This year instead of going to my company x-mass party alone I posted a pathetic add on Craig's list! several gawker already! Also I will not be forging and firing half my presents on x-mass eve, I am already shopping, so organized this year! I got a bunch of stuff from "Archie McPhee", they are so fast and even included several things I didn't order like wrapping paper and other small things, I assume as a thank you gift. I have been working on several projects but my old hard drive crashed so I need to re-install software for my camera so I can upload pictures, but SOON, I have been really slacking lately. Also I think I have tendinitis in my thumb, because now (and for the last couple months) whenever I move use it for anything I get a shooting pain, I still have pain meds from having 3 wisdom teeth removed recently though so I am all good.
I FINALLY finished the $100 knife that is worth more like $200. And I made this BBQ fork out of a 5/8" piece of the #80s of silicon bronze I got from a guy at work. Apparently he started to build a rather large wooden boat and then torched it when he was going through a divorce.. anyways he raked up all this scrap bars and screws out of the ashes and ended up selling it to me for $40. I had an OK fathers day weekend, other than the fact I crashed this kegger and got ejected because of my loony friend/designated driver... but then again I did get to go to a party and socialize for awhile, all how you look at it I guess.
According to my bathroom scale I have lost 10 pounds, (down to #145, wasn't really trying to loose any) now my right eye wants to swell shut for some reason, and my stomach still refuses to digest anything the way it is supposed to. It is like my body just went on strike this week.
May. 4th, 2007 @ 07:10 am
I have been sick with stomach flue since monday morning. SInce that time I have only held down two bagels and a slice of toast. Today my only source of food stuffs has been half of a 24oz. sugar free rockstar, yeah chicken soup is sooo 1984. I am getting a little bit loopy I think, just thought everyone would be interested to know. Also I am bored out of my skull.
May. 2nd, 2007 @ 04:53 pm
Had a busy day today, got a gas range from work and so I carted that into the house and tore out a few cabinets and mounted the hood fan to go with it, and pulled off a piece of the asbestos siding for the exhaust duct, tomarrow I hook everything up and try to come up with a 12" cabinet to fill the space. The hood is a nice custom fabricated one that will match nicely with the wrought iron theme in the kitchen.
Apr. 5th, 2007 @ 11:48 pm
Took a video of my son this weekend, he is walking around now, I swear he runs when I am not looking, because all of the sudden he will be on the other side of the house. ANyways:
Also this guy was an unsuspecting chainsaw chain yesterday morning before I beat the crap out of it yesterday. It had to have been at least a three foot bar that this thing fit and it would barely fit into my new forge when it was just wired together. Anyways it has a flaw that I think might go too deep to grind out, neer the base, but I am prety happy with it so far. I haven't finished grinding it and it hasn't been hardened yet, but I couldn't wait to see the pattern so I gave it a quick etch, it is just folded once and not twisted this time, and prety thick still, I started with the center about 3/8" all along, now it kind of has a distal taper starting at about 3/8". Since it is kind of leaf shaped, I was thinking a green leaf shaped sheath would be the bee's whiskers.. if only I could think of someone to make one when it is done, (if the welds hold through heat treatment (the last one blew up kind of).
I went to my daughters spring clarinet recital today and sat behind one of the most attractive women out of my high school graduating class (10+ years ago if I had graduated). I didn't even have the stones to say so much as say "Hi" let alone "Hey, I remember you! Your name is Angie, right?". Not that we were ever friends, she was popular in school and I was basically a freak. Oh well I will probably never have the chance again.. I also passed an actual friend from way back that I haven't seen in years, so I am completely failing my new years resolution to be more social.
So I went and screwed around (alone) in the shop like I do most nights, cursing and buggering up all kinds of things. Tonight it was a #4 hammer out of 2" 1045 round stock I have been pounding away on for awhile and adjusting a hot cutter I made from a jackhammer bit to fit the boat load of hammer handles I bought on ebay for $26.
In other news I came home to find one of the burners on my stove blazing on high, I can only guess that the one person that ever comes to visit me must have come in and lit a cigarette on my stove and left it on. What I wouldn't give to have a normal healthy social life with friends that aren't certifiable.
