Yet again...

  Due to work and yet another hurricane, not much to report... 

Finally...

  Looks like this storm season is finally over for this area.  Next few storms are fish storms (only the fish get hit by them).  So, dragged out the forge today and made another set of tongs.  This pair of tongs is a set of V tongs.  I'm really getting happy with my progressing skills.  I was able to make the tongs in about 2 hours.  I was also able to put a curve into the two parts of the tongs.  I eyeballed the curves and when I compared them, they were within about an eigth of and inch of each other. Very cool...

Fired up the forge and produced a new pair of tongs pretty quickly.  Also rehardened the punch.  I made the punch out of a RR spike and it doesn't hold well to the heating when in use...

Looks like Ivan should stay far enough away to spare the house.  That's good because several neighbors are already flooded and the neighborhood couldn't take much more.

#3 on the way...

  Haven't been able to do much recently.  One storm after another.  Ivan is now tracking close to the house but it is still far enough out that it can turn.

Quieting down

  Storm is passed and thankfully no real damage other than a bit of water seepage.  The eye did actually pass directly over me.  For about an hour there was no rain, little wind.  Anyway, gave me a chance to do a bit more reading on the clock.  I really want to be able to fully document this project.  It has been a great experience so far and I've learned a lot already.  I hope to continue to learn more.

Auntie Em, Auntie Em!!!

  Hardened and tempered the punch today.  Also finished a heading tool then made my first nails.  After that, decided to do some general practice welding.  I'm really surprised by the progress I've made.  Everything that I wanted to do I was able to do quickly and easily.  Compared to a year ago, I've really come a long way.

  The first real band from the hurricane just passed overhead.  Some gusty winds and rain but nothing too bad.  The eye is now forcast to pass within a few miles of my house but it should be down to a tropical storm by then.  I am expecting to lose power and maybe a little flooding but nothing too severe.  This neighborhood loses power if some looks at the power poles in a funny way.

Fun time

  Well, Frances is still closing on the house but hopefully it will just be a tropical storm by the time it gets close.  Anyway, tonight I took stock of the shape of my shop and I came to a conclusion.  I need more tools before I can go any further on the clock.  So, I started by making a better punch then my exisiting one.  I'm making a punch so I can use it to make new tongs (I have 4 tongs but they all could stand to be remade).  I was amazed by how quickly I made the punch.  Even though the punch is fairly simple forging, it suprised me that even with cutting the metal to length, smoothing it, shaping it, grinding it and starting the annealing, it only took me about 45 minutes.
  Once the tongs are made, it will make it easier to make other tools like punches, chisels, hardies, etc... Anyway, once I started the punch annealing I did some cleanup work on post #4.  I still need to make a steel run and hopefully that will happen sometime next week.

Bad year...

  Yet another hurricane is heading my way.  So far the track is showing the closest approach about 50 miles to the NE.  That is good because it would be the weak side of the storm.  Also, the storm has to cross Florida before getting here but still have to be prepared.