DanBrassaw

Thanks! I was hoping there was some easy trick, but is there ever? I'll just have to practice more.

Beautiful work! In the third picture, there is a piece with a hole in the diagonal that is just too perfectly done. How did you get that to come out so nicely on the end of the bar like that? I tried playing around with it tonight in some 5/8 square, and failed miserably. I love the way it looks.

Grisly. I looked away, clicked the link, then slowly looked back until I could barely see it. That was enough for me. This kind of thing is exactly why I don't mess about with crafting my own hydraulic systems, since I don't know enough to be safe about it.

Cheers to that, Thomas. I've been wanting a guillotine tool for quite some time, but am waiting to find a good price on a quantity of a reasonably sized die material first. (Free would be even better!)

This thread is a riot! I don't have a juicy tale of my own, unfortunately, but I do have to say that some of the adults should be excused of their ignorance as well. At least they're asking questions! Worse is indifference. Reminds me of the old joke, "What's the difference between ignorance and apathy? I don't know, and I don't care."

I have a concrete floor in my shop, and chained the anvil down to eyes set in the floor. Three chains, tensioned with turnbuckles, go down right next to the stump. Not as simple or cheap as spikes, but my anvil doesn't move a millimeter!

How high is the outlet of your pipe in relation to your roof/surrounding obstructions? You can increase draft by making it taller.

I've made this stock stand, it works great! I used 1/8th inch plate for the base, it works, but the 1/4 the author suggests would be better. Also, I would suggest a square hole in the "standoff", the round hole allows the piece to rotate if you bump into it, making things get whacky.

Mine is a metal tube frame with an integrated seat, and two pedals. I haven't tried one standing and only using one foot, but the seat thing might be worth thinking about.

I know you didn't ask about this, but it looks like your stone isnt true. I had good luck getting mine to runs smooth by making a little flat tool rest and using an old carbide circular saw blade on its side, running it side to side as I pedaled. I just kept using different teeth as they got worn down. It took about an hour since I had to remove a quarter inch of stone to make it concentric. There may be better ways, but it worked!

If you've got a welder, you can easily make your own hand tamp with a thick piece of plate. It will take a while to get results, but for a smaller shop or if you can just pick away it at the end of each day, it would be better than nothing. Better yet, convince some neighborhood kids how much fun it is and charge them for the good time!

I'm collecting all these pennies, BTW. This post alone has just about made my retirement account double.

Hard to tell the scale, perhaps the notches lined up with a pritchel hole on a particular anvil? That would seem a little close, but its a possibility.

He means drive a non-tapered triangle that you've forged into a heated swage blank, holding the triangle at an angle. Giving you a tapered v swage.

I discovered the UV problem with my bags full of clinker that sat outside my shop door for a year, went to move them and, "whoops!"