MLMartin

I take good advantage of odd filling and grinding, I try and keep 3 different heights for vices in my shop, each one about 5 inch higher than the next. In truth I have 5 good vices in my shop and they are all set at different heights. I have been in shops where some one has maybe a dozen vices and everyone set at the exact same height, and they were all to short for most filing work. Odd

Is it overly humid in your area? Damp sand does not flow well.

If you buy a simple stick welder. I would highly suggest looking for one that has Direct Current capability's. Lots of little stick welders are AC, Alternating Current. Some of them are AC/DC capable. I have a little Miller stick welder that is AC/DC and It was been wonderful. I have welded material 1/8 inch thick to 1 1/5 inch with it. The ticker material was cut with a beveled joint and pre heated before welding multiple pass's. The Direct Current gives better arc control then Alternating Current. Also with DC you can use a TIG torch with Gas bottle and "scratch start" and weld very thin material. And lastly some special welding rods require DC. There are lots of fancy rods for cast iron, tools steel, stainless steel, welding rusty dirty metal, ext. The little Miller I have was around 600 new 7 years ago.

You might look into using a gas forge. Or using a fan assisted hood for the coal forge. Even great shops with great chimneys seem to become covered with dust from the forge. Also make sure to install good fire detectors and CO2 detectors. I would consider installing very good forced ventilation in the shop area. It will be very poor in the living area is there is a lot of grinding or painting or any type of chemical use just below. good luck

looks like your idea has already been copied and is being sold on ebay. I think its a handy thing, I hope you at least received a thanks for the idea before some one started profiting off your idea

If you find some very old anvils in Europe you can see hardy holes that small, but I have never seen one so small on a more modern anvil. I believe its just as you said in your post, To light for most work. Most anvils in america are large enough that such a small hole would just be silly.

Just because it can do something dose not mean that those little welders are build to handle welding material that large for extended periods. The manufactures recommendations for such welders is a very low duty cycle. Yes I know carbon arch torches can heat, Beyond cutting with a carbon torch. I did not think these things were even in circulation any more. I asked about brazing with carbon arch at the local welding supply and the employee behind the counter just laughed at me and told me no one used such things anymore. I know that things can be built with 110V, I have been restricted to such use many times working while traveling. I have welders that can handle the lower volt/amps. The low input is a large step down from 220V

Hello everyone Here are the pictures of the installed bracket. The building was built by Major Peter Bocquet in 1770. Not much of a surprise but install was harder than planed. I requested a mason on site and was told there would be a builder there, and there was no one. Also the client stated it was to be under 14 foot but when I arrived on site he wanted over 16 foot. Also I was told I would be working over a sidewalk but ended up working over a street with traffic. The guy tried to talk his way out of paying for install, also I arrived at 10 am, a four hour drive from my shop to get there and the client did not have the permits to start work. So I sat around till noon waiting to start work, and there were 20+mph winds while I was up the ladder. A little tip for masonry epoxies. LOOK AT THE EXPIRATION DATE I was at the top of the latter with drilled holes when I found out that the epoxy I bought from MCMaster one week earlier was 2 years expired All said and done I am happy its on the building and I have been paid. I just returned from a nice trip to Colonial Williamsburg and now its time to get back to work in the shop Mackenzie Martin Martin Forge Works

I do not think you can weld Stainless Steel with OXY/ACT. But you can solder stainless steel. Some people still weld with OXY/ACT but most people doing that are doing restoration or body work for old cars. I guess some one could weld something 1/2 thick with OXY/ACT but I think it would be wasteful of gas and need a very large torch. Now welding 3/16 plate say in a outside corner joint should be a simple operation. Welding steel metal 1/16 thick is also a common practice with OXY/ACT. Cutting with OXY/ACT is handy but you can not cut Stainless Steel, Aluminum, Brass/copper/bronze, or most other exotic alloys. Generally you can only cut simple steels. OXY/ACT is a very well used rig in most full time blacksmith shops. It is wonderful for bending and local heats for forging, riveting. A welder that is restricted to only 110V is pretty small. I would not regularly try and weld something 3/16 or thicker with one. It can be done but is a poor option. You can not heat or braze with a arc welder. You can weld Stainless steel and maybe Aluminum depending if your welder has alternating current. For the most versatile in a forging shop I would chose a OXY/ACT If you are doing more fabrication work and want some versatility I would look into a good Arc welder, preferably a constant current machine (stick welder) with TIG welding option.

