I have a new job.

I walked into work on the morning of Wednesday, July 8th and discovered I no longer had a job. My supervisor Mike, who was obviously upset, informed me due to the negative effects of the pandemic on the economy the company had to eliminate several positions throughout the branches and mine was one on the list. There was no warning. One day I’m an essential worker and the next I’m unemployed. I let my team leader know where I was on the job I had been working on, cleaned up any of my tools that were out and went home to tell my wife that I had lost my job. The next couple of days are sort of foggy. Much to my surprise, I discovered myself moving through the stages of grief. It then occurred to me that this was the first time since I was in High School (26 years ago) that I was without gainful employment. I’d move from lethargic disinterest to unreasonable rage and then fall deep into a pit of despair feeling hopeless. I eventually got myself to where I was able to sort things out and begin to set about fixing this undesirable situation. I sat down at my computer and set up my account for Wisconsin Unemployment Insurance. I located “my proudly assembled 26 page resume including scans of all my certificates” in one of my desktop folders, added my last job to it and promptly headed over to Craigslist to check out all the excellent job opportunities they had listed. Oh brother…. It turns out finding a job...during a unique global pandemic….with 22 million other Americans also out of work can be tricky. I had no idea what I was doing and no idea how to improve my odds. I would see a listing on Craigslist or milwaukeejobs.com, go to the website, fill out a contact form or an application, upload “my proudly assembled 26 page resume including scans of all my certificates" and eagerly await the phone call from a shop manager weeping with joy and finally finding an applicant with such a shining work history. Strangely, I never received that call. A couple of days into this I was in my garage shop trying to fix something when my neighbor Michael got home from work and stopped over to say hello and remark on the gigantic toolbox I now had in my garage. At a socially responsible distance we chatted and I told him what I was experiencing even though I was diligently scouring the help wanted ads with my “my proudly assembled 26 page resume including scans of all my certificates”. Very kindly and tactfully he suggested I might try out a couple different websites. One was called “My Perfect Resume” and the other was called “Indeed”. He explained that in the current job market, resumes shouldn’t be more than two pages at the most. He also impressed the importance of something called a cover letter. He is a very good person and I will be alway grateful for his advice. The next day I logged onto My Perfect Resume, set up an account, paid the nominal fee and got to work. This site is fantastic. It walks you through all the steps, offers wording suggestions and formats the document in a few different ways to suit your “image”. It also helps you build a cover letter to accompany your resume. I really can’t express how helpful this site is. Once I was armed with an improved brochure for my services I headed over to Indeed and started looking for jobs.This process took the longest. I also found a website called "Government Jobs" which got me several promising interview. I am blessed with friends who made suggestions and provided tips on jobs that were available. I did begin to get replies to my submissions. My resume was getting some circulation. I began to get interviews. I began to get calls from employment agencies. An agent named John from Argus Technical Services was specifically helpful. He got me a couple real promising interviews and was really helpful and supportive. In the end it was a tip from my friend Sarah that landed me a job and she had my gratitude. As of the writing of this over 350,000 people have been lost to this pandemic and my story pales in comparison to that. I was unemployed for almost six months. I had to make some tough financial decisions which will take me quite a while to recover from but many, many others had it much, much worse. I was privileged enough to have a dad who helped out significantly with everything. I also had friends/family who check in with us regularly to give support and love. 2020 was a pretty horrible year for us and I’m glad we’re through it and able to start repairing the damage. I hope we all can begin to mend our lives, our country and our world as soon as possible.

Copper Coffee Scoop

This may come as a bit of a surprise but, I really like coffee. I was surfing through youtube a couple of weeks ago and I saw a video of a blacksmith making a copper coffee scoop. I watched it and immediately fell in love with the look of it. I also decided I wanted to try to make one. I searched for any other videos of these scoops being made, watched their techniques, picked up some important info on the properties of copper and how to work with it. I then set about figuring out where to get the copper material. I ended up going to the almighty Amazon to get my copper disks and rivets. Next was figuring out tooling. Aside from some very beginner looking steel spoons, this is the first bit of forge work that requires shaping a cup. Ideally I would use a swage block but I haven't been able to afford one. I did some looking and I found one I want to get in the future when more surplus funds are available but for now I will have to rely on my own creative DIY work-around. I found a couple of old ball hitches and a used pintle hook ring I have in my scrap surplus to use as a cupping jig and decided to give them a try. While I was working on the cup and kinda chasing my tail, a good buddy of mine stopped by. He scored me a couple brake drums off a semi trailer I had asked him for in order to make a couple things (teaser!!) for the shop and for a friend. We were chatting about what I was making and he wondered about the use of a wood mallet. I hadn’t seen anyone use a mallet in the videos so it didn't occur to me. I dug mine out and decided it probably wouldn’t work for this project. After he left I got to looking at the mallet and discovered that it fit into the inner diameter of my ring jig. I gave the copper a good annealing, placed it on the ring jig, centered the mallet and hammered it through. It worked really well. A wonderfully shaped cup. I cleaned up the rim of the cup, polished off the forge scale, hammered out a quick handle and then riveted it together. I’m pretty happy with the results as a prototype. I’m ultimately going to change the shape and process of making the cup because the rim of the prototype is a bit too flimsy and I want to experiment with different handles that are a little more flat rather than twisted square. But as a “proof-of-concept” I’m pretty happy with it. I will be making more with a goal to make them available for sale. I look forward to seeing these evolve.

