VaughnT

Definitely a chest/breast drill. They came with oval tops and round tops depending on the make/model. The fixed handle is a dead giveaway. No idea about age or maker, but the condition looks good and it might be worth a few dollars if you can find the right investor/collector.

What I wouldn't give for that gigantic Fisher anvil!! That's two large, near mint Fishers I've seen lately, and both of them are just too far off to afford the shipping! I'm not a happy camper right now! Glad you had a good time and got some neat stuff.

Someone on ebay is now saying that it's a Pool Cue Cutter used to trim the end for installing the tip and ferrule. I looked all over the net for an example and haven't found anything like it. The spiral gear does remind me of the cutter in an old-timey pencil sharpener, but what guides the shaft? And why bother with those pulley/spool things? And that mount? Why the angle?

Wouldn't be hard at all to redesign the point where the arm attaches to the wheel and then put a motor on that baby!

Your logic is impeccable. I'll take two, please.

NJ, as cheap as that thing's likely to go for, it might be worth the shipping costs just so she can serve as a warning to others. Of course, her abused state might depress the other anvils in your collection, too. Ironsmith, we should talk about that. I'm thinking about taking a drive up to see this one tomorrow. It's a whole lot smaller than I'd like, but at least it's a Fisher! http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=251127230433&item=251127230433&lgeo=1&vectorid=229466#ht_3131wt_1262

I don't have a clue, but I'm thinking about bidding on it because I don't have one in my tool box. Could it be used for splicing or twisting wire cables? Ever see one before? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Unknown-Hand-Crank-tool-/271033465790?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f1ada7bbe#ht_500wt_1021

In my eternal quest for a Fisher anvil, I'm watching the region like a hawk. I knew the price was too good to be true when I saw this one just one state over..... and I was right. Wow. For less than $50, I might be tempted to try a Gunter-style repair on it. But......

Ciladog, I don't think electrolysis will work because it's a line-of-sight operation and you can't see down into the gear case to expose the gears. I'm certainly willing to give it a try, but everything I've read has said that it won't work on rust inside tight confines. What I don't understand is how the gears could rust together so well at the tooth joint that the ATF wouldn't get through when the ATF managed to get through the very tight joints around the screw heads. Aggravating, to say the least, and it makes me lean more towards the rusted bearings theory. But, if it is rusted bearings, I can't imagine they would be so stuck that literally pounding on the large gear doesn't provide enough leverage to get at least a smidgeon of movement. The exploration and cussing will continue......

Yea, Tom's right. You're making way more out of this than there needs to be. The only problem I see is that the very narrow portions between the holes you drilled will not last very long. Of course, those holes appear rather small, so if they open up a bit that would be a problem. You'll have to replace the fire cement long before you have to worry about the stainless steel being ruined. Heat conduction isn't an issue.

Fantastic control. If I ever have the room for a power hammer.....

What could be causing a mechanical jam?

Heck, if mailing wasn't such a pain, I'd offer to take one or two off your hands. I don't ever see wagon tires for sale around here unless they are "antiques" and priced accordingly. I just don't care to spend $30+ for one! You got a great deal, and even that old wood could be repurposed into bases for lamps or handles if it isn't too rotted. That weathered look is mighty hard to duplicate.

I agree, H. You would think that the ATF flowing out around all of the shafts would indicate that it should be free to spin, even if it's a grinding turn. Do these models use bushings or bearings to support the shafts? Think the bearings are so rusted and corroded that they've simply got no spin in them? Would putting it in an oven jeopardize the bushings or bearings or whatever's in there? Trust me, there's is absolutely no movement even when I use a hammer and section of round stock on the upper gear. Bad thing is that I can't see down into the casing and I can't expose the ends of the other shafts.

HW, I'm getting zero movement. I'm hesitant to use heat because I don't want the cast iron cracking, but if I can't get the thing apart..... Thomas, I kept vinegar in the crank case for two weeks, and often replaced the older vinegar with new stuff as the level dropped. It turned black and yucky, but I didn't see much change in the condition of the metal in there. I'm now wondering if the vinegar I used was too old and had lost it's acidity. It was a gallon I had in the back of the pantry, and had been opened at one time. I don't even remember buying it! No hurry to get it fixed as I have another one to work with.

Great anvil. I absolutely wouldn't try to add a horn to the side. Not only is that going to be a ton of work by the time you weld it on and shape it into a horn, but it serves no purpose, really. If you need a horn, drill out the hardy and pritchell holes. Then use the hardy to support a cone mandrel. Or, stick a cone in your vise. Horns are for fullering the steel, or curving it. But there are better ways to go about either operation than using the horn on an anvil. For instance, a weight plate from the gym set will make a great form to bend around and you end up with a perfect curve. Similarly, a spring fuller mounted in the hardy hole will move the metal just like the horn would and is far easier to make than welding and grinding a maul head on the side of the anvil. Just my thinking...

Tried brute force with the vice grips, but no joy. Even tried a few solid whacks on the large gear with a punch... and nothing. The biggest issue I'm facing, at least in terms of rust, is that access to the innards is poor, to say the least. My smallest wire brush can get to the top shaft, but other than that I have to rely on chemicals to eat at the rust. I guess I'll clean out the ATF and try some naval jelly.

Well, I've thoroughly cleaned the old girl out. No more problems, except that she seems frozen solid with rust. I have tried vinegar to eat the rust out. Then I tried a prolonged soak in automatic transmission fluid thinned with 50/50 with lacquer thinner. That stuff is mighty thin and it soon started leaking out of every nook and crannie it could find! The only problem is that it didn't unfreeze the gears. Here as good a shot of the interior that I could get. You can see some serious rust on the topmost shaft, and that has me worried. But the cover bolt on the inside end of the shaft spins free quite nicely and the exposed end of the shaft shines like new. IMG_0408.jpg Here's the end of the shaft as seen from the inside of the impeller area. IMG_0412.jpg Tapping on either end of the shaft doesn't produce any noticeable movement, and didn't free the main gear. The next problem is that I have two large standard-head screws, for lack of a better term, that I can't get to budge. They look like they are just covers for the other shafts, and the thinned ATF seeped out from around both of them. I have tapped on both of them with my hammer to try to break any rust bonds loose. No movement in either direction (thought they might be reverse-threaded for some reason) even when I used a punch to get into slot. IMG_0411.jpg IMG_0410.jpg And, finally, there's a small nut that spins freely off of a threaded section that I'm assuming is the end of a shaft. The thinned ATF seeped out from around the shaft, but I can get no movement on it in either direction. IMG_0414.jpg Because there's a drain plug on the bottom of the gear case, I can't hold the ATF level high enough for long enough, but I can say that the initial dousing produced runs on the outside of the uppermost shaft. Any thoughts on a solution to getting those screws off so I can expose whatever they're covering? Is it time to take the torch to it? Maybe heat will loosen things that the ATF didn't? I hate to give up on her, so any ideas are appreciated.

The 4mm plate will burn up and degrade with time, but that's going to be a long time. I'm not familiar enough with stainless steel to say how it will take the heat, but I'm confident that it will do better than the mild steel. The large brake drum is what stumps me, though. That's a lot of weight that serves no purpose because you're putting a fire pot inside of it. Space being at a premium, as you say, I can't see how using that "huge" drum helps. As a forge, on it's own, it is simply too large to function effectively as a fire pot; that's why you see folks using smaller drums from cars and trucks. If you have the capability to weld up a fire pot like you see sold commercially, placing that fire pot into a cookie sheet or dryer door won't appreciably increase the forge's footprint. What it will do, however, is give you a lighter forge that's easier to move around and has room to the sides for tool and fuel storage. Of course, that's just me thinking out loud.

If you have the tools to weld up a fire pot out of steel, why are you using a brake drum? The fire pot grate at the bottom can be a piece of 1/4" plate just like the sides of the pot. I prefer mine to be removable, though. Sealing with fire cement isn't necessary at all as any cracks or crevices would soon fill with ash. Unless I'm missing something in your post. Seems like the best thing you could do would be to weld up a fire pot using the thickest metal you have on hand. Then sink that fire pot into a thin sheet metal table top (cookie sheets work well, as do 55g drum lids, and doors from appliances). Not only would that give you a simple forge, but you'll love having a fuel storage area off to the side.

Under 200lbs is a good size. It will be easy enough to move around, but still have plenty of mass to work well. Your straps should be fine. Remember that 200lbs standing still becomes significantly more when it drops or slides due to a turn or sudden stop. That chunk of steel is going to be traveling as fast as your car, so when you come to a sudden stop, you're going to want enough strapping and wood to stop a 200lb hunk of metal traveling at 60mph, for example. Going from 60 to 0 in thirty feet puts a bit of stress on the strapping, to say the least. Be sure to put some cardboard or carpet scraps between the straps and the metal so the corners of the steel don't slice through the nylon.

What you need is to salvage the door off of a clothes washer/dryer, or the lid from a 55g drum. Cut a hole in the middle for the tuyere to pass through and then cut a hole in your plywood so that only the outside inch of the door/lid is supported on the plywood. Then move the fire pot back closer to the middle of the table to get it a bit farther away from support structure. The whole re-do shouldn't take more than an hour to finish and get another fire going. The borax/water solution does a great job of 'burnproofing' wood. It's not 100%, but it will make a difference, and it keeps the bugs off.

Sounds like you let the wood get too close to the fire pot with your design. I would definitely open the hole in the plywood and build up the perimeter of the hole by screwing on more wood. The greater the surface area exposed to the heat, the more heat it will take to bring that area up to ignition temperature. Then I would use metal roof flashing to wrap the edge of the plywood. But, I wouldn't trim that flashing, rather I would let it dangle down into the airspace below the forge so that its surface area could help to radiate the heat away.

Beautiful drill!

I'm so glad you said that. I was reading through all the responses, wondering about all these contraptions and why nobody mentioned simply knocking out the wedge. Then I started doubting myself, wondering what everyone else knew that I didn't! It was a nervous few minutes....