It followed me home

[Gazz]

I think a hydraulically operated post vise would be a bad idea.  We bent the very large one in the shop where I used to work just by tightening it with a pipe over the handle.  There is little sensitivity with hydraulics.

 

I modified a Craftsman wood band saw to cut metal by adding a jack shaft that reduced the saw speed.  It worked somewhat with thin stock or aluminum or brass but not really very well.  Also, wood cutting saws are not as rigid as metal cutting saws. 

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

This followed me home the other day. It cost Free Fiddy, so I had to grab it. Had Zippy the commute car since I just got off work when he texted me, so ya make do. My cars double as trucks, so I had ratchet straps with me. I have a hearse, but it has a lot of possibilities for other uses. It would have been fun to write on the windows Yay, granny is coming home! I caused quite a few cars to slow down and take a second look, or a picture.

Any suggestions for what one can do with 100-3 roller chains? 10' weighs 80# and the pins are big enough to do a small blade with.  Any idea on what kind of steel they are typically made from? Tsubaki is the brand we use.  The side plates could probably be opened up for bottle openers.  I have quite a bit of large chain here now. #50 and #60 single and double wide. I think I have some #80 as well. The largest is some #160 single.  I'll be bringing home some round linear rail that is around 3/4" and 24" or so long. The knife blades from one of the machines at work are plenty big for several projects, but I need to find out what kind of steel they are.  Where I work now provides a lot of material. I missed out on a pair of gears that got tossed that were around 2.5"-3" thick and 16" in diameter.  I try to get the sprockets too as they are good material that can be hardened.

 

 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

We had hauled an awful lot of odd stuff in/on our 2003 Vibe, but I have to admit, you have topped anything we did.

[Randy Griffin]

Bet that got some looks on the freeway. 

[JHCC]

 

34 minutes ago, BIGGUNDOCTOR said:

It would have been fun to write on the windows Yay, granny is coming home!

Or “Just Divorced”!

[Daswulf]

Lol Biggun. 

I like Johns sign idea. 

I'm driving an 06 saturn vue with almost 200,000 miles at the moment since my jeep is still down. I've been pretty happy with the roomy space in back with the rear seats folded down and it has roof racks. I tossed in some ratchet straps just in case. 

[Scott NC]

  Just when you thought you'd seen it all.    I suppose having a plastic halloween skeleton hand hanging out would be too much....

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Lol, that’s hilarious! BIGGUNDOCTOR! 

That reminds me of a story here,

there’s a young couple that bought a house up the road from me and there’s an old workshop out beside it, all grown up in the trees and brush, 

In front of the old building is 3-4 old tombstones that they didn’t pay attention to when they bought the place because it was all grown up,

anyways when they finally seen them they kinda got weirded out until they learned the shop used to carve tombstones and those out front were just displays lol, 

I talked with the guy last summer and he said he’d like to sell them an get them outta there, but apparently there’s not much market for slightly used tombstones that already have names and dates on them! 

[Gazz]

Those headstones can be reshaped for other purposes.  Sculpture bases, stepping stones/pavers, tractor weights etc.  I recently attended an auction where they sold the headstone of a civil war veteran who had died in battle.  Freaked a bunch of people out at first but the auctioneer explained that headstone had been replaced with an obelisk type monument by the descendants so the original was no longer needed and came with paperwork from both the family and the cemetery stating as such.

[JHCC]

If people use anvils as headstones, I see no reason we can't use headstones as anvils.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Lol, I thought about getting them off him an setting them up as yard decorations, 

but when I ran it by my wife she was less enthusiastic then I was 

I guess I could set them up in front of my repair shop and mess with my customers with a sign that says-

(people who didn’t pay!) Lol 

[Frosty]

12 hours ago, BIGGUNDOCTOR said:

Yay, granny is coming home!

How about, Alimony? HAH!

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

Sign: "Prepper"  You can buy a wooden one these days that converts into a bookcase or wine rack until needed;  not much call for them here in the land of the "shallow grave in the desert"....

 I've been to cemeteries in Europe where old tombstones were used for walkways.  When you have churches over 1000 years old you sort of run out of space and reuse is the norm.

A cousin of my Mother has her Father's "first" tombstone out in his yard.  It was replaced with a larger one later.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Twisted, leather workers love old headstones for tooling. They have slab envy like we have anvil envy   Many use countertop scrap pieces, but they are only around an inch thick at best. 4" of solid stone is mobetta as my Mom used to say.  I would be all over them, and probably set them up on the property to mess with the neighbors

 

IFCW, this is an o4 Vibe GT. I bought it a couple of years ago with 114k on it, and it now has 233k - daily commute is 150 miles minimum roundtrip.  Being the GT it has the different 1.8L (8,200 redline) and the 6 speed manual. Not quick (16 second 1/4 mile)but a lot of fun in town.  As one guy said "It is more fun driving a slow car fast, than a fast car slow."  Zippy is a 4 passenger go-kart. 

 

Das, I love a Saturn. All of mine were S-series though with the 1.9 DOHC and 5 speed manuals. I had a 98 SW2 (wish I had kept that one), 99 SW2, 98 SC2, and a 98 SL1-my only SOHC.  The 98 SW2 wagon would knock off 40 mpg all day long with a best of 43.2. Bought it with 98k on it, and 4 years later it had 293k. in that time it needed a battery, radiator, plugs got changed at 290k, serpentine belt, front brakes, and 3 sets of tires. Fantastic little cars, and there are still a few getting used as commuters out here. I abused those poor cars and they just took it in stride. I have a picture somewhere of me forklifting a complete Olds 455 out of the 99 SW2.

