fragments on the apron and gloves on occasion. I have a pair of fleece insulated leather gloves that are reasonably cut resistant, the padding helps prevent serious bruising and they're not too bulky. I have a couple pair of welding gauntlets and virtually never wear them unless I'm going to be burning a lot of rod say building up or hard facing and don't want to cook my hands. I've never taken fragments to my hands from the 9" grinder, there's pretty good separation. No telling where ricochets are going though. 

What I'm starting to see more often, even in real" hardware and motor tool shops are chain maille gloves like oyster shuckers wear. I don't know how they'd do against a shattered grinding disk, might help, might embed maille rings and wouldn't do anything to distribute the impact forces. 

Disk grinders have been hurting my my whole life but only drawn serious blood twice, I still carry the scar from an avulsion when a 9" Milwaukee disk blew a chunk snagged and dragged me into the work before it shattered. 

Happily I'm retired and can take as much time and care as I want so my risk factor has gone WAY down.  

Like I said earlier, I'm really glad it wasn't as bad as it could've been and wish you a speedy and full recovery. Hold down on accumulating scars OKAY?

Frosty The Lucky.

 

[HogHearse]

Frosty I gotcha. I'm glad you pointed that out. Will do my best to remember that. All very good advice you gave. Unfortunately I still think I'm invincible a lot of times. The funny thing is that I told my fiancē to stay in the garage with me because I'm about to do something I shouldn't be doing. And BAM! I need to start listening to my gut rather than 'it won't happen to me.' Also when I went to the specialist the next day they told me I need surgery to have my finger repaired, but I didn't have insurance and they wanted 30k up front before they'd do the surgery. So I didn't have it done and now I get to live with limited mobility in my middle finger. I think about that EVERY SINGLE DAY. 'If I only....' But it was my choice to make the poor decisions and to not have insurance. No one to blame but me. Hopefully I've learned from this!  Thanks again for the feedback and tips. Oh and I promise no more bloody pics. Sorry about that.

[Frosty]

I think you're going to fit right in here. You  might want to read the "Read This First" section at the top of the page, it lays out the basics of getting around on the forum. We have a real thing about safety here, probably the vast majority of readers have little or zero shop experience so we emphasize safe practices. You don't have to be a subscriber to read the forum. Anyway, not knowing who is reading something we try very hard not to suggest dangerous how tos say, making your own explosives. That could get a person moderated or banned.

I'm lucky, I learned to respect my own mortality while working for the state of AK and most of my injuries were covered by excellent insurance. I worked on my own for a couple decades before without any insurance nor thought to consequences for some of the insane chances I took.

Good cautionary tales are like gold, nothing beats a little gore to drive home why doing, using, etc. a "Thing" is such a BAD idea. Blacksmithing and heck metal working is inherently dangerous and can eat your lunch if you do everything right. With the lack of any kind of industrial classes in modern () schools in the USA I meet college grads who have never held a hammer wanting to make swords. Seriously I've had to show youngsters how to hold a hammer and practice on a block of wood before letting them heat a piece of stock in the forge. It's crazy but when your idea of research is watching a couple Youtube videos and Forged in Fire, they're an outright hazard when they step into a real hot shop. Not their fault and I don't penalize them but I boy HOWY have to stay on top of them for a while at least.

So, what were you doing and how'd the disk break?

Frosty The Lucky.

[Scott NC]

  I remember my uncle trying to save a tipping over engine hoist with v8 on it.  It happens to us all.  Just have to learn from it.  Like all things dangerous.  I was using a vegetable mandolin today......

[HogHearse]

Yes I definitely respect what can happen when working with metal, just sometimes I ignore it because of laziness\wanting to get the job done fast. 

I made a trade with someone for their 12 inch 3 phase grinder in exchange I would build them a deer hoist to mount in the truck hitch that swivels and has an electric winch. I made a poor weld at the base of the hoist. Looking back it really wasn't that bad, it's I'm kind of a perfectionist. I didn't want to grind it down because then it would look like I grounded it down, I know makes no sense lol. I decided I would cut it off and redo it. So that's what I did, but the catch is at the angle of where the cut needed to be my 4 1\2 in disk wouldn't make it through the 2x2x1\4 square tube. So out came the 7-1\2 inch disc installed on the 4 1\2 inch grinder. That's when I told my fiancē to stay in the garage because I shouldn't be doing this. The next day, after the er visit, I looked at the specs of the 7-1/2 blade, Max from was 8500 and my grinder is 11500. Again I never thought to look at that before it happened. I then proceeded to oxy acty cut it and I did, but not before my fiancē came out and caught me. She was not happy about me doing that after what just happened. 

