Wait- what?!

This morning I received a call at 9:40, it was from Ken Anderson at WSU. I thought he was calling to discuss why I had decided to not attend this fall, like some kind of exit interview or something. I wasn't in the mood to have that conversation while I was at work, so I let it go to voicemail. When my phone showed that the message was waiting, I gave it a listen.

I could not have been more wrong. Ken was calling to offer me full tuition and a stipend as a teaching assistant. I sat, bleary eyed. I had spent the last hour and a half fuming about some random crap at work, and here (finally) was my way out-- but I was in shock. The key issue is that classes start on the 22nd (in 10 days!) and the mandatory orientations are on Monday- as in after this weekend.

Of course this puts the kaibosh on the $300 Job offer, and completely shifts my focus to being a student. What a day!

The $300 Job Offer

Today I begin the next phase in my search for a new job- I enlist you, 'netizen. The successful headhunter will receive $300. More details are at BrainBottle.net/300dollars.html

General Updates...

Just a few quick notes:
* AlchemyForge.net has been revised yet again. I recoded the site by hand and all of the updated pages work. There are still a few pages from the old site that have broken image links, but I intend to revise them significantly.

*AlchemyForge.com still directs here to the blog. I think it will stay that way for a while as this is updated more frequently than the website.

*Forge repair- I may do a quick photo essay about repairing the forge and prepping it for more welding.

*Tomahawk pics will be added showing the steps for doing a very (very!) simple wrapped-head throwing tomahawk. The resulting piece will be shipped off to Joel Runyon of Blog of Impossible Things who got all excited about 'hawk throwing becasue of The Art of Manliness. I hope his inner adult tell his outer child to be careful with the sharp thing. Fingers are crossed that it will go out on Monday the 8th (but it sort of depends on how well the forge responds to the repairs.) Worst case scenario: fewer pictures, and I use an oxy/propane torch to finish the piece.

Finally- Grinder Review

TL;DR: It’s a good value—a great motor on a good frame.

I’ve been working with Wayne Coe’s grinder since 4th of July weekend, and have put in at least an hour a night shaping or refinishing pieces. I’m going to start with what I would improve or change about the design, and leave you with what I appreciate about the Moe Grinder.

*Assembly: As regular readers know, I had some difficulty in setting up the motor—there were seemingly endless tracking issues until I moved the drive wheel face to the end of the drive spindle. This eliminated the ‘grinding into the motor housing’ issue. User error/ignorance? Possibly. I hope the issue has been sufficiently beaten to death, and if not, I recorded my solution for posterity in my version of the instructions.


*Belt wobble: I found it quite difficult to make a belt track square to the contact wheels and to the platen itself. Frequently the belt would wobble back and forth like a tire without enough air. Much of the wobble was eliminated by moving the tool arm forward about ¼” while the tension was off of the belt, then letting the tension wheel do its job. But not all of the wobble. I had an unnamed bladesmith friend (UBF) take a look at it last night and he chalked up much of the remaining wobble to the belt I was using. When I put on a precision engineered 3M Trizact belt the wobble all but disappeared. He said that even on his grinder (which he’s used for the better part of a decade successfully) there is a hint of belt motion. Keeping the belt very tight also eliminated much of the problem I was having with the belts scooting to one side when pressure was applied to the flat of the platen.


*Belt Changing: This is a very minor issue, and it’s really more of a preference. The arm on the tension wheel isn’t very long and it’s on the same side as the tool-arm adjustment t-handle. This makes retensioning belts awkward at best. A handle inside the belt area would let me use my right hand to keep tension off the wheel, while my left hand tightens and moves the tool arm. Again, minor, but awkward.


*Square tracking: Another issue I had been having was that the belt would not align with the wheels and platen. Even when the contact wheels were each the same ¼ turn off of full-tight, the platen was cockeyed. UBF suggested putting a thin washer on the lower platen bolt between the platen and the frame, to move the bottom of the platen out that distance. What a difference 1/16” makes. The belts now track almost perfectly. UBF also said that even the best belts aren’t going to be perfectly squared on a platen, and he has to move his belts toward the edge of the platen when doing plunge cuts. So I have to chalk THAT up to inexperience, rather than a design issue.


