workshop hints and tips

Its a lovely 3 grain fork. Lovely for silage. I want to use it as its better than a 2 or 4 grain. I went to get a new handle for it this evening and found that what I have isn't a Darby, so a handle can't be got. I have to take out the old one and put in a plain handle. I have it in the log boiler now to burn out the handle. I'll put a little bolt through the new handle to keep it in place. Hopefully it will work out.

Not what you want to hear maybe.
Have you an old bent or worn out 4 grane fork , with the normal type handle socket ? Cut off the granes , leaving a bit of the square cross bit in the middle . Then weld it on top of your "favourite "fork head . Often did it years ago .

Is it just me , or are new forks incredibly roughly finished now , compared to what they used to be ? A seam on the top and bottom , and rough knobbly finish . You couldn't get them into silage , and you would want a push off gate , to get stuff off them
 
Not what you want to hear maybe.
Have you an old bent or worn out 4 grane fork , with the normal type handle socket ? Cut off the granes , leaving a bit of the square cross bit in the middle . Then weld it on top of your "favourite "fork head . Often did it years ago .

Is it just me , or are new forks incredibly roughly finished now , compared to what they used to be ? A seam on the top and bottom , and rough knobbly finish . You couldn't get them into silage , and you would want a push off gate , to get stuff off them

I have it sourced now, there's a place that makes up the Ferrule and cap for a few euro and I can then add my own handle to it. You could spend hours working on it and then find the fork, as I did today, on sale this weekend in a local hardware, for €22.99.

I think that all new forks have a very rough finish and very thick sprongs. If you bought a new 4 grain fork to clean out a narrow calf shed, you'd do a lot more work t get it moved than you would do with and older fork. I don't think the quality of steel is as good in them nowadays either - that's why they make the sprongs thicker.

In recent years, if we bought a new silage fork at home, it was left stuck in a bale of silage in order to wear down the sprongs after use every day for the first 12 months that we had it.
 
Not what you want to hear maybe.
Have you an old bent or worn out 4 grane fork , with the normal type handle socket ? Cut off the granes , leaving a bit of the square cross bit in the middle . Then weld it on top of your "favourite "fork head . Often did it years ago .

Is it just me , or are new forks incredibly roughly finished now , compared to what they used to be ? A seam on the top and bottom , and rough knobbly finish . You couldn't get them into silage , and you would want a push off gate , to get stuff off them
It wouldn't surprise me in the least if all forks and the like are made in India or China at this stage.
 
Most important tip for the workshop . Always wear eye protection when using an angle grinder . (This from the man just home from a&e after getting steel removed from his eye :no: )

Or strimming grass. I forgot the goggles one day and only had a little bit to do so did it anyway and a small stone hit me in the eye and ended up cutting my eye ball. The pain was something terrible. Never again
 
Or strimming grass. I forgot the goggles one day and only had a little bit to do so did it anyway and a small stone hit me in the eye and ended up cutting my eye ball. The pain was something terrible. Never again

I heard a guy loosing an eye when strimming a graveyard. He had a blade on it and the goggles didn’t save him - apparently he should have had a drop down mask.

I had to go A&E with steel in my eye once. It worked it’s way into my eyeball while I was asleep the night after cutting.
The nurse said I was lucky it hadn’t rusted. It was in the blue part of my eye and I could actually see it.

They fixed my head in a holder and she removed it with the tip of a syringe- not a settling feeling when you can see the sharp point coming towards you.......!
 
I heard a guy loosing an eye when strimming a graveyard. He had a blade on it and the goggles didn’t save him - apparently he should have had a drop down mask.

I had to go A&E with steel in my eye once. It worked it’s way into my eyeball while I was asleep the night after cutting.
The nurse said I was lucky it hadn’t rusted. It was in the blue part of my eye and I could actually see it.

They fixed my head in a holder and she removed it with the tip of a syringe- not a settling feeling when you can see the sharp point coming towards you.......!

That last paragraph gave me the shivers.
 
I heard a guy loosing an eye when strimming a graveyard. He had a blade on it and the goggles didn’t save him - apparently he should have had a drop down mask.

I had to go A&E with steel in my eye once. It worked it’s way into my eyeball while I was asleep the night after cutting.
The nurse said I was lucky it hadn’t rusted. It was in the blue part of my eye and I could actually see it.

They fixed my head in a holder and she removed it with the tip of a syringe- not a settling feeling when you can see the sharp point coming towards you.......!
That’s what they used to get to get the bit of steel out of mine 5cc syringe with a long needle on it . ‘‘Twas an eye doctor that done it mind . Fair play to the nurse admitting me to a&e . Rang the out of hrs eye doctor to see would he do it . Bypassed a&e and met the eye doctor .
 
Have that tee shirt been 3 times and swear each time never again. Only use fully enclosed goggles now. Got caught once chipping hot weld after lifting face shield try now to keep shield down while chipping slag.
 
Could do like a local shed builder did, held a mag drill up to his eye and turned on the magnet:scratchhead:
That might be fine if the steel was in the front but if it was anyway behind it could be end of eyeball, a job best left to the specialist.
 
I had a bit of steel in my eye last year, I went to Southdoc (out of hours service) and Doc said it they were now advised if it was anyway tricky, not to go digging., but to go to A+E or eye specialist Anyway, he gave me drops to numb it and I went to eye guy the following day.
The Doc did say say though the hospital he trained in years ago (in the Uk) was near a steel foundry, and lads coming in with steel in their eyes was a regular occurrence
He said they had a strong magnet in the surgery that often worked once the steel wasnt too deep.
I had never heard, or thought of it before tbh
 
I got rust in mine twice first time I thought I'd be tough and it knight go away following day I couldn't open my eye.
Next time I got it out straight away sore dose drops to numb the eye and then a needle to take it out.
Eye specialist in tralee feirce handy but 100 euro a pop
 
I had a bit of steel in my eye last year, I went to Southdoc (out of hours service) and Doc said it they were now advised if it was anyway tricky, not to go digging., but to go to A+E or eye specialist Anyway, he gave me drops to numb it and I went to eye guy the following day.
The Doc did say say though the hospital he trained in years ago (in the Uk) was near a steel foundry, and lads coming in with steel in their eyes was a regular occurrence
He said they had a strong magnet in the surgery that often worked once the steel wasnt too deep.
I had never heard, or thought of it before tbh
I don't like the magnet idea, if you were going for an MRI one of the questions would be have you ever had steel in your eye, if it is behind your eye the magnetic field will pull it straight through the eye.
 
I don't like the magnet idea, if you were going for an MRI one of the questions would be have you ever had steel in your eye, if it is behind your eye the magnetic field will pull it straight through the eye.
Sounds dodgy to me too, but I guess back maybe 30 years ago, things were different
 
This is one way of getting through a gate quick. The CAB have some tools at their disposal!

1552653888264.jpg
 
I don't like the magnet idea, if you were going for an MRI one of the questions would be have you ever had steel in your eye, if it is behind your eye the magnetic field will pull it straight through the eye.
I had a MRI on my knee with the big plate in
Couldn't feel it pulling or anything but apparently the picture was crap because of the big shadow
 
Metal getting rusted in the eye makes a mess of things went kind of grey with me for a month the cleared a bit but a blood clot in the other one buggered it completely.
 
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