Fun at work

[Sedgewood]

Here I go lending a little support to a blooming artist while the real world is raising its ugly head. To borrow a dumb cliche, "I feel your pain." Oh lawdy lawdy, did I really use that?!

<font color=red>I've just about decided that the best thing is for me to make something and if someone wants it then they buy it as is.</font color=red>

Yup, that's what starving artists do. But since one's gotta support the habit compromises get made, some bigger than others. But they all take a toll on the creative energy.

<font color=red>Because otherwise we end up with something that isn't just what they want and it sure as heck isn't what I want. So it ends up being closer to an off colored step child that stutters and walks with a gimp than family.</font color=red>

It's a sad state of affairs, but that's just how it is. Or is for me at least. I'd wager you get lots of well deserved compliments on your work but unfortunately the world doesn't "get" what this creative thing is really all about and just has to squash that big ol' creative bug before the big hairy scary thing grows any bigger. Creativity threatens the status quo and leads to a project at least a tad off center. Much as they may wish otherwise, not many people are comfortable with stuff that may cause them to be seen as a tad off center. It's a nice place to visit but living there is quite another thing altogether. What'll the neighbors think. So they get scared and squash that bug before it gets out of hand (their hand - not the artists). And before it can become truly great. Sad sad sad. At least the chickens let you be who you are.

 

[Kodiak]

You know Harv. I think I was that boy you weir talking about once. I spent two years at Nebraska Technical School trying to become a machinist. My first job taught me quickly that I didn't no squat. I then did a apprenticeship under a wonderful old Dutch shipwright. I'm sure that after one year under his tutalige that I still only new 1/10 of one % of what this man could do. But at least he expanded my horizons, and my confidence. And I still utilize those skills in almost everything I do.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I conned wannabesoninlaw to take some photos for me. I've got this supertrick new tool to bend heavy steel on edge.

Here's a before and after picture. The finished piece is in my left hand and another piece to be done is in my right.

If anyone asked you can tell them a finished piece starts out as half by one and a half bar stock.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

This is the tool. It started out as a piece of two and a half round hot roll that was bent by an uh oh. The bend happened to look like what I wanted for a die.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

This is that trick bender getting after it. Half inch by one and a half inch hot roll bar stock being bent on edge or as they say in France when it's spring and the grass is real green, the hard way.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Russ I've got a customer that I do work for every couple of years or so. He's Swiss and was trained to be a machinist from junior high school. He's told me about their first project being done with a hack saw and files to hundredths tolerance.

When I work for him it's by the hour. He's my helper. I can't buy such help. And what's really neat is he enjoys it more than I do which makes me both proud and jealous.

What I think is important about the bender I've got in the pictures above is that you don't absolutely have to have the latest and greatest and trickest and neatest equipment just to do something. Sometimes a little luck and a bit of effort will do just fine thank you.

Few things make me prouder than convincing a willing soul to jump in and use what's at hand to do what has to be done. I mean anyone can do it with the right tools right?

 

[Bird]

Pretty interesting tool, looks like the wannabesoninlaw is a pretty good photographer, and I think this is the first time I've seen what the old blacksmith looks like./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I demonstrated the bender to two different customers this morning. They were blown away that a little man with some kind of belly could move that much metal so easily.

For me it's still one of those things that is almost like magic. BTW I got the idea from a picture of two blacksmiths doing the same thing with a flypress. I don't know why but I figured if they could do it with the repeated applications of a couple ton of pressure I could do it with just more applications of a three pound French hammer./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

I don't forsee a reason for a haircut for another eight weeks so the appearance of the old man is gonna get interesting. In about three weeks the boss will start hinting that my appearance makes people nervous. A week or so after that she'll mention I'm scaring folks and should really consider a trim. Some time after that she'll tell me I'm starting to scare her. I'll go to the barber. We've got an understanding. It's sorta along the line of an understanding I have with the dentist if you know what I mean.

 

[Bird]

Well, Harv, maybe we have a little bit in common. I hated having to go to the barber, 50 mile round trip, sit and wait your turn, pay (I don't even remember how much), etc. But our solutions were at the opposite end of the spectrum./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif My wife bought some clippers and she keeps me sheared; very close all over./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif I don't have to let my hair grow out to scare folks with my looks./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif And I even shave a couple of times a week; might do it more often if I ever get rid of the razor I have that is quite possibly the world's sorriest electric razor.

 

[MDNY]

Wroughtn Harv,

You have waaaaay to much fun at work. But you do it so well.

 

[Kodiak]

Harv:

I to have been known to get a little wooly at times. It seems that during those 4 or 5 month long fishing seasons that barbers are sorta hard to encounter. And even the use of a razor doesn't seem very high on the priority list./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

It seems that all my life I've been surrounded by some of the darndest characters. you see when you grow up in a little town, on a distant island in the Gulf of Alaska, thats completely dependent on what comes from the sea. You learn at an early age that you're not going to be able to just pick up any old whim at the local store. So to be competitive you have to innovative. And innovative attracts the creative, always somebody inventing something new,to do it bigger ,better or faster. Heck even my high school welding class didn't do the usual projects, of jackstands or engine hoists. We built projects like a 16' aluminum seine skiff, and several hydraulic longline power reels. Some of it was bound to rub off. Harv do you do much aluminum work?

Well I just hauled home the basics for my next project. Picked up a couple of towers off two 5000# forklifts. Going to weld some base plates on , and anchor them to my shop floor facing each other. Add some hd arms and a hydraulic power supply. I should have a stout two post car/truck/tractor hoist. /w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I haven't used a razor since summer of 87. I use a trimmer on the mustache probably twice to three times between haircuts. The kids and grandkids really don't remember me without the beard.

I have some real fun with my barber. He's a local character and he can take my stuff face up and dish it back. That's unusual.

I do a little aluminum. I love it. But I'm still on the learning curve. BTW the Henrob torch does a fine job on some phases of aluminum welding but in no way does it replace a tig.

As far as that learning curve goes, I think I was born on it and have been surfing ever since./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

The two poster sounds like it will work fine. Are you going to have it where it grabs the vehicle by the frame so you can do tires too? Or are you going to do it like I'm going to do in a bud's garage? What we're going to do there is have the two poster lifting ramps. That way his one and half car garage can hold two, just one on top of the other. That will probably be my winter project.

 

[Kodiak]

I did the full time beard thing for almost 15 years. But a case of frostbite a few years back has curred me of that. It gets rather irritable when the weather gets hot and sticky. I still do a real good Santa Clause impression in the winter. Maybe I'll have to hit some of the malls up for part time work. NOT!

I have an old Airco mig rig with the optional tig gun. The key is cleanliness always clean the area before and after with stainless wire wheels, on the 4.5" grinder. Lots of tacks follwed by short sections of bead, otherwise those big peices of plate start looking like bed sheets flapping on the line.

I am going with the 4 adjustable arms for frame contact. But will add some locks so I can leave it up in the air for an extended period of time. Actually just came from a buds house with anew idea for an addition to the hoist. He has a small swinging gantry crane attached to one post for pulling engines and such. /w3tcompact/icons/clever.gif

 

[wroughtn_harv]

A friend has a gantry crane I built for his shop some years ago. It can pick up a zero turn radius mower and set it up on a table to be worked on.

I can't recall the details on just how I made it. A minor detail in my life that's becoming more pronounced these days.

It is scarey but it is one of the things one learns to live with. I keep two dictionarys right here by the puter just because words come and go but not always in the sequences I prefer.

I used to believe I could memorize their spelling and expand my mind. But it doesn't seem to work that way.

My wife is afraid it's Parkinsons because her uncle has it and it is a hazard of welding. I'm afraid it's oldtimers. And to be honest that scares me plenty. I mean this is a heckuva body but I can't imagine it going on living without me./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[Bird]

<font color=blue>I'm afraid it's oldtimers. And to be honest that scares me plenty</font color=blue>

I sure know the feeling./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif My dad and my granddad had Alzheimer's for a number of years before they died, and there are times I wonder about myself.

 

[Kodiak]

Harv:

I think its just a disease of the over creative. Sometimes its hard to sort out what I'm presently working on, from the other 1/2 dozen projects and appendiges racing between the ears.

