A working anvil?!

The hell you say! I know, more adventures in anvil face prep. I went back to work on the anvil last night. I started by marking the face with a generic permanent marker that lays a heavy, dark mark-- even when retracing over previous lines. Using a 12" bastard file along the length of the face I was able to file away the high spots (picture to follow). To speed it up a little I used my angle grinder on the high spots, back to the file, back to the grinder, to the file and finally I used a 3x21" belt sander with a 40 grit belt. I wanted to use the angle grinder more, but it's both too precise (it will dig a pit) and not precise enough (that pit will be too deep and too wide) so I did most of the work with the long file. For my purposes, there's a brand new flat spot, and I'll get to use it tonight.

A reminder...

This was posted at Don Fogg's bladesmith forums by Alan Longmire, attributed to Ira Glass:

What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me . . . is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.

http://youtu.be/BI23U7U2aUY

Site Updated

I found a new web building program that does most of what I want it to. It's a little clumsy, but free. I updated the main page today, and I'll be working on the galleries. I need to come up with a new format/layout.

One and done...

I believe I mentioned previously that I would be building a mini-hydraulic press. And I did. And it broke on the third test run. Despite my best efforts at clean, deep welds, apparently a 110V wire feed welder is just not up to the task, even with multiple passes of flux core wire. Also apparently most of these that are being built are being put together with stick welders, but I'm not going to make that kind of investment. It's under the work bench for now. It was pretty cool when it was running, but it was just as disappointing to hear the telltale "ping!" and have one of the uprights separate from the base.