My Platen Table

I was looking to make or buy a good solid work table for the studio when I learned about acorn tables.  I saw a 5’ x 5” table in a well outfitted blacksmith shop and thought it looked ideal.  As I did the research I soon found they were not easy to come by used and they could be really expensive when purchased new.  I thought I might have to settle for a smaller one.  At that time I was going to quite a few blacksmith meetings and I made it my regular practice to enquire about any such tables that may be for sale.  A couple of years passed before I found a fellow who said he knew someone who had one he wanted to sell.  I gave him my contact information and about a week later I got a call from the man who owned the table.

I asked how big ti was and he said 5’ x 10’.  I had never heard of one that big so I was concerned we might not be talking about the same thing.  The conversation went back and fourth and I finally felt sure he was describing the table I was looking for but much larger.  I was pretty sure I couldn’t come up with what he would want for it but I asked what he was asking.  He said, ‘I’d have to get such and such dollars.  The figure was about 70% less than I was imaging so my mind started grinding - maybe he  doesn’t actually have an acorn table, or... and there was an awkward silence as I tried to frame my next verifying question.  But before I could say anything he said, “OK, and I’ll deliver it to you for that.” I didn’t see a way I could go wrong so I took the deal.

The table was composed of a heavy base, and two 5‘ x 5’ platens, each weighing a ton or more.  I didn’t have any equipment for such heavy lifting and moving so we made arrangements to deliver it to an engineering company where I did business.  Several weeks later a friend loaded it and a fork lift onto a trailer and brought it to my studio.  Getting it from outside the garage door into position in the assembly room was a complicated affair which took a whole day, the chain hoist, six auto wheel dollys, a dozen railroad ties, more chain and a borrowed skid loader.  It’s a story in itself.

The surface has square holes in straight rows, not staggered.   Each hole is  2” x 2”,  with 13 holes in each direction on each 5’ x 5’ platen spaced on 4.5” centers.  The platens are about 5” thick on the edges and 3” thick in the area with holes.  The working height is about 30”.  It had seen a lot of use but didn’t take much work to get the surface polished.  Platens are made from grey cast iron so welding doesn’t stick to it.  

After getting it installed, I made some posts and hold downs and eventually an overhead frame with an electric hoist on a trolly.  It has been really handy for building things like bifold fireplace glass doors and frames of various kinds, heavy furniture legs and some signs.  When I need level, plumb and square, it is hard to beat.  I don’t know the manufacturer of my table.  There wasn’t an obvious label.  I think Acorn brand tables all have 1 3/4" square holes spaced on 3 1/2" centers, so it’s some other brand.  I won’t have any trouble getting my money back when I sell it.  I have two standing offers already.

http://www.acorniron.com/products/platen.html

http://www.weldsale.com/platens.html

http://www.persimmonforge.com/

A Hornet Nest Sculpture

Three years ago I was cleaning up an area of the studio where a lot of small pieces of sheet metal had accumulated.  I tried to think of a project which would make them go away and also be educational for me.  I decided to try making a hornet nest sculpture.

After some image searching on Google and other reading I constructed a wire frame for a full sized nest.  The rest was straight forward but a but boring.  Each skin piece was cut with a throatless shear, swaged to radius, fitted and MIG welded in place.  When fully covered I used the oxygen/acetylene torch to fuse some of the seams to make the surface smoother.  It was finished with a rust patina.

The scrap mess was cleared out but the nest moved around the shop from place to place until last week when one of my assistants, Scott, got out an extension ladder and hung the “nest” in a tree south of the building.  I think it looks pretty cool.

http://www.persimmonforge.com/

Using the Mason’s Frame Jig

On the weekend I made a trip to a new construction job site to measure for an installed fireplace screen in a space which will be a screened porch.  Even though we have had some very nice weather that work day was cold and the wind was blowing a gale.  It was very hard to make notes because the wind whipped the paper pages.  I got the measurements and got back in the pickup as quickly as possible.

