tinkererham

On the casting of the firebox(?) I saw "Centaur Binghamton(?) Wis. I have no pictures.

I want to make a fair offer for a forge my friend left with his heirs. (I miss him!) It is a rusted unit that needs a new pan at least. His estate has not been settled yet and I don't know anything about the real value of this forge. the clinker breaker still turns, but the cover on the bottom seems to be rusted in place. I only used my bare hands to try to open it. Any suggestions?

May I ask, would the financial standing of the weapon bearer have some affect on the value of material used to make his weapon?

I'm new here, this subject intrigues me. My favorite people I allow to pay what they think my work is worth. Usually they pay more than I think they would. Repeat jobs I can do a good quote for, although I'm sure most of the time I could get more money.
The most recent experience I had was a mistake on my part. A man asked if I could weld a small bracket for him and how much would I charge. I should have put my glasses on, after saying I could do the piece for 20 bucks he agreed to have me do it. After walking away I looked more closely, (putting my glasses on) then realized I had a cast iron bracket! After some thought on the way to my shop I realized a remake of the piece using hot rolled carbon steel (which I had in stock) would probably be faster and easier considering my equipment and facilities. The customer seemed thrilled when he got delivery, and I made $5 an hour, but stuck to my quote. I will wear my glasses during evaluations hence forth!

quote name='don't tread on me' timestamp='1290013091' post='197855']
A friend of mine gave me this forge and another one just like it. The other one is werthless becase of a big crack running threw it but this one is still good. I put a shovol handle as the pump handle and am going to put a lether belt on it when I get one. It has a small crack as you can see but someone bolted a 1\4 in steel plate over it to hold it together. I am going to change the blower to another one that I have becase this one only has 3 good blades. Other than that it is perty good and will work fine.