[TheForge] The True Path has been shoveled .. but it filling in again.

[Dave Brown]

Bob, my turn now.  Right?

Well, I shoveled out the true path to the door of the shop and stepped 
inside only to find ....

Well, let me digress a little.  My 30yr old son works the late shift and 
likes to stay up 'til dawn and sleep all day.  I got up this morning to 
find him shoveling out my front walk and the driveway.  He's a nice boy ... 
all 6'4" and 240#' of him.  But not nice enough to have shoveled the True 
Path for me.  We downed some breakfast and as he was falling asleep on my 
couch he says ..."You're gonna die when you see the shop."  After dropping 
that bomb on me he started snoring and left me wondering.

... and stepped inside only to find that it looked like someone had thrown 
a hand grenade into the hooch.  He has staked claim to about 1/3+ of the 
shop floor to turn into a woodworking shop to complement my ironwork.  He's 
putting up shelves and needs new workbench.  Well, he's got one bench built 
and taken down some of the makeshift shelves I had up on the walls and 
started putting up better shelving.  But everything that was in the way he 
has moved into MY side of the shop.  There's stuff piled on top of any- and 
every thing that you can pile stuff onto.

There went my day.  I had planned on finishing up a job for some light 
fixtures for a local church.  Fat chance.  I've been trying to get the shop 
organized all morning (I clean and organize at a slow, calculated, 
methodical way ... drives my son nutz when he's in the shop with me ... ha-ha).

But, the church job reminds me of something to remind some others 
about.  Traditional SMAW techniques and considerations.  SMAW?  Stick Metal 
Arc Welding (although I think the S is really supposed to stand for 
Shielded).  I had welded a right angle attachment, and could only put the 
bead on the inside of the angle.  This was 2"x1/4" stock.  I used a nice 
high setting and got a good healthy bead laid down before I called it a 
day.  Then last night I noticed that my nice right angle wasn't a right 
angle.  When a heavily laid bead cools, it shrinks.  And it shrunk and 
pulled the bracket plumb out of plumb.  So, now I've got to grind it out 
and reweld.  But not today, I guess.  I've got to clean shop.

YUCK!

Your turn Bob.

Dave Brown
Blacksmith/Tinsmith
Green Bay, WI
ABANA, UMBA, GoM, MODA, ARG