ThomasPowers

Sounds like an iron ore with that much O2---is that a weight per cent BTW? How many tons do you have? Scrap Steel is under $200 a ton, ore would be much much cheaper! If the Si was higher I'd think it was a slag. If it is an ore you might be able to sell some of the nicer samples at rock shops.

12" long and the box joint? Not blacksmith's tongs!

as well as '62 (had my Sinclaire Dinoland dinosaur for many a year afterwards!)

I went to Expo 67 in Montreal but yes there have been more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_fair#List_of_expositions

Many people consider it too cold to forge when the propane won't vaporize. If you check the archives you will find a lot of posts on cold weather smithing and tricks there of: preheating anvil and tooling, placing a sheet of plywood on the floor ao you are not standing on cold concrete or snow, etc.

I have an appx 4"x4"x4" stump anvil of hardened 4140 and it's a sweet anvil to use. Weighs about 25 pounds but we use it as if it was much heavier. I would try to get a medium carbon steel and HT it over hardfacing it (might be cheaper too as HF is $$$). Can you find a damaged forklift tine and get material from that?

I picked up a spring from a dirt mover that was about 1.5" in diameter stock---haven't worked it yet as I'm waiting for MORE POWER. It was tossed aside when they were scrapping the dirt mover after the surplus auction at the local U.

Quite a few people from that general area show up. You could probably arrange to carpool if you checked with people ahead of time. Is there a meeting of the local ABANA Affiliate between now and then? (Note the special price for students and camping on-site is pretty cheap and fun if you can sleep through the dog pound at the end of the camping area.)

Actually I would suggest that we get this clean shop feller *banned* from the site leastwise pir wives stumble across his posts and learn that it *is* possible and make the rest of our lives a living 1134 ! (and for the humour impaired </ joke />

Actually I don't think it's the drill vise combo. I think the vendor is just top fishing---anybody bid on it yet?

Well I've made a pattern welded pizza cutter a time or two. How about a nasal for a spangen helm?

Didn't mention the drill did I? I *use* that! Easier to haul around than a post drill for when I need a hole at a no electricity demo...

Funny but as a flip side to this: at the last SWABA meeting we had a smith demonstrate his induction forge. What I quickly thought of is that with no burning fuel involved you could easily close up the shop and put in a swamp cooler or air conditioner! (Me having been forging at 42 degC in the shade lately) The flip side is that you could close up the shop and put in a wood stove, (running a pipe outside for combustion air for the stove would help a lot too). Of course if you can casually pick up an induction forge you could think of having a pied a terre somewhere warm for the winter... Under floor heating and radiant heating are both suggestions for working in areas where it's cold but a high air flow is required.

Those "1.5" round mild steel drops" had better not be 1040 or there were quite mislabeled! You never quite come out and say what SIZE you need---will this be a 8 pound hammer or a 4 oz hammer? If it's not too big it should be possible to find old sledges that can be cut through the eye and make two hammers. But they would be a lot of work to get them into proper shape. I've bought a number of old RR spike hammers with long cylindrical ends on them that could be re-worked. (Top price I have paid lately was $7 for something that would make several hammers) Some of the heavy duty old digging bars are a nice medium carbon steel. I of course assume you have called around to all the small job shop machine shops asking about drops or scrap. I also assume that if truck axle is suitable you have contacted all the truck repair places and asked about buying a scrapped axle at scrap rate and so cut it to suit yourself. (Promise them a custom hammer and you may get a "truckload" for free!) Pity you are in so remote and rural of an area. I think I could rustle up an axle around here and we have about 3 people per square mile in our county; lots easier to find one in thickly settled areas!---smile.

Wow I paid $35 for my vise and $10 for the drill both in very good condition. I think I'll take my vise to quad-state and try to get my money back on it as I haven't used it since I got a good postvise or twelve.

No, some folk are just like that. It is our duty to try to be nice to them anyway!

(and then there was that fellow who bought 30 anvils at *1* quad-state---had to go out and buy a trailer for his truck.)

Frosty; you're up!

I gave the memorial toast for Paw Paw Wilson at the Quad-State that year and I'm pretty fierce on the subject of metal fume fever; but there are times and places and warning someone off unnecessarily can be almost as bad as not warning someone as it dilutes the warning.

Phil---isn't it great when you realize that you can *make* a tool faster than finding one you already have!

Several of the blacksmith supply companies will be there selling on-site; so if you like to actually pick up the tools and see how they feel in your hands *before* buying then Q-S is a good place to go! Also books, knifemaking supplies, etc. Richard Postman often attends and so I've lugged anvils there to get his opinion (Unfortunately it was a Powell anvil not a Powers anvil---all I could read of the stamp was POWE...) As for deals it depends on how much you hunt. I picked up a 6" post vise last year for $50---*not* a common price for such a vise there. I also saw old farrier's rasps selling from $3 to 50 cents a piece---same brand and condition; so I bout $10 of the 50 cent a piece ones as I make 15 to 20 rasptle snakes a year. There was one table of "junk" that the price was lowered each day and every day there was something that hit my buy point. One of the aspects is that there is often a *lot* of something there to pick and choose from and often haggle over! Before gas got so high I have seen over a dozen powerhammer's for sale *on-site*! And every once in a while you just "luck out": last year I was passing by a box of "scrap tongs" for $10 each---about double what I would pay for one in that condition generally---and suddenly I stopped and went back and piked up out of that box a small set of tongs in good condition that I gladly paid $10 for---they were made from Titanium! Some years all I have spent is $20, some years $200; ALL years I could have spent $20000. I had a friend who was setting up a smithing school in Canada who came to quad-state to outfit his school as he could do it all at one place and at a much better rate than back home. However it's the sharing of ideas and methods and just jawing with other smiths that is the real pay off. It's easy to see something in the display area and figure out a totally different way to use it or how to make it. A groups of us "internet smiths" that originally hung around the keen-junk forum camp together (well some wimp out in motels...) and have potlucks together. It's where I see a lot of friends from back on the east coast and make new friends and mourn old friends who have passed on. One of the nice parts of Q-S is that you are not forced to sign up for the demos you attend and so can wander from one to another---or be front and center for a particular one that intensely interests you. Your registration is good for everything---watching demos, tailgating no extra fees required. (A lot of folks "tailgate" by marking the price on their stuff and leaving a can for the money letting them attend the demos or go buy stuff. I've never had a problem doing it that way. I hope to show up Wednesday evening myself though the big day for Demos, Tailgating, etc is Saturday though prices often are lowest on Sunday---but people are leaving then too.

Nah you'd just decide I was a mouthy hobbit with a glandular problem (I've been smithing for over 30 years now, often in a medieval and renaissance context and so have done a lot of odd stuff. I've been helped by a lot of folk too and try to "pay it on". Always better to profit by someone else's mistakes so you can go on and make your own new and improved ones!

the quite small "real" anvils go for a lot of money compared to the "normal" sized ones. I'd say that it was worth quite a bit more than a postvise though 155# s a large vise. My last 6" postvise was 100 pounds according to the stamping. If it's an 8" vise then you may want to consider it as the very large vises are also rare.

That is an offer not to be lightly turned down! I'd try to pass myself off as Lars save that Mr Turley knows me by sight!

Healthwise: be careful with charcoal, it is a known producer of carbon monoxide; but since you don't see it you tend to forget about it. Coal smoke tells you up front "I am bad to breathe!" (Propane is like charcoal, invisible killer! I generally use propane but with massive ventilation in my shop---not 1 window open on the far wall but 2 10' x 10' roll up doors along the path of general winds here.)