nixsnippy

Finally had a chance to get this gal put back together. (Needed to get that table built first.) She's close to 50#'s, ~4.75". Reassembly went ok, no real issues. I still need to make the mount for the foot? of the leg and tighten her up, but I'm pretty new to all this and so I did have a few questions: The screw box shaft is obviously broken and seems very short. Someone (not me) had tossed a length of pipe free floating over the excess screw. This seemed dumb and so i left it off, but looking at the box length now, I am worried a bit about the screw getting hit and/or excessively dirty. Any thoughts? Likewise, the screwbox sits pretty loosely in the standing leg, you can see in one of the pictures it slides out the back without much force on the swing arm. Additionally, there's a bit of rotational travel in the box itself due to severe rust loss. Certainly not more than say 30 degrees of rotation. Is that something i could/should shim up somehow? Or does it not matter? Finally (and maybe most importantly), the swing arm has a bit of rotation that causes the jaws not to line up squarely every time. Could be simply because i don't have the bolt tightened down in the pivot, but it was a weird observation nonetheless. In other news, still no proper anvil, but i've redirected my efforts to getting a shop up using a piece of RR track, i'd rather be working than looking. I'll restart the anvil search in good time.

swedefiddle, that's an interesting idea. I'll keep my eye out for the part. (running to a mechanic now for TPAAAT and i'll ask him about this too.) Once i get a workbench setup I'll plan to fire up the forge and give straightening that leg a try as well. Thanks for the tips! Thomas, As i'm led to believe, that's the very same Fred Moore, yup. The camp is in Hungry Horse, I swung by on Saturday to see if I could find him, but the place was dead. Good to know he's a trustworthy fellow and may have anvils to spare(if at a relative premium.) I'll keep on tracking down his contact info while I continue my search.

Thanks Frosty, (and everyone else). Glad to be here. In my exuberance to get her cleaned up, i didn't actually take any physical measurements. There's a clear '50' stamped on the moveable arm, so i'm GUESSING it's a 4~4.5". It's out at my parents, where my 'shop' is for the foreseeable future. I'll take measurements to confirm when i get back out there for reassembly. As for TPAAAT, i'm definitely easing into it, but my search is really just starting. Spent ~22 hours last weekend crawling around yard sales, scrap dealers, and antique stores. The common theme in my area is a man named 'Fred Moore'. His name came up a half dozen times in my search last weekend. He's runs(?) a summer bible camp up here and apparently quite the collector of all things anvil. I'm still trying to get his contact info to see if he has anything in his collection he'd be willing to part with for less than absurd prices. But all avenues are possibilities until they aren't in TPAAAT, so i'm not giving up in the slightest.

I picked this up at a local antique dealer while out looking for my first anvil (unfortunately came up dry on that front.) Certainly over paid(~$95), but it felt like a rescue. Was literally chained to a fence in front of the shop, rusting away. Pretty heavy/deep corrosion on the movable arm. Seems mostly intact. Level of rust/aging seems pretty consistent, so it seems all original, but I'm no expert. Screw box eyes are awfully corroded, the box itself is short and might have been broken off at some point. The pivot bolt seems like mild steel, head was obviously intentionally rounded (like a robot) and got pretty chewed up in removal. The threads on it aren't great. I may try rethreading it, or may just seek out an appropriate replacement. There wasn't a washer on the screw box, wasn't sure if it had been lost, or if it's just the way it was built. Screw box and eye for pretty tighly, but with all the rust who knows if it's just me being hopeful. The screw threads look really good, by comparison, lucky if happened to be fully closed and sort of protected. Leg has a pretty nice crook in it, not sure if that's something I'll need to(or can) fix, but I'll investigate. The jaws are nearly pristine; if this guy ever saw work it was probably lite and infrequent. Flat, square and nicely aligned. Pretty clear iron city stamp with the 6 pointed star on the swing arm. In going to grease it up, reassemble and test it out this week. Fingers crossed.