- Joined
- Oct 20, 2008
- Messages
- 5,547
Spring is beginning to arrive here, and with it the freedom to work in the shop more comfortably. It was a beautiful day here, a great one to work with the doors open and the radio blasting. I thought I'd share some things I've been working on this winter, and a couple pics of the shop and a knife I've got going.
First off, the grinding room- here's where I stand the most. The wood pile outside has finally burnt down to the point where I can see out the window again. That is excellent.
To the left. My wife went through one day and put posters up. You'll see them on other walls, too. You can see the grinder controls; they run through the wall to the VFD mounted on the other side.
I've had the VFD for my main grinder for a while, but recently retrofited my square wheel with a good Leeson 2hp I got off Ebay. So I put a switch in the power line to the grinder so I can select which one to use.
Here's the Square Wheel. It's the oldest model there is. I had to overhaul it plenty, but it grinds well now- I put the original drive wheel back on since it's variable now, it's really nice to have two variable grinders side by side.
The buffers, both home built. I really use them only for fittings and handles, I plan to build a more suitable buffer for blades this year.
Here's the table with attachments and wheels laying around, belts hanging up- I ordered Gators in equiv. 220, 400, 600 last order to try them out. I love them. More on that later.
My main finish bench. I got a bunch of cheap file trays for all my sand paper, works well. Ten things going on at once here. It's got a bit of a wrap around "command center" feel, I got that from Ken Onion's bench, the way he has things set up. I'd like to adopt as well his feature of 2 or 3 little drill presses easy to reach right here from the chair.
The outside with coal forge and outside anvil, I finally hauled this stuff from my old place. The hand crank forge works well for general smithing and irregular shaped objects.
An old wheelbarrow makes a good coal bin...
This is a gravity tank on a stand, welded up fom an old propane tank and some rebar, etc. That's Bob Marley by the way, smoking what no doubt is a hand rolled tobacco cigarette... the tank holds old veggie oil, or old motor oil. It tees off to the woodstove and to my welding forge.
The welding forge. I've only run it once since the oil retrofit, the oil part works OK but I have some streamlining to do so I don't get a drip that smokes outside the shell.
Another workbench. Also cluttered. In the background, a kiln that I traded a knife for. I was going to digitalize it for use as a knife oven, but it's just too big so I'm gonna sell it.
I got lucky, someone gave me some shelves. They filled up instantly, now I need MORE. My drums are way back there, too.
Another workbench. Pretty self-explanatory.
More tools. The big JET drill press works OK for milling soft stuff with the XY table, there's a guy down the road who has a mill/drill he does not use and I'm looking forward to horse trading with him a bit. He's got a green 4x6 bandsaw too, wish me luck.
A wider view of the forging area. The next $500 I have free, I'm going to a fella's house locally to look at a used LG hammer he's got. Wish me luck there, too. I'm almost ready to build a press, too. Just gotta find a motor and start welding. You know I'll be posting when I get the press or hammer together. Hopefully both soon.
Lastly, my current blade project- a custom order for a guy that wants me to do my version of a Charles Ochs "spec ops fighter." So the blade is getting some recurve, but keeping the long clip and has a similar gradual swept plunge as the original. I kept the steel the same, 52100.
As mentioned before, I'm really liking the Gator belts. For a while now I've been pretty frustrated with belt life for metal finishing. These are the best yet by far. They load up a little, but I lightly wire brush them while they're running and it makes them grind like new again. Seems like you can do this a lot to one belt, too. Coupled with a slower speed on the grinder, I'm working on grinding cleaner and more finely- up to 600, trying some sweep to my plunges, inspired by Phillip Patton's knives, among others.
That's all for now, folks. I hope you enjoyed the pics, I always like seeing what's happening in other shops.
First off, the grinding room- here's where I stand the most. The wood pile outside has finally burnt down to the point where I can see out the window again. That is excellent.
To the left. My wife went through one day and put posters up. You'll see them on other walls, too. You can see the grinder controls; they run through the wall to the VFD mounted on the other side.
I've had the VFD for my main grinder for a while, but recently retrofited my square wheel with a good Leeson 2hp I got off Ebay. So I put a switch in the power line to the grinder so I can select which one to use.
Here's the Square Wheel. It's the oldest model there is. I had to overhaul it plenty, but it grinds well now- I put the original drive wheel back on since it's variable now, it's really nice to have two variable grinders side by side.
The buffers, both home built. I really use them only for fittings and handles, I plan to build a more suitable buffer for blades this year.
Here's the table with attachments and wheels laying around, belts hanging up- I ordered Gators in equiv. 220, 400, 600 last order to try them out. I love them. More on that later.
My main finish bench. I got a bunch of cheap file trays for all my sand paper, works well. Ten things going on at once here. It's got a bit of a wrap around "command center" feel, I got that from Ken Onion's bench, the way he has things set up. I'd like to adopt as well his feature of 2 or 3 little drill presses easy to reach right here from the chair.
The outside with coal forge and outside anvil, I finally hauled this stuff from my old place. The hand crank forge works well for general smithing and irregular shaped objects.
An old wheelbarrow makes a good coal bin...
This is a gravity tank on a stand, welded up fom an old propane tank and some rebar, etc. That's Bob Marley by the way, smoking what no doubt is a hand rolled tobacco cigarette... the tank holds old veggie oil, or old motor oil. It tees off to the woodstove and to my welding forge.
The welding forge. I've only run it once since the oil retrofit, the oil part works OK but I have some streamlining to do so I don't get a drip that smokes outside the shell.
Another workbench. Also cluttered. In the background, a kiln that I traded a knife for. I was going to digitalize it for use as a knife oven, but it's just too big so I'm gonna sell it.
I got lucky, someone gave me some shelves. They filled up instantly, now I need MORE. My drums are way back there, too.
Another workbench. Pretty self-explanatory.
More tools. The big JET drill press works OK for milling soft stuff with the XY table, there's a guy down the road who has a mill/drill he does not use and I'm looking forward to horse trading with him a bit. He's got a green 4x6 bandsaw too, wish me luck.
A wider view of the forging area. The next $500 I have free, I'm going to a fella's house locally to look at a used LG hammer he's got. Wish me luck there, too. I'm almost ready to build a press, too. Just gotta find a motor and start welding. You know I'll be posting when I get the press or hammer together. Hopefully both soon.
Lastly, my current blade project- a custom order for a guy that wants me to do my version of a Charles Ochs "spec ops fighter." So the blade is getting some recurve, but keeping the long clip and has a similar gradual swept plunge as the original. I kept the steel the same, 52100.
As mentioned before, I'm really liking the Gator belts. For a while now I've been pretty frustrated with belt life for metal finishing. These are the best yet by far. They load up a little, but I lightly wire brush them while they're running and it makes them grind like new again. Seems like you can do this a lot to one belt, too. Coupled with a slower speed on the grinder, I'm working on grinding cleaner and more finely- up to 600, trying some sweep to my plunges, inspired by Phillip Patton's knives, among others.
That's all for now, folks. I hope you enjoyed the pics, I always like seeing what's happening in other shops.
If I lived closer I'd go do a little cleaning and organizing in your shop though. 
And letting the wife put up poster? What's up with that? You sure won't be getting some with "nekkid wimmen" that way. 
