Metalworking

[microtone]

Thanks for Mike at Anacap, for taking the time to chat the other day. There will be more on other subjects as I get to them. Feel free to chime in. And, yes, you can find a lot of basic information on anything on the internet...

Tools help ! But, don't run out and buy a lot of stuff "to start a weekend business". The other day I needed to get a seized bolt off a bracket for a little 'quicky' repair. So I go looking for a bolt cutter... hum! wonder where that went ? then i went looking for a hacksaw. Normally, I keep 2 under a certain workbench. One with 2 blades in it for wider groves...

WTF ?  g--d---- f------, couch potato has been at it again....

what can i say, it often takes more time to find the tools and find parts than it does to fix stuff. boy ! do some people can me a "cranky pain in the arse" ....

"Your gonna wait a whole f------ five minutes while I fix it for you ? get the f---- out of here..."

Decades ago, I did some Historical/Industrial Archeology, and while it wasn't my first introduction to black smithing it was probably the most useless. But anyway, real charcoal is a thing of the past, and coal does actually work, but some winters i've experimented with putting blanks in the wood stove, and pulling them out to work. Seems to work, but I haven't gotten that far to cutting up wood to try out on a small improvised forge.

Hadn't planned on doing it this year, but I should get gas for the mig welder and new tanks for the oxyacetylene setup. I'm getting old enough, that I'm thinking more along the lines of passing on skills (whatever they may be, good bad or indifferent) than caring about the commercial  aspects.

Maybe, next year, I'm not going to be running any classes... and I'm likely to be busy on the weekends. who knows.

After the weather breaks, I'll be experimenting with soft soldering/brazing with the cheapish ordinary plumbers propane canisters and the low temp brazing rod... I spend a little time working on wire and crystal sculptures and wire wrapping jewelry (well i thought getting those boxes of tibetian crystals from china was a good idea at the time- oi! and the look the postal people started giving me....).