What's going on in your shop?

After only 4 1/2 short years, I finally got tired of not having a second 20A 220V plug so I could use my grinder and my oven simultaneously, so I puckered up and spent $150 for some 10/2 to run the length of the shop. Actually I was kinda happy to find 100' roll for that money. But now I won't have to watch the oven for 4 hours while I got blades tempering. Oh happy day.
 
tkroenlein said:
After only 4 1/2 short years, I finally got tired of not having a second 20A 220V plug so I could use my grinder and my oven simultaneously, so I puckered up and spent $150 for some 10/2 to run the length of the shop. Actually I was kinda happy to find 100' roll for that money. But now I won't have to watch the oven for 4 hours while I got blades tempering. Oh happy day.
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Totally worth it.

I'm about to break down and add 2 more 50A outlets so I don't have to keep plugging in and unplugging welders every 5 minutes.

The oven that Im planning on making uses propane to heat it. It's going to use a normal controller, but instead of cutting on heating coils, it'll open and close solenoid valves to control the burners. I'm thinking about using some sort of ribbon burners along the edges of the oven to get more even heat.

Edit: I got distracted. What I MEANT to say, was the oven I'm planning on making uses propane to heat it BECAUSE I don't want to have to run another 240V circuit.

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My much anticipated dewar acquisition finally happened. As with any new shop thingy, I was elated to unbox it and look it over and make a new home for it. My euphoria was quickly diminished when I realized I could never use it without the missus' help, due to my stiff, abused shoulders weren't nimble enough to swing it around and slip my arms through the back pack straps.:(

7140F80F-78A3-46A4-A040-BA6A936B135E.jpeg
 
tkroenlein said:
My much anticipated dewar acquisition finally happened. As with any new shop thingy, I was elated to unbox it and look it over and make a new home for it. My euphoria was quickly diminished when I realized I could never use it without the missus' help, due to my stiff, abused shoulders weren't nimble enough to swing it around and slip my arms through the back pack straps.:(

View attachment 80714
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Backpack straps? :D

In case you want to take it hiking - right?

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I got my new belt grinder more or less dialed in. It's a shop-made 1X42.

I'm going to finalize the tensioner design (switching to a gas spring), add guards, get the platen like I want it, and get it all painted then I'll make a dedicated thread about it. Gimme a week or so.

I incorporated a couple design elements that I think are fairly novel. I'll share that in the write up. The main one being that both of the idler pulleys are adjustable for tracking to compensate for any warp or twist in the frame (I plasma cut and welded all of it). It worked well.

The best way I can put it is as follows -

I used it to dress the face of one of my forging hammers. I has a duplicate ball pein, I turned the more worn of the two into a rounding hammer.

Anyway... I am using the same belts I had with my old 1X42, I grabbed a 400 grit on accident, when I meant to grab an 80 grit (same color and brand. I was distracted wasn't paying any attention when I grabbed it). I used it for about 10 minutes and never noticed.

With a 400 grit belt, it is AT LEAST twice as fast at removing material than the old grinder with an 80 grit.

Edit; still planning on making the BIG belt grinder. I made this specifically for sharpening knives and tooling.

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tkroenlein said:
My much anticipated dewar acquisition finally happened. As with any new shop thingy, I was elated to unbox it and look it over and make a new home for it. My euphoria was quickly diminished when I realized I could never use it without the missus' help, due to my stiff, abused shoulders weren't nimble enough to swing it around and slip my arms through the back pack straps.:(

View attachment 80714
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Nice dewar. Insulation is everything, make yourself a nice 2" thick styrofoam box to put it in and your nitrogen will last even longer. Just in case you don't know, don't plug the vents in the cap, it has to be able to breathe or it will build up pressure and bad things will happen. Let us know what the price is to fill it. I filled mine a few weeks ago and nitrogen has gone way up since the last time I bought it. They used to fill my 34 litre dewar for 30 bucks, it was 68 bucks this time. Nitrogen was $2.00 a litre.
 
ChrisW2374 said:
Forging my 2nd hand forged blade still a lot of learning but I have figured out a few things. Didn't have a design in mind just started out by trying to hammer in the point as best as I could.
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Nice!

2 bits of advice:

Bit number A - Get a steel wire brush with very stiff bristles. You can use that to knock the forge scale off the work piece as you're forging. The scale comes off a lot easier when the work is still up to temp.

Bit letter 2 - be careful when you're drawing out the tang or forging down the width of the stock in general. As you hit the narrow dimension of the stock, be sure to turn to the wide dimension fairly often to keep your stock relatively flat and to keep the stock from "mushrooming" out too much.

Good job on forging the point out. If you're not careful, you can get what's known as a "fish mouth" and that can end up as a "cold shut". (See picture) It's where the two points of that end of the rectangular stock fold into each other.
6eaac6f980f75e746db0d20a529b137e.jpg


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52 Ford said:
Nice!

2 bits of advice:

Bit number A - Get a steel wire brush with very stiff bristles. You can use that to knock the forge scale off the work piece as you're forging. The scale comes off a lot easier when the work is still up to temp.

Bit letter 2 - be careful when you're drawing out the tang or forging down the width of the stock in general. As you hit the narrow dimension of the stock, be sure to turn to the wide dimension fairly often to keep your stock relatively flat and to keep the stock from "mushrooming" out too much.

Good job on forging the point out. If you're not careful, you can get what's known as a "fish mouth" and that can end up as a "cold shut". (See picture) It's where the two points of that end of the rectangular stock fold into each other.
6eaac6f980f75e746db0d20a529b137e.jpg


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Thank you for the advice sir. I have a wire brush or two just didn't use it often enough obviously. I also did what you suggested on tid bit #2 but still had the issue of mushrooming. I cut the point in the last bit because I was starting to get the fish mouth you mentioned.
 
ChrisW2374 said:
Thank you for the advice sir. I have a wire brush or two just didn't use it often enough obviously. I also did what you suggested on tid bit #2 but still had the issue of mushrooming. I cut the point in the last bit because I was starting to get the fish mouth you mentioned.
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No problem! Skip the formalities, though... dude-man.

Another bit of advice: Rounding hammers! All a rounding hammer is, is a hammer, with a radiused face.

Not a tight radius like a ballpein, but not flat like a normal sledge. The radiused face helps you move more material per blow.

I also radius the edges on all of my forging hammers. Those sharp edges that they come with stand out like a sore thumb on forged pieces, plus sharp corners are stress risers.

I'll take a picture of my "go-to" hammer next time I'm out in the shop. It's a 4lb sledge/rounding hammer.

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