DIY Construction - Building your own stuff

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i do a good job this time getting pine needles stuck in my flask.
notice how there's no way to open it? me too.

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i try to use these embalming-esque tongs to get them out and even though they fit, it didn't work.
they can't grab anything and it just stays in there. at this point i google anyone else with this result and nothing comes up.

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so i get a coat hanger and bend it into a hook, could this work? has no forum tried this very thing for google to give me results???!! dun dunnn.
it worked right away.

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i know this flask isn't -usually- what you use for essential oil which is why the pine needles got stuck, but since i found a way to get them out it worked perfectly.
commonly people prefer steel or copper stills that open for essential oils and this is a glass steam distillation flask with no opening except where the joints connect.
the whole set used a heating element, boiling and steam flasks, condenser tube, and water/oil separator with a fume hood. i just wanted to show that i could get the needles out since no where else was talking about it.
took me 3 - 5 mins to pull them all out.
 
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I've been looking everywhere for something like this, and almost went to make my own with ideas I had about AC units - but then I found exactly what I needed here.
The Cold Finger and Giant Cold Finger (as I call them)

It looks like only one or two companies even make them.
I'm probably still going to try my experiment either way though, I put too much thought into it now, lol.
 
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Right you lot, including you @WelperHelper99 and your welding friends do you have any questions for a Traditional hand tool Blacksmith? Do you guys need to know how to finess some hot work with a hammer, polish metal with nothing but Wax, Oil some heat and leather and stone powder? how to penny weld, how to forge braize, making your own flux? make a tool etc?
 
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Phalanges Mycologist said:
Right you lot, including you @WelperHelper99 and your welding friends do you have any questions for a Traditional hand tool Blacksmith? Do you guys need to know how to finess some hot work with a hammer, polish metal with nothing but Wax, Oil some heat and leather and stone powder? how to penny weld, how to forge braize, making your own flux? make a tool etc?
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Making hand tools is always fun. I have the knowledge from school, color hardening, etc, but the most I've had to do is repair my slag hammer with a weld when the head popped o
 
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WelperHelper99 said:
Making hand tools is always fun. I have the knowledge from school, color hardening, etc, but the most I've had to do is repair my slag hammer with a weld when the head popped o
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My current list of commission tool work is - 3 sets of Augers, twist, spoon and batwing from 2" to 1/4" and matching dowel plates for each, and 3 Iron frame braces, 3 pairs of Carpenters slicks, a Brass and Blackwood pump drill and bits for metal and stone, and 3 mastermeir find block anvils. plus my other work on architectural and restoration jobs,

I also make my own historical reproductions for fun from books an codex's before the early modern era at the moment I am working on Book Wheel made by a Italian Captain called Ramelli he made it to prove his gear calculations where perfect in all ways, but i am going to far as to use what was HIS measurements to do it his system was mostly Venitian and a inch equivalent was about 27.8mm rather than the Anglo-American 25.4mm and there is a lot more to it than that like differing foot equivalents even in the same general system and at times it takes a little figuring out.

I spend as much time in the Libary as I do at the Forge most of the time because of the work I do, a lot of smiths do the same and we all do sketches and are far better artists than we give ourselfs credit for, You get a real idea about another man from reading his words and examining his work with your own eyes and some of these old smiths can produce metalurigcal wonders of art and science so inter twined they are as one with nothing but a hammer, heart, mind and time. The pure love and skill they put into there work is something I can only ever hope to be a pale imitation of and I care passionately about my art and skill.
 
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Nothing quite like setting up my makeshift woodworking shop on my kitchen counter and promptly covering every square inch of my apartment in plywood shavings and dust. Comes as a close second to setting up my makeshift electronics lab on my kitchen counter and promptly covering every square inch of my apartment in clipped wires and stripped insulation.
 
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spastic_bag said:
Nothing quite like setting up my makeshift woodworking shop on my kitchen counter and promptly covering every square inch of my apartment in plywood shavings and dust. Comes as a close second to setting up my makeshift electronics lab on my kitchen counter and promptly covering every square inch of my apartment in clipped wires and stripped insulation.
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Have you considered making yourself a Roman Workbench?


I've got two one in my own shop and one I take to sites with me, they are portable practical and VERY useful I lean mine up against the wall when in not in use but I've heard of people using it as a living room table when not in use or a bench seat etc.
 
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spastic_bag said:
Ooh, this looks like a fun project to build... if I had a Roman Workbench to build it on. 🤷‍♂️

Oh well, some day.
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You don't need a bench to build a bench (btw this is the bench we get the term workbench from) and it's really easy to make a modern version from Ply sheet's you could get a lot of the cuts done at the woodyard - I made my first one on the floor from a slab of Oak and used my body weight to pin it down until I had the legs on after that it progressed faster than you'd think.

On taditional benches like this you don't use modern screw vices it's all pegs, hooks, hold fasts, wedges, your own meat clamps etc but you can easily add one. Rex Kruger did some modern takes on it on a shoe string budget you might want to look at.
 
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spastic_bag said:
Nothing quite like setting up my makeshift woodworking shop on my kitchen counter and promptly covering every square inch of my apartment in plywood shavings and dust. Comes as a close second to setting up my makeshift electronics lab on my kitchen counter and promptly covering every square inch of my apartment in clipped wires and stripped insulation.
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i love turning my entire house into a work shop, including the kitchen and bathroom.

sawdust on everything, the smell of melted crayons, using pots and pans as silicon trays.
raw materials end up all over the floor like pine needles and bark. if it's not crafts it's cooking.
if it's not cooking it's farming.

the shape of my house is an enigma.
 
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I've built a lot of things in my life, the most complicated were probably semi automatic firearms, this is picture that looks identical to one I built about 3 years ago. This week I installed a new AC unit in my window only I didn't make it look ugly as shit as most of them do. I cut out a nice piece of 3/4" plywood around the unit and used foam weatherstripping to seal it up. A nice coat of paint made the thing look like a professional installed it. Later this week I plan on installing a new 5 camera NVR system. The tech has gotten extremely good and extremely affordable, at tracking people/cars and setting up barriers that will send alerts to your phone, if you take security seriously it doesn't make sense to not have a system capable of such things. IIRC @Null has a facial recognition system in his NVR setup.

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