[TheForge] [OT] Cobbler tool for blacksmiths

Wed Mar 23 10:43:36 EDT 2011

That's FAR too easy. Keep in mind who you're talking to, Bruce,
Between you, you and Mike are the high points of my entertainment on
this List. If you guys ever teamed up, God knows what would come out
of it. An invisible anvil, maybe? A pinto powered cold forge fire?
?The possibilities are limitless.

Otoh, if I were Mike, I might send that description of the "repair"
process of their faulty boots to the company, and ask them to please
start manufacturing the proper boots again, or failing that, to
advertise that he'd reshape any other boots for the company for $50.
They might just dig into their storehouse, and send them the remnants
of their stock (no company EVER sells everything they made) just to
shut him up ;-)

On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 11:28 PM, Bruce Freeman <freemab222 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Sounds like work.
>
> Why not get regular boots and forge a steel toe to fit on the outside?
>
> On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 10:28 PM, Mike Spencer <mspencer at tallships.ca> wrote:
>>
>> Marrin Fleet <mtfleet at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Tell me Mike, how does one find out more about the Mark V Hydraulic
>>> toe cap expander?  I haven't been able to buy steel toed boots that
>>> fit my feet (11 1/2 5E).  If it works, maybe you are on to
>>> something.
>>
>> Problem arose when Goodhue dropped the model of boot I've been buying
>> in size 12 for over 20 years.  My boot guy said,  "I know, I know, I
>> sold them for years. But I can't get them.  And the company's
>> changed.  Their products are now for shit and the company's gone down
>> hill.  I won't carry their products any more."
>>
>> But I importuned him to get me a pair of their boots anyhow, size
>> 12, somewhat similar to the discontinued ones and recommended to me
>> by the company rep. Boot Guy ordered them, grudgingly but with good grace.
>>
>> Tried on, they felt fine.  So I drilled out most of the eyelets and
>> replaced them with hooks from old boots (never throw anything away.)
>> Andnnnnnnnnddddd...
>>
>> Worn for more than 20 minutes, they painfully pinched my little
>> toes.  Utterly useless, 200 bucks worth of doggie chew toy.
>>
>> Now I happen to own a porta-power.  You know, a manual hydraulic pump
>> with a piston on the end of a hose, for straightening truck frames,
>> nudging heavy stuff and the like.  And it has an attachment, sort of
>> like a giant steel alligator clip, held closed with a spring.
>> Attached to the porta-power pump in place of the usual piston, it can
>> be forced open with hydraulic pressure.  But by itself, it's too big
>> and awkward.  Open a can of Stubborn, add a shot of Pigheaded and
>> commence:
>>
>>    + Replace the hydraulic connector on the attachment with a very
>>      short nipple and elbow.  Screw the connector onto the elbow. Now
>>      it will fit into a boot with the action of the "alligator jaws"
>>      going sideways if you orient the elbow right.
>>
>>    + Weld up a device: two short pieces of 1/4x1 flat bar welded to a
>>      1" piece sawn off a small, cheap butt hinge.  Heat the free ends
>>      of the 1/4x1 and bend inward -- toward each other -- about 1/2"
>>      of the stock.  You now have a pair of very crude, short tongs or
>>      forceps, right?
>>
>>    + Saw off about 3/4" of (nominal) 3/4" black pipe and saw it in
>>      half the long way, making two hemicylinders.  Weld the
>>      hemicylinders to the 1/4x1 arms of the tongs.  Just where you do
>>      this matters.  Has to be such that, when the device is inserted,
>>      hinge forward, all the way into the toe of the boot, the bosses
>>      created by the pieces of pipe are just forward of the aft edge
>>      of the steel toe cap.  Measure, eyeball, model, do whatever to
>>      get that right.
>>
>>    + Flap-wheel all sharp edges and corners to help avoid tearing the
>>      boot lining.  Everything all nice and roundy?  Good.
>>
>>    + Insert the device all the way forward into the toe of the boot.
>>      and open it on the hinge as far as it will go.  Insert the
>>      porta-power spreader into the boot, tips of the spreader
>>      attachment between the jaws of the device.
>>
>>    + Jack the porta-power pump until the toe cap spreads and strains
>>      the leather as much as you thing it will stand without
>>      rupturing.  Slack off and compare to the other boot with
>>      calipers.
>>
>>    + Repeat two or three times.
>>
>> If you don't succeed in gaining some width, consider reshaping the
>> device to get more travel in the right place.  If jacking the pump
>> produces distortion in the wrong place -- say, the porta-power
>> attachment itself starts poking up aft of the toecap -- reshape the
>> device.  Trial and error.  Took me five tries.
>>
>> There may be some risk of cracking the toe cap.  If there's a
>> significant probability that Large Objects will fall on your foot (or
>> if you, your work, your boots, insurance companies and their lawyers
>> are all intimately related) this may be a bad idea.
>>
>> Or maybe you can get your modified boots X-rayed to check for cracks.
>>
>> I dunno if this qualifies as OnTopic or not but it was all done in a
>> blacksmith shop so it's at least arguable.
>>
>>
>> - Mike
>>
>> --
>> Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~.
>>                                                           /V\
>> mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
>> http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^
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>
>
>
> --
> Bruce
> NJ
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-- 
Saint Phlip

So, you think your data is safe?
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/01/23/schneier.google.hacking/index.html?hpt=T2

Heat it up
Hit it hard
Repent as necessary.

Priorities:

It's the smith who makes the tools, not the tools which make the smith.

.I never wanted to see anybody die, but there are a few obituary
notices I have read with pleasure. -Clarence Darrow