Speaking of Blacksmithing

Yeah, not really. I was just bending some rod using a rosebud to heat up the bend points to make a new handle for my roll around compressor.

I was always paranoid to just grab the rod with my hand and bend it, but after watching a gazillion and three blacksmith videos during my morning coffee over the years I decided to give it a try. I think point heating the bend points with a rosebud puts less heat down the rod than welding does.

Clamp the rod in the vise. Make the bend point glow red (little past dull red) grab the end and bend. After several bends it started to get a little hot where I was grabbing, but that's what the wash sink outside is for.

I know. I know. You all knew this already.

One thing that would make this go faster is to make a hanger for the torch, so I can just set it aside and leave it burning when I need both hands to move something around, or hold the part while I loosen and tighten the vise. Still it was pretty fast.

Now I need to do it all over again with a piece of stock that is actually the right size.

Bob La Londe

-------------------------------------------- In the class I straightened part of a yellow-hot truck coil spring by hand, with the hot end in the anvil's hardy (square) hole. The effort was wasted when cracks appeared, but it showed how weak hot steel becomes. Instead I forged the blade from an old leaf spring from home. His anvils were mostly mounted on bases of angle iron.

Pipe over the rod will help you bend a tighter corner.

I also use 5/32" stainless rod to make parts for outdoors, like removable hinge pins. I bought some of all available sizes in steel, stainless, brass and aluminum, those have been the most useful.

Supporting clamps and hangers etc are available for pipe and conduit but not fractional-sized rod. I think floor flanges and these are the most useful for assembling temporary supports:

A leg vise is a nice tool, but it takes up a lot of dedicated irretrievable space if properly installed on a heavy post set in the ground. However if done that way its amazing for heavy work.

I tend to use the 4 inch wide Columbia vise that is bolted to a heavy steel work bench. I can move the bench, but its close to my max ability to move something not on wheels. That bench and vise will likely be going outside under the new shade structure when it arrives. I might even bolt the bench down since that will also be near my blacksmithing area.

For bending rod a piece of pipe is "okayish," but pipe is relatively soft. I've made square u-bolts out of 1/2 inch room temperature 4140QT with a nice bend using a tool a friend gave me. When he gave it to me it wasn't a tool. It was just a piece of 1-1/4 or 1-1/2 round bar about

To be fair I do use a piece of pipe as a cheater bar on my 6 ton arbor press. I really should just make a longer handle for it, or better yet, bolt it to a heavy bench that is actually bolted to the floor.

For bending rod a piece of pipe is "okayish," but pipe is relatively soft.

-------------------- I meant to slip it over the red hot end sticking up from the vise to tighten the corner of the bend, and protect your hands.

Today's flea market treasure is a lightly used Ridgid 65-RA 1" to 2" adjustable pipe threading die.

That's an expensive bit of kit.

I don't have to thread a lot of pipe these days. I have a couple Harbor Freight sets for "heavy" threading, and some Chinese round dies that I had to make die handles for because every one was a different size.

Back when I worked in my dad's hardware store we had Rigid dies and ratcheting die holder, and a power drive with a large 3 jaw chuck. I spent whole afternoons standing out in the sun threading pipe to fill special orders.

I also broke almost every stock piece of glass in the store once trying to cut a piece of glass for a customer window repair. LOL. The customer was standing over me the whole time. I finally told him to go next door to the grocery store and get a soda or something. All of a sudden the glass snapped just like it was supposed to. By the time he got back I had reframed the panel and had it setting out front.

That's an expensive bit of kit.

------------------------------------ Over $1000 new, much less on eBay, comments complain that they are heavy and awkward. This one was from an estate IIRC and he asked and got $10. It's an old model, closer examination showed no chips or oil to indicate that it's ever been used.

Instead of tapered cutters it moves straight ones outward with cams as the thread progresses, since it clamps to the pipe and has a positive screw feed. There are suggestions it can cut NPS straight threads somehow, and adjust the depth of cut.

Apparently if you purposely misadjust the pipe clamp stops it can cut a drooping or slightly angled thread to ensure positive drainage in the pipe. The newer model eliminates that option/mistake.

I use 2" pipe for hoists and inch and above for mechanical structures like a swiveling and rising solar panel mount. 1" pipe is the largest that fits in my lathe spindle bore.

It was an interesting visit. I chatted with a woman promoting her self-help book and a man selling his tool invention. Neither was close to a profit, which reinforced my decision not to make and peddle my ideas. I mentioned my sink spray for the shower online and later saw a version in Home Depot, but it didn't sell. Apparently the constant droning about climate change is all talk and no action.

Almost the only 3D printed items I see for sale are fantasy figures, very rarely something useful. The practical items are still wood or ceramic, fabric or leather. I haven't seen anything from a home machine shop.

Usually home or small machine shops get into a specialty area related to a hobby or special interest. Like I make fishing lure molds (primarily) and a few other things. One fellow I know makes air gun parts. More than a few airgun makers are or started as home shops. I believe Wicked Air Rifles started that way. One fellow I know makes aluminum AR15 pistol grips and heavy aluminum sonar brackets as a side business (but he runs a full on production shop). There are a number of RC hobbyists making parts at home. One very talented surgeon I know designs and machines prototype orthopedic devices in a spare bedroom in his house not to far from here. Most start out doing it on the side, build some reputation in their interest community and they grow. I know of one guy who has a steady side business 3D printing plastic shims for glad hands. Lot of people use 3D printing to supplement some other production or semi production process like metal casting.

Generally though it has to be something you are passionate enough about to work at like a real job.

My son's 3D hobby got him in with a buddy of mine and got him a teaching assistant job at the local community college, and I am sure that had some impact on his job running the machine shop and the hydrodynamics lab at the associated university. Okay to be fair he mostly prints fantasy figures. LOL. We have done some experiments testing 3D models downloaded from the internet before spending expensive metal and machine time on them, and we have made master print molds to be able to cast silicone molds for resin casting more practical items.

There are a lot more people than you think making stuff in their home shop as a real going concern. I am not a unicorn.

There are a lot more people than you think making stuff in their home shop as a real going concern. I am not a unicorn.

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I'm one of them, of course, and I look for others. My basement-made stuff was industrial, military and NASA and now alternate energy, not for consumers which is the bulk of what appears at faires and flea markets. I suppose online is a better place for products one would search for specifically instead of strolling around looking to stumble onto hidden treasure among mainly unwanted junk.

There are several rat rods around here with extensive if not always professionally skilled modifications.

The Internet is absolutely what makes many small maker businesses possible. Without it, I'd probably never have gotten into mold making, and even if I had I'd be relegated to advertising in the classifieds in the back of trade and hobby magazines.

I do trade world wide because of the Internet. I have customers from Australia and New Zealand, across both Americas, the Caribbean, and several countries in Europe. I just shipped some molds to Germany, and just received a custom order from Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

Without the Internet I would struggle to even sell across the USA. Word of mouth wouldn't help much either when probably 9 out of 10 of my customers want to keep their mold connection secret. With the Internet the word of mouth I do get is amplified across on YoutTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Every time a customer says he got his mold from me on one of those platforms a bunch of people see it.

Of course the unhappy Karen's of the industry also get their bad word of mouth amplified, but its just part of being in business. I've been in business my whole life.