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2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/diy/ - Do It Yourself

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>> No.288829 [View]

read the sticky. there's links to forge building guides.

>> No.255277 [View]

There's a link in the sticky.

>> No.252482 [View]

>>252441
Depends on the LARP. I've seen some that say pool noodles wrapped around 1" PVC pipe and then covered in duct tape or pantyhose for look are okay.

The rather more full-contact SCA stuff just says it's gotta be closed-cell and somewhat compressible.

>> No.252380 [View]

Bumpan 'cause I'd like to know if anyone can suggest a hard-wearing, fairly lightweight closed-cell foam that's anywhere from not very flexible to totally stiff.

>> No.251966 [View]

Replying and watching because I'm in the SCA and the safety requirements for some of the "mass" weapons require foam or rubber for the shaped heads. I'm assuming all you need is a form, two-part expanding foam (closed-cell for the SCA), and your parting wax. Any tips on precisely what kinds of foam one should look for? Densities and types? The SCA doesn't have any hard and fast rules about foam type, as long as it's not entirely rigid and has closed cells; I've seen oilfield pigs and nerf footballs used without objection.

>> No.244406 [View]

>>244401
Hm, I'd meant to do a 2) around the point I started talking about socialization. Oh well.

To conclude, you're equally capable of screwing up your child's life as a public schoolteacher is. You've got more motivation not to, however.

My experience was, to start, a bit hectic as my parents struggled to grasp what they were doing, and moved from a public school style "ram knowledge into the child's head" method to a college style "present interesting subjects and equip the student to learn" method. The learning was not airy-fairy "self-directed" nonsense; I learned algebra, history, English, etc., but I was given freedom to take charge of things by selecting my own report subjects and question sets, and later on to choose which subjects to concentrate on above the minimums.

Given the circumstances I don't think my parents could have done better, but I would prefer to have had the chance to get involved in more team sports and drama at a younger age. This is not because I think the children would have socialized me, but because I would have learned better to work with peers and to handle interdependence more.

So, OP, good luck with your homeschooling, throw different learning styles at your child to see what sticks, and don't forget to get them involved in at least a couple of long-term team activities a year.

>> No.244401 [View]

>>244395
As for curriculum and the value of a public school teacher to your child's grasp of the material; ho ho, it is to laugh. In Canada (and in America ymmv, but as I understand it not by much), you need a teaching certificate to teach grade school. This takes the form of either a 4-year (bachelor's) degree in pedagogy, or a bachelor's in something else and a two-year course in pedagogy on top of that. This is probably very useful for acquiring teaching skills. It does not, however, make teachers any more knowledgeable than their students in math or science or English.

But, as I said, your job is to teach your child how to learn, not to jam knowledge into their head yourself. The efforts of public school to teach children fail in no small part because they think they can force children to accept knowledge. The benefit to your child in studying at home isn't that you can ram more knowledge into their head, but that when they are learning on their own, you are available to explain the basic concepts, to clarify when they are confused, and to show them where and how to progress. You are a *learning resource* for them, whose job is to equip them to use other learning resources.

>> No.244395 [View]

>>244388
As far as socialization goes, the argument against homeschooling is often valid. Many parents seek to homeschool because they fear the outside world and wish to shelter their child. That backfires, obviously. But children do need socialization, and not interacting with other children can be a challenge for them. However, the public school method of socialization is not much different than the Stanford prison experiment; children learn to gang up, fear the strong, bully the weak, and depend on authority for protection.

The most socially well-adapted people I've ever met were homeschooled, and their parents insisted on a high level of engagement with their community. This took the form of team sports- lots of team sports. Hockey, football, soccer, baseball, etc. They also went to every community event they could (rural Canada, so mostly BBQ days, town hall meetings, etc.). I was, frankly, isolated; our community rejected my family pretty severely (socialists took it personally that I wasn't in school with everyone else) and it was difficult to get socialization. I spent grades 10-12 in a semi-private school and had a steep social learning curve.

I need to emphasize, though, that the socialization you want your kids to have is not the kind kids get in public education. Most of that is built not for pedagogy but for social engineering. Harper's and Atlantic both have a number of articles, available online, that explain this fairly well. Sports are great, martial arts are good, school is not good, all because of the social lessons they teach.

