It followed me home

[primtechsmith]

A local guy was trying to rid his barn of some clutter. And I heard exactly what he thought was "clutter": A 3ft. section of rail road track with a horn on on one end, and a crude pritchel hole on the other, 6 pairs of old loose rusted tongs, and a 1.27lb straight pein hammer head. And a bowie knife he started and never finished....

My brother In Law and good friend (also fellow blacksmith) puts it perfect "If it's free, it's for me!"

peyton

[meco3hp]

Hello,
This is what I had followed me home this week. I had this given to me by a buddy's son. My buddy passed away about a year and a half ago. This guy was a handy man deluxe! If you went to the lumber yard and they didn't have a fitting you needed right now, they'd send you to this guy, more than likely he'd have it. He could fix anything and had a fantastic collection of parts and such from his days of installing and uninstalled big power plant engines. He has a whole shop full of stuff that he'd gathered up over the years. A 36" or 48" foot shear, a 12' brake, and about 5 or 6 of these beaders. Most are Pexto but this one is differnt from the rest. I asked the son about one of them and he said if you want it, "we can just throw it on your truck right now, I'm tired of tripping over it"! Somehow it'd got tossed outside into the middle of a "path" and the son isn't much into keeping things picked up. It's stuck and I'll have to take it apart and go though it, but for free, hey, you can't beat it. Plus I like working on this kind of stuff. Also it was from one of my best friends, so that adds a lot to it! The only dies are the ones that are on it right now. It is a Niagra.

[Glenn]

They must grow some big oaks in Ky. This "Acorn" Platten was just laying there on the side of the road. The fellow said he would like it to find a "good home" where it could be used. He even loaded it onto the truck !!

The truck's 350 v-8 had no problem pulling, but the trucks brakes were lacking in preformance. :wink:
I will try to get it measured and weighed tomorrow, and then formulate some idea of how to unload it - safely. In case you noticed, that IS a full size pallet under the thing.

2100 pounds. Now to find Whitesmith so he can lift his side, scoot it off the truck, and we can carry it to where it wants to live.

[Ed Thomas]

Glenn: what an AWESOME score. An excellent addition to the shop!

[HWooldridge]

I'm green with "acorn envy"...bet it weighs close to 1000 lbs. Good find!

[ThomasPowers]

Basic rules:

*ASK* if you are nice you can often get stuff with no hassles

*CHECK* those dumpsters/trash piles might just have something good this time

*TAKE* never expect something to be there when you come back (basic tools & gloves & a tarp for dirty stuff in the vehicle at all times)

*EXPLORE* rivers in old industrial parts of town can be a steel mine...be safe though!

*TALK* that old geezer who wants to talk your ear off---well it turns out he worked for an anvil manufacturer and tells of there being a row of anvils alongside the river bank when they closed the plant down (true tale!). A fellow selling oily car parts howdy'd me at a fleamarket. I didn't need car parts but it turns out his uncle wanted to sell an anvil---515# Fisher in mint condition for $350

*THINK* what businesses might have good stuff or come across good stuff---that knife made from a RR spike might be paid for in anvils when you make it for a scrap/junk dealer

*NEATNESS* leave the area nicer than when you arrive encourages businesses to call you to haul off good stuff to "neaten up"

*SAFETY* gloves, boots even a hard hat comes in handy to let the owners not worry about you hurting yourself and sueing them...watch out for cars when you stop alongside the road for roadkill iron.

and lastly *CONSTANT VIGILANCE* I once ended up getting a 125# Peter Wright anvil and a 6" post vise cause I noticed the vise leaning against a barn while doing a test drive on a car we were buying... I always ask folks with "barn junk" at the fleamarket about the heavy stuff they didn't bring...I spotted a keg down in the ditch near a RR crossing on the way to a smithing meeting---2/3 full of new HC spikes they were not willing to haul it back up the hill when they cleaned up after redoing the crossing---we were. Coming back from a Dr's visit the summer I had pneumonia I got my wife to stop the car and let me pick up the sledgehammer alongside the road---took me 1/2 and hour to catch my breath.

Thomas

[HWooldridge]

Thomas,

That is one of the best list of rules I have ever seen - it should be preserved for posterity in a blueprint or something similar. I would also add "TRADE" because you can often score something really fine for something you didn't need. I once traded a plain .22 S&W pistol for a 250# Fisher and a 180# Mousehole in great shape - we were both happy.

I'll also tell about one that got away. I went to a junkyard one day and found the largest Edwards shear I have ever seen - probably would have sheared 1x8 flat and had a 1" punch setup. The ONLY problem was a set of broken blades. Instead of going to the front desk and putting my name on it, I went home and thought about where to put it, how to haul it, etc. This was Saturday morning so I figured Monday was safe but the yard already had it on a truck to the local mini-mill so it was really gone - melted down!

[sandpile]

THOMAS P. You forgot about the doughnuts and a six-pack at the scrapeyards.BOG.

Chuck

[Strine]

What a fantastic tool holder for all your 1 inch bottom anvil tools. All you need now is four train bogey axles for the legs.

[Glenn]

That Acorn Platten weighed in at 2100 pounds. Now to find Whitesmith so he can lift his side, scoot it off the truck, and we can carry it to where it wants to live. :lol: