It followed me home

[the_sandy_creek_forge]

Saturday: One 4ft. by 7ft. layout table (1/4in steel on MASSIVE wooden frame)-20 dollars. One earlier Columbian 5" post vise, with wedge type mounting system, very good condition-20 dollars. I thought I might have spent a bit much on the vise, but the person I was bidding against was wearing a dinner jacket and dress shoes at a farm auction (can we say...tool collector?) so I decided that 20 bucks was worth it to keep it from getting hung up on a wall somewhere.
-Aaron @ the SCF
p.s. by tool collector I mean the bad type that buys oodles of tools and never uses them, but rather hangs them up as pretties, as opposed to the good type that buys oodles of tools, and then builds a bigger shop just so they can all get used

[irnsrgn]

$20 is outright thievery LOL, good gloat. BTW I got my first small post vice at a farm sale in 65 for $5 in almost unused condition.

[ApprenticeMan]

SWEET BUY SANDY! Can you get some pictures of both please!?

[Glenn]

Fellow ask if I would be interested in some banding material and without a clue as to what I was getting myself into I said yes.

We walked to the door and there in the floor was maybe 30 feet of 1-1/4" wide steel banding material. Thanked him and threw it into the back of the truck. Then he ask if I needed some other material about the same size and there was still some room in the mostly empty truck, so I said "sure".

Each of the 10 rings is about 1.5 feet in diameter x3 is 12 feet (rough guess) long, of more 1-1/4" material. This stuff has one ragged edge though. Anyway there is some 120 +/- feet of the stuff.

Now what do I do with it ??
* Mig weld the edges together into a sheet of steel?
* Weld it into the quarter panel to patch the holes in the truck.
*Attach it to a board to lay down the glue for the linoleum floor.

You folks are blacksmiths, any sharp ideas ??

[yesteryearforge]

The rings are most likely band saw blades
Sell them to a bladesmith to make a damascus knife blade and take the money and buy a good knife.

[ApprenticeMan]

Them sharpy things, you could glue them ragged edge down to the bottom of your boots for traction during winter! Or you could make a nice defensive belt out of them, the kids would run from you!

[RegionalChaos]

I'd probably try to make a damascus billet for fun.

[Seamus]

Not sure I fully understand the
definition of "It Followed Me Home"
It suggests to me
that the item was free,
or darn near,
& that you found it,
or it found you,
when you were looking for something else,
or not looking for anything atal.

Anywho, my offerings are in that vein.
Freecycle?

The Freecycle Network(tm) - Changing the world, one gift at a time.

Anyone besides me use it?
If not, you ought to, since all I am going
to show you came to me that way.
The idea is, if you have something you don't need
or want, & think someone else might be able to
use it, you post it on the mailing list & folks respond
or not. So I responded to someone who said he had
a bunch of coal, & got this:

Free Fossil Fuels from Freecycle on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Now it's not blacksmith quality, but for some things
it'll do just fine and it was free after all. 55 gallons
worth of it. I kept laughing at how big the pieces
were and he wanted to know why I thought it was funny.
I explained to him how big blacksmith coal usually is
& he said "Oh! I got some scrap steel you might want!"
So among other things he gave me these:

Bonus on Flickr - Photo Sharing!


I am hopeful I can make one of these into a cheap
swage block of sorts. The thin one is 1.25" thick
and 1 foot by 1.5 foot. The thick one is about 9"
x 10" and 2" thick.

On another Freecycle trip to get a Dog House

Free Dog House on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

The guy said he had a big piece of steel
& might I want it? See, he had just moved
into the house & this big honking
thing
along with the dog house & a few other things
had been left by the previous owner.
I said sure & he showed me this:

Another Freecycle Find on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I suspect a few of you know what it is, but
I have yet to see another one this big
except here:

The Fountain Public House, Soham, Cambridgeshire, UK - History

in the 4th, 5th & 6th pictures.

The last Freecycle find was described as an old
drill press that might not work. My wife
responded to it for me. I had not seen
the email & so did not know what I was
going to find when I got there. I did not
have high expectations figuring it might be
one of these things:

Amazon.com: Makita 122-190-0 Drill Press Stand: Tools & Hardware

Instead, it turned out to be something
MUCH better:

Canedy Otto Drill Press on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[Pault17]

Glenn,
I have used the metal strapping for easy leaves on flowers and things. It heats up quick and needs to be worked fast, but I have had no complaints on the leaves I have made. I have also found (for now, maybe it's just a phase) that if you sand/polish the leaves down to bare metal and heat them up through the temper colors, you can make some pretty interesting patterns.

carpe malleus
pt

[ApprenticeMan]

WOW, I now LOVE that site Seamus, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!