[TheForge] [YAK] (Re: More A&O pics)

[Mike Spencer]

> Mike, I was wondering if you're planning on extending your shop
> around the hammer or have you figured out the dexterity to hold an
> umbrella while forging through the window-converted to door?

Lessee, removing a large piece from the forge trips a mouse trap(A)
that flips a kernel of corn(B) past the hamster(C) which runs in his
squirrelcage(D), winding up string(E) and deploying umbrella(F)
hanging from helium balloon(G).  Magnet(H) on balloon causes it to
follow bar of iron as I carry it to hammer(I)....  :-)

Actually, 10' of wall next to the hammer is specially framed so that I
can take out the studs, wall and windows without re-engineering the
framing.  If I ever get the hammer going well enough to be usable,
I'll build a shed around it and open the wall.  If the thing doesn't
work, works poorly or requires, say, two hours of hacking just to turn
it on, I won't be using it often enough to justify that -- back to
the hamster/balloon model.

> And what's that about your comealong in the Whole Earth Catalogue?
> I'd check it out, but mine's long gone.

In 1966, knowing zip about such things, I bought the first come-along
I couldfind from Some Random Hardware Store to move a junk Jag.  Over
the next few years, it turned out to be better than any other one I
saw -- lighter, stronger, easier to use, more durable. So I sent off a
piece to the tool freaks at the WEC.  Yow!  My name in print!  Fame!
My very first publication!  One column wide, 1" high. :-) I didn't
realize, of course, that the Last WEC was going to become a cultural
icon of an era and a Collectible.  And the come-along itself?  I have
two but, of course, you can't get them no more, they don't make stuff
like they used to, good ol' days etc. etc.

- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                 						   /V\ 
mspencer@tallships.ca            						  /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/						  ^^-^^