MLMartin

Why were you trying to lighten the contact wheel? It seems that a heavier wheel would hold more momentum as it first made contact with the tire. It looks like you are a pro on the lathe. I wish I knew how to run one better.

Frosty you might be on to something with the Monks. Maybe they have artist inking illuminated pages in all the booklets. Little flames and temper lines in the margins. 150 seems a bit ridiculous

I have a vice that has ball ends that are riveted onto a bar with tenon ends. I believe this specific vice has had the screw replaced by a machinist as a one off. Why do you need to remove the handle from the vice?

Crossed hot dogs hahahhaa do you want mustard with that? What is the crossed stamp? Canons? Some times rubbing some chalk on the side then lightly rubbing it off with your hand will show the stamps in the side a little more. Good luck

It looks like your forge is in the far back corner. I would try and make sure you have at least 3 feet on both sides of you forge. Think about trying to heat the very middle of a 5 foot bar. You would not want to jamb the end of the bar into the wall trying to heat the middle. I like to have my forge against a wall with three sides fully open to walk around.

I can see the open air and walled area being a great thing if you have nosy or troublesome people around you. I do not have room to store everything inside my shop and things that are "Nice" seem to disappear from time to time. Looks like it could be a wonderful little shop. If you do build your shop take some time to install shelves and storage first thing! If you move all the tools in first they will spread out quickly, and installing storage later on will be hard becouse of all the things in the way. Good Luck

Is that thing a cameleon? I have never seen a vise blend it to the ground so well. Haha terrible photo the person took. If you look at it make sure to take the screw and box apart and look at the screw AND inside the screw box. I have seen many vices where the screw is in great shape, but the cast iron screw box is almost worn out. The threads on the screw and inside the screw box should be square, not a sharp point. In the US a five inch vice can normally be had for around 100 if you look around. If it all looks good offer him 100 cash, if he wants more tell him that is all you have and maybe you will call back in a few months

Little divot, looks like a major chunk removed. But it can still be used. I would also remove all those nuts and junky spacers between the handle and front leg in the vice. If the screw does not turn all the way in look to see if there is crud in the screw box. Also the vice jaw could be welded up and ground back to shape. Should be a good vice

Taring it down! It looks like it is only a few weeks old. My hammer is solid black from at least a 1/16th inch of oil and shop dust grime covering the whole thing. Good luck with the rebuild

I think you are much better off buying some type of steel block and have a second anvil. If you could get some steel plate something 3 or 4 inch thick then stand it on edge. Something around 10 by 10 by 3 would be great. Call your local scrap yards and ask for something like that, also call your local machinist or fabricators. I Think a plate clamped on the anvil would be pretty poor.

Did anyone read that article " the shooting of an anvil off the base of another anvil was used as both a warning system" "Villages who didn’t have the benefit of a cannon for protection sometimes used the shooting of an anvil to ward off would-be attackers" What a bunch of baloney. No village had a anvil explosive security system. Some people will make up any "historical facts" they think are funny. If a town was attacked in the colonial days people used guns for security. News these days is pretty depressingly inaccurate. I am also surprised a TV program would go and film a anvil shoot, was it not just a year ago Discovery filmed a anvil shooting competition and some famous anvil shooter blew up his hand and injured the film crew?

Sounds great Boss! What time dose work start? I will bring coffee

Kind of sad to read that the person repairing the gate did not want to bring in a "forge guy". Makes me wonder about all the repair. I have seen many many gates repaired very poorly by general fabricators. Lots of fat globby electric welds holding things together. I hope all the repair on this was clean!

I believe many haybuddens were made out of two pieces and were electrically welded together at the waist. Welding two large blocks of steel together should be fine. If you chose to weld them together at the waist you need to have a full penetration weld. This could be done by placing something like 1 inch round in the center of the waist between the top and bottom then welding from the center out and creating a solid block of steel. If you set the two blocks together face to face and only weld around the perimeter you will not get the same rebound and the anvil will not perform as well. Welding rods/wire has become more expensive in the past few years. The time invested and the welding consumables might be more expensive than making the anvil from one solid piece.

A down side to lighter heads for power hammers is the mass of steel that can be worked. If your hammer head is very light even with a great number of blows there will not be the force to move material in the middle of the bar. Imagine forging 2 inch round bar and hammering on it as fast as you can with a 1/4 pound hammer. The surface material might start moving but you would only end up mushrooming the bar. Now think about working 2 inch round and hammering with a 20 pound hammer, you would hammer slower but in the same amount of time you would move more material. So the heavier hammer would move material all the way though the stock, and the 1/4 pound hammer only the outside of the material. If the largest marital you work is around 1 inch sq then a hammer with a 20 or 30 pound head should be ok. If you want to forge something as big as 1 1/2 inch sq then a hammer head as bag as 60 100 pounds is probably better. Hammer head weight compared to size of material that can be worked is not a perfect comparison. A modern self contained air hammer like a sahinler with a 110 lb head hits much harder than a older mechanical hammer with the same size head good luck

