[TheForge] shop notes, was Upsetter & bender

Mon Jul 15 10:01:01 2002

        Mike,  a couple of folks I know have verticle racks and I like that
idea a lot. My new shop addition will have one in it for sure.  You cut all
your stock in half as it is rare I use 20 footers on forged projects(hardly
ever except in railing projects and usually just weld the forged ends on).
        The verticle racks allow you to store your shorts in front of the
size racked up and doesn't leave you hunting thru three of four areas of
storage to use up the shorter lengths we all have accumulating.
        Another good suggestion is to have large diameter pipe cut offs
around as they make great shorts racks to put the 3 foot and under stuff in
as that tends to keep tipping over on the verticle racks.
        I've enjoyed my 28 step commute to the shop for many years.  :-)
        I like my welding tables to have solid feet so as not to scurry
around the floor when I'm working or pulling on something during bending.  I
use one of those el cheapo hydraulic tables that lift 600 lbs to move my
tables into the center of the shop and form them in a row or a "T" or "L"
configuration to suit the job at hand.

Ralph Sproul - Bear Hill Blacksmith
Webster, NH


----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Spencer" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, July 12, 2002 11:32 PM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Upsetter & bender


>
> > Mike, it's all those little pieces add up to a lot of work in
> > moving.
>
> Say, Ralph, I didn't notice that. :-)  Only three more pickup loads of
> that to go, I think.
>
> >  Do you plan to store your steel  horizontally or vertically??
>
> Horizontally.  I left space specifically for a 20' rack on one wall.
> But it isn't made yet because there's no power for the welder yet,
> just 100' or so of 14 ga. from the house.
>
> > From moving and rigging 36 businesses/shops I've come to find the
> > storage and shelving, etc to be the most important thing in moving a
> > shop and actually ending up with any room to work in the space when
> > your done moving everything in to it.
>
> And I've been spoiled rotten.  The shop I'm leaving was formerly a
> large general store and it came with sturdy 12" shelves floor to
> ceiling on every available bit of wall.  So far I'm doing okay for
> organization/storage but the miscelaneous short lengths of bar stock
> and useful scraps and shapes are going to be a problem.  More of it
> than I'd prefer will likely end up on pallets behind the building
> because I hate stumbling over junk when I'm working.  And the things I
> only use once every couple of years -- e.g the sheetmetal jennies --
> and the restorations in progress -- e.g. 24" bandsaw and single banger
> gas engines -- are filling too much of a corner.  The 4x4 welding table
> will be on casters so it can move out of the way as needed.
>
> All worth it, I hope, because I'll have my shop in the field by the
> house, not 17 miles away in the middle of a village.
>
> > I like your idea of the utlimate drive on wagon alignment
> > machine.......maybe that's where Bear Alignment got it's first ideas
> > for the drive on machines from four of those sitting in a shop
> > somewheres.  :-)
>
> Well, Cecil Parnell, the now deceased wizard fixer of all thing metal,
> told me that he dropped out of school after the third grade and went
> to work in the woods on a major logging operation up along the Mersey
> River.  This would have been about 1920 or so and it was all horses
> and wagons or bobsleds.  His job was to stand next a pair of greased
> ramps with a grease bucket.  When a wagon began to haul hard, the
> teamster would drive it between the ramps and it would be lifted off
> its wheels as the ramps slid under the axle beams.  Then Cecil would
> pull all four wheels, slap a handfull of grease on each axle and put
> the wheels back on.  Teamster would start the horses and the wagon
> would slide off the ramps and back to work.  Sounds easy but I'll bet
> it was an exhausting job for a 10- or 12-year old, even one of Cecil's
> excessively robust build.
>
> - Mike
> ---
> Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada
>
> [email protected]
> http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/
>
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