Good weekend.

Between yesterday and today I got in more blacksmithing time then I have in years.  It felt good but I'm sore now and I'm sure I'll pay for it with a cramp in the middle of the night.

So what did I work on?  Unfortunately, redoing two of the corner posts.  I will chalk these mistakes up to getting back to blacksmithing.  One post I messed up because I punched it incorrectly.  It caused the mortise on the post to be off by a few millimeters.  I probably could have covered it up and most people would not have noticed.  However, I really want to make sure the frame is as square as possible so I got rid of that post.  The other post was a really, really stupid mistake that does not need to be documented.

So today I set about re-cutting two of the posts.  Things went relatively quickly.  However, about the time it started getting dark, my hammer arm began to have a few cramps.  Rather than mess up the posts with a bad hammer shot, I decided it was best to quit.

Feels really good to be doing this again.

Back to work.

This evening marked a return to working on the clock.   Although I was able to do some work on the clock, my primary objective for the evening was proving that I could work after sundown.

I don't have a real "shop" to work in.  My shop is a garage that I have to put my equipment in the driveway before I can work.  Because of the time change in the USA, It means that sundown comes very early.

Tonight I finally utilized some work lights that I bought many years back.  The Halogen lights work perfectly and I was able to work for several hours after sundown.  This evening I did the some hole punching and drifiting on the corner posts.  One of the posts was not quite centered but I was happy with the other three.  I may redo the 4th post tomorrow.  Here is a look at the 4 corner posts punched and drifted.  The punched hole is the bottom part of the corner posts.

Please notice the small "cat toy" om this picture.  A red mouse is at the top of the photo.  This is the result of moving some items from the house and one of the cat toys falling on the yard.

No work this weekend

Partly to remind myself to keep working on the clock, I'm putting entries when I cannot work on it just to keep myself honest.  Going out of town to visit family so no work until at least Tuesday.  However, with the holidays coming up, I am hoping to get a lot done then.

A video of the clock...

This is a video someone put up of the clock I am working to reproduce.  It gives an idea of the amount of work that will be necessary but it also gives nice details on some of the parts.

Ugh...

So while doing some housework over the past few days, I threw out my back.  I am going to try to do at least a little on the clock during the week.

Helpful photo...

While reading some old posts on the previous time I did the corners, I came across this photo.  Thought it might be a helpful reference to what I am doing.

Corner posts cut

I was able to finish cutting the fourth post today.  Really not too much special to say about this other than I noticed my speed is picking back up.  As I get back into the blacksmithing, my confidence is getting back to where it was.  Hopefully this is a sign of things to come.

The next step is to create a decorative pattern at the top and bottom.  This is just to make things look prettier.  Also, I will be adding a finial to the top of each post.

Just one quick picture.  These are the four posts.  The "B" is just to remind me which is bottom part of the post.