Use for a broken bandsaw blade??

My copy of "Audel's Machinists and tool makers handy book" is right beside my 13th edition of "Machinery's Handbook"

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I have a Fourth Edition of Marks' Handbook. It's old and quaint, but not as out of date as an ancient Egyptian text I saw that gives Pi as 16/9 squared. Those space aliens who helped them weren't as smart as claimed.

I went through school and college at the very end of the slide rule era. It's interesting to peruse old texts and see how far back the curriculum I learned existed, for instance the slide rule dates from the 1600's, although water isn't HO any more. The geometry we learned was hundreds of years old when Jesus was a student.

In the Colonial Era we were barely more advanced than the Romans, and well behind them in public water and sewer systems. The Founding Fathers observed prototypes of the steamboat and locomotive, manned flight and high capacity assault rifles though none had been developed enough for practical use yet.

The signed Declaration of Independence manuscript is in poor shape because it was used as the wet-process master to produce image copies with its hand signatures, like a Mimeograph (or Xerox), rather than a typeset version. There are Roman-era first editions of the Bible in better condition.

Like so many things: is "making it yourself" worth it? As the saying goes "I'm going to spend 29.95 on supplies to make something I could buy for 2.50."

When making something from scratch, do you make your own scratch?

"Jim Wilkins" snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com on Tue, 23 Aug 2022 13:21:10

-0400 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

Ayup.

While in tech school I went to a trade show in Portland. (Teacher would approve the absence if we brought back "goodies".) Powell's Technical Books had a copy of the Machinery Handbook, 7th ed (1940). I bought it for the cool factor, then discovered it covered areas I'd not thought of. Hard a whole section on railroad specific issue. I'd not thought of railroads as potential source of employment as a machinist before then.

Nope. Lot of other interesting books.

Sigh, so many books, so little time. Been saying that since High School.

snipped-for-privacy@notreal.com on Tue, 23 Aug 2022 10:32:14 -0400 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

_I_ stockpile _You_ squirrel away. ...

Yep.

Good tip.

I really need to sort my old book collection better. Audel's Machinist and Tool Makers Handy Book doesn't belong between The Victor Book of the Opera and Flavius Josephus.

The rough planks for more shelves should be properly seasoned by next spring.

They'll be even harder to find after you sort them. You'll find yourself staring at where they used to be and not recalling where they moved to...

There are some decent 1921 copies at Archive. Try this search:

The American Libraries scans are missing most of the diagrams.

The California Digital Library versions are much better.

Like icons on your smart phone! LOL

Leon Fisk snipped-for-privacy@gmail.invalid on Thu, 25 Aug 2022 11:08:15 -0400 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

When putting things away, I have a tendency to put them where I was last looking / expecting them to be.

And then there is the issue of "Why is this here? Because it made sense at the time."

When putting things away, I have a tendency to put them where I was last looking / expecting them to be.

And then there is the issue of "Why is this here? Because it made sense at the time."

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That works fairly well unless you put it away hastily to get it out of the way of something else that occupied your attention.

Everything is in its place. I just can't remember where that place is.

"Jim Wilkins" snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com on Thu, 25 Aug 2022 18:32:48

-0400 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

That falls under the heading "It made sense at the time".

Like why my phone is "over there" - because I put it down to do something else ...

I keep opening containers and finding the "I know I have one ... somewhere" which is why I now have three of them.

snipped-for-privacy@notreal.com on Thu, 25 Aug 2022 18:38:00 -0400 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

"I remember seeing it, now where was I when I saw it?"

Depends on the spring. The garage door spring gaffs were neither hardened nor tempered, just air cooled after forging. OTOH, front torsion springs from a 60s VW (ca. 1/8"x3/4", 30" long) can be bent

Making power hammer dies from big-truck helper springs: Weld m/s to it, the welds fail under light blows, taking a thin crust of the embrittled spring stock with them. Heated to a black heat before welding, reheating after welding and then packing in ceramic blanket for 24 hrs. and you can wail on the welded part with a 2.5 # hammer.

One of my disheartening failures: make a replacement spring for a pedal of an antique reed organ. Two pieces of thin spring stock bent to curves and joined at one end with rivets. I made three units from old hand say blades, using low-tech methods of judging heat and tempering temperature. They all worked great for an hour, then broke. Finally found an organ collector go gave me whaat I needed that's still working.

Say, 3/4" diameter stock? Harder to work with than garage door spring.

How about anchors? Some of them around here appear to have a stock about 4" square. The arms are welded to the stock and the flukes welded to the arms, all forge welding. There's a mid-18th c. picture in Diderot of welding an anchor that appears eneven bigger -- 6" of 7" stock? -- with a power hammer but AIUI the ones that decorate people's dooryards around here would have been welded by four strikers with 16# hammers.

One of my favorite movies is Buster Keaton's "The General".

Depends on the spring. The garage door spring gaffs were neither hardened nor tempered, just air cooled after forging. OTOH, front torsion springs from a 60s VW (ca. 1/8"x3/4", 30" long) can be bent

Making power hammer dies from big-truck helper springs: Weld m/s to it, the welds fail under light blows, taking a thin crust of the embrittled spring stock with them. Heated to a black heat before welding, reheating after welding and then packing in ceramic blanket for 24 hrs. and you can wail on the welded part with a 2.5 # hammer.

One of my disheartening failures: make a replacement spring for a pedal of an antique reed organ. Two pieces of thin spring stock bent to curves and joined at one end with rivets. I made three units from old hand say blades, using low-tech methods of judging heat and tempering temperature. They all worked great for an hour, then broke. Finally found an organ collector go gave me whaat I needed that's still working.

Say, 3/4" diameter stock? Harder to work with than garage door spring.

How about anchors? Some of them around here appear to have a stock about 4" square. The arms are welded to the stock and the flukes welded to the arms, all forge welding. There's a mid-18th c. picture in Diderot of welding an anchor that appears eneven bigger -- 6" of 7" stock? -- with a power hammer but AIUI the ones that decorate people's dooryards around here would have been welded by four strikers with 16# hammers.

Realized I might need a hub adaptor to put larger spools on my MIG welder. Knew I had had one but couldn't find it anywhere. Ordered one with some bother as the welder is 20 years old. When I got it, I thought to myself, where shall I put it so that next time, I can find it? Thought of a good place, went to put it there and found the missing one.

Duh.