The hammer looks great! simple and reliable. Have you fastened down the hammer to the ground yet? In your older video you can see the whole thing rocking pretty good. If it if fastened to the ground you will get a great improvement in how much martial can be worked in one heat. More work in less time is good. Even though the bottom die is starting to get hot is the heat so great that the temper of the die is affected? If it is something like 4140 I would think it could reach 300% and still work fine all day. Hot dies will not suck heat from the martial being forged as fast as cold dies. But you do not want to soften the die from to much heat. You can buy temperature crayons. These crayons melt at set temps. So you could buy 3 of them one that melts at say 200 one at 300 and another at 400. Then you use them to see just how hot the die is getting. Your simple hammer makes me happy! Good luck

If you are cutting a wood stump, I would suggest cutting it so the anvil is at the same height as your wrist. Set up the anvil and use it for a week or two. If you find that the anvil is to high it is easy to cut a few inch's off the stump. If you cut the stump short to begin with it is harder to make it taller. Also make sure to use a very heavy stump/stand. You do not want the anvil to tip over in use. Also make sure to fasten the anvil to the stand! Good luck, If you look up anvil stands on this site there is a long list of post of how other people mounted there anvil!

There should be a temperature rating on the bucket. If it is something you bought from home depot, lowes, ace, or any other general home repair store then it is unlikely that it will hold up to the high heat of a forge. I could be wrong, make sure to find that temperature rating. If the stuff is made for cementing bricks together for a home fireplace then it wont work. In a general iron working forge you need a temperature rating of 2000* to 3000* Good luck

The glass on top is 24" round, I think the iron ring was 20" OCD The ring is made from 2" by 1/4" flat bar. The legs started at 1" by 1/2" they taper from the middle ring all the way out. The center ring is 3/4" octagon. I do not know the center ring diameter, I just started bending and comparing the rings until I was pleased with the ratio. I do not remember the height of the table, some where around 32" - 36"

For the round tall table with a glass top. The top ring is bent round hot and a small chamfer was hammered on the edges. The ends of the ring were chamferred then butted together and I electrically welded them together. After any electric welds I always grind the weld joint smooth then place the welded area in the forge and take a heat and lightly planish the surface. I am sure the joint could have been forge welded, or even half lapped and riveted. I chose to electrically weld because it was convenient at the time. The two oval rings for the wood topped table were also bent hot and electrically welded. I often use a gas forge when bending large parts, I do not try and forge weld in my gas forge so I use electricity. I did not think the over all appearance would be changed from one weld or another, so I did not bother to light the coal forge. I do prefer to make any type of branching scroll work with a forge weld. I am glad some people have enjoyed the tables. A client has been asking me about some muti use table/stands so I may be building more soon. Something that could hold a table top, or maybe potted plants. Sounds like I will be building the swiss army knife table.

The design looks great! And I am happy to see iron work in a color other than black! I bet the white shows nicely out in the open air.

The anvil is certainly usable for forging a hammer, I just believe the stump/stand should be fixed to the ground if its going to be worked on that hard. I have been in a number of industrial shops that have young fellows working in them and seen to many with crushed hands or feet because everyone ells said Ooo don't worry about this or that, and many people with terrible burns because there boss told them you do not need a jacket to weld, Or sick because the older workers said a respirator to work with toxic chemicals was being a sissy. I am a young fellow myself and have been ridiculed many times because I always ware a flame retardant jacket when welding and do not use industrial equipment that is broken or set up improperly. I do not know everything, I have a long long time before I am a good smith. But I do know to look for dangers and try and fix the problem. If I influenced some one to be unsafe and they hurt themselves I would feel horrible With this being a family friendly website and having many young people come on here I always try and point out things that could be a health risk for people that are not well experienced in the metal industry

The little anvil price seems to really just be driven by people that like to collect little anvils, and specifically anvil brands that are high quality. I rarely see all the 20 pound cast iron anvils sell for much of anything. Although the cast iron anvil-vices something sell for a lot. Its just something that people collect. Its like the old oil cans from the early 1900s. What use does anyone have for a 1920 oil can? Some people just see them as art. I acquired a colonial leg vise with a blown out screw box and destroyed mount. It is pretty much useless as is. But I am going to repair it just because to me it is art! I would love to buy one of Tom Latanes little anvils! They are grand art. But I am a poor young smith without the deep pockets of many anvil collectors

You do not believe that a anvil of approximately 100lbs or heavier falling from about 2 feet could damage some ones foot to the point of crushing bones and ripping muscles or tendons if the person were only wearing boots or shoes without steel guards? I in no way think that it is ridiculous or inflammatory. It may be unlikely that it would hit some ones foot straight on. But unlikely things happen every day. Working in a industrial setting I try and look for accidents waiting to happen and do what I can to prevent them. I am not calling your skill as a blacksmith into any question nor am I trying to insult anyone. I am just pointing out for folks that may not have considered the danger that a anvil that is not securely fastened down can do serious damage to a human body.

More likely the worst thing that could happen is the anvil flip over and smash some ones foot and they have to have it amputated because the bones were crushed beyond repair.