The job was made a bit easier because I brought the mason’s frame jig I use to measure the inside dimensions of firebox openings.  The frame is made of four corner elements of 1” x 14 gauge square tube and the vertical and horizontal bars are 3/4” x 14 gauge tube.  To record the measurements the corners are extended and four machine screws are tightened to secure the positions.  Finally I use a presto pen to mark each bar where it enters the ends of the corner tubes so if a screw loosens the frame can be properly reset.  The jig along with written notes and several digital images make it hard to go wrong.  

Back in the studio I build the fit frame from angle and soon I will return to the job site to insert it and check for any needed modifications before proceeding with the screen construction.

When everything is satisfactory I will repaint the jig to erase the presto pen marks and it is ready for the next job.

http://www.persimmonforge.com/

Favorite Pliers

I have a favorite set of pliers made by the J.H. Williams company. They are slip joint design and 10” long. For several years I have carried them in the rule pocket on my carhartt bib overalls. I don’t know if I borrowed this habit from the ranchers and their fence pliers but it’s possible. I found the pliers at an antique store/flea market in eastern Kansas where I picked up several other old tools.

I recently misplaced the pliers for a few days and was surprised at how much I missed them. Finally I discovered where I had laid them and happily returned them to my pocket but not before spending an extra moment to notice the Williams name. I decided to look up the Company and I also found a reference showing a similar pair of pliers, listed as PL-6 6 Inch Combination Pliers, at this link.

http://home.comcast.net/~alloy-artifacts/williams-supercompany-p6.html#special

http://www.persimmonforge.com/

Hydraulic Forging Press Trays

After several months of use the front and back scale shields on the hydraulic forging press, which I use as work shelves, began to sag. The front one was especially bent down and things were sliding off regularly so it became a big enough nuisance to deal with.

I removed the bolts, bent the angles back to 90º and welded a perimeter of angle to form an edge around the shelves and make them more rigid and form trays. This has worked nicely and well worth the time involved. The front tray is 6.5” x 15” and the back tray is 14.5” x 15”.

http://www.persimmonforge.com/

Die Tang Socket Redesign

I was working with a texturing die in the spare tire power hammer and noticed a small piece of metal fly off onto the floor. This is always a signal to stop immediately and do the forensic analysis to determine the origin and the consequence of the occurrence.

The piece was about an inch square and 14 gauge with some surface burnishing. Still it wasn’t immediately clear to me where it came from but after some searching I found it was the inner wall of one of the die tang sockets which broke out. Interestingly, it didn’t adversely effect the die performance.

After some further study I have concluded that the inner wall isn’t really needed on either end and and removing them will make it easier to insert and remove the dies.

In the diagram the result of removing the blue inner wall is illustrated in red.

http://www.persimmonforge.com/

The Return Address

The studio is a complicated place. Over the years of operation the number of tools, models, types of hardware, product parts, instruction files and other things has grown and remaining storage and work space seems to have shrunk so without a good organization plan any one thing could be really hard to find.

Back in December 2010 I wrote “A Name and a Home” as my strategy for inventory organization. I have continued to extend that method and find it very useful. As time goes along it takes less and less time to maintain the system so it’s time-saving aspect is more apparent. http://persimmonforge.blogspot.com/2010/12/name-and-home.html

The plan has three essential elements. First, each item must have a name label. Each storage place requires a name and each item needs a return address label.

Here is an example of how it works. If I need a particular texturing die for a project and can’t remember where it has been stored I go to the laptop and access my Google Docs inventory spreadsheet which gives me the location. So, I go there and get it. In the case I have in mind the tool resides on the north porch or a work and layout table (NPLT). When I finish using the tool it should be put back where is came from which I should easily remember. But, if I was interrupted or forgot to put it back and come across it a few days later I can look on the bottom and the return address, NPLT, is written in presto pen white so I know where it goes.

A few times a year I may do some fairly extensive reorganization to accommodate the work schedule. Then it is important to take the time to record the location changes. I usually jot the notes in a small spiral notebook I carry in a pocket and make the computer changes later when I work at home. Since the file resides in the cloud http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing those changes will be available the next time I use the studio laptop to access it.

Inventory management can be accomplished in a number of ways but this describes what has worked for me. For those who can memorize the sequence of a shuffled deck of cards in two minutes this labeling may not be necessary.

http://www.persimmonforge.com/