 

Thomas, one of the projects I want to do is make a toe pincher.  More for decoration, as I don't want to be buried in a box. Cremation, or one of the new "green" methods shown on Ask  A Mortician on the Tube are more appealing to me.

 

As for this casket, I do own a hearse, but it has a lot of possibilities from a Grandpa Munster  Drag-U-La build , to ice chest, BBQ, trailer, coffee table, or maybe a rooftop cargo box on my 1956 Imperial four wheel drive build. 

 

Any info on the roller chains? I am coming up empty handed online. I am going to send a email to Tsubaki USA next. GTTS for the straight scoop.

 

[ThomasPowers]

Forge one into a billet and see how it sparks.  If it sparks well; forge it into a blade.  If not so well San Mai is a great method to use a pattern that doesn't have the C but is pretty for a knifeblade.

We've been doing a bunch of welding up drive chains and timing chains we found at the scrapyard lately---good encouragement to get my powerhammer running!!! (Especially as my local striker caught Covid.)

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

today I went an bought three 55 gallon barrels of coal a guy had for sale online, 

he advertised it as bituminous but when I got there and looked at it I had my doubts,

But I bought it anyways,

while I was over that way I went to see another guy who had stopped by my shop last year and told me he had some smithy type stuff he wanted to part with

i indeed up swapping a Columbian bench vise for a couple things,

One is the smallest factory made lever rivet forge I’ve ever seen,

it’s missing all the original lever parts and someone had rigged a little champion blower an tuyere pipe to it,

im gonna have to do away with that grate plate but other then that it’s in pretty decent shape

the other thing was a home made treadle hammer with a 20 pound head and a 3” solid rod anvil, 

I haven’t ever used or built a treadle hammer so When I got home I fired up a forge so I could try out that “bituminous” coal 

I grabbed a piece of sucker rod an heated it up so I could try out this treadle hammer,

and it seems to work really well, I was able to taper the sucker rod to a point in less time then I could have done with a hand hammer, 

 

[George N. M.]

TW, how did the new coal burn?  The helve hammer looks interesting.  Cool gadget.

A friend once gave me a similar little forge but the pan was rusted through and I've never been able to free up the blower.  Would be a good traveling forge, though.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

George,

The coal is acting very different then what I’ve been using,

i started the fire with a piece of coke from my other coal I had in another forge,

this new coal didn’t seem any harder to get lite but it took awhile for the fire to sustain itself like it was gonna go out if I quit cranking,

once it got to burning it made a lot of flames compared to my other coal,

I was starting to think it might be anthracite coal but the fire hasn’t went out in 30-40 minutes of setting there, and it does seem to be coking,

But on the other hand it’s very ashy and an seems to burn up rather then stick to itself,

I could not get it to melt together and make a volcano mound with a cave to work the metal in an out of,

my other coal once it gets hot it seems to almost turn fluid an melt to itself, an it cokes really good, 

I’m not entirely sure what I drug home today but it burns an it gets metal hot lol,

 

 

 

 

[Daswulf]

Love the treadle hammer. Does it hit flat or at an angle? Looks like the hammer face is rounded a bit. 

Roughly how much force do you have to put down on the pedal to get it to hit good? The mechanics of it "look" like it would need a good hard stomp to get it to fully hit. 

[JHCC]

Great finds, TW. Great to have a nice functional treadle hammer without having to actually design and build it!

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

2 hours ago, Daswulf said:

Looks like the hammer face is rounded a bit. 

Yes the hammer face is rounded it’s not a flat hit,

2 hours ago, Daswulf said:

Roughly how much force do you have to put down on the pedal to get it to hit good

It’s not bad actually, it doesn’t take much of foot motion to get a good strike,

again I’ve never built or used one of these so I don’t have the experience to give a in depth accurate review,

from my personal experience, I’d say it cuts time in half or close to it bringing 3/4” sucker rod to a point vs by hand hammer,

the force required to get a good hit wasn’t much more then taking a step while walking,

1 hour ago, JHCC said:

Great finds, TW.

Thanks!

up to now, Ive never had any interest in treadle hammers but after playing with one this afternoon I can see why others use them,

Like I said I had a bench vise I wasn’t using or gonna use so swapping it for some stuff I’m actually going to use an play with seemed to make sense lol,

I’m gonna play with this one an see what I can learn from it and then i might just go ahead an build one myself later that improves on this design,

one thing I’d change is I’d make the base much heavier so it doesn’t need to be bolted down 

 

 

 

[Daswulf]

I asked because I like the simplicity of the design. If it is functional it makes it all the better and I'd be more inclined to make one. No doubt the 20# sledge head is a big help in that design. 

Not a lot of travel so punches or tooling would have to be short. 

[JHCC]

Speaking from personal experience, you want to hold your chisels and punches with a pair of tongs when you’re using the treadle hammer. Making some short tools that fit underneath is not a big deal. 

[George N. M.]

I will second John.  If you are holding a tool with your hand under a treadle hammer and it is slightly misaligned it can kick out sideways leaving your hand under the hammer.  I have done it, once, and learned my lesson.  It hurt and my right index finger wasn't right for months.  Use tongs, a handled tool, vice grips, etc. but do not get your hand under the hammer when it is coming down.  Also, make sure you are holding your tool dead vertical.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Anachronist58]

3 hours ago, Daswulf said:

I asked because I like the simplicity of the design.

Ha ha!

8 hours ago, TWISTEDWILLOW said:

But I bought it anyways,

TW, one well woven tale once again!  Feisty coals coalescing with more favorably sticky coals can make a a fine medium.  I am inclined to combine carbons for the sake of conbinative conviviality.  

I must add to the enthusiasm of others in regard to the utility and simplicity of that 20# stomp hammer.

In the meantime, this followed me home today, at $10, with more to follow tomorrow...

Robert Taylor