*Fasteners: I very much appreciate the “one size fits all” approach attempted here. And I also very much appreciate that unlike other grinders I don’t need to keep a set of wrenches handy to make my adjustments. But the washers that are supplied are a problem. The washer that keeps the tool arm tightened in the guides is badly deformed from my torquing the handle to get sufficient pressure, making adjustments to the tool arm an issue. I will be doubling up on the washers, and may employ a split ring washer to help with tension. Also the washer that is used between the platen/contact wheel arm and the main tool arm is covered in some kind of fiber material. I had an issue last weekend in which I was edge grinding a radius in a guard using the 8” wheel, then I moved to the platen—the platen spun, throwing the piece and grinding my thumb in the process, as well as putting the 2” wheel dangerously close to my face. The fiber backed washer was immediately removed and I noticed that the face was both smooth and had some kind of metallic buildup. A homebrew washer that I had chiseled some teeth into was added. The arm can still swing if I push on the 8” wheel, but it takes considerable force to do it now.


*Tool rest: Actually I don’t have a real opinion on its functionality because I haven’t been able to get it to stay in place such that I felt like it was usable. I like the concept of the sliding round bars, but IMO this kind of part must be square to prevent rolling.



So what do I like?

*Value: This is actually a helluvalota grinder for the money. I looked last night and to purchase the legendary (and rightfully so!) KMG grinder, just the flat platen and variable speed motor will cost as much as Wayne’s setup (as of this printing). The KMG also seems to require additional doo-dads, and would require additional arms and wheels to do hollow grinding. KMG-clones are comparatively priced to the original KMG. I am not considering the KMG clones like the no-weld grinder or grinder in a box in my price figuring, only ready-to-go out-of-the-box grinders. Clearly, I don’t have whatever skill it is that’s required to drill a straight hole, much less get two pieces or metal to line up- without the use of a welder and grinder.


*Versatility: As hinted at above, being able to grind on a flat, and having both 2” and 8” contact wheels available in the original price is a great deal. Wayne also points out that the unit can be set up for horizontal grinding. I’m not sure how mine would need to be arranged to make that happen, but I’ve seen it (I believe a much longer cable between the VFD and motor would make this much easier). In addition, the adjustability of the arms allows for smaller 1” wheels at the 2” position or a larger 10” wheel instead of the 8” wheel. Wayne doesn’t offer either of those as options, but the wheels are available.


*Accessibility: Though there are other units that have contact wheels included in the base price, they do not allow said contact wheel to move into a position for easy access. With the Moe Grinder, the 8” and 2” contact wheels can be positioned as the primary tool.


*Versatility 2: UBF has said that he’s been able to source 2x132” belts for less than 2x72” belts. Having the motor separate from the frame would let UBF use these longer belts (without having to rig up additional arms and tensioners).


So overall, despite –my- issues with being jinxed during setup (I swear I have a gremlin in the shop) I am growing to like the Moe Grinder more each time I use it. I definitely appreciate the flexibility of the machine, especially since I’ve made the small changes mentioned above. I plan to come up with a way to add a rigid tool rest, and will update again when that happens.

So Where's the Review?

I'm working on it. I want to be fair to the machine, and to my (lack of) skill with it. So far the only issue I'm really having is wobbly belts BUT it's just as likely that it's the inexpensive belts that I'm using, as it is that there's an issue with the grinder. I did adjust the torque on the bolts that hold the guide wheel and the contact wheels- that helped a bunch. I have about a dozen 3M Gator belts on the way, too, so I'll get a chance to see how precision belts behave.

However, I have written my version of the assembly instructions, and Wayne liked them so much he included them with a grinder he sent out yesterday.  Take a look:

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1Sc28VPKRdCENfvvmFEhsfciTIpUiJ3j7AfSqPqtwJ0c

[EDIT- the previous embedding didn't work very well. Try the link instead.]