Nodebt is always happens when we least expect it to. Well.... Most of the time

[Scott NC]

  If you slow down, you can see it coming.  You will learn safety around here.  Stick around.

[HogHearse]

Ya no doubt. I appreciate that. I need to always keep that in the front of my mind. ALWAYS! It seems like a really nice community here. Can't wait to know people better. 

[George N. M.]

Safety is sort of an odd concept.  Unsafety can sneak up on you.  The first few times you do something that you know is dangerous you approach it cautiously with full PPE and fear and trepidation in your heart.  But after you have done the task successfully your cautiousness begins to wane.  After you have done it a few hundred times you are doing it with your left (non-dominant) hand in cut offs and flip flops.  And then when something goes bad and you are bleeding and in pain your first reaction is surprise.

I have always tried to follow the philosophy that you don't want to die stupid.  You don't want your last thought as the darkness comes down to be, "Boy, that was really dumb."

There is a truism that I've heard in steel mills and mines that the most dangerous folk to work around are the rookies because they can do dangerous things out of ignorance and inexperience and the old timers because they can do dangerous things out of casualness and familiarity.

HH, I'm sure that your photos and description will inspire many of us to be that much more cautious around power tools in general and angle grinders in particular.  I'm sure that the experience will inform how you do things for the rest of your life.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Frosty]

That'll do it alright! Been there done similar, have the scars. 

That WASN'T a 7 1/2" cutoff disk was it? I hate cut off disks outside a cut off saw even though I have a few. No other kind of disk has come apart on me more often. Well . . . there WAS the time I was cutting slots with a grinding disk, the phone rang and I let go of the trigger BEFORE taking it out of the slot. That boober hurt for a few weeks but only resulted in minor scars that faded in a few years. 

Judge Milian of "People's Court" likes to quote her Mother (in Cubano Spanish of course). To paraphrase, "Rush slowly, I am in a hurry."

Perhaps you should pick the goriest of your photos and have a safety poster made for your shop? 

Something that might cause to the local clinic or ER could easily kill us if an angle were a LITTLE different. 

I'd sure hate to read your obit without getting a chance to get to know you better. You make some fine things, don't deprive us of the opportunity to oogle them online.

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

A previous pastor of mine managed to tag his middle finger with a table saw; it was rather amusing watching him preach the next sunder with it splinted and wrapped up in gauze...I crushed the last joint of my right pinkie as in "flat we stopped counting breaks after 6".  They told me they could splint it and it would look "normal" but the joint would be frozen; or they would splint it over night and then break open the joint and if I kept working it, it might heal a bit oddly buy I would still have it move.  Most amusing having the joint broken open and I still work it during boring meetings!  Moves fairly well but doesn't like cold at all!---It's about 1.5 times as wide as my other one too.

[HogHearse]

Thomas that's crazy. You should post a video of it lol

[BillyBones]

On 4/30/2022 at 1:29 PM, Frosty said:

long free hair,

Trust me on this, it does not have to be free. I keep my hair in a ponytail and have had it caught in a drill, felt like getting whacked in the back of the head with a ballbat, and a circular saw. Not to mention when i was working on cars the amount of times it got caught in the wheels of a creeper. 

 

[ThomasPowers]

That was 2 pastors ago, (small town church, we tend to get semi retired pastors that are going towards full retirement, of course with the University across the street from the church usually meant we got some really great ones  that can argue theology and support college students at need.

As for my finger, that was 45 years ago; about the only time people notice it now is when I hold them side by side for comparison. (I did ask the Nurse who was bandaging it if I would be able to play the piano when it healed; she said "Yes" and I remarked that I couldn't before I had damaged it...N.B.  Don't play a joke on the person bandaging a smashed digit!)

[George N. M.]

Thomas, the piano joke is OLD!  In one form or another it may have been around since pre-history.  Vaudville is probably only its most recent incarnation.

GNM

[ThomasPowers]

Yup, an oldie but a goodie!