A not so poisoned chalice

So we all watched it did we, who’d have thought after Bejing that  we would make a success of the Olympics. After watching the opening ceremony with our hands over our eyes, and then GB doing so well after a shaky start we finally relaxed and it seems most of us enjoyed it after all. Then there was the closing ceremony, a right ol’ knees up, we had a bit of an idea what to expect after the opening one. There were the usual suspects, Brian May and the fat bloke from Bury singing about his curtains, shoe ins for this type of event.  Obviously the highlight for me was the Olympic flame and how they were going to extinguish it.

In recent times the olympic flame has been a bit jinxed, surely something had  to go wrong, I mean it was a minor miracle that 17 tonnes of copper sitting in the east end for almost 3 weeks was still there at all.  I had sat through Annie Lennox on a longboat, the pet shop boys in rickshaws and that well known stalwart of British musical culture Russell Brand on top of a bus. If someone had told me that next up was going to be Bernie Flint and the Grumble weeds  singing This charming man with the lady from the shake and vac ads, I would have had no reason to doubt them. Eventually the moment arrived, the mechanical decommisioning of Thomas Heatherwicks 8.5m high sculpture. 300 sheets of copper were used in the sculpture built in a disused hanger near Harrogate. Each petal engraved with one of the countries represnted in the games, and each one reminiscent of the copper  tube lillies a lot of the old boys I used to work with had made for their gardens.

Often over looked in recent times there are few metals that have the natural decorative properties as copper. Whether bright or aged the range of finishes it produces  make for perfect ornaments and work well when used with other non ferrous metals. Ok so working with it can be a ball ache, but does it really do any harm to brush up on those traditional techniques now and then.  Yes it’s expensive in sheet form, but in this age of austerity  there  is plenty of opportunity to get your hands on it for scrap value. Some of those old boilers have great shapes for lantern tops and clean up really well.  A malleable material that is strong, has good corrosion resistence. Is easy to form and can be finished to a number of attractictive textures and colours, has to be worth considering for the modern metalsmith looking to create something different..

Eight apps for fabricators.

Smart phones are not everyones cup of tea but there is no denying they are damn useful tools. We scoured iTunes looking for the best apps for metalworkers and where possible tried to find a free option. There are lots of geometry and maths calculators that are out there which no doubt most people reading this will find useful which I haven’t included as they are generally easier to come accross. Also we found a lot of welding apps mainly aimed toward the heavy industrial user rather  than someone reading this page could get use from.

Photo Survey £0.69

Photo Survey is a site surveying app for iOS designed for builders, architects  and designers needing to perform site surveys.Designed to be a productivity app,  Photo Survey is quick and easy to use allowing the user to spend his or her time  on more important tasks. Adding measurements to a photo is as easy as swiping on  the screen, allowing the user to place them exactly where they are needed. These  measurements can be removed at any time.Label texts are editable and can contain  any information the user needs.Features:- Designed specifically for site  surveys- Use inbuilt camera for taking photos.- Add lines and labels using  swipe.- Edit or delete labels.- Adjustable line settings.- Save photo to camera  or email it.- Supports both iPhone and iPad

Metal Bend Calculator £0.00

Barnshaws Metal Bending Calculator allows end users to select a type of metal angle, beam or channel and then calculate the minimum radius inside the section or induction bend.
Users can select from three types of calculators ‘Section Bending’, ‘Induction Bending’ or ‘Plate Rolling’.
There is also useful information about Press Braking. When using the metal bending calculators’, end users can also choose to email the results of the calculation from there iphone.
This App also has useful information, contact details and industry news

Hadco steel weight calculator £0.00

The Hadco Calculator is a FREE and unlimited application for estimating the theoretical weight of metal & plastic products according to their type, density and shape and for sending RFQ’s for materials based on results provided or on a stand-alone basis. Its simple – Choose material, type and shape – Obtain theoretical weight – Send RFQ Easy to use either in the office by salespeople and buyers, on the road and on-site by architects, engineers and contractors, and on the warehouse floor by logistics personnel.

iOpticut £5.99

iOptiCut – cutting optimizer for iPhone – Defines how to cut rectangular pieces from wood, glass, ceramic, metal, drywall or veneer panels, etc with minimal waste of material. The most of cutting tasks have to be done on construction sites where you should figure out how to cut pieces in fast-paced environment.
Can you imagine having a smart optimizer in your pocket that can easily find out how to cut all necessary pieces with lightning speed! It’ll dramatically improve your productivity and get more projects done than ever before. In addition you’ll save a lot of expensive material (wood, glass, metal, marble or veneer) and hence your money.
iOptiCut takes complete care about cutting tasks and makes you life much easier. It instantly generates and displays complex layouts and cutting instructions right at your worksite.
There are seven different cutting methods available. Guillotine methods implies all cuts are made from one side of sheet completely to another side, as in case of glass or ceramic cutting. Nesting methods does not impose any restrictions of how cuts are made and usually produces better results than guillotine methods.

Steel Orbis £0.00

Do you want to be on top of  global steel markets on your mobile device? Download SteelOrbis app for free to view steel news. You can also purchase a monthly subscription to track steel price trends and market analysis.
SteelOrbis is the leading market intelligence and e-marketplace provider for global steel industry.

Miller weld setting  £0.00

Get your weld parameter settings right from your iPhone with the Miller weld setting calculator app.  The calculator will help you tune your machine for optimal results based on a few simple questions.  Weld calculators are handy references for weld parameters, electrode/wire type, basic techniques, and process information for TIG, Stick or MIG.

Sheet Gauge by systems valley £0.00

Sheet Gauge shows the standard thickness of sheet metals for most of the common metal sheets.
This application indicates the standard thickness of sheet metal for following materials:- • Steel • Galvanized steel • Stainless steel • Aluminium
Features include: • Instant calculations • Easy to use UI • Select the gauge number and the thickness for all of the above stated metal sheets are displayed

GYS welding game app £0.00

GYS Welding is a free arcade game where your welding skills will be tested.

Age of Diversity

So the economy is officially on it’s arse still, the worst recession in 50 years according to those that know these things.  I am listening to one guy on the radio now as I write this blaming the weather, probably one of the same pasty faced quilts in red braces that was telling us that it was all our fault in the first place, for putting the cost of our caravan weekend in Rhyl on our credit card. Other experts offered a more plausible view that a sharp downturn in the construction and manufacturing sectors was to blame. Now I imagine for most people reading this that may not be the news they wanted to hear. The vat increase, very little in the way of grants available and the increasing difficulty in raising finance have all contributed to a difficult period for most small manufacturers, it’s no wonder most are struggling. There maybe however some hope.

One area of manufacturing that is growing is the hand made bicycle industry. Now I am not talking about the type we used to chop up and stick a pair of cowhorn handle bars on like when we were kids. These are mostly bespoke creations built to the customers spec. The customer gets to choose the height of the frame the material it’s made from and all the extras like wheels and gearing etc.  Now as you’d expect all this doesn’t come cheap, prices start from a few thousand pounds to tens of thousands. Now why in this day and age when most people haven’t got a pot to piss in would anyone want to spend that much money on a bike when they can go to Halfords and pick up a grifter for a couple of ton. Maybe because production line restrictions aren’t exactly what they want. And there are still plenty of people who have got pots to piss in, probably lots of pots cast in 24 carat gold and big enough to empty a bladder of Dom Perignon in, who know exactly what they want and don’t care how much it  costs to get it.

Now unless you’re a bike builder you might not think this is that relevent, but hear me out. For Halfords read Wickes or B&Q. Most have us have heard someone say that so and so only costs such and such in the garden centre when enquiring about a job, I bet it does, it’s most likely not a patch on what you make your self. What I’m saying is you know the value of your own work. If you are getting a lot of customers asking to make them something they have seen imported from the far east at a fraction of the cost you can even get the materials for, then you are appealing to the wrong market. Attention to detail and craftsmanship over high volume productivity should be your main focus. Make sure people know they are getting a prestige product, bespoke and unique to them. If people want something enough they will pay well for it.

By the way I Just noticed todays other big news story £13 trillion hidden from tax man by global elite in offshore  accounts,  still we keep heating and beating eh.