Finally Finished the Grinder Build

I received the grinder frame on Tuesday, along with the assembly instructions. While I managed to disassemble my car's engine and reassemble it with parts I modified myself, I am not the most mechanically inclined person. I had a helluva time putting it together- over 9 hours, not counting the time at work or away from the garage that I spent swearing and pulling my hair. But I -did- get it put together and it -does- work! I spent a little time tonight getting used to the speed controller and acquainting myself with a 2" wide belt. I think the results speak for themselves:

Grinder Build... Almost There.

I'm going to make this quick since it's 2AM. The grinder frame arrived today and I spent 5 hours assembling it (I took a lot of notes and pictures because I may be rewriting the assembly instructions).  There were a couple of snags, but right now the main issue is that the belt insists on tracking about 1/4" of its width into the motor--- regardless of what I try to move it won't stop. Everything appears to be aligned and squared, so I'm at a loss (and it's been a loooong day). I'm using a 600 grit belt at about 10% speed (roughly 170RPM) so it's not like it's ruining the equipment, but it's damned annoying and it's not even lining up with the contact wheels or platen, to boot so I can't really use it as intended. I'm sure I misread an instruction or something, so I emailed Wayne Coe for assistance/clarification. Fingers are crossed that it's a simple fix.  By the way, this thing is gorgeous and I can't wait to do some work with it.

Tatara smelt April 2011

Local bladesmiths Tom Ferry and Dave Lisch advertised that they would be doing another tatara smelt at the NWBA conference this past April. I had missed their first two attempts at making tamahagane, so I was really excited about being in the right place at the right time to watch the process. There were a lot of hands available for the work, but I was able to help with the chicken-wire frame around the chimney flue blocks. I put about a dozen shots together in my flickr stream and this should embed the slideshow... click to see the individual pics, most of them have an explanation of what's happening.

I'm not dragging my feet on this...

I just got my UPS shipping confirmation this morning that my grinder frame has shipped. It should be here on the 27th, then I expect a few evenings after work for the build proper, and then on to testing.


In the mean time I was moderately successful in not screwing up a dagger when I put it on my current 1x42. After that it was back to draw filing, and a combination of block sanding and my "sandpaper plane" that I made several years ago. When my wife saw my using it she said, "that's my favorite tool that you've made." That was pretty cool.

Real Deal

Well that didn't work very well. Even after jumping through some hoops and emailing the photo from flickr to the blog, it didn't work-- the image didn't post.  So here it is from my flickr stream. . . oh wait! That didn't work either, blogger wouldn't accept the URL that Flickr gave me.  This is from the computer... grrrrrr...

"Moe" Boxes Photo

, a photo by Gowaduv on Flickr.

Finally! I couldn't even grab the URL (or short URL) and paste the picture into the post remotely. The photo in the other entry was uploaded from my machine. Sheesh!

Mobile Test

This is as much a blog entry as it is a test. I'm sending this from my phone to see how the interface works, and to see what it's like to add photos from here. What's in the picture? One VFD, one 1.5hp 3-phase motor, and a box of drive/guide wheels. All I need now is the main plate from Mr Coe (fingers crossed that it's sooooon).

That was a short trip. I may not be able to import images to my blog. I'm going to try emailing the photo to the blog

The Grinder Build Begins

Ok it's not so much a grinder "build" as it is "waiting for all the stuff from Wayne Coe to arrive." The first two boxes of Wayne's "Moe Grinder" showed up on my doorstep yesterday and I now possess a gorgeous blue 1.5HP 3phase 115v motor and a natty looking VFD (it almost looks like Darth Vader's chest piece :)  ). Wayne emailed that he was working on revised assembly instructions last weekend, and was also drilling and tapping all the holes in the main grinder plate. He didn't say when it would be shipped, other than he was trying to get it out before he left for Blade.
I hope he likes free advertising because I need to work on my video editing skills, and putting this through its paces will make great YouTube fodder. I'm going to do my best to stall the motor (Wayne says he hasn't seen anyone do it yet) and I'll fumble around with some blade work. A friend who is an ABS JS (passed the performance test for his MS) says he wants to give it a try, so I might video his playing around, too, and so a 10 minute interview/grinder test. That remains to be seen.

