sanddraggin

I have two comments for you:

1) Nice tongs. I made my first pair as part of a class, and one of the things they said to do was to forge down the edges on the material. On yours, you might want to heat the reins and forge out some of the rebar texture. It may be more comfortable using them over the long haul.

2) Did your level come as a part of a set? I have the same one, with the magnet, that came with a bigger one. Empire, right?

Thomas, It does get in the way unless you are on the extreme end of the jaw so I was going to modify that bracket. I think I will bend the end down. As for adjustment I put two adjuster screws on the table so I can crank them in and then tighten the plate. It works ok but like Smoothbore said It's a learning experience.

Downsfish, Hey bro. Glad you like it and your nieces love hanging out in the shop. It's a good thing.

I need it to still be pretty mobile so I can work on other projects(cars, motorcycles, cigarbox guitars) so I'm not going to anchor it but I really like the suggestion about the ballast. I think when I build the lower leg support I'll make it a shelf so I can try that. Thanks

I've got an exhaust fan on the back door most of the time and the door is usually all the way open, but the wind was whipping through that day so I had to shut the door a bit.

Thanks for the encouragement. Here are the pictures. I'm somewhat reluctant to post pics of the tongs because they are ugly but they are my first pair.

So I built some stands for my post vise and my anvil and needed to try them out. I couldn't find coal or charcoal locally so I needed another source of fuel. Last time I was in utah I picked up a couple bags of Charcoal but it was almost out. Wood pellets are really popular here in Elko so I thought I'd try it.

I got the Charcoal going and then started pouring the pellets in. It put the fire right out and smoked the shop up bad. It took me two more tries to get a fire that would keep burning. I didn't think the pellets were working because it really wasn't building a coal bed. Then I found my ash dump was letting the air blast out. As soon as I tightened it up the pellets started building a much hotter fire and began making a bed of coals. After that I just would feed the pellets in the sides and then slowly put them in the fire, otherwise it would suffocate the fire and smoke like crazy.

Now that I got a good fire I decided to make some tongs. I had some 1/2" rebar so I thought I would try that. It took me about two hours but I did get a working set of tongs built. They are HIDEOUS...LOL. But they will work and I learned a whole bunch about what I'm looking for next time.

When I got finished I realized that I wasn't nearly as tired as I had been in the past. With the anvil at the right height and on a solid mount it made life so much better. The vise worked out very well but it does need some adjustment to hold it tighter.

All in all I'm very pleased with the results of today.

I had some 1x1 angle so I cut them into about 3" pieces and tapped them in place on all four sides. Made it very stable. And today I finally got to pound on it with the new stand.HOLY SMOKES! It was so much better. Thanks for the help.

I finally made a vise stand. I've had the vise kicking around for a few months and never had a chance to use it. It's a 4" and weighs in at about 45 lbs. I liked the striking vise stand so well I copied it even though mine is still full length. I need to put another brace on it cause the vise moves a little if I really crank on it, but other than that it works good.

Thanks Rusty, The only thing I don't like about it is that when I welded the base the Plate warped so it doesn't sit flat, It rocks a little. I think I'm going to flip it over and start a fire on the bottom plate to try and straighten the plate(warp the other way).

Thanks Curly I appreciate it.

I knew I had been going about it all wrong, Thanks Neil...lol

I'm looking to date my Hay Budden. A 5259 is stamped on the foot.

Any help on this would be great.

Thanks

Here is my Anvil Stand I made this morning. It's 8 inch diameter pipe 1/2" think with a 3/4" flange on both ends and then welded to a 3/4" plate on Bottom. Now I need to finish anchoring it to the stand.

Here is my Anvil Stand I made this morning. It's 8 inch diameter pipe 1/2" think with a 3/4" flange on both ends and then welded to a 3/4" plate on Bottom. Now I need to finish anchoring it to the stand.

Hey Wannaforge, I live in Elko. Just moved here from Utah. I just recently heard about the classes in Tonapah and am planning on going this summer. I'm pretty green myself at this but it's a Heck of a lot of fun. Hopefully see you around.

I found a guy who has a bunch of fire bricks for sale locally. They are unused and he is asking 20 cents apiece. I bought 25 bricks ac/dc now I'm wishing id have bought more. I don't have a specific use for them just thought I could use them around the shop.

I have heard of baking soda working but never tried it.

I read somewhere that pool cleaners are a good source as well. I went to the big stores and couldn't find any, but the smaller locally owned stores had the Washing Soda. It's likely that they had it because they try to be GREEN so they carry alot of products for making your own___________(insert product).

I used a 12 volt charger and i added enough washing soda to bring the amps up between 5 and 10. Whenever I turned it all off to take the part out it took a while before I got a good amp rate going again so some patience is required. good luck and let me know how it works for you.

Here's the anode plate. It was new when I put it in there.

And then the finished product

So I just picked up this post vise for 45 bucks. The screw box looks good and the threads look good. It weighs about 65 lbs. It's missing the spring which I'm not too worried about. I decided to try and clean it up and always wanted to try the Electrolysis method.

I had a 20 gallon tote/bin. Stuffed the vise in and a Sacrificial anode(18 Ga. steel). Hooked the positive side of a batt. charger to the anode and the negative side to the vise. Put some washing soda in the water and let her rip.

After four hours it turned the water green. I pulled it out and found it already started eating the rust. I put more soda in the water and found that the more I put in the higher the amps( To a point)

After ten hours it had turned orange and with the higher amps it really was bubbling.

I left it over night and came back to it finding a think orange layer of scum on top, the anode plate was covered in a 1/8th inch layer of sludge on it. I scraped it off and found that the plate had pock marks throughout some going all the way thru.

When I pulled it out I used engine oil and rubbed it down. I found some markings on the vise. 1913 G 15 any help with identifying it is great. Thanks.

I'll try and get some pics up

So I just picked up this post vise for 45 bucks. The screw box looks good and the threads look good. It weighs about 65 lbs. It's missing the spring which I'm not too worried about. I decided to try and clean it up and always wanted to try the Electrolysis method.

I had a 20 gallon tote/bin. Stuffed the vise in and a Sacrificial anode(18 Ga. steel). Hooked the positive side of a batt. charger to the anode and the negative side to the vise. Put some washing soda in the water and let her rip.

After four hours it turned the water green. I pulled it out and found it already started eating the rust. I put more soda in the water and found that the more I put in the higher the amps( To a point)

After ten hours it had turned orange and with the higher amps it really was bubbling.

I left it over night and came back to it finding a think orange layer of scum on top,

When I pulled it out I used engine oil and rubbed it down. I found some markings on the vise. 1913 G 15 any help with identifying it is great. Thanks.

I'll try and get some pics up