Bucket Rack Followup

In February 2015 I described how I used 5-gallon bucket for storage of small items.  Recently, I’ve decided to modify the way I do that.

But wait!  First, I’ll digress and explain why I have been remiss in making blog posts.

The past two years were mostly consumed making upgrades and repairs and replacements to our home and yard while attending to all the things which deteriorate over thirty-five years of living.

The culmination came this fall when I had a concrete driveway poured to the shop associated with other walk and driveway repair at the house.

Besides being a great convenience, I see the shop driveway as a necessary addition as I approach the time when I’ll have to part with the equipment I built and otherwise accumulated to do metalworking.  When that day comes a forklift will be essential and a driveway will be essential for using the forklift.

It has been my great good fortune to have a wonderful couple come and help make a major transition in my shop.  I’ve finished doing commission work and just want to make items for our gallery and reduce the inventory of partially worked things which still crowd my workspace.

I can see clearly now what I will use and what I will not use.  My friends worked for days making the metamorphosis happen.  They moved, cleaned, organized and removed things. Some things they took home and I hope they find those things are really useful to them.  We made several trips to the steel recycling facility and one to the landfill.  Even so, I still have a long way to go.

So, what about the bucket rack?  Overall my plan worked pretty well.  I could always find the things I stored there and the plastic bags did keep water out.  However, the plastic bags eventually degrade and lose some effectiveness so it looks like replacement about every two years will be necessary.

The bigger nuisance came from Carolina wrens finding they could move the plastic enough to create a cavity the perfect size for nest building.  I like the birds so after they have a nest going I feel obliged to leave them undisturbed which means I can’t get into that bucket.  They actually have several other sheltered places on the porch to nest so I just need to make the buckets less inviting.

This is my plan.  Most buckets are only partially filled.  I plan to see that they are completely filled so when the plastic bag is tied the exposed surface is bulging, convex, and offers no cavity possibility.  I will accomplish that by crumpling newspaper into small clear plastic waste basket bags forming appropriate sized plugs.  I’ll try to remember to post some images when I actually get that done.  I may also make some more nest sites by cutting a three-inch hole in plastic milk cartons.

Using Task Labels

I’m working so many projects simultaneously it is easy to lose track of why I cut a particular piece of stock or what I was going to forge it into.  It is especially a problem when some time elapses between when the work is laid out and when it is actually worked.  Even shorter interruptions can make me lose track of my plan.

I have now pretty well developed the discipline to label work pieces with a presto pen correction marker.  I write labels on the porter bars welded to work pieces I’m going to forge.  I designed a flat bar clip that fits on the edge of tin paint pails and 5 gallon buckets in which I group parts to be forged.  The angled bend in the clip give it a wedge-like capability so it fits the thin wall of the pails and the thicker wall of the plastic or steel buckets.  And I write instructions on the plastic boxes containing elements.

The correction pen markings are easy to erase with lacquer thinner and that what I use in the case of the plastic boxes.  The clip type labels and porter bars can be thrown into the tumbler and erased.

The labeling helps me communicate tasks to Ken when he come to get the coal fire started and looks over the planned work.  We have developed some work vocabulary so if he sees “standard taper” written on a piece he knows exactly what to do without me having to explain anything.

Sentinel Images

Back in the 80”s my older son was very interested in computers.  He talked me into buying two Apple II’s, one for him and one for me.  The local school system was making a bulk purchase so it was an opportunity to go in with them and get a discount price.  Of course, it was actually only good if you could use a computer or wanted to learn how.  I was a bit skeptical that personal computers offered anything for me but I was led along by his enthusiasm.

Keith was the one who could clearly see the future of a PC world while I couldn’t even figure out why anyone would need a database or a spreadsheet.  He tried to get me to understand bulletin boards but it was just beyond me.  He went on to get degrees in physics and computer science and I slowly got better and better with a word processor.

More than 30 years have passed and integrated circuits, operating systems with graphical interfaces, and portable laptop designs all worked out.  Even I have learned to use more than the word processing capability.

