[willray]

Sorry, I couldn't help myself...

Came across your forum while searching for information on tips for the Meco Aviator Jet, and it seems like you have a treasure trove of potentially useful information, so I thought I'd register.

Professionally, I teach computers how to solve interesting problems in the biological and medical sciences. I'm sure that interests zero people here.

By predilection I make stuff and fix stuff, and can't stand the thought of buying something or paying to have something done that I can learn to do myself. My current project is a 7500sf new workshop on a remote hill in South East Ohio. I spent the past weekend flame-straightening structural steel for the support structure for the main doorway - the doors will have about 800 pounds of steel in the swinging bits when all is said and done, and I don't want that load on the building itself, so the door frame will be a freestanding anchored structure that can carry them... Sure, I could have bought a freakin rollup and had it installed already 4 months ago, but... And it gave me an opportunity to learn something new (never flame straightened before - started out about 3/4" out over 12 feet, and now I'm within 50thou all the way around, so I'm happy enough with that), and to practice my out-of-position welding.

Never done any meaningful metal shaping as you folks know it (I won't count chasing the occasional bowl/etc when I needed some utility object), but who knows what the next project will be - I do own a power hammer I need to get around to restoring one of these days...