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I Forge Iron

PeteH

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Everything posted by PeteH

  1. Sitting in the dirt, it may well have absorbed water, which when it froze, could have started the inner structure to break down. Also, the water wouldn't have been absorbed evenly, so the wheel probably is out of balance. Combine that with the large size -- with that diameter, at 1000 rpm, you'd have a linear speed of about 4700 fpm at the rim -- and you have what in my opinion is a formula for a disaster. Better not to chance it. Use it for a stationary stone, or maybe mount it on a foot-pedal sharpener.
  2. OK, it's for sale. I'm waiting for some better photos, and will post the offer over in "Tailgating". MODS -- At this point, you can delete this thread if you like.
  3. Followup on earlier post. My friend with the big Vulcan finally took a few photos. Here are the most relevant. First is a side-view; second shows the logo; third and fourth the (minimal) damage to the edge. (Horn facing left, it's the far edge, where I'd expect it to be for a rightie.) He still hasn't indicated whether he wants to sell it. If he does, I'll post it over in the "Tailgating" section.
  4. I had a small Vulcan -- around 50 lbs -- that was almost as bouncy as my 50-pound Trenton. Didn't sing like the Trenton, but as we all know, that can be a GOOD thing... I once did an all-day workshop on a German anvil that wasn't tied down and my ears were humming for two days. The chunky Vulcan shape puts a lot of metal right under the working part of the face. This one isn't as blocky as my 50-pounder, but it's not as "London-y" as my PW. I'm surprised at how thick the faceplate is -- must be nearly an inch. When I get pictures (IF my friend has a digital camera, it's too far to just drop over), I'll post them. Same if he decides he wants to sell it (although I'll stick that on the "tailgating" forum).
  5. As I wrote earlier, I didn't have a camera, my phone doesn't have a flash, and the light wasn't great where it was. I'll ask him to take a pic or three, but I don't know if he has a digital camera. He may be interested in selling it at some point, and it's too big for my needs. Any idea what it may be worth ? Location is New Jersey, and the condition is pretty good... there are a few chips in the far (for a rightie) edge of the face, but more than half the edge is clean, as is the whole near-side edge. Rings OK, for a Vulcan, with no false notes anwhere on the face. And the rebound is at least decent (I forgot to bring my ballbearing -- used a carpenter's hammer). If there's any swayback it isn't much. It was used in a wheelwright's shop, so it probably didn't get a lot of heavy pounding. More to come, as they say.
  6. A friend has a Vulcan in his barn. It's too heavy for the two of us to lift off the stump (and have any hope of getting it back up there). Here are the dimensions: Face -- 19 1/2" x 5" Table 3 1/4" x 5" Horn (including table) 12" Height 13 1/2" Overall length 31 1/2" No markings that I could find, other than the Vulcan logo and "30", cast in, near the feet under the horn. Sorry I couldn't get any pictures -- I didn't have a camera, and my phone doesn't have a flash. Any ballpark estimates of the weight of this thing ? Thanks...
  7. How about using a barbell plate for a rough blank ? Or go over to the Chaski "Home Machinist" website and ask around -- there's a "request-for-services" forum there. You'll have to "join" but it's free, and in 5 years, I've never been able to trace any spam back to there. http://www.chaski.org/homemachinist/
  8. Looks like it's basically in decent shape, unless there are some welding gouges under that rust. And a quid a pound is pretty cheap by current Eastern US standards, even for a ruster. As someone else wrote, the value depends on several factors, including rebound, which you won't be able to test until you get the rust off the face. Good luck !! Keep posting pics on the cleanup.
  9. I'd be surprised if this hasn't already been posted on this site, but I just came across it, thanks to another forum, and had to share it. Runs about one hour, and has the usual turgid descriptions, but very good nonetheless. The Williamsburg Gunsmith: Mod note: URL already posted at beginning of thread
  10. Judging by the fracture, there's some radial crystallization in there, which argues in favor of it being hardened. In which case, an abrasive disk is the way to go. Maybe, though, the hardness doesn't extend all the way to the core. Give it a hit with a weld-grinder and see how much of a dent you can make in the centre of the broken face. Looks like a nice find. I'd bet you'll keep using it long after you get a "regular" anvil.
  11. That looks like one OLD anvil. Is that a FACE on the side ? If so, most likely central European.
  12. The logo on a Vulcan is "cameo", i.e. elevated above the surrounding metal; so it would be fairly easy to grind off, if the anvil was to be sold, for instance, by a big store, which then could have pasted a decal or paper label over the spot. Another possibility: I assume the bodies on Vulcans were sand-cast; in which case it would be pretty easy to just fill in the logo in the raw sand (or if it was pressed in after the mould was made, just omit that step).
  13. Looks a lot like a Vulcan I sold a while back. (Not the same anvil, ANOTHER Vulcan.) Perfectly serviceable anvil. X2 on mounting it firmly.
  14. Well, I didn't get it "fah cheep", but didn't pay an outrageous premium either. It does ring; not as well as my Trenton, but very bell-like, and it does rebound at least 8-1/2" on a 10" drop. The third pic shows some airholes just under the heel, so it almost certainly is cast SOMETHING. I hope it's steel. The first pic shows the thickness of the faceplate, around 5/16", which is pretty substantial for a small anvil like this. It will serve perfectly well for a bench-anvil, and will be better than the length of narrow-gauge track that I've been using.
  15. I picked this little thing up last year, to use as a "bench anvil". It's 33 pounds, and that orange thing is a 12-inch rule. No markings anywhere; I've examined it closely. There's an area on one side that looks like a nameplate may have been ground off. The face is radiused in two places. The hardy hole is 3/4" and the pritchell, about 3/8". There's an obvious casting seam under the horn and heel, but it still rings very clearly, and a 3/4" ballbearing bounces between 85 and 90%. Any suggestions as to its ID? The guy I got it from inherited it from his father, who MAY have had it from HIS father. Thanks...
  16. X2 on rust pits. Sand it, use it, wait and see if they matter.
  17. One of my vises has a coilspring instead of the leaf spring. Someone put it around the screw. It's pretty light -- looks to be about the same weight as a bedspring -- but it opens the jaws just fine.
  18. Anything that gives you some mass and a reasonably flat surface will do. When I first got interesting in this pursuit, I used a 200-pound quartz boulder that I'd dug out of the yard. Then I got a couple of feet of railroad track (old narrow-gauge stuff) that worked for a couple of years, and finally a real anvil. The boulder wasn't much good for planishing a nice surface, but it worked. And it had some interesting contours that I used for swaging curves.
  19. X2 on what Stephen said. You always can put it on your in-house workbench. I just bought a 35-pound nameless for exactly that purpose. Better than the 6"x6"x1" block of steel I've been using.
  20. NICE PIECE OF WORK !!! I think I'll be copying that one -- or at least most of it. THANKS !!! Pete H
  21. If you're worried about lead -- and you should be -- you can get home "lead-test" kits for a few dollars. I think they even sell them at Home Despot. The ones I'm familiar with look like a cigaret. One end has a fiberglass brush in it. You squeeze the middle of the tube to break a little vial in there, and then squeeze some more until you can see the yellow reagent on the fiberglass. Then rub that on the paint. If it turns pink, you have lead. You can safely -- well, fairly safely -- strip lead paint with the usual run of home paint-removers. Methylene chloride is indeed nasty stuff, and not to be used indoors, but if you do it outside, you should have no trouble from the solvent. Disposing of the lead-containing paint residue is another matter, and you may have to hold on to it until there's a "hazmat day" in your town. Or maybe the town dump can take it -- just be sure you let them know what it is.
  22. Somewhat off-topic, but someone offered the idea that a modern man would have a hard time surviving in previous ages... Read "Lest Darkness Fall" (and the sequel "To Bring the LIght") by L. Sprague deCamp. Good reads, and I think as problem-solvers and technology-savvy people, you -- or many of you, I'm not going to speak for everyone -- would enjoy them.
  23. Yup, I worked for Otis from 1961-1965. First at the Yonkers Works, then at Engineering down in NYC. Interesting place. (The Works, not the office -- that was shirt-and-tie stuff, plenty to be learned, but short on application.)
  24. WOW !! That makes excellent good sense. When you consider that, prior to around 1800, all nails were made by hand and thus were expensive (and even after the "cut nail" took over, THOSE were relatively expensive), it justifies the cost of a specialized bench like that. If it wasn't 120 miles away, I'd go buy it, just for the "I have one, you don't" thing.
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