[TheForge] ABANA Election Results

[Ralph Sproul]

        Gosh guys, I wasn't trying to do anything stellar or
monumental............... I just got to thinking how I'd skipped three
conferences as a member of ABANA because "I had too much paying
work"..................  And how ignorant I was to my real needs - I didn't
have a clue.

        Bob Bergman approached me about helping him out in LaCrosse and said
he'd really like it if I came to his shop to visit the week prior and get
things organized for the event.  I gave it some thougth and
went...........NEVER realizing what I was going to learn was going to blow
me away as to what my expectations actually were from taking the time to
travel 2,000 miles and check out a guys shop(and missing a few weeks work -
that scared me giving up almost a months work).

        I had been stumbling on making power hammer dies for some time.  I
was welding dovetails that slipped, making keys that needed hours of
grinding to get a good fit, making fixtures that always came
loose..........then I went to Bob's.  He took about an hour one morning
before his men showed up to work - to show me how to make keys, dies,
dovetails, fixtures and jigs for the milling machine and all of a sudden I
was 10 years ahead of trial and error by myself type learning..........which
is what I've always done.  Thank you Bob Bergman!
         After I saw all the die options at the conference, talked with
other folks who made dies, and watched the German blacksmith Hammerman run
two different dies in a hammer across from each other to achieve some really
nice results - my eyes one could say where then open.
        When I found Sid's bolt on lower dies so bolt on dies could be made
for 1/10th the cost, and Bob's keyed inserts for the Kick Ass, I then
realized the sky was the limit for power hammer tool design and ease.  What
a difference when you dont' have to make a dovetail on $80 worth of tool
steel to achieve a run of elements for a project.  You just take $10 (if
that) worth of flat bar, 4140, or make what you need for a shape and bolt it
to the dies.......... Wow. sure makes your life easier.  The same things
came true with slide in press dies and I have a whole new outlook on making
tools.  In fact I make tools for several guys who don't want to be bothered
with it - and they have me do it for them.  That's starting a whole new way
to keep busy in the winter time, and around here you got three months of
heavy weather to stay out of - and I'm dam glad to make tools instead of
fixing snow plows, front end loaders, and old rusty sand spreaders!!!  I
hope I put enough emphasis on that!!!

        After the trip to Bob's shop and Lacrosse - I then said to myself,
"there is no way in hell I'd have ever come up with all of this on my own,
and I'm never going to miss another one of these educational opportunities".


Ralph

----- Original Message -----
From: "GHS" <ghs at execpc.com>
To: "Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, October 05, 2004 8:26 PM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] ABANA Election Results


> I agree. ABANA should use that in pamphlet form as a recruitment tool.
>
> Mike Graf
>
> Schade wrote:
>
> >
> > On Oct 5, 2004, at 8:09 AM, Ralph Sproul wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > That's one for the Hall of Fame Ralph! Hell of a letter.
> >
> > Bob
> >
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