That there London

At this busy time of year for most of us, the bank holiday weekend almost passed by un noticed for yours truly. Funny how a little bit of good weather for a couple of days has people realising that they need a new set of gates or a little bit of welding work doing, and then there’s all those Olympic torch replicas I’ve been making to flog on ebay. Anyway this morning on BBC breakfast I  caught a bit of the jubilee pageant footage from yesterday, inevitable I suppose. For the most part it was plenty of stiff upper lips smiling for the cameras while the rain lashed down, and if Wimbledon is anything to go by the last thing you need when Cliff is around is rain.  It was impossible not to hark back to our street party for the silver jubilee we had when I was just 11 years old in back 1977 and the first time I had a proper beer. Watneys pale ale provided by my mates older  brother to the sound of Showaddywaddy, pretty horrible on both accounts,but what memories are made of.

However being the ironhead that I am the thing I noticed most was the magnificent London metalwork, something that is quite unique. As someone who lived in Glasgow for a couple of years it reminded me of a stark contrast between the regions when it comes to the traditional construction of fabricated metalwork. Not just north and south but all accross the uk in my experience. For our street party we had our 1950s built council commisioned hoop top railings covered in bunting, that was just what happened in post war Britain, but most big cities had metalwork that had its own individual character way before then.    Now I know that in this age of austerity (thanks Dave) councils are never going to have the budget to afford railings to rival the original, but I think there is room for imagination as far as those of us who make a living  making them are concerned.

We are all familair with the customer who wants a set of driveway gates who says “You know, a curved top with gold spears on and those twisted bits on the bar” and then they just leave you to do it. And of course you do it, you have done that many of them you can do them in your sleep and at the end of the day it’s another £500 – 600 in your bank account. We call them ‘Starbucks’ gates,  every town and every city has them, the off the shelf yeoman design that you see everywhere. It doesn’t have to be like that though, ask your customers to look around them, talk about aesthetics, explain that traditionally finials never had gold on them. Classic designs are often quite simple, ok maybe the railheads will cost a few pence more each but all the major stockholders keep the components in stock these days, and think of the time you will save not having to paint them that awful gold.

Beyonce’s baby gets new cradle

Before you think we’ve gone all Heat magazine take a look at the photo here. Unless you have been tuning into Lorraine Kelly of a morning or Loose Women, you may or may not know that singing sensation and serial arse wobbler Beyonce has  gone and bought a wrought iron cradle for her sprog.

No doubt the celebrity magazines and red tops will be all over this and you can bet every wannabee footballers wife and Katie price impersonator will be after one for their little princes and princesses.

The victorian appearance makes it fairly simple to resemble using off the shelf components and I expect not beyond the skills of most fabricators. Something to think about for those quiet days in the workshop maybe, especially for you bed makers out there.

The GAGAs

The Galvanizers Association are currently inviting entries for the 2012 galvanizing awards. Six categories including Architectural, Detail, Sustainable, Engineering,  Duplex and a new award for this year International are up for grabs. Applications must be recieved before 20th April 2012 and the only criteria is that your project must have been completed after January 2010. A £3000 prize fund awaits as well as a galvanized watering can for the outright winner, how good will that look on the mantlepiece. All that’s required to enter is a few high quality photos and some background information on the project and you can enter online here http://www.galvanizing.org.uk/awards/welcome_to_gagas.

The Gate Post recommends that the background information doesn’t include any pieces of your project that were returned a different shape than when they went out, were sent out from the galvanizers to someone else or cut straight through your rigger gloves as soon as they were handled.

Chinese to become less reliant on steel imports

One of the objectives of this blog is to keep and eye on the current trends in commodity prices that are likely to affect readers.  The current climate makes it more and more difficult to pass the cost of raw materials on to end users and it is very likely as has been happening  in a lot of cases that people take the hit and the profits become smaller while overheads get higher. Of course all this does is increase the possibility of cashflow problems later down the line. It can often seem like a mystery to most of us when our  stockholders inform us of price increases. Either it’s too much demand hiking the prices up or too little demand hiking the prices up and anyway it’s all down to the Chinese, its no wonder with such logic that the conspiracy theorists have been hard at work.

Recently however things do seem to have levelled out a little and hopefully this is just the beginning of a new age of stability. According to Zhu Jimin chairman of the China Iron and Steel Association the development of China’s domestic iron ore mines had been speeded up and was now growing at an annual rate of about 20%, gradually reducing China’s dependence on overseas imports. A little cohesion for the longer term would go a great way to easing the headaches of the small business person, here’s hoping.