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It appears that my middle daughters inlaws have a son with a loose keyboard.

Don't forget the most important part, The Horseshoe over the door!

The bottom leg is just there to take any downward force applied to the top jaws as in hammering, its much solider than most benches its mounted on, just cut the bottom leg off the right amount to get the height you want. Oh, and keep the cut off piece in case you want to reattach it at a later date.

There was a time when I was an actual working smith, that I considered an adjustable height anvil. I took a picture of this anvil at a hammer in in Missouri and liked the idea of the pipe flange and pipe bolted to the floor. Then the light bulb clicked on and I got the idea to remove most of the leg and fasten the vise to a piece of pipe that slides up and down on another piece of pipe inside like the adjustable hitches on fifth wheel camper trailers and use a series of holes for a pin to go thru both pieces and then two sets of set screws set at 90 degrees to each other to take the slack out when using it. Another option would be to find an old Semitrailer Dolly Jack and put a flange on the bottom to fasten to the floor, so you could just crank the vise to the proper height you needed for the job at hand.

Waianvil, it depends on what you are going to use it for. 1. bench vise, for filing, twisting and other hand work. standing beside it with your arm down by your side and bent up at the elbow, your elbow should just rest on top of the jaws. 2. pounding anvil, close to the anvil and used for a lot of hot work. Same height as anvil or about 6 inches taller. Like anything else you must decide what you are gonna use it for the most.

thingy I don't know the name of by the box of drill bits were freebies. thingy = wood splitting wedge. or a square punch

My Main anvil is a KeenKutter. LOL

nice job Teddy

you need a deeper fire for charcoal than for coal or coke, about 7 inches from bottom of fire to top of fire. the bottom third of the fire is oxidizing as that is where the air comes in and placing your iron in this area will usually burn it(oxidize it). the middle third of the fire is neutral as most of the oxygen is used up by the time it gets there and this is where your iron should be for heating purposes. the top third is carbuerizing and your iron will not get as hot but will carbeurize imparting extra carbon into the iron making it brittle. charcoal does burn up fast in a forge, and puts many fleas (little bits of hot charcoal embers) into the air that find their way down your neck and on your clothes and skin. Have you tried banking (surrounding) your central fire with wet charcoal (charcoal soaked in water) to control the size of your fire, this will also make the center fire much hotter and you will need less air. Banking a fire with wet coal, helps turn the coal into coke that is what really does the actual heating in a coal fire and also conserves coal as it narrows the fire to a more managable and conserving fire. Side Blown is when the air enters the fire from the side. Side Draft is when the fumes, smoke and heat is drawn off the fire by a flue placed at the side of the actual fire.

I have TM 9-2852 Instruction Guide - WELDING - Theory and Application - War Department . 3 June 1943

Thank you Uri for sharing you side draft forge flue design, I used it for the Ag Museum Forge and the 2 smiths who have used it so far call it the Super Sucker Flue. Jr Strasil

This is the Anvil Stand I designed and built for the Ag Museum Blacksmith Shop, there will be no resident smith so I made it so it is easily adjustable 7 inches in height to accomodate visiting guest smiths.

I made a pair of 12 inch long tongs for my grandson to use and found out they are much handier than the big long ackward ones and the ones I made for myself are the ones I use the most.

m brothers, the tools have all been donated to the museum by various people. Frosty, whenever there is something going on at the museum there are always working directors around to help with any tasks that need to be done. They were great about finding materials and helping in any way they could with the building of the forge. The majority of the directors are retired farmers and other business people with an interest in preserving the past, and it doesn't hurt that they have accumulated wealth they are willing to share by donating buildings and artifacts to the museum. Some of the buildings are new structures for the storage of artifacts and some are historic buildings they have had moved to the museum site and volunteers have restored them and keep them up. Included are approx 100 + old windmills of many different kinds that have been erected mostly down Windmill Lane that is about a half mile long extending from the Main Museum entrance down a lane in the field south of the Museum proper to Hiway 36 on the south edge of the museum land. A lot of the directors use the buildings to store their restored tractors and old cars in for a permanent display for the public. Its the same story at the Albany Historical Musem about 20 miles to the west at Sabetha, Ks another little Kansas Town I am associated with both museums as well as the local Richardson County Historical Society in my home town.

This is what the new Forging station at the Ag Museum looks like now. And this is the new Adjustable Height Anvil Stand, there are 3 pieces of 2 by 10 and 4 pieces of 3/4 plywood for inserts for a total of 7 inches of height adjustment. And this is the cleaned up and anchored to the floor large post vise for the station.

For that can view a slide show. Slideshow of Ag Museum Forge Construction - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting