Juc

Howdy folks. I recently bought a little anvil from princess auto, which I suppose is similar to harbor freight for you non-canadians. It said it was hardened steel, etc. but it was asking like 2 bucks USD per pound so I bought it figuring I might get lucky, but probably wont. I didn't get lucky, it's steel but not heat treated, but it's got a nice shape. My tentative plan is to weld a thick steel plate on to the sweet spot of the anvil; what steel plate do you figure I should use for such a purpose? Right now the anvil only has a rebound of like 25%, just need a surface for striking I figure. What steel do you figure I should grab for that? I'll just go out and buy a chunk of thick plate. The anvil as is is made from C45 Or alternately do any of you figure there's some other plan that'd work for this thing to make it usable? It's still decent steel and a decent shape really.

So looking over it, it's an open box. the mounting bit and the spring aren't original to it but everything else seems in order. Figure that's a relatively simple thing for a know nothing, talent-less newbie like me to attempt? I didn't see any markings but I haven't attempted to clean up much of the surface yet. I think it was spray painted red at one point I figure I can make this thing pretty again, although as it stands it looks completely usable and utterly sturdy, albeit a little scuffed on the jaw surface. Whatever farmer or farrier that was using this certainly didn't have it as a decoration.

Ultimately I got it for free. Here's additional pictures, turns out that it is certainly a coil spring and not a pulley.

here's ideas for if you might find them useful. -blacksmith puzzles -kitchen tools(spatulas, forged and riveted skillets, that sort of thing) -yarn bowls (basically bowls a scrolled gap in the side to allow for easy unrolling of yarn balls while knitting or crochetting) -braziers for people who like hanging out in their yard -keychains, letter openers, or bottle openers that tie into a theme of stuff they're interested in. Like musical notes or plants or horses or whatever. -gardening tools -chainmail christmas stocking (why not?) -jewellery, like bangles or pendants -fancy door knocker (everybody likes those, right?) I guess it basically comes down to stuff that helps their current hobbies, general use items that are decorated with stuff they like, or sculptural stuff that are well done or themed to their preferences...might not be as much help as I'd have hoped when I started typing I suppose. I'm planning to go the bottle opener route but I need to get my butt in gear. a treble clef, leaves or just a modified rail spike are the route I'm going since I think it'll nail 99% of the people I want to give gifts to.

provided you're using a web browser on a PC with a decent resolution, you can do the following: log in on the site click the triangle by your login name that's at the top-right of the screen, then click profile click edit profile, which will be in a grey box in the top-right of a bigger grey box toward the top...ish of the page. scroll down to the section just below where it says "Profile Information" in bold characters and location should be the 2nd option down, just below gender and above interests and regarding your purchase price, all that kit for 150 is an absolutely phenomenal deal, whoever sold it to you must really like you.

post vises are worth a fair bit too, how much did you get it all for? if you don't mind me asking.

My family member's going to take a look at it in person in a couple days and bring it into town if the important bits are in working order, although it is cheap enough that I'm tempted to get it even if the screw is wonky just so I can satisfy my curiosity.

A local farmer by some familly is selling a post vise pretty cheap and has a pic for it, I was wondering if any of you folks have seen this type before. I'm mostly curious as to what that pulley is for in the middle, I'd have expected there to be a metal spring. It looks kinda neat and he's asking so little that I'm pretty willing to take it off his hands and figure it out later, but it has gotten me pretty curious.

I think they'd force liquid metal through a small aperture to atomise it.

If you don't have an angle grinder, what would be the alternative tool you'd choose to use to do the same thing?

I just contacted one of the local railways around here asking if I could buy some of the old spikes they leave as litter all over the place and they were telling me due to all the creosote on them they're treated as hazardous waste. (they should probably make sure to collect them all if that's the case imo) I'm pretty sure they were confusing ties with spikes, but it made me wonder, do you guys figure there's any validity to railway spikes picking up creosote and thus becoming less than harmless chunks of steel? I don't really know much about it aside from it's supposed to be pretty cancerous.

The one on the left in the first picture looks like it might be a type of efeminator, the one on the right looks like a hoof clipper, in the second picture those are hobbles, that third one looks like some sort of mangled cobbler's anvil or stake anvil, but I'm not sure about that. My guess for that last one would be a part of some farm machine, but I've no idea of what specifically it'd be for.

For steel you should be able to use zinc, magnesium or aluminium for some degree of success. (I think) I think magnesium would work better than zinc but I'm not sure how wet the air would need to really be to work at all. I did see some anvils with aluminium bases the other day, future I think. If anything would work I'd figure it'd be them, can't get in much better contact than having part of the anvil made from a sacrificial anode

Any of you folks try using a sacrificial anode to protect your anvil? like you would a boat or the frame of a car you're particularly fond of?

the sparks that happen when you hit hot metal ... am I way off base?