Mainely,Bob

Congrats! I look forward to seeing the work you turn out on it. I find that fine tools inspire me to do the best work possible and an anvil this nice would surely take my motivation up a notch or two.Knowing you it`ll do the same for you too. Glad to see it happen for you.

I tap it 3 times so that the Goddess,God and Great Spirit will each be sure to hear it.

It may not be the absolute best solution but if it`s getting the job done then it sure beats the alternatives.

On this last one I might be tempted to flow bronze braze into the cracks from the inside and then sand and buff the interior to contrast the rough/forged exterior.Give it the material(exterior) vs skill (interior) thing. Don`t know if you`d want to spend that much time,just a thought.

One thing I found to be key is to work with a designer who understands what is and is not possible for different types of metalwork. If they have engineering issues then be sure you understand who`s responsibility it is to establish those specs and especially who will ensure that other contractors know and meet those specs.If they call out the specs and you build to suit their plan then they have the liability.If you custom build and follow your own guidelines then the liability falls on you.Increased liability means an increase in price. Designers have the potential to be huge sink holes of your time.If you set guidelines from the start and they understand that THEY will be billed at the shop rate for your time then they will be less likely to waste it. If acting as a subcontractor and building off site to a plan then I would usually submit a bid.That way the designer knows what the work will cost and can mark it up as they see fit. On larger,more involved custom jobs (usually time and material) you may want to give them a percentage as they are then acting as a sales agent for you and the more they send your way the more $ they see in return. A good relationship will require a certain amount of transparency,trust and understanding at both ends.

That is just an incredibly nice bit of work! I especially like pieces where people who actually look at the things that surround them are rewarded for taking a closer look.This is a stellar example of this.Most folks would just put the coffee mug down on the end table as they sit down.The observant person will be surprised and say "WOW,dragons! where did THAT come from?" Be sure this gets seen by as many people as possible before it get tucked away in some lucky person`s home.Pieces like this are what bring you the work. PS- the color changes are an outstanding touch too. Thanks for sharing these.

It`s all good and it`s all relative.I see you consider hand work a clapper and a bigger hammer.I consider it a hand held punch.I`d look at it like punching the eyes in an animal head in reverse. I totally agree that there is much to be learned in investigation,failure and then refinement.I especially like that you have gone to the extra effort to post what you consider the less than successful runs at this complete with pics.Learning from what others have done has been a critical skill since humans picked up the first tool. Some spend large amounts of time focusing on creating tooling that will be able to duplicate exactly a desired effect or texture.That tooling frees up their minds to to concentrate on things like form and function.Others prefer to create very simple/minimal tooling that leaves room for creativity over a wide spectrum of applications.Both have their applications and neither is "best" they are just different paths up the mountain. Believe me brother,after a few hours of not being able to get my hands to work in concert with my brain I`d be running over to your place to borrow the stuff in the pics.Likewise if I wanted to straighten out a whole herd of snakes and turn them into pickets for a fence/gate for my buddy`s ranch down in west Texas(which I think would be way cool!) I`d be bidding hot and heavy on your tools if they were on Ebay.I LOVE the stuff you do with tooling,especially texture tooling and it brings all sorts of ideas to my mind. Never let my or anyone else`s head shaking or eyebrow raising even slow you down in your thinking,negativity can be the kiss of death for creativity.We need to foster rather than suppress creativity in all forms. Thanks again for sharing both the OP and the follow on thoughts. "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain",that would just be me thinking out loud,always a dangerous thing. :blink:

No,I would say that what was once vice is now addiction. :rolleyes:

Not to take anything away from you but I would think unless I was planning to mass produce rattlesnakes this would be a process that I might better be better off doing with hand tools rather than a power hammer.More control less clean up and more individuality in the end product. I have to admire your commitment and the results though.Thanks for sharing the process.

Insanity at it`s best. This type of lens I believe is akin to the old cobalt blue lenses we used to use for torch welding aluminum. I have no clue why someone thinks it`s so valuable but then again there`s a lot of things that surprise me on Flea-bay.

Use a hardwood stump.Cheap,easy to shape and if you wear it out you can burn it in the wood stove and make another one quickly. Make some wood mallets/hammers while you`re at it,you`ll need them if you`re doing sheet metal work. Need a big rounded anvil? Go to goodwill and buy an old bowling ball. Pass on the ASO,they make good door stops and yard art but not much else.

I`m not real big on blind obedience or pat answers.I like to understand the theory behind why something is done the way it is.Then I try it that way and see if it fits my way of working. If you come to understand why then you can make informed decisions to change something if need be. Many times the best answer is to make the mounting of your tools as flexible as possible.If nothing else this flexibility allows you to make others more comfortable while working in your shop.

All the good we can muster sent your way Stan.Concentrate on putting it toward your recovery.

When sorting something like this out I usually follow a once thing at a time approach. I would start with oil.I`d get oil to all the workings of the machine first,by that I mean introducing oil at the supply line and making sure it got to all the the valves and the cylinder.It may be that one of you valves is sticking and the oil will free it up. Once the oil works it`s way thru everything I`d try making sure there is zero water in your system.Even at 40 degrees if you`re moving a lot of air any water within the system will freeze.I used to frost up air grinders on humid 90 degree days.If there is water in the line then raising the temp of the valve will help keep it from freezing up.Have your helper hold a hair dryer on one valve at a time to see if that helps. The next thing would be to look at wear on both the linkages and inside the valves.Have someone watch the valves and linkages while you work to check that the action of the linkages and the movement of the hoses between valves stays constant.We used to put pressure gauges in the lines temporarily to see if valves were sticking or worn.A worn valve can sometimes be brought back up to pressure by a squirt of oil into the line feeding it.The oil will temporarily tighten it up and let it build pressure.Once the oil works it`s way thru a worn valve will go back to malfunctioning.Start at the last valve in the system and work your way back down the line.If you start at the first you`ll get false readings as the oil works it`s way thru the system and into the next valve. If it were a supply issue the hammer would start out strong and then taper off so that doesn`t seem to be the real problem.I`d go with a larger than 1" supply line to the hammer though. While we`re on supply line issues,GET RID OF THAT PVC PIPE! Using that stuff is like BBQing dynamite while wearing gasoline shorts. It`s not a matter of "if" it`s a matter of when something is going to go BOOM and somebody`s gonna get burned or worse.When plastic fails(and it will when in contact with oil)it doesn`t just split like metal does,it goes off like a bomb and plastic shrapnel flies around.Plastic is fine for water or low pressure use it was never meant to be used for the type of pressure compressed air involves. We want to keep you around for as long as possible David,rip that PVC out and replace it with something that was designed for compressed air.

A "cinch" is a sure thing so I`m guessing that the task in question would be a sure thing as long as you used a lead pipe to accomplish it.A "lead pipe cinch" was something that could lead to matching SS bracelets and a ride in the back of a cop car if things didn`t go as planned. Not that I`ve ever been involved in anything of that sort. :rolleyes:

Some of the things we used to do when supplying machines that used large amounts of air. Hard pipe to as close to the machine as possible with as large ID pipe for the trunk line as practical.If you have to use small ID pipe over a long run from the trunk line to the machine then consider installing an accumulator tank next to the machine. Make the final bend from the branch line to the machine/accumulator a T instead of an L and extend the lower leg of the T down 12-18" and install a ball valve on the end.The drop leg will catch water and the ball valve will allow you to quickly dump that water. We installed a water separator/filter and oiler at each machine.Water separator/filter first then regulator and pneumatic oiler.We prefered to use the type with clear bowls so the operator could easily see when the trap needed to be drained and the oiler filled.The oiler also had a clear bubble on top next to the adjuster so you could see/time the rate and adjust to suit. Any hoses were kept as short as possible,as large ID as possible and were of a reinforced type as well as having a spring over them to guard the hose against cutting and abrasion.Anchors ran from the spring to the body of the machine to restrain the hose`s movement in case of blowout. A shut off valve(usually a ball valve) was installed within easy reach of the operator to shut off and isolate the machine in case anything went wrong.If you`re using an accumulator tank the valve should be between the tank and the machine in order to shut off air from the accumulator. Exhaust air coming from the machine should be plumbed into something like a barrel/trap filled with chips or other media that will separate the oil from the air and then the air from the barrel/trap exhausted outside the shop.Don`t just dump that oily air into the shop where it can be inhaled. Use a good quality pipe dope on all threaded pipe connections. Hope this is of some help to you.

Lookin` for a particular type of wood Sam? If you`d be happy with a native New England wood I may be able to scare something up that has been riven rather than cut so it`d be much stronger than a sawn spindle from the lumber yard or a bought handle. Can you work a rough blank yourself?

Oxy-propane/LPG/Mapp excells at heating larger areas and a "soaking" type of heat.They work real well when used with rosebud type torch tips. Oxy-acetylene work better for thing that require a very localized and focused heat.Welding sheet metal is an example. You wouldn`t use an OA torch to melt ice or solder copper pipe and you wouldn`t use propane/mapp for welding if you knew what you were doing and had a choice.

I believe Matt correctly identified the mystery object. I`ve seen these up here a time or two used on the decorative metal roof caps on some of the really old houses.The reason the "tang" is so long is it goes through a glass insulator.Some of the ridge caps have 3 or more of these lightning protectors. All the ones I`ve seen have been wrought iron rather than cast iron though.That explains the grain in the ones in the pic.

Taking bowls as an example,just go out and look at different vessels. Places to start;Museums both art and history,ceramics,glasswork,woodturning,kitchen ware(otherwise known as treen if it`s wooden),religious artifacts.etc.Collect pics of the ones you like and then study them to distill what about the piece draws you to it.Look at things as both positive(the piece itself) and negative space(the space surrounding the piece).Take the pic and turn it upside down.Still like it?If not why not(balance). Another good book is "Centering,in pottery,poetry and the person" by M C Richards.Stephen Hogbin`s "Apperance and Reality" is another excellent design book you may find useful. David Pye`s book "The nature and art of workmanship" defines the difference between art and craft in relation to "The workmanship of certainty vs the workmanship of risk".More about technique,approach and philosophy than the actual pieces or design but inspiring just the same.

Nice save! Always good to see something rebuilt rather than tossed in a drawer to be parted out later. :)

I gotta striker named Sue,she knows just what to do I gotta striker named Sue,well she knows just what to do She hits hot iron,yes indeed sprays hot sparks all over me I gotta pal named Daisy,she sho nuff drives me crazy I gotta pal named Daisy,well she sho nuff drives me crazy Slings tools to the East,tools to the West And I end up laying on my chest If she don`t pick the tools up off the floor She ain`t comin in the shop no more