Mainely,Bob

I much preferred the cow that had been sawed in half and encased in Lucite over the basketball. A previous post caused me to run out and buy an old urinal to set up on my property line as a fountain. That`s sure to xxxx the neighbors off. I think I may have to change my name to Art.

Time to spring for that screw press or a huge hammer Larry! One big BAMO and Bob`s your uncle. :D

Go to the post,"Alec S,Two weeks with Brian B." and look at what they are using for a home made anvil. That should give you some ideas.

I do like the way the BigGun Dr thinks. Whenever I had a task dumped on me I looked at the many ways to produce the finished product with all the tools we had at our disposal. Once I decided what the best tool for our shop was THEN I asked how it was being done elsewhere. Just because someone else is using a drill press to drill holes doesn`t mean you can`t punch them and do it in half the time with less problems for the operator. Grant posted about how bronze keel bolts were being turned from large diameter stock and he used a header to bang them out in a fraction of the time with far less waste for the same $ as the customer was paying for raw stock and made tons of profit. We completely replumbed the fire main on a harbor fire boat by bid and everyone thought our bid was crazy low and the job couldn`t be done for that. We turned it around in less time than we figured and for more return than we planned. Everyone else bid with tearing out the old main and replacing it as it was. which required removing numerous existing systems to access and hang the branch pipes. I asked the folks in charge if they absolutely had to have it replaced in kind. The reply, "We just want to get water to the nozzles,do it however you want as long as it works". Rerouted pipe to leave systems intact,replaced expensive set pressure relief valves with cheaper updated adjustable units and they ended up with improved performance and a better balanced system for far less money. The profitable answer many times is outside the box. I don`t seek to duplicate, I try to innovate,that`s where the money is. This customer has already proven that it`s not a winning operation for them after years of doing it.Why would you want to duplicate their efforts and process for less than half the money? I want to urge anyone who is looking to make max profit to focus on duplicating the part rather than the process.

I used to know the proper progression of wooden mallets.They ranged from beetle thru commander IIRC. Most of the shipyard hands weren`t as concerned with correct names. They just referred to them as a BFH, RBFH or "Get the Admiral". :)

Two Maine sayings; "Hard tellin`, not knowin`" and "God hates a coward" usually said before doing something that comes back to bite you. A shipyard saying; "Put down your purse and HIT IT" "There are 3 types of people in this world,Those who make things happen,those who watch things happen and those who wonder what just happened.Try to be the first type"- 1st Sgt Roberts. To which I added type 4-Those who stand in the way of those trying to make things happen. "We`re not psychics,we`re just know-it-alls" - Me

We had a sledge that weighed over 20 pounds when I worked at Sample`s Shipyard. Everybody call it "Monday", cause no matter what day it was if you had to swing it it felt like a Monday. They also had a huge wood mallet had out of Hornbeam that we used to drive oak dunnage and wedges. That one was "The rear admiral" cause it packed more punch than a commander and always kicked your butt.

Last time I pulled a steel splinter it was out of the back of my hand after a striker hit a glancing blow.Took a pair of Vice-grips and clamped them on the end and yanked it out only to find it had hit an artery. The striker fainted and I had to go to the ER. I`m always surprised by arterial bleeding. Who woulda thought it`d shoot that far? :o

Having worked with a few "conceptual artists" I feel your pain brothers. :rolleyes:

Why Wal-mart? I got one for $5 at the local thrift store.Same price at Goodwill and just about every garage sale I`ve ever been to.

"It doesn`t matter how many times you fall down.What matters is how many times you get back up"

For someone with limited to no experience with welding machines I usually suggest going to the local welding supply and asking about rebuilds or trade ins.That way you get some kind of a warranty and can also bring it back if you find you need to upgrade right away because it really doesn`t fit your real world needs. The other thing taking this approach does is to build a relationship with the folks you will be getting all your tech support and consumables from. Try getting good advice (backed by experience) and tech support from a "big box store" or an Ebay seller.

One of the most widely accepted definitions of magick is "To focus your will and intent in order to produce a desired effect". No wonder many folks believe heat treating is pure magic.

Looks like at least two of the folks here are sleeping with theirs heads on a dictionary instead of a pillow. :D

Glad we could help. Always glad to meet someone who is intelligent enough to take our advice,whatever it may be that day. :D

The absolute toughest thing for me is when I am attempting a technique I have never done before using material I have no prior experience with and know nothing about. I find that is always the toughest row to hoe.

Saying something is made of steel is kind of like saying my house is made of wood,not much help as far as info goes. I`d need to know what type of steel it was cast from and then what type of heat treating it went thru after casting in order to bring the face to a hardened state as well as what the post treated face hardness is and how it was measured (Rockwell,Brinell or other scale) to give you any intelligent feedback on this. If you can`t get this type of information then I`d keep my money firmly in my pocket unless I could test drive it prior to buying.

I hope you and the other artists here (are you listening Larry?) take more videos of the process you go thru in order to produce your extraordinary work.Not only do we LOVE to see them here but most of the folks I know up here who produce art have a laptop open and running these types of videos in a loop at shows and presentations of themselves and their work.It really does open the eyes of some people who have no idea what it takes to get from raw material to finished product.Suddenly that price tag seems downright reasonable when you see what the artist had to do in order to produce the finished piece. Thanks for posting this Mike.

The best thing to do with any anvil is to use it just as it is till you rub up against something it can`t do for you in it`s present condition.Once you find that thing it can`t do think about making a solution that will fit in one of the holes it has in it to accommodate top tooling. If you find you absolutely need a sharp,square corner for some types of work and a top tool won`t do the trick for whatever reason then,and only then,would I think about welding or grinding that anvil which is probably at least twice as old as you are and most likely still has a ton of work left in it just as it is. In summary;Work it till you can`t work it no more,then work around it. Rework is an advanced technique,should be done as a last resort and then only done by competent hands.This is NOT the place to learn as you go,you`ll do more harm than good.

I don`t see having to scrap it.If it can be bent out of shape it can be bent back.Look it over and decide how and where it was bent and and then apply an equal force in the opposite direction being careful to NOT press against any of the cast iron parts like the housing. I`d try to figure out a way to bend it back as is before I tried to take it apart.See if the a magnet is attracted to that different colored gear,if not then it`s most likely made of brass or bronze and will bend back fairly easily.

I agree with Danger.Hardly any flat planes in the human body and that`s what you`re going to put in it. I usually prefer organic over mechanical look in things like chairs.That means curves like the ones you have in the front legs and seat being echoed in most of the other parts even if the curves are slight they still turn a dead flat piece into something more flowing and organic. All this is easy for me to say as I`m not the one making it and you are.

I second Minotaur`s assessment. Mine is worse than that and I have no trouble doing anything with it just the way it is.I find a slight concavity to help in many types of work.

As always Mike,hot stuff! The details are really what sets your work apart. You really are using those big machine to their best advantage and I`ll be bet you`re loving every minute of it too. Thanks for sharing these.