THE FORGE

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You can be more sure of getting a good GE motor on your grinder by purchasing a domestic make. Domestic or import, a full 1 hp/10" wheel grinder will do several times the work of a 6" fractional-hp model. And while we're on workbench essentials, you'll also want a 2 1/2 - pound blacksmith's hammer with a long (13" or 14") handle, a square, flat face and a wedge-shaped cross-peen on the back. Plus a set of ball-peen hammers in three to five different sizes, with a flat hammer face in front and a ball in back (rather than the nail-removing claw of a carpenter's hammer). Incidentally, the ball of the hammer or similar shapes on tinsmiths' iron stakes set into special holders or in the hardy hole of an anvil are used to thin metals and make the bottoms of pitchers and bowls from pewter, silver, copper and other soft metals.

EYE PROTECTION

In this age of pervasive (and, many would say, intrusive) government regulation and growing numbers of product-liability lawsuits, every device that could remotely cause harm comes loaded with safety manuals and hazard stickers. Warnings are even stamped or molded into the tool steel itself. The alarms are so numerous that they are ignored or removed by many All-American do-it-yourselfers as a misguided assertion of independence:

Those of us who live off-grid can gleefully strip the garish overhead-power-line hazard stickers from metal ladders and paint over the underground-cable-hazard labels on power shovels

But one place the warnings deserve your full attention and mine is in metalworking. Yo see stampings or stickers on every consumer-grade chisel, punch or hammer reading to the effect:

"Beware of metal chipping off; USE EYE PROTECTION. "

Any metal-on-metal contact can produce chips, slivers or sparks. Please protect those eyes, folks.

A speck of wood sawdust in an eye is a nuisance that can usually be rinsed out.

But a sliver of hot metal will not wash out and can blind you or an onlooker.

Strong. plastic-lens eyeglasses are better than no protection at all. But full-face shields or shop glasses are recommended, whether you wear specs or not. Onlookers should have full-face shields as well, especially small kids who like to get their noses as close to the work as they can.

SHEET METAL

With a mastery of sheet metal fabrication, you can make an endless number of things for the farmstead buckets and troughs to hold stock water and feed; gutters and drain-pipes; long bilge type,"tin pumps", conduits to run water where you need it; boxes; varmint-proof liners for storage containers, and more. Sophisticated sheet metal joints can be formed at home using simple tools, but are beyond the scope of this article Most homestead sheet-metal work is restricted to flashing chimneys, nailing aluminum flashing over mouse holes, forming simple boxes and liners, and repairing auto and truck tin.

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