Labor day- One more Iron in the fire.

Tried my hand at forging a knife this afternoon, since I needed another project to work on.

I made a knife in Grade 9 Industrial Arts class and loved it. Knife turned out okay, but remember, I was a 9th grader. Fast forward 20 or so years. Now I TEACH "Industrial Arts", and while they won't let me have the students make knives, that doesn't mean I can't!

Been thinking about doing one for a year or so. Then I discovered that the school has a little electric kiln oven stored over in the wood shop. AND, I've got several old Nicholson files that are pretty much useless as a file anymore... Hmm.

So today I decide to attempt some blacksmithing. Something I've never really done but have always wanted to try. What's not fun about red hot metal and big hammers!?

Lugged the kiln over to my room, plugged it in and fired it up. Let it bake for a bit while I smash some metal.

The file:



Welded a chunk of rod to the end so I don't have to mess with tongs.



My setup. I don't have a forge, period. Turns out a rosebud works pretty darn good, although it sure got warm in the welding booth...




So I read a bunch on the interwebs (including a bit here on advrider) and watched several u-tube vids. I should be good to go, right?!

Get 'er good and hot,



and start pounding. Really have no idea what I'm doing, so I'll just pretend.



Not your typical knife blade. It'll make more sense when I start to clean it up. I hope.



Pounding the bevels was dang hard. Got it sorta close and called it good enough. The rest will be done the, uh, old fashioned way? Er not. You know, with a grinder and a file. Not the reaallyy old fashioned way, like blacksmiths used to do. 

Here she is fresh out of forging. I stuck it in the oven and let it cool slowly for about 1/2 hour. I know thats not long enough to anneal it, but I'm experimenting here...



Cleaned it up a bit with an angle grinder and spent some time filling it. It's definitely soft enough to file, so I guess thats good enough?!



And a bit more with the sander.





Probably going to leave the crosshatch on the upper part of the blade. It still has a ways to go, need to clean up the plunge cut on the bevel near the hilt and I want to put a short edge on the outside of the "beak". More to follow, eventually...

One possible solution to Education's Issues.

 I stumbled on Shop Teacher Bob's blog a couple of years ago, right when I got back into teaching.  Tons of cool stuff there and many awesome educational insights and links.  He posted this last week and I thought it was a GREAT idea- had to repost it here to share with y'all!


From Shop Teacher Bob:
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I was prowling through my blog list yesterday and came across some info on the Milwaukee MakerFest at Handverker. First of all it amazes me all the stuff that Frankie Flood and his students are into on that site -  motorcycles, bicycles, VW's, and hot rods just like I am - and then there is all the high tech machining, printing and extruding creating artistic and functional items of all stripes.  I know very little about this new high tech stuff but what I do know is that this is the future of manufacturing.

With Maker Faires and Maker Spaces popping up the world over, (there's one in Rome in October), and the cost of college skyrocketing, maybe it's time for a new look at the traditional college model. At the community college where I'm currently employed, as near as I can tell, other than some digital photography and printing, we don't make anything. That's right. We make nothing. Since there are other campus locations throughout the state, I'm sure somewhere they're making something but maybe not. In the lab where I spend a few hours every week in my role as lab logistics technician, there are trainers for a variety of disciplines - hydraulics, pneumatics, electricity, electronics, etc. - but it looks like the main focus here is to turn out technicians for the local power company rather than making anything. I suppose that certainly is in keeping with the mission of a community college but from my high school teaching experience, I know people want to make things and they learn more if they are allowed to do just that.

Let us suppose for a moment that Shop Teacher Bob opens his own college. We'll call it the Shop Teacher Bob Maker School and dedicate it solely to the making of cool @#$*- might even want to make that as the motto, in fact. Anyway, have a two year course of study culminating in a maker degree. Keep the curriculum loosey-goosey and like Hillsdale College, don't accept any federal funds so the focus can remain on what really matters, giving the students a custom tailored education that allows them to make things. All types of things. Beautiful things, practical things, wooden things, plastic things, metal things, Steampunky things. Incorporate some old school skills like blacksmithing/metalsmithing, maybe some woodworking with hand tools - a nice blend of folk arts and CNC.

Think about it. A nice Maker Space/Tech Shop with a big garden. Maybe follow the Putney School model or the college in Berea. Work for your supper/tuition rather than a big ass student loan that will be hanging around your neck like a dead albatross you spent 40 grand for. Focus on the things you want to work on along side other creative individuals doing the same. Isn't that what Bell Labs used to do? Lots of potential for cross pollination of ideas. A hands-on approach but so much more. Granted there wouldn't be a football team but I suppose we could set up a couple of heavy bags and have the students design and build a few bicycles so we all get a little exercise instead of just the gridiron squad.

If one of you decides to start just such a school, let me know if you need a lab tech. I know just the guy.

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Wouldn't that be awesome?!  Able to focus on each student individually instead or ramming a square peg in a round hole.  Really worried about this year as my class sizes have gone way up.  I'm just not going to make it to all of the students that need help.  Still not sure how I'm going to handle that.  On the bright side, I think the year isn't going to be as rough as I originally feared.  Been able to get a fair bit done in preparation for students that are showing up on Wednesday.

This is EXACTLY the kind of school I'm looking for to get my Masters in.  Hmmm... A Masters in "Making".  I'll keep dreaming.  And searching- if anyone knows of anything like this that exists and would be possible for me to keep my teaching job while I got it, I would be VERY interested!

Printer prep. Got 300 kids that want to play with it this year!

Dug my MM 2.0 out of the closet and got it set up and running in anticipation of 300 new students that want to try it out this year...

'Course, had to do a test run...









Printer ran great, although my design needs some tweaking to prevent warpage.

Thought I needed to give the printer a workout, so I found a broken bit of plastic I needed repaired.

I've got Pelican cases on my KTM, and one of the latches lost some teeth. The release would still catch and sort of hold it on, but I didn't want my lunch flying out on the way to school.

Gettin the dang thing apart proved to be a chore... Had to drill a hole to get to the back side of the pin so I could punch it out.



Pin on its way out:



Viola! Latch removed. You can sort of see where the broken teeth are- the bottom piece where it sticks down is supposed to have a hook on it.



Sketchup to the rescue.



Took me about 5 attempts before I got one that fit nicely and pulled the door shut tight enough.

Gettin a print ready:



One of the early attempts:





Heres the one I'm currently "testing". It was printed with only 10% infill, so I don't think it will hold up long. We'll see. Already found a few minor changes I want to make, but here it is as printed:



Cut and ready to fit:



Assembled:



Installed.



So here is the before:



and the after:



Had some issues with the printer this time. Think I've had problems with my control board from day one (pretty sure its one of the first RUMBA boards- every now and then I get a random issue where after every move, it pauses for about a second.  Think I found a workaround today though). If I have any money left over in the school budget I might just spring for a new one to rule that out.

Also going to start experimenting with settings (jerk, in particular) to see if I can get better quality and higher speeds.

One other thing (okay, 2) that I want to learn more about is Bridging and "moving part" prints.  Both I can attempt with this model-  could do 2 bridges and have only 2 pieces printed instead of 3, and print them in place.  The harder one would be to print bridged, with pins in the holes so I didn't have to use metal.  Probably too weak for real life application, but it would be pretty neat to print the part, pull it off and have a moving part with out any other assembly!

Dead Dodges.

So about a week before I had to go back to work, I figured it was time to do something about the old trucks in my neighbors field.

Oddly enough, I teach with his daughter, and am friends with him on Facebook. I'd talked to him on FB a few times about this that and the other, but never in real life even though he only lives 1/2 a mile from me.

Sent him a message asking about the old trucks rotting in his field, and he was very amenable to seeing them go bye-bye.

Went over and checked them out- boy were they rough.







The black one supposedly was running before it got "parked". He took it in payment for some sheep he sold, who knows how long it sat before then. The other is anyones guess. There's no oil on the dipstick, and the cab has been really smushed at some point, but it has a decent bed on the back.

So I hemmed and hawed for a while. His price wasn't sooooper cheap, but it was a pretty good deal. I figured worst case scenario- I can get my money back out of them to someone that wants a rat rod. Better scenario- I get the motor running, and if it turns out to be pretty decent I'll put the motor in the '48 Dodge that I inherited- that my Great Grandpa bought brand new and used on the farm. Best case scenario- I get the truck fired up and drive it home, and with a bit of elbow grease turn it into a daily driver.

Yeah, right.

Went back over the next day and sealed the deal. Took some tools and junk with me and tinkered for a bit.



Hooked a battery up, fiddled with some wires, lubed some linkages, turned the key and stomped the starter button. WOW, it cranks! It even popped a bit on starter fluid.

Had my fill of hornets (carb cleaner is an EXCELLENT wasp killer- drops them pretty much on contact) so I packed it in and went home. 

Went back over there another day and began trying to move things around. The rusty one was turned into a fence post and had 4 flat tires. Took a while to get the tires aired up and all the string and barb wire detached- oh, and kill 4 million more hornets.



We did finally get it loose, started to pull it backwards and noticed this:



Guess that tire ain't going to hold any air!!! Kept pulling, and it BOUNceD over the bump each rotation until it finally popped. Got it moved though. 

With "Rusty" out of the way, I could take the rest of the old fence down to get to "Blacky". Backed up, hooked on, and yanked away.

Huh. Guess that wheel ain't spinnin. Probably 'cause it's flat. Only one tire on this truck would hold air.



Resting spot.



Started changing tires and learned something new! Can you tell?



See the "L" on the nuts? Yeah. The drivers side lug nuts are left hand thread.

Even got a little help with this part.



Some helped more than others... Don't know what he's doin in there.



But in the end, they both helped out a fair bit spinning bolts in for me.



Hey! A truck with 4 tires that hold air!


Time to get Blacky home. Hooked up my super lightweight tow bar and headed out.



Remember that dragging back wheel? Well, it wasn't because the tire was flat...





But we did make it the half mile or so home. It helped a lot too once I straightened the steering wheel out on the truck.








 

Great.  What am I sposed to do with this?!