clinton

I have found that mild steel works better for the spring, I made one using a leaf spring no heat treating and it was difficult to close the vise in the last 3 inches. I made one out of mild steel for my 6 inch vise and it works great

They look great. What type of material did you use?

I would not sell a 6 inch vise either Thomas, but the 4 inch are pretty common out here and I have never paid over $50.00 for one, and ended up with one for free one time, my dad found it at a property while doing tractor work and the guy told him he could have it and there was little value in such an item (complete 4 1/2 and marked 70 on front 70 lbs I believe its good and stout, screw is good also). In the last year I have sold 3 post vises and given away 1 ( my dad wanted one to sharpen his chain saw) they come and go and if I can make a few bucks on a deal then I can buy some more fuel for the forge.

A little follow up on my surplus vise, put it up for $175 on craigslist........... Sold I think I paid $40 for that one at the flea market I will take a turn on an investment like that any day I did not think anyone would buy it at that price, the guy offered $150 and I told him I would do that without the stand ( that cost me nothing to build with free material ) I think I hear Taps playing in the distance

This is a good source for belts they will lace it for you you just tell them what size you need it is a rubber canvas material available in 3 or 4 ply at $5.50 lineal / ft it is much cheaper than leather belt http://www.hitnmiss.com/index.html http://www.leatherdrivebelts.com/index.html these are .66 / sq inch or $31.68 lineal ft for a 4 inch belt (according to my precise calculations)

I added the fillings to give it a different look, it was something that I have been wanting to try and I was not sure how it would turn out, but I think it is kind of cool looking. When I saw Alfered Habermann do it he upset the edges of the material and let the brass and copper melt down and it would flow in puddles, he spread it about with a fire rake. George Dujunski has that piece at his shop a butterfly with about 3 foot wing span

I wore my Utilikilt to the Abana conference in June, there were several of us wearing kilts there. We were at the steak house one night and I saw another guy from the conference wearing his as well and I said to him, "No dress code" What do you wear under a kilt? Your boots. Here is a picture myself in the brown workman and Tony Swanton in the black utilikilt this is in Memphis TN

I spent most of Saturday at the forge, I made three crosses, two were iron one was copper. One of the iron crosses I applied aluminum fillings to using a technique that I learned from Alfered Habermann, although he used copper and brass. You get the piece hot then apply borax, reheat then sprinkle the filings on and cook it some more. The crosses are 3/4 x 3/16 material 6 inches long for the vertical and 4 inches long horizontal. I also forged a bbq fork per an example of Brian Brazeal, probably my best fork yet it is not easy to get a nice even fork without burning it up or hammering too cold and having it split on you

Sandblast an anvil? why? this thing will rust like crazy after the abuse of sandblasting, and he has two more- dooah http://cgi.ebay.com/V-Nice-145-pound-Hay-Budden-blacksmith-anvil-/190463510463?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c588287bf

I just saw this, kinda funny there is a pic of Brian and Ed using thier anvil http://cgi.ebay.com/AR500-Steel-Block-Blacksmith-Anvil-Making-Material-/220692479091?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item33624bfc73

Ya where is the guy with all the money? I would like to sell some stuff

I built my patio cover using metal studs that were surplus material on various jobs that I worked on in the past. My shop area is about 20 feet square, the material for the posts and headers is 6 inch 16 gauge metal studs, the rafters are 2 1/2 inch 18 gauge studs the roof material was salvaged off a building that was torn down. You may be able to find surplus material from a drywall contractor in your area and pick them up at reasonable price. You can build something like this with basic skills and it can be taken down, bundled up if you need to move again you can take it with you. Here are a few pics of my shop The shop is free standing with some diagonal bracing to handle wind, we do not get any snow here so the low pitch is fine

Ya in the amount of time that they spent picking up the "bottom die" they could have hand forged that

My translation= "I'm stupid"

Thanks stewart Thomas- I will be sure to make the price high enough that only crazy money will prevail Fewood- no problem on helping you it will be much easier to forge with two people, and I already know what not to do

Ya I need to find some square head bolts and replace those. I do still have three vises in working order, hmmm is three enough? I need to get to the flea market sometimes the surface there Here is a picture of the whole thing

I forged another cross this one came out a little nicer looking, I moved the intersection down 1/2 inch and gave the whole thing a texture with hand hammer

Well I finally got the mount finished and mounted, I built a tripod using 3/4 inch plate as the top. I cut a notch for the leg to sit in and left one side for upsetting (Per Brian Breazeal & LDW design) This thing is solid and pretty massive, I have another small leg vise that I will be mounting nearby for light work. Now I have an over-limit of vices so I will be selling the 4 1/2 inch vise that I have been using, It has tapered jaws I am not sure if someone ground it down or if it was made like that, but it does come in handy sometimes. Thanks to everyone for the response and suggestions on this post, southshoresmith was a big help and really understood my goal in this project, I could have fabricated a mounting bracket in the time it took me to write the first post, but I wanted this mount to be forged in this fashion

I forged a cross yesterday, I learned this method from Brian Brazeal it is held together using a square hole and drive in a rivet flush. I used 1 1/2 inch x 1/2 inch flat bar the vertical piece was 15 inches long and the horizontal was 10 inches when I started forging. It grew a little with the forging, I flattend it after setting the rivet and it got a little curve in it but I think it looks good like that I am giving this to my girlfriends family who just lost a loved one

Looks good southshore I like the square bolts too, thanks for the advise, it was a little rough got it looking better now, can't wait to put this vise into service I have been using a wimpy 4 1/2 inch

I did some more work on the mount yesterday and it looks better now. I just need to make the jib key and wedge and make holes in the collar.

I found that they give a good reading on a dull surface, but on shiny surface they are way off, we discovered this while doing an anvil repair on Fewoods Peter Wright, we had temp sticks to compare the readings (when I say way off it was 200- 300 degrees off)

Well it took a bit longer than an hour for me and yes wrought iron would have been a good idea, I had a message form a generous member on this site that offered to ship me a piece, I may take up that offer and try it again this one came out a little rough.

Ok I got some work done on this yesterday, I started out with a piece of mild steel bar stock that was 1 inch x 2 inch 5 inches long. I re-sized one side to 1 3/4 (the size of the leg on my vise) then I used a fuller to separate under the powerhammer just like southshore said and spread out the material using fullering dies on the powerhammer. then came the fun part slitting and drifting I forged a slitting chisel using a piece of 4140 it held up ok but it did get tweaked before I got all the way through, I worked from both sides when slitting. Then I used a drift forged from 1085 that held up nice. I need to make matching holes in the collar and forge the wedges today, and punch holes for the bolts. Here are a couple of pics it not doubt looks forged, a little rough I may do some clean up work on it today

So you just have inerts to change for different size stock? I like the slide action, I used a piece of wide flange beam and built a saddle that rides down the flange. I had a friend cut plates with his water jet to change size on the tail stock, on the turning head there is a four jaw chuck that will go to 1 1/4 inch. You can reverse the pipe threader also, right? and those things have lots of torque!