The Last Meritocracy?

Maybe not the last, but certainly among the few remaining. I was reading an article on Slate this morning in which the columnist posted several resignation (and general "eff-off" type) letters from news writers to editors. In one, the author lamented that news writing was not the meritocracy many are led to believe it is. His assertion is that there's one person who is generally clueless who makes decisions about hiring/firing and they usully run toward nepotistic lines.

Banksy's documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop tackles this theme, and the documentary is kinda gut wrenching as we watch a nobody who wants to make a documentary about Bansky follow the artist around, immerse himself in the underground art culture, then make buckets of cash while milking the teat of the elites who want to prove their hipness and understanding of great art but buying art that is at best a pastiche of earlier works. Painful and embarrassing. Banksy says near the end 

I used to tell everyone I met "yeah, grab a spray can, tell your story. Make art." I don't do that so much anymore

My friend Jaime is a trained photographer. Like the type who did a four year program to understand how cameras function, and used a 4x6 for his final thesis (he took pictures of industrial equipment sitting in the yard of Pacific Industrial Supply). He has a great eye and is very adept at post processing. He's had several shows of his work, topics ranging from stained glass to vintage motorcycles, pricing framed 24x36" prints for about $200. I believe he's sold about 3 prints in the last 5 years, despite a lot of really positive  In contrast, the friend of a person he trains martial arts with has no training, yet sells laser printed copies of local landscapes and random people for $50-$100 each, and will sell out every "limited edition." Which I put in quotes because they're digital files, so limited edition is possibly disingenuous.

Which brings me to blacksmithing and knifemaking. While there are some artists who work in metal and will sell random assortments of scrap held together with welding wire, for the most part this community produces some very high quality work. I can't think of a single case in which a person is commanding top dollar for half formed cat turds as one forum moderate described some of the work being posted for critique. And by top dollar I mean the kind of money that can buy a small new car. And maybe that's what draws me to this work. I'm firmly in the middle, I believe, in terms of quality workmanship. The only complaint I've ever had about a knife was that a tip broke off when the guy was digging an arrowhead out of a tree. I claimed that was abuse, and when I brought it to my fellow smiths, I only had one person disagree with me. But there it is-- my work wasn't judged by someone who never sees the work, it was judged on its merit as a tool. There are collectors out there, and there will be a variance in what each is willing to pay, so in that regard it is a lot like anything else in the art world. But while a Banksy print is only valuable as a Banksy print, a knife or fireplace set has both an aesthetic component and a functional component.

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.

Stepping it up

I spent five hours last weekend working on a layered billet. By hand. So that was a billet that had already been welded, and I stretched it to double the length, folded it and welded it again. I was pooped. And a little defeated becasue I have a project that I need to have done in like 3 weeks and it, of course, hinges on a patterned* blade.

What to do? I had to buy a compressor for a car project in February (yes, it was a requirement to get it done, I had resisted a compressor for years), so it seemed like the natural next step to make a mini press. I purchased the 20 ton jack on Tuesday night and tomorrow I will be buying the steel tube for the frame. My main concern is my 110v welder, but with gas shielded flux core wire going into chamfered grooves, I think I should be able to get sufficient penetration for the project.

What about the big anvil? What about it... it will still get used, but for operations like welding, butchering, hot stamping, punching, etc a press will make the job go so much faster (or so I assume). I know that drawing out operations like I do for the fireplace sets will still be done on the anvil, and most of the blacksmith operations, as well. It won't go to waste, and with the press freeing up my shop time, the anvil will be used even more often.

*patterned=not monosteel. No it won't be even a simple ladder this time, but you can save your typing if you want to argue that random patterns aren't patterns.

Interweb Downtime

Hey faithful followers. In the next few weeks I will be shutting down alchemyforge.net and .com in preparation for a comeplete site revision. I'm working on the overall layout but I should have new info, pictures, embedded videos, etc. It will have a more bloggy feeling and should have a uniform appearance from page to page (working on that CSS stuff).

Thanks for being patient!