Stash

After a rather substantial delay, I'm back with an update. I've been putting things kinda in place, bringing in more stuff, and shifting again. There is now some semblance of order. I finished all my hauling from the old house- 22 loads in the dump truck.First image is the last load, sitting at the new house. I've made some good progress in the forge area, putting things away and placing the major stuff, anvils up on stands, and a whole bunch of head scratching. I think I have it mostly figured out. As I did at the beginning of the thread, you'll see the shop from the back door of the house, then front view, and walking into the center bay. I had to pull the little green tractor out for the photos, and will do the same when I fire up the forge. The bay on the left is packed full with my big mower, mini loader and my wheelbarrow and landscape tool piles. The building is a pole construction, 24x 36', with vinyl siding, one more overhead door in the back of the left bay, and 60 amps of electric. I'm waiting for the electrician (or someone just like him) to set me up with some 220 outlets for my welder

As my grand daughter would say, " It has an 'owie'" Steve

At ABANA '14 in Delaware, Roberta Elliot forge welded fireplace screening onto a pipe vase she made. The texture created was pretty incredible. No reason x metal shouldn't do the same. Steve

Checking in after a great PABA meeting. Don't know if you were there or not. By my count, there were 5 anvils for sale, 3 vises, 3 blowers, 1 complete forge, as well as all the other bits and bobs you would need to set yourself up. The pricing was reasonable, better than what goes on Craigs list. Crazy Ivan was there and did a demo in the afternoon- a 5# cross pien hammer. A great time was had by all. This thought goes out to all beginners out there- find your local gang, and get yourself to the meetings. Steve

The PABA gang has a meeting tomorrow ( Sat, 2/11) in Mount Joy, just outside of Lancaster. JW has done demos there- it's just around the corner from his shop. Steve

Very nice. Hope you earned a few brownie points. Steve

Make a large socket insert the wood handle and pin it with a tricked out rivet. Steve

I have a similar looking Champion setup, the pan is stamped steel. CI would be thicker, and usually has the instruction cast in to 'clay before using'. Either way, claying would be a good idea. Steve

I've been in horticulture the last 36 years, the last 24 as a self employed design-install landscape contractor. No metalwork in my background until 6 years ago. Steve

And here I always thought the plural for moose is'meese' ( as in "I hate meeses to pieces"). I'm feeling very sheepish now. Steve

Here's a little sumptin I found on CL today. The guy left his phone # in the ad, so I called him live and told him I was on my way, while everyone else responded thru CL's e mail. Got a great deal- just a benjamin for the lot. The blower is free spinning, I just need to clean it out and put in some light grade oil. The pot and tuyre just need some bolts drilled out and re tapped, and fab up the ash gate on the bottom. Steve

Well, lessee- I use the v and 1/2 rounds on the edge, the circular depressions on the small block, and I park my guillotine in one of the square holes, cone mandrel in another and I set my bolster block over whatever hole is left on the big block. I also use the different round holes for dishing. Steve

Haven't shaved my upper lip since 1974, I grew it out and started twisting it up ~ 1980 or so. Started the biz in 1994, many customers call me Mr Moustache. Early on, I also did the full ZZ Top thing, but there was too much gray, so the chin is clean. Anyway, progress is happening. Got some organization done- things are getting put away, and I can find everything else. I also got the propane forge running. I just need to get anvils up on stands, and do a little more org. My grand daughter approves of things right now, but she wants to play, so my focus is shifted for a while. Once family is gone, I'll take a few pix to post. Merry Christmas and happy Boxing Day to all! Steve

I had taken a 6 week class (2 hrs per week) at a local historic site, and found a rivet forge on CL. I asked about it at a builders forum I was involved in, and one of the guys referred me to IFI. The rest is history. Steve

I'm back with a quick update. The movers dropped off the household stuff last thur and things have been hectic. Slowly putting things away in the house. I got out to the shed today to start some re-organization. The whole metal shop is jammed into 1 bay of the 3 bay shed, and I will start to figure out rough placement of things. I'll make a run to the old house tomorrow and get my workbench ,vises and shelving units so I can place them and start putting things away. I spent some time the last few days in the woodshop, too. It is all coming together. I'll try to remember to take a few pix of the current situation. Steve

Yeah- what he said. It's a double caliper. In use you would set the desired dimensions on the caliper to check your stock as you are working it. saves using a rule. Steve

Isn't that where the gold is buried? Steve

I'm in the process of moving ~ 55 miles to a new home and shop. I googled 'steel suppliers, mynewtown' and found all kinds of options. It's that easy. Steve

Well, if you mis strike an edge, in most cases it will either dent or chip. That looks like a nice anvil. If I recall correctly, Jymm makes his anvils from H13. Oughta work pretty well. Steve

Wow, Dale- that is a beautiful compound you have there. Is the siding white pine? I will certainly be watching to see how you set things up as I'm busy setting my shop up. It is an exciting time. I've been losing a lot of sleep lately, with all that's happening, and the next week and a half will be the big push. Time to just do it. Got the truckload into the shop space, but at this point am not really sure how I'm going to set things up. I have some Ideas, just need to measure and set it to grid paper and just play with some trace paper. Steve

Jerry -let me know how the lights work out. The new shop has 8' flourescents and if the LEDs work for you, I might be tempted. I actually haven't given details on the new shop, so here goes: It's 24x 36, pole barn construction. It actually has electric in it, I just need to get a 220 volt box wired in and I'll be good to go. I have 2 overhead doors on the front, and 1 in the back plus 1 man door. Out back is a 1000 gal propane tank that feeds the house boiler and backup generator- I might see if I can get a line inside for the propane forge. I did a little loading today- got the better part of the shop ready to haul tomorrow. I discovered the tip- over limit of my little loader. I had 700# of anvils on a pallet on a slight down slope, and I found myself up in the air. Great adrenaline rush! Here is the start of loading, and the finished load. Steve

Alright- time for a bit of an update. Bought the house on Monday, brought a few things with us to follow settlement. I guess you could call it a symbolic gesture- I brought a small anvil and stand, with a hammer. I set it in the new shed area and gave it a ring. Looking forward to doing it with hot steel. We got a few more loads in the last few days, including today. Our black friday gig was to have family see the new house, and we all loaded our vehicles with stuff. Just gotta get haulin' now. The movers will do the house Dec 7th, but I can get going now. No deadline to get out, either, so this will be an extended process with all the stuff I'm shifting. Steve

I know what you mean, Lou. I've got a well established scrap eye. Sometimes it goes in my recycle pile, sometimes in my resource pile. I tend to be very observant, my wife tends to be oblivious. Traveling with her is fun. "did you see that ?" "See what?" "Oh, nevermind". Took my aluminum, copper and brass scrap to the recycler. Another $270 my wife doesn't know about. I spent some time today stacking and staging some of the stone I want to take with me. Some nice irregular step slabs, up to 5' long, probably 750# or so; a carved granite bollard, and some granite columns I split. I've been a stone guy for quite a while. Just don't call me a stoner. The round brown stone in the 2nd photo has enough iron in it that a rare earth magnet sticks to it. I call it Bethel Township Basalt, I'll have to find if there is a proper name for it. Steve

Lou most of what I took was not really recognizable as anything, or at least anything usable. I save short lengths of rope to tie together when I need a new belt. I'm cheep! Steve

Sometimes progress happens in small steps. Got rid of my scrap steel- 1800#, for a quick $108 in the barley soda account. Scrap aluminum and copper are all loaded ready to run out tomorrow.