Category: Thrifty-save money

Quill and Blade Gazette Picture Edition

No riveting news in this edition, just pictures of things I’ve encountered in my daily travels. First is a van I saw parked behind a car wash. Does this have something to do with pressure washing poochy in bay 1?

Foaming Flea Wand?

Next is a railroad car with scrap metal in it. this is what your old car looks like after it’s scrapped.

“needs a little work”

Here’s a boiler I’m painting on a steam locomotive. The first coat is black, the second coat is silver. It’s not required that I do it that way, it just makes it easier to not miss spots. This will be covered by insulation, then a sheet metal jacket, which will be high gloss black.

When men were men and rivets were from battleships.

Speaking of railroad equipment, here’s a section of a passenger coach which was getting some light colored moss growing on it. Other methods of removal barely worked. I was talking to a friend about it, and she suggested I try white vinegar. It worked really well, didn’t damage the paint at all. this is the same gal that sent me the CoEnzyme Q10 that I mentioned in the last edition. She needs to write a book about natural remedies, or have a web site. I’ll let you know if she does.

Only grows on one side.
Nice!

Next is a little butterfly that landed on my hand while I was putting lettering on a truck. It stayed there about ten minutes.

Like the salt?

Below is the full moon showing through a Walnut tree.

Here’s the final plane work on a panel made from wood reclaimed out of a barn made in the 1700s.

The old ways still work.

Another little butterfly; this one got caught in my van while I was driving down a highway. He was a little stunned at first, but seemed to recover.

Lift, drag, STALL!

Lastly, a portable table saw I got for Christmas. I’ve included it because every time I use it, I’m still impressed by its performance. It’s not big, and must have some aluminum parts; because it’s lightweight. But man does it CUT!

Dutch oven cooking

This is from April, but I’ve had a spring rush of orders of signs and painting work, so it’s late. Anyway, here’s a sunset, and my first try at Dutch oven cooking.

Here’s our fire, made from very hard and seasoned locust wood. that should have been warning enough.

We made a recipe I got online; just a cake mix with fruit pie filling. While it was baking, my 12 year old son made popcorn over the fire.

We took the pastry making operation inside to open it. Oh man, very, very burnt around the edges. But we were able to pull some cake and fruit filling from inside the outer carbon part; and, it was good! No burnt taste. We got more than 5 good sized servings. #Dutch oven

Where there’s smoke, there’s Carbon Kitchens.


Making a Brass Punch

When you need to hit a steel part, to move it a little, a steel hammer can leave marks on it. It’s best to use a punch made of brass or hard wood, between the hammer and the part.

I needed to adjust the position of a small part, so I made a brass punch. I started with rounds brass bar stock I had, and cut it to length with a hack saw. Then I tapered the end with a bench sander. Next, I sanded it with 150, 320, and 400 grit sandpaper. It still wasn’t polished, and I didn’t want to set up the polishing wheel on my bench grinder, so I found some more sandpaper. These were 800, 1500, and 2000 grit papers. The brass has a better luster than the picture shows.

I Start With a Pencil Sketch

I can make ideas in my mind, but it’s usually easier to refine and revise them on paper. After that, I make a scale drawing on the computer, to see the size of individual parts. Here’s the process in regards to a large steam bender I want to make.

I start with light pencil lines, when I’m sure where I want a line, I make it darker. The scale computer drawing not only shows the size of pieces, it also helps me decide the height above the ground. The whole box needs to be angled, so that steam rises to the end opposite the steam inlet. But I had to be sure that a twelve foot long board wouldn’t hit the ground when removed.

I need this box not only for bending wood, but also for heating it, to kill parasites that might be living in it. I will sell not only finished wood items, but wood blanks for DIY guys to make their own.

Hat Progress

Funny how things change. Over the last 5 or 10 years, I’ve been involved in the internet a lot. But my understanding of people and world events is changing. My wi-fi was out today. I got it working again tonight, but after checking emails and notifications, I wasn’t wanting to spend time reading as I usually do.

So I worked on my hat project instead. I really have no idea of the right way to go about this, so I’m making it up as I go along. In the first picture, the brim is flipped over, showing the black underside I’ve cut the black cloth to a smaller diameter, which will be the size of the brim. I’ve cut the brown cloth and the white cloth into tabs; then I made the white tabs a little shorter than the brown ones. That way, the brown ones will cover the white ones better, for appearance sake. I’ve also started gluing and folding over the white ones. I’m using the least amount of glue I can, in hopes that it doesn’t dry so hard that the sewing needle will have difficulty passing through.

In the lower left corner of the picture above you’ll see the triangle pieces I cut out to make the tabs. I found that making the first cut with an X-acto knife, and the second one with the shears was the fastest way to do it. I wanted the first cut made with a knife so that I had more control over how close it went to the pencil line.

In the next picture, I’ve glued the brown tabs over. Then I flipped it over, removed the pins, and put the poster board pattern back on to see what it would look like.

Rainy Sunday

As usual, I had a lot of things I wanted to do on Saturday. Ididn’t get them all done, but I’m sure glad I worked late outdoors; as it’s raining today. So I’m doing inside tasks, some mundane, others fun. Here are a few:

We were out of whole wheat bread, and I wanted a peanut butter sandwich. There were whole wheat pancakes left over from breakfast, so I tried using two of those. You know what? I like it better than bread. It’s more substantial than the regular size bread, but softer than the heavy breads.

I’ve been thinking about making a knife, here are two designs I came up with. I cut them out of cardboard to see if the angles will relate to my hand and arm the way I want. The white one is a modification of the tan one, and seems to work well. More on this as I go to actually work with steel.

I was also contemplating the layout of a sign that I will use in videos I make. The sign was going to say ‘Everything Manifest’, but I’ll change that to part of Malachi 4:6, about turning the heart of the fathers to the children. I like to use a blank sheet of copy paper, and a mechanical pencil. The paper is an absolute blank, no lines or anything, open to new ideas. It’s not attached to my drawing/note book, so I’m not hindered by the idea that I’ll have junky ideas stuck in my book. I used to think little of mechanical pencils, because they couldn’t be sharpened like other pencils. But the lead is so narrow, that it doesn’t matter, the convenience is more important.