I love it. Would you please tell us a little about how you built it? Is the body hollow? Maybe solid arms? Looks grand.

Some of the wax may melt off if he really gets the fire going. I am not worried about it. He did not want paint and something like stove black is out of the question because it would mark peoples cloths if they sat on it. I was not comfortable with a coating that would have a chemical smell if he over heated the thing so wax seemed the only choice to me. Anyone have a better idea for a coating? At the end of the day its what he asked for, I hope he likes it. Mackenzie Martin

Great looking vise. I very much like the decoration on the front leg. It is nice a bold. There is a small bit of filled decoration on the upper leg of my older post vise.

Here is one of the stranger projects I have made. The client asked for a fire fender, table, and bench all in one. I have never heard the term fire fender but that is what he called it. I would say fire screen. I tried to talk the client out of a combination project but he was adamant that one thing be all three items, First off I know that the vertical bars are to far apart to stop sparks. He wanted this design and told me he had gas logs and there would be no sparks to deal with. The whole shape is heavily based off a photo of a cheap fire screen that's probably from a sweat shop. But this is what he wanted. The piece opens up to set in front of the fire place, then it folds closed and with the addition of a table top of some type becomes a table / bench. I am not making the table top. There are 193 tenons through the top frame. My little addition to make it a nicer product. I am fond of the shape but personally I would have liked to have built just a table that was solid and did not fold then set a sheet of glass on top. But here is what I have, Mild steel, about 17" tall and 56" wide, 1/4" round, 3/8 hex, and 1/4 by 3/4 flat bar. bees wax and black gilders paste finish Mackenzie Martin Martin Forge Works

Mmmmmm I want to play with the big hammers again. Just looking at the shovel blade its obvious you have a great deal of forging power. Fun work

Is there a reason you want to use a bottom fuller only? As apposed to using the pien of the hammer on top and just the flat anvil underneath. If I wanted to quickly elongate material I would use a hammer with a narrow pien.

Huzaa! Glad to hear more work is on its way to the big hammers

Looking forward to a good blower set up for belt drive! I am very fond of the looks of the European portable forges that have a treadle driving and wheel driving the blower. I hope you have some for sale this year.

you might find those corner braces at the bottom to be trip hazards, but the vise look great!

I think some of those vices had threaded hole in the bottom to screw in a bar or pipe for a leg. Also I have seen people use that type of vise with out the bench mount. They screw in the "leg / pipe" and use the whole thing like large wrench.

I will have my little giant up and running soon, just come over and play with it. If you stick with blacksmithing long enough I am sure youll find a old hammer to use.

A 500lb anvil still needs to be fastened to a stand. I am sure the stem is a nice addition. Even a 500lb anvil will fall off the anvil quickly when some one is striking out on the end with a 13lb hammer

100 - 200 lb Peter Wright anvils are pretty common in North America. Maybe the most common of anvils here. It should not be hard to find another one like it in better shape.

I would not pay more than 50$ for that anvil. And even that much is pretty high. That anvil has had very bad fails to the face. The whole face may break loose while trying to repair it.

There was a post a few years ago about a fellow who welded up the edges and chisel cuts in an anvil by tig welding spring steel 1095 onto the anvil. It looked great when he was done. I cant say I remember him ever talking about how it held up over time. Hopefully he will speak up. Regardless of the type of steel used to repair an anvil it needs to be pre heated and post heated and cooled slowly.Some people will say they did not bother and its fine to weld on a cold anvil. They are wrong. Have some people had good results doing this? Yes I am sure it has happened some. But the majority of welding done on a cold anvil has caused cracking. Industrial practices call for pre heat and post heat on welding tool steel most of the time. Even though you can roll up the heat slower with a tig than stick welding the heating speed is still much to fast for tool steel. I am confident in saying pre heat and post heat is mandatory

I sure dont like to see all those anvils brushed and burnished smooth like Matchless antiques does. I am sure that many markings are lost as the hard steel wire in the cup brush cuts away the top layer of iron. Yes anvils are tools, but many of them are pretty old and not easy to idea the make. When the makers mark is steel wire brushed at 6000 rpm over and over any type of lettering is smeared and ground out. Its nice to hear you will leave the hard natural patina on the anvil. The larger anvil with the mounting stem on the bottom looks very interesting