Bigred1o1

mitch you have a good point about the threads i don't wire wheel those i tend to free up the grease or rust in them and hand brush them then add some oil and run them in and out until the move free clean out what ever loose junk is in the box and fill with fresh grease

i scrape off dried grease with a putty knife and screwdriver then wire wheel things then blow them off with compressed air then a good dousing in mineral spirits that i then blow off with the compressed air then a thin coat of boiled linseed oil thinned with a bit of mineral spirits after that they are good to go i have used electrolysis for smaller stuff but for things like anvils and the like i am more looking to remove dried grease and rust i don't bother going down to bare metal just get every thing loose off and you end up with something that looks old but cared for

i had that happen Thomas i did not even feel it and found it while showering for dinner i have about 1 1/2 inches of wavy wire inside of me and about a 1/4 of an inch sticking out the wire penetrated the cloth welding jacket and my shirt to find its way into me i can tell you i did a quick once over to make sure there were no more stuck in me anyplace ells

if it was me i would head back to the scrap yard with a ball peen hammer and wander around quacking on things that struck you as being usable as an anvil i have been pleasantly/not-so pleasantly surprised over how hard some of the scrap i have pulled back to the shop to use for one thing or another long story short while a forklift tine is nice you could stumble across something ells that will work sand having a hammer lets you test for rebound and hardness right there in the pile without having to invest the time in digging something out that turns out to be dead soft

so i went to a tag sale this weekend and besides from getting some stitches i came home with a nice old manual 20ton press cleaned her up and she spins like a top once i got the bird crap out of the bearing then today i was helping level a house and i ended up coming away with with a really nifty screw jack duff brand the inner threads turned really hard and as i was freeing them up the outer set started moving i had no idea they were even there

my thought is if you have a flat floor then you can go with stump or any base you want if you have a dirt sand or gravel floor stumps are fantastic as you can settle them into the ground a bit its perfect on the other hand if you are like me and have a slightly uneven concrete floor a three footed steel stand is nice as its self leveling and wont rock around as no matter where i put it in the shop if you plan on putting it in one spot and bolting it down then your options are what ever makes you happy any of them will work well if you have the anvil well attached to the base

Yahoo this was a real treat thanks for taking the time to post and describe some of these old dogs

i was taught that if you want nice springy handles that you are better off forge welding on some spring steel (around here tedder teeth very nice stuff to work with) with mild steel for the jaws then this lets you use a nice piece of spring steel for the handles and a chunk of mild steel for the jaws this lets you reforge and quench tongs with less worry of them getting brittle from quenching or work hardening and to be honest i am very happy to save the time and energy needed to draw out the handles if i am making tongs its bc i need them for a project and that is what i am getting payed for not the time i am spending making the tongs as to the argument that all steel had to be forged down to a desired size seems a bit silly by this argument unless you are starting from a bloom and working your way to your tongs you are not doing it in the traditional manner though i bet if you go back in time you would still find shops with steel sorted by size and not a pile of ingots waiting to be forged to shape you had the handy apprentice to set to a task such at forge 10 ft of 1/2 inch round (chop chop) that being said whose to say that my "teacher" was right as to this is the way to make tongs just my 2cp

fantastic good to know you are still working on it I have really enjoyed following your progress

just thought i would give this thread a bump and here is hoping your build went well

just thought i would have a bit of fun with your photo and give your anvil a nose job i did a good bit of rebuilding on a 200lb pw with 7018 rod rough ground it to the shape i wanted and then finished it off with a good bit of draw filing once finished you cant see a color difference between the old wr horn and the new 7018 if i remember correctly i think i added about 2.5lb to the anvils weight by the end

Jeremy he is doing this as a project the point is to reuse this particular metal and turn it from scrap into something ells

my bet is this is more about transformation of one thing with little to no value to something with potentially great spiritual value another version of swords into plowshares

my bet would be that the fisher has a flatter top and as a result better surface contact with the iron and if the pw is slightly uneven you are transferring heat via heating up the iron the air between the anvil and then the anvil

if it was mine i would work it to square and then make tooling to fit it i have jammed hardie tools in one one of my anvils that has a slightly rectangular hardie hole and as i have several tools that it is nice to be able to swap what way i put them in i tool the time with a chisels and a file to square it up

its amazing how things can travel i had a bead of slag from when i was welding get inside my mask bonce off my face then the mask and end up burning my eyelid even though i had the safety glasses i have in my profile pic on i got a nice pea sized blister on my upper eye lid from that bit of pinball

thank you all for your thoughts and comments there dose seem to be a common trend on this sight though people can ask a simple question and end up getting very complicated responses all i was looking for was if anyone knew of a web sight that had a current prices on steel between blacksmithing on the side and repairing farm equipment there is never three days in a row where i use similar sized stock one day i can be using 1/4 inch square next day it can be 8inch channel today i cut up some 8inch channel to get 2 six foot pieces i needed for some run up ramps for a bridge i pulled some scrap out of the pile and went to work there is no way i would charge new prices for it but a quick ball park check on line would have been nice

i over build most things that i make for the simple reason that you never know where rust will get in and eat away at an engendered part and cause it to crumple if you over build you have given your project extra meat to deal with the environment and the chance that people will clime on something that was not intended to have people clime on it on another good example the last set of ramps i build for a trailer were to load a 55horse JD the next time i saw them in use the tractor had had a bucket added to it and a backhoe attachment on it so it gained a bit of weight

i have a very good relationship with the guys i buy from locally and as a result i did not want to bug the over small stuff i have no problem going to them and saying i need a quote for 20ft of x and 10ft of this but if i am say making 2 strap hinges out of 3 x 1/4 and it will only use 7ft of stock i have on hand i don't want to bother them they are very good guys and they have no cutting fees as long as you don't abuse them so they cut up a 20ft 3inch channel into 2ft lengths at no charge i like working with them and i was trying to find a simple work around for when i was doing basic costs i think i have that now part of my goal here as well was being able to punch in what i needed and have a final tally show up on the screen this is handy with the good old internet shopping cart the need for this is i am dyslexic and the fewer times i have to copy numbers the better and yes i realize this will not be perfectly accurate but it is a handy work around for roughing out prices i know the internet can be fickle and can lead me wrong that was why i asked for recommendations as to a good