Shop Saw Update

Several months ago I stumbled on a Craigslist ad for a small metal cutting band saw. I had been kinda looking for one but they were always well out of my price range. This one caught my eye because it was listed for $50. I brief look at the pictures revealed that not only was it the kind of saw I was looking for, but it was also a Grizzly brand which is a brand I quite respect. I called to see if someone scooped it up and found it was still there so away I went. 

I showed up to a small fabrication shop and they walked me back to where it was. I was a little rougher in person than the pictures showed and it was missing a blade, some guards and a manual. Still, they plugged it in and it turned on so we I loaded it up. 

I did some searching on Google and came up with a PDF of the manual and discovered Grizzly still sold blades for it. Woohoo! 

I ordered the blades and set them aside with the manual for when I would have a chance to tinker with it. 

That was last year...

Well, tonight I dragged it out and started fiddling with it. I figured out how to install the blade, rigged up a larger table face so I could use it as an upright saw, hunted around for some srock i wanted to cut for split crosses amd started cutting. I experimented with different blade speeds. I discovered a loose lock bolt for the blade tension wheel after the blade came zinging off during a cut. 

All in all, it worked really good.  I'm super happy with that $50 chance. I look forward to being more productive in the future.

Wonderstate Coffee Review - The Ghost of coffee past

Greetings my fabulous Fox River Roustabouts, welcome to another Blue-collar Coffee Review. This review is somewhat special. The coffee I’m trying is no longer available because the company has changed its name and branding. In December of 2019 (11 months ago as of this post) I was given two bags of coffee beans from my boss at the time Mike as a christmas gift. The beans he gave me were from a Wisconsin roaster called Kickapoo Coffee Roaster. As I was doing research for the review video I discovered that they had decided to change their name in order to be more socially conscious with regards to cultural appropriation. They are now doing business as Wonderstate Coffee.

I could sit here and describe all the very interesting things they do as a progressive coffee company (like being 100% solar at their facilities!) but I really suggest you go to their website and spend some time learning about these wonderful Wisconsinites. Their website is easy to navigate and makes for some really good reading. Especially as you drink some of their coffee(wink, wink). Oh, What’s that? You’ve always liked coffee and are thinking about upgrading your brew set up but are not sure what you need? No problem, Wonderstate has your back with their own, hand picked “Brew Kits”. I’ll be honest, when I get a little side cash saved, I am very likely going to pick up one of these kits myself. As I said, the beans I’m trying were a gift; this is not a sponsored review and my opinions are wholly my own. I do hope you enjoy the video. Give it a “like” and subscribe to see what happens next in the shop. Halloween is just around the corner….

Die-grinder bit holder and organizer

Today in the shop I decided to organize all the bits I use with my die-grinder and drills and such. I was tired of them rolling around in a drawer and having to dig through them to find what I need. This was a very quick build with a minimum amount of effort put into it and it still came out pretty good. Some minor sanding and a coat of Boiled Linseed Oil and done.

Check out the whole video here.

Spyhouse Coffee Roasters - Orion Signature Blend

Greetings my fellow Fox River Roustabouts, welcome back to the shop. It’s time for another video from our coffee review series. Today I am featuring some coffee gifted to me by a long-time friend and band-mate Aaron. I was chatting with him after seeing a picture of his home coffee station and when I mentioned I was doing coffee reviews he said he had some coffee he thought I would like and offered to grind up a pot worth. The coffee he gave me is from a bag of “Orion Signature Blend” coffee he bought in Minnesota at Spyhouse Coffee Roasters. While making the video I desperately wanted to use the Metallica song “Orion” off their epic 1986 album “Master of Puppets”. It is one of my favorite songs from the band but of course I would almost immediately get hit for song licensing issues so I settled for adding a hyperlink to the song title above. Even though I couldn’t use the song, I still enjoyed the stars out of this coffee. Enjoy!

Gearhead - Beadlock Texas Pecan Roast

Greetings my fellow Fox River Roustabouts and welcome back to the shop. It is about time for another coffee review and since it’s International Coffee Day I figured let's roll!! Today I will be reviewing Gearhead’s “Beadlock Texas Pecan Roast” coffee. This is part of the sample pack I purchased from Gearhead a while back. I have several friends who own Jeeps and it’s because of them that I knew a beadlock is a device used, especially on vehicles built for rough offroad use, it helps keep the bead of the tire seated in the rim when the tire is experiencing abnormal stress. Often when off roading in rocky terrain drivers will decrease the pressure in their tires to allow the softer tires to grip the available surfaces a little better. If they did this without a beadlock there is a chance the tire could pop off the rim and cause a real problem. This coffee definitely got a grip on me. Enjoy.