I remember a discussion in which Keith was trying to convince me to set up a system in which I could identify files by an icon instead of a text label.  I really couldn’t quite grasp that concept then but can see it clearly now and I do use it.  I use it in another context.

When I make a forming die and get it perfected, I forge an example of the finished piece and weld it to the die in a spot where it is easily visible. I call it the sentinel image.   I also write some information on the die with a presto pen correction marker but it is usually the iconic sentinel marker which is most helpful to me in locating the die I need.  In addition, I have taken to spray painting the sentinel image with a bright yellow paint so the form is accented and unmistakable.

It was only in the past few months that I made the mental connection between how I used the method in my studio and what Keith was trying to get me to understand three decades ago.

Instructions, Models, Step Sets and Storyboards

In my last post I put an image of a storyboard which I typically make for repetitive projects to illustrate all the steps.  I keep the instructions in the box containing the tools, jigs, blanks and whatever is needed to make the particular item.  I have been very busy doing a lot of that kind of work lately - making things which have sold out in the gallery.  Fortunately, the weather has been very mild and pleasant for early August.

Back on 7/10/2011 I wrote about one of the garden items I make for dispensing nesting fiber for birds.  It is a simple vortex with a hanger and a loop which can be hooked with a spike tipped pole and hung as high us as that reach allows.  It can be filled with string, yarn or gathered vine and grass segments.   Obviously the nest builders get most of their material from other sources but when they do tug out a piece of yarn it is entertaining.

The sales success of some of these small garden items has been remarkably more than I anticipated.  As the sales numbers rose I was faced with finding the most effeceint way to make more of them for the gallery so I can  move on to more creative work.

Last week, I was told that the gallery sold out of the fiber dispensers, so I needed to make more.  I got out the box and went to work.  The story board make the job easy.  This a well worked out project, fully jigged.  I cut ten of the required lengths of rod using a hack die in the hydraulic forging press.  This method pinches off the pieces with a nice taper already started.  With coal fire heat a round taper was drawn on both ends.  Scroll pliers and a crook jig was used to form the standard hanger hook.  Just below that I coiled a single loop which was bent to form a lifting “hole”.  On the other end a 90º bend was made a couple of inches from the tip and with several heats I rolled up a coil about 3” in diameter.  That was the end of the coal fire work.  

The coil was opened into the vortex by hammering with a ball peen hammer over a ring jig held in a vise.  This was done cold.  The torch was used to heat the point where the coil transitioned to the hanger shaft.  A 90º bend was made at that point and the shaft was twisted at the same time to make sure the hook lined up over the mouth of the vortex.  The completed dispenser is put in the tumbler for cleaning away all the fire scale before applying the lacquer finish.  I learned the hard way not to put ten of these into the tumbler at once because the intertwine to form something like a Gordian knot.

Organizing these simple projects in this way makes them move quickly and not seem boring.  I should mention, too, that most project boxes contain a finished model and perhaps a step set too.  Invariably, when I make a quantity of pieces there will be at least one which goes awry.  That piece can become the “shop model” if it’s not too far off but not nice enough to be sold.

When I pack up a project and plan to store it away until the next production time I record on my inventory spreadsheet (a file on GoogleDocs) where the box is stored.

For some projects I keep some nearly finished components unassembled so if a client requests some variation of a standard item I can accommodate them fairly easily.  That exact thing happened yesterday when a client came to the studio with a sunflower she had purchased and wanted a hanger added and also a leaf - both were right at hand.

http://www.persimmonforge.com/

Added Value in Drops

I used to think of drops as waste, a nuisance. But after I found a way to sort and store them for my advantage my opinion of their value changed.

Now I think of them as precut parts.   I have a few bench top boxes which store flat and square bar, round bar, pipe and tube, and angle and channel drops from very short up to about 12” in length.  It is interesting to me how stable that inventory seems to remain.  Drops are added and removed at approximated a balanced rate.

Mostly these pieces are used to make jigs and other shop aids where exact dimension isn’t always critical.  More often than not I can got to a box and quickly sort through and find a suitable piece ready to use, already cut and tumbled clean of burs, scale and rust.

http://www.persimmonforge.com/