>> No.244388 [View]

Posting because I was homeschooled for grades 1-5 and 7-9. I am currently working FT as a database administrator and coder, while writing my Master's thesis in theology. I am considered hilariously but pleasantly eclectic by my friends, socially well-adapted, and a leader among my peers. I have also met homeschooled people who are foreveralone aspie virgin beta basement-dwellers. I will try to explain how I turned out okay.

1) Your job is not to educate your child. The things you can teach him or her now will probably not be useful when they turn 20, because... well, in 1992, how many parents were teaching their children smartphone app development? Your job consists of two things;
>teaching your child how to learn, and to love learning
>socializing your child
Now, this does include education in science and English and history and all practical things, but much of that is socialization; yourtalented /diy/ercan't survive grocery shopping if they don't understand nutrition and math, right? More important, however, is convincing your child that learning is entertainment. My parents had a very large personal library, which I was encouraged to read from at will and at length. I was taught basic skills and encouraged to pick projects that would build on them. In other words, from an early age, I was taught by example and experience that figuring things out and learning new things was a pleasure, not some onerous duty.

>> No.224395 [View]

I got a few from growing up waaaaay out in the country where industrial machinery is common and safety classes aren't.
>My grandfather
>As a young man
>Working on a tractor
>Has his hand jammed in the engine tightening a belt or some shit
>His idiot brother doesn't see him
>Brother decides to move the tractor out of the garage
>Brother gets into tractor
>My grandfather has 0.01 seconds of OHSHI-
>Brother starts engine
>Belt rips my grandfather's thumb clean off
>Blood everywhere
>Screaming
>Brother shuts down engine
>Derp, sorry
He had a little thumb-stump for the rest of his life. Did okay without it.

>Neighbour fixing tractor
>Has it up on blocks
>Crawling around underneath it
>Kicks one of the blocks as he's on his way out
>Tractor falls on him; fuckoff huge tire, 6' tall, directly onto his chest
>Can't get it off
>Can't really breathe well
>Can't call for help
>Suffocates to death over the next FOUR HOURS as the tractor squeezes the life out of him
>Wife finds him that evening

>Be me
>Young dude, 11 or 12
>Dad is building a deck for the pool we got
>Yay pool
>Dad needs generator for circ saw on other side of fence
>Tells me to grab it and haul it under the deck for him
>Be shirtless 'cause I'm swimming or some shit
>"Sure!"
>Run around to other side of deck, wait for dad to hand me the generator
>Dad drops the generator on me
>It had been running for the last half hour
>Exhaust pipe or something directly on my bare chest
>MOTHERFUCKEROW
>Drop generator, 2" patch of skin goes with it
>Smell bacon
Took two weeks before I could take a hot shower without crying. Shit sucked. Dad was slightly apologetic.

>> No.201176 [View]
File: 17 KB, 640x359, magnets_c.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
201176

>anvil noise/quieting thread
>nobody posts magne-
>>201157
>oh

OP, I have slapped a couple of biggish rare-earth magnets on my anvil, and it really helps reduce the hearing-destroying ring to a nice dull "tonk" noise.

>>201158
That's not a bad idea, either! Anything that would stop a bell from ringing will work on an anvil.

>> No.198976 [View]

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mechanical-engineering/

>> No.194757 [View]

>>194593
I grew up on a ranch, am not a /k/ommando, and assume by "prepping" you mean preparing to raise chickens and goats. I've no experience with chickens or goats, but for any small livestock you'll want;
1) A fenced-off area to keep them in.
2) A dog large enough to get possessive about the territory and chase off coyotes and the like. Make sure you discourage the dog from eating chickens. Raise him around the other critters from a pup and he's less likely to consider them food.
3) A gun, honestly. Just a little shotgun to handle gophers, coyotes, and other varmints.
4) Make friends with the people around your 15 acres. Neighbours are going to be a big help no matter what.

Assuming you're going to live out on the land, your first concern should be water; get a well and a septic tank. Power is probably going to be important, too, to run the well at least.

Ask more specific questions.

>> No.194747 [View]

>>194703
>Any tips on making a knife?
Read the sticky.

>> No.192944 [View]

Use angle grinder + sanding wheel to grind out a 4-5" wide, 1-2" deep bowl shape.

Use to dish steel plates to make armour, pots, and other things out of cold or heated steel.

That's what I did with mine, anyway.

