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 can still smell that burnt ozone and singed hair from the summer of ’84, the year a young apprentice in my shop decided he was too good for a proper leather apron. He thought he could breeze through a Continue reading Essential Welding Safety Protocols
I remember sitting at my workbench twenty years ago, staring at a cracked vintage manifold and wondering why the solder just wouldn’t take, no matter how much heat I threw at it. I’d spent half a morning sweating over the Continue reading How to Solder Brass Components
I can still smell the burnt coolant and hear the rhythmic, heavy chatter of a machine struggling against a dull bit from my days in the industrial shops. I remember a young apprentice back in ’84 who thought he could Continue reading Basic Lathe Operation and Safety
I remember standing in my first apprenticeship shop back in the late seventies, the air thick with the smell of coal smoke and scorched scale. I watched an old-timer take a piece of scrap and turn it into something beautiful, Continue reading Fundamentals of Steel Forging