Mail call: a small universal vise, but for lockpicking rather than blacksmithing. 

Some interesting smith’s roadkill. 

I am 55, when i was a wee lad we had a party line, but i did live way, way back in a holler. 

 

Mail call. Lola seems interested. 

Of course she's interested, anyone with a pulse would be.

Currently Time Team is or might be working Sutton Hoo and the author of your book is one of the main archeologists on dig. The digs have moved far beyond the ship burial, the whole area is a burial grounds and more going back before the last ice age. 

Unfortunately I haven't watched Time Team in a while, first I had problems with Google and Youtoob and now I can't find a way to log in on the Time Team site. You'd think that with all the PHDs and professional producers working on the show SOMEBODY would put a log in button on the front page. AFTER I'd suggested it more than once.

I'm sure as heck not renewing my membership when this one's over.

Frosty The Lucky.

Had to get something from Holland, if not an anvil.

Poor letter carrier.  Older lady.  I had to use a hand truck to get it back to my smithy.

I have been following the Time Team at Sutton Hoo. I think they are done there IIRC they said they only had 3 weeks to dig. Their latest find was a burial bucket. 

Heard some hoots and tree knocks yesterday. Found this guy out front of the house. 

My daughter brought me this for Fathers Day. The pic does not do it justice. It is almost 3' tall and weighs a couple hundred pounds. 

I think the burial bucket was found on either Sutton hoo, dig 1 or two. I'm still getting new notices for episodes on Patreon but haven't been able to log on for some stupid reason.

I like the way your Daughter thinks Billy. Are you going to paint it or leave it in it's winter coat? Living here I could make up some good tales about the dwarf Polar Yeti. I'm positive it'd take violent offense at anybody calling him/er a Squatch by squatching toes or worse.

Frosty The Lucky.

Just unloaded tonight, but from the IBA conference Saturday:

 

15-50lbs bag of coat, 2-3/4”x8’ pieces of sucker rod, 18”x1-1/2” hex Atlantic 33, and some bragging rights! The spatula I posted, took first place in the made at home competition. Most importantly was the experience! I was able to work with a few kids on the first blacksmithing experience, and got to meet Jennifer (JLP services). She was doing a demo on forge welding. It’s too bad I couldn’t spend more time there, I would have liked to have more time with everyone there. Maybe next year.

Keep it fun,

David

(I also tried to get the awesome fire poker that Jennifer forged in the demo at the auction, but it got was to rich for me!)

Congrats on winning 1st. place for the spatula! Sounds like you had a great time at the conference and picked up some useful supplies. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Comgrats with the win. Proofs you are doing good

Thanks! (I spent a little time talking to Jennifer about it, she was one of the judges and was able to give me improvement points that I hadn’t considered. Real feedback is great.)

Keep it fun,

David

Got a pile of metal from a magnet fisher.  There is a bunch of wrought in the wheelbarrel.  Started refining a piece tonight to make a san mai knife out of.   Also going to use this to build my sign for the shop. 

A couple of finds at the industrial surplus place. First, a couple of big pulleys (12-1/2” and 11-1/4”):

And a nice 2x72 belt grinder:

I’d been keeping my eye on this one for a while, and the price finally dropped to what I was comfortable paying. Fingers crossed that the motor works. 

Washing machines are an excellent source of 2-3 HP motors. A 2" x 72" is too useful a shop tool to think of as a knife grinder.

Frosty The Lucky.

The 2x90 has been incredibly useful, but I think this is more solidly built and will be easier to source belts for. 

Addendum: here's the label on the grinder's existing motor.

I would have plugged it in and tested it while it was still in the warehouse, but it has pin-and-sleeve connector that doesn't fit a standard electrical socket.

And before anyone starts calling 1 HP "underpowered", I've been doing just fine with just such a motor on the 2x90. If your motor bogs down, your belt's too dull.

More would be nice but 1HP is plenty. Folks who think it's not enough power hasn't taken a shop class and learned to tell the difference between a motor that's working and one that's being bogged down. 

Pro tip. If the motor is bogging down don't push so hard. That goes for ANY power tool, be it a Dremel or a Peterbuilt.

Frosty The Lucky.

Oh, dont get me started about people not knowing how to use a grinder... We use a 1"x24" (i think 24") to deburr parts, i have seen the belts so smooth you could wipe a baby bottom with one. Or the big black burned spots. I came into work one day and someone had used my 12" snag grinder to grind plastic. Completely clogged the wheel so i had to dress off a huge portion. Then i came in and one of my surface grinding wheels had a huge chunk out of it and was still being used! Someone cracked one of my diamond wheels for grinding carbide... Ooooo i could go on. 

More horse power, more better.  I have a Porter Cable "War Finish" 3"x120" belt grinder Photo Index - Porter-Cable Machine Co. - B6W | VintageMachinery.org that has plumbing to make it a wet grinder (although I have not used that part yet) and came with a 1 or 2hp motor which was a disappointment to use as I could stall it easily.  I put a 3hp motor on it and I can still stall it!  One things folks need to realize when using belt grinders is that belt life is shortened significantly when you grind a piece of steel that has scale on it.  Scale is hard stuff and it is best to remove it first with a stone wheel or by a soak in some acid.  You'll get lots more mileage from your belts if you do.

I also have a Design Line 2"x60" turret grinder that has a 2hp motor but that one does not stall so easily. Go figure.

Good point about scale, Gazz. Thanks for the reminder.

A few junkyard finds:

I think I might reforge the spanner into a bending wrench.

I have a wire wheel and cup brushes in my shop specifically to remove scale before grinding or putting in a saw. I always brush steel before putting it in my horizontal bandsaw and SCREAM at the guys who tried to without. It doesn't take much dirt to dull a tooth and that's fini for straight cuts. I finally stopped letting anybody touch a power tool until I'd checked them out.

I finally bought my own 7" delta grinder and built a lock box so I could sharpen lathe cutters, drill bits, etc. Without being locked every dip stick around just jams whatever into the wheel HARD. I hid the wheel dresser too, everybody HAD to have a dressed wheel and tended to dress them to death immediately. 

I prefer to be the sole operator in my shop, visitors are / were welcome but they operated MY way or not at all.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

I came into work one day and a guy was on my lathe boring a bronze bearing out. I looked over and he was using a single point threading tool to do it with. 

I have a whole room that the guys i work with know not to mess with any thing in that room. That is where my mill is at, doubt any of them could even turn it on, and my 2 precision surface grinders are. My lathe unfortunately is in a separate room so they think it is fair game. Thankfully most of the people i work with havent a clue as to how to set up and use my different fixtures and jigs. 

I use a Darex or an old Black Diamond to sharpen drills with. I really like the Black Diamond but it will not sharpen carbide. 

The world is full of feckless buffoons and every one seems to think they can run machinery. You know the, "If I had one of those I could do that too," Dunning Kruger crowd. I had to start putting chuck keys in my locker because not one of them understood what a bad idea it is to leave it in the chuck.

I got called into the boss's office because I elbowed one of the dip sticks in the sternum for touching the feed wheel on the lathe while I was facing a fitting. He literally reached in under my arm to have a little fun. Then he hit the floor on his back and gasped till he caught his breath again. 

I gotta stop or I'll be off on a solid multi page rant.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

I would hope any boss worth his salt would go and rip into the other employee after he heard your side of the story! You just DO NOT TOUCH or even APPROACH a machine when someone else is working on it!