>> No.191493 [View]

>>191460
The bad news, my friend, is that at 18, you are not actually skilled at anything. You've probably got talent and potential, and maybe a willingness to work hard, and that counts for a lot. But skill comes with years of practice, and you don't have that. Yet.

What you _can_ have, which is almost as good, is humility, a work ethic, and a willingness to do what you're told and learn on the job. That makes you a useful pair of hands. That, plus a summer working, turns you into an experienced pair of hands that's useful on a range of job sites.

>>191481
This sounds like good advice, actually. Don't feel the need to restrict yourself to organic, though; there's lots of summer work on farms if you aren't afraid to bust your ass and get dirty.

Don't lock yourself into the lifestyle yet, though. Blow the summer working like a dog and earning money. Also apply for a local college, and in the fall go and try a year of general studies with as random an assortment of classes as you can manage. After _that_, you'll have a better idea of what sort of stuff you like and what you're good at. If you decide you want to fuck off and live in a yurt forever at that point, go for it. If you decide you want to be a programmer or engineer, do that. If you decide you want to be a ranchhand or farmer, do that.

But don't decide until you've tried a few things, ya dig?

>> No.190812 [View]

>>190810
Yes it does. It's not ideal, but if it's all you have you can use it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVZNmP7qR3k

>> No.190770 [View]
File: 815 KB, 800x1800, my_tools.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
190770

You know, it _just_ occurred to me that Anon might have thought I was suggesting the upended rail was much superior to other methods. I didn't mean to say that, only that it was perfectly adequate for OP's needs and imnsho has an edge over striking on the face. A superior solution is an honest-to-god anvil. I don't think the sideways rail is superior either, but if OP's got a chunk of rail he's good to go no matter how he uses it. Sorry if anybody got their knickers twisted 'cause I wasn't clear on that.

>>190532
Correct. I will note, however, that I got 3' of rail for free by walking into the local rail yard and asking. I don't know what a scrapyard would cost, though I presume not much.

OP didn't mention any other tools he'd need, btw. Perhaps we should mention easy/cheapish ways to heat the steel? Pic related; fire a tiger torch into a 10" stovepipe with a hole cut in the side. Line with kaowool and a firebrick. Gets up around 1000C, faster and hotter if you plug one end of the stovepipe with more kaowool.

>> No.190759 [View]

1) Hammer, wrench, power drill with a set of drill bits and screw head bits. Some kind of saw. Flashlight, maybe. Powered stuff is a _little_ more expensive and a _lot_ more useful, btw.

2) Google "how to fix a X" and you should be good. There's plenty of online guides. Home Depot (or Home and Garden, or whatever your local big-name hardware store is) has a series of books on basic home wiring, plumbing, carpentry, etc. Books are kinda handy when you're elbows-deep in repairs and not near a computer.

3) /shrug

IANAhomeowner, just grew up in the country and dick around with carpentry occasionally.

>> No.190731 [View]

>>190551
Fucking _lovely_.

>>189583
http://www.arador.com/main/index.html
http://www.armourarchive.org/

>> No.190724 [View]

Aw, that's sweet. Green stuff is jeweler's wax, amirite? Buddy of mine has had success with Delft Clay casting, takes him way less time than lost wax. Post more!

>> No.189331 [View]

In the SCA we use closed-cell foam to prevent our sticks from breaking joints and bones and shit. $10, 1/2" thick sleeping pad at your local walmart will do it, but if you spend $40 on the rubbery 3/4" yoga mats it's a lot better for cushioning. You can cut it with a pair of scissors and glue it with rubber cement or tape it together with duct tape, nice and simple.

Not quite as cool as cornstarch, but it'll keep its shape better. Whatever you make, take notes and post the finished project!

>> No.189110 [View]

>>189102
>So, this dick waving was a waste of time.
Not if it gives OP enough information to start smithing! :D

>> No.189101 [View]

>>189097
Not recommending it, but the question was "What could I use as an anvil if I don't have access to a real anvil?" and I've seen a flat rock used to good effect. If OP can't get rail, if all OP can get is a big rock, then OP should use the rock without shame to try stuff out, and look for better solutions later.

Son, your jimmies seem awfully rustled by all this. Take a step back, go pound some iron, reread what I've posted. I'm not trying to step on your dick, you just mad.

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