I agree it is one hell of a body. But I have put mine through the ringer enough for several lifetimes. I'm 44 years old and have managed to break a third my bones including my back. Plus my heart has decided to go on vacation 4 times in the last 7 years. If I could find a rebuild kit for it, I would install it myself. Instead of having to rely on the old sawbones around here.

 

[bgott]

It's probably just CRS. I suffer from that frequently myself!
I use www.onelook.com. It's easier than digging under stuff on my desk or floor looking for the dictionary.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

<font color=blue>I think its just a disease of the over creative.</font color=blue>

That's what my wife was saying last night. She claims my confusion at times is because there is just too much traffic in the empty hallways!/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Since you sound like you're similiarly afflicted with the whatever it is I wonder if you've ever noticed that it ebbs and flows. I mean there are times of the month when if I was to be writing my ideas down like smart people do I wouldn't have time to do anything but write.

<font color=blue>If I could find a rebuild kit for it, I would install it myself. Instead of having to rely on the old sawbones around here.</font color=blue>

Man ain't that the truth???????/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

My doc and the specialist decided they wanted to operate on both hands for carpul tunnel.

I explained to them that there were about five things on this bod they weren't gonna cut on. Hands were two of them.

I figure if'n I wear them out that's good enough, just desserts you might say, that's life.

But if'n I lose them because some doc was having a bad day, now that's a horse from a completely different herd.

I haven't had much luck with docs. I had my tonsils pulled at thirty two. They screwed up on the anesthesia and I got the stuff that makes you immobile. But they didn't get much of the stuff that deadens the pain in the mix. So I got to lay there feeling it all as it was done and with no way to communicate just how it felt.

Then the old doc after the cussin' he got in the recovery room had the audacity to infer it was because I was talented and had a super subconcious. He not only buggered me. He bandaged it in bullsnot as Franz is fond of saying.

No, I understand docs are people first and doctor's second. So I use them as rarely as possible.

I've got you by ten years just last Wednesday.

I don't want to scare you but the last ten have been the most fun. It's sorta like I had the dessert first and thought that's all there was. Then the waiter brought in this rare prime rib that had just enough wild taste to make it memorable beyond belief.

I hear folks complaining about getting old. I don't get it. I see it as time finally tripping us up so we have time to look around to see what's out there besides the obvious.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Rotr came by today and we made some big horseshoes. Really big big horshoes even, you might say.

I'll take some pictures tomorrow. But ya'll can take my word for it. Horseshoes eleven or so inches wide and thirteen or so inches long made out of inch and a half by half inch bar stock are big, but kewl.

I think the address thingy is gonna be kewl, three horseshoes holding up a rock with a number on it. But just for grins we decided today, rotr is a baaaaaaaad influence, to add a lizard to two to the rocks.

He suggested them doing it. And I suggested them just flirting, like I said rotr is a bad influence.

But seriously if you have a big flat sandstone rock with three big horseshoes holding up another big rock with a number on it. Don't you think a lizard on the bottom rock looking up at a lizard scaling the top rock would be the cat's meow?

Today has been an emotional day. I couldn't figure out why but the emotions just seemed to be between the epi and the dermis all day long. Then tonight I look at the puter and it's 8-11. Nuff said.

Thirty four years ago today I almost died. Should have anyway. So everything since has been gravy.

An Army duece and a half of the mid sixties vintage weighs fourteen thousand seven hundred pounds dry. I remembered that as one did a nice roll over doing about forty or so I'd guess. There was eleven of us in the back and three in the cab.

As the sixteen fell from between my legs as I went airborne I didn't think I was dead. I knew I was. No ifs, ands or buts about that issue at the moment in time. Fourteen thousand seven hundred pounds dry will squash you like a bug.

We were halfway between Dong Tam and My Tho on a nice Sunday afternoon. A single vehicle all alone and one mistake on the driver's part.

Of course I survived. And I've never liked riding in the open bed at any speed since. And I don't allow others to ride in the open bed either. I know what it's like to hit the road and then have a vehicle come down on top of you.

Who woulda thunk it? Thirty four years later and I'm still a little too quick with that middle finger. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

I've had more than one person comment on me not fearing death. I guess it's like any other butt whipping. It's never as bad as the fear of the whipping.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

There's a lizard in the fire!