I remember one particular Tuesday back in ’84, standing over an anvil in a shop that smelled of coal smoke and old grease, watching a young apprentice try to force a bend in a piece of high-carbon steel that wasn’t Continue reading Basic Principles of Manual Metal Forging
I remember standing in a massive fabrication shop back in the late eighties, watching a green kid try to force a high-speed bit through a thick slab of seasoned steel. He was leaning his entire body weight into the handle, Continue reading Using a Drill Press for Metalwork
I remember sitting in my first shop back in the seventies, the air thick with the smell of cutting oil and the rhythmic, high-pitched scream of a buffing wheel. I was trying to get a mirror finish on a piece Continue reading Methods for Polishing Metal
I remember sitting in a cramped, poorly ventilated corner of a fabrication shop back in ’84, watching a kid try to force a joint together by cranking the heat way too high. He thought he could make up for a Continue reading Basic Metal Soldering Methods
I remember standing in a massive industrial shop back in ’84, watching a young kid try to force a weld on a piece of heavy plate by just cranking up the amperage and hoping for the best. He thought he Continue reading Basics of Steel Fabrication in the Workshop
I remember sitting in my old shop back in ’88, the air thick with the smell of ozone and burnt flux, staring at a cracked heavy-duty bracket that a “specialist” had tried to fix with a sloppy, cold bead. He’d Continue reading Techniques for Repairing Broken Metal Components
I can still smell the burnt ozone and the hot, metallic tang of a shop floor at noon on a humid Tuesday. I remember standing over a custom chassis back in ’84, my ears ringing from the high-pitched whine of Continue reading Effective Ways to Grind Metal Surfaces
I remember standing in a massive fabrication shop back in ’84, watching a young kid try to force a hardened piece of steel into a bend without properly annealing metal first. He was sweating, cursing, and hitting that workpiece like Continue reading The Process of Annealing Metal
I remember back in ’84, a young apprentice in my shop tried to weld a thin-walled copper fitting because he thought it was the “strongest” way to do things. He ended up blowing a hole right through the damn thing, Continue reading Differences Between Brazing and Welding
I remember standing in a fabrication shop back in ’84, staring at a workbench that looked more like a scrap heap than a professional station. I spent forty minutes hunting for a specific set of calipers while a client waited, Continue reading Ways to Organize Your Metalworking Workshop