My boss today said to another employee "make way for hurricane Leaf", he also referred to me as "the metal guy", so that is kind of cool. PLus I scored on like 20 pounds of copper pipe and some stainless steel free standing bar sinks and whatever other stainless that I want. I think there were at least 3 full size dumpsters of misc crap they hauled away today, the kind they use a special flat bed truck to haul. So that was how my day went at the hive of destruction. They also hired two new guys and a couple of temps. so now the crew is up to 10 with at least one more on the way,
Jan. 4th, 2007 @ 05:11 pm
Well like many people I celebrated the first day of the new year sick as a dog and hung over.. But back at work today I started out the year on a new jobsite. A commercial one, a golf course me and half a dozen other people have to tear apart and put back together in 4 months. So it is about 360 degrees from the last job and really a new beginning for the new year. Also my newyears resolution is to be more social so I went back to the bar I acquired my hang over from and beat the crap out of my friend at pool. His plan was to earn some extra spending money beating me at pool and now he owes me $16, we play for $2 a game and I bought him some onion rings. Also I forged a very good likeness of a snake eating its tail out of silicon bronze, it was supposed to be a belt buckle but it looks more like a cloak clasp now so I am going to weld a tab to the back of it. I wish I could show it off!! But I lost the cord for my camera, a new cord was going to be $35 so I bought a cheapo card reader for like $8, should arrive soon and then I will be posting more again. I really feel like a new person this year, I hope it holds.
Edit: as an aside my job today was to tear apart the big commercial kitchen and I resolved to never eat in a restaurant again, the floor was slippery with grease, there was a mound of ancient rolls and silverware under one cabinet and the whole place smelled foul... but I have already broken that rule. Not only that but this was the place we have our company party every year so I have eaten food from that kitchen several times.. BLECH!! Not only that but I was still slightly hung over, still a good day though.
Edit Edit: The power was also out most of the morning, you would think they would have there crap together by now.. Then it was like perfectly calm when I got home.. very strange.
Jan. 2nd, 2007 @ 10:58 pm
The beauty and glory of the latest addition to my caffeine shrine is somewhat muted by the fact that I can only admire it via candle light, nor can I "take 'er for a spin" since the power has been out all day. Other than that it is kind of nice doing everything by candle light, and getting to basically do whatever I want at work just to keep busy without having to suck sawdust (or get wet!). If it wasn't for the fact that I am dying to fire up the new espresso machine I would be a happy camper. If your wondering I am running my PC (and coffee grinder) off of an old UPS hooked up to my car.
Nov. 15th, 2006 @ 06:30 pm
Today after work I waited expectantly around my house right after work hoping the man in brown (UPS) would swing by at the end of his tail end of his rout with my stainless steel caffeine producing work of art, but no dice. So I went to my "tarp shop" and worked on my Milwaukee jobsite radio replacing the dead 15v power supply with one out of and old stereo that produced 18v and/or 10v too much buzzing and/or warm components so I didn't use it and gave up. As you probably guessed I know just enough about electronics to be a danger to them and myself. Sooo Theeen the really fun thing I did that inspired me to actualy post something after so long, I went into the "real" shop and forged out a new hot slitter out of 1" H-13!! Holly crap, very weird steel to work with, slitting and punching it is a bitch, but forging was no problem, hopefully just leaving it in my forge is enough to stress relieve the stuff. I kept staring at it after I had lost the heat for forging (above cherry red) and then having to remind myself "air hardening! air hardening!" as it was cooling to black. Anyways this is my first try at air harding steel (that I know for shure) and so far I am VERY exited about the results.. yes more tools to make more tools to make more sophisticated tools to one day make art or something someone might want to buy, never mind I was making art before, and ocasionally selling it, but whatever I guess. Oh yeah and I did some junk at work, more semi-interesting, disorganized mediocre houses, I am done installing press board boxes they try to pass off as cabinets, and went on to installing poorly designed "designer" door hardware that undoubtedly cost more than my paycheck.
OH! and the boy cut two more teefers!! I have a picture of him in his newly restored antique highchair but no time at teh moment to upload pictures... soon.
Nov. 14th, 2006 @ 11:36 pm
I decided not to quit my job today.. and got to meet former mayor of Seattle Paul Schell, but ended up shoveling shit anyways thanks to my dog. Fate/god has a strange sense of humor to be sure.
Oct. 23rd, 2006 @ 05:14 pm
Been busy at work and at play lately. Finaly got a power hammer, now I just have to put it together. It almost ended up in the midle of the intersection while we were hauling it home, but it was really easy to unload.
Today I welded up another chainsaw billet in the new forge, it handled it nicely but cut a rather large hole in the kiln shelf I had on the bottom, so it allready needs a rebuild now. I finished the bronze gate hardware project I had last week, until the patina goop and bronze screws arive, pictures soon maybe. I crashed the ABANA conference without paying the $400 cover and took like 50 pictures in the public gallery and bought a couple pairs of new tongs, I was only there for a few hours and it was winding down, some interesting demos, nothing earth shaking that I saw. Also my new buffer arived, yeah for brand spankin new tools!
Jul. 10th, 2006 @ 11:06 pm
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iron__monger's journal
