Show and Tell May 2020

So I had a problem trying to pull my coupling hub off while doing a shaft seal. My typical H puller would not get it off. So yesterday I built a puller to hydraulically pull the hub off. Now this would have only taken an hour & a half if Covid didn’t happen. Trying to get plate was a pain. I stopped by Metals4U but they were only doing call in & then pick up later in the day, which wasn’t an option. So I went to Fulton in Denton & picked up remnant steel from them. I picked up 1/4 & 3/8 plate. I cut it using my Oxy Acetylene torch, I didn’t feel like breaking out the plasma. I used the 3/8 for the back/base, then 1/4 for the sides. The premise is to make the pocket just large enough for the RAM to fit & then able to slide shims into place. I used MIG wire to space the ram around the pocket I was going to weld. I welded it all up

This was the H puller I was using. That’s a 20” crescent for reference.






It took 7.5 tons.

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I made the attached pendant and ring.

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work in progress with all hand tools

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I, um…made some cracks.

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Needed something to hold my laptop when using it at my small home desk with external monitor

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My son and I made this little pot/vase out of a harvested piece of sycamore that I had drying for almost a year on our home lathe over the weekend last week.

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Finally organized the garage. Also hung a painting from an old drink and paint class over my work bench. Yes, that’s a cowboy on a T-Rex herding a bunch of triceratops.


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Made some Jerky, was about 2 lbs of meat when I started. I used my vacuum marinade attachment on my food saver.


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Today I forged a froe from a farriers rasp. They are traditionally used for making cedar shakes, but are also handy for making kindling.

FYI, here’s a video of a froe in use to make shakes (out of chestnut here).

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Longing for the forest, dancing bears, harpies, rumphobs, oh, my

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I made a tree deck for the niece and nephew over at my parents house

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We Joanna Gaines’ed a solid wood thrift store find. Chairs are next (not the ones in the picture)

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I made this for my Mother for Mother’s dat.

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How do you like your food saver? I keep thinking about getting one, but the supplies are proprietary and not cheap and the online reviews aren’t great. I feel like I’d use it a lot.

To be honest, I dont use it enough to say for certain. I did get the one with the hose so you could use the attachments. It has fit my need, for one of the reasons I bought it. To speed up the marinade process when I make jerky. I have also used to help wet mold some of my leather, which it worked ok there too. Currently my kids are damn near consuming our food as fast as we can get it. I intend on starting to stock up more with bulk hopefully soon as the food becomes more available.

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Very nice tooling on the leather. I’m sure your mother was thrilled to receive it.

What did you do for the texture on the feathers? I’m guessing knife work (knife and straightedge), but I’m curious as to the specifics on the technique.

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Thank you, she does like it.

On those feathers I used a leaf liner next to the quill. I then used a swivel knife with a hairblade and cut them out to the end of the feather.

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I can see how using the leaf liner set you up for even spacing on the lines. Clever.

Did you free-hand the knife cuts or use a straightedge? Either way, I’m impressed with how even they are.

That was all freehand. The leaf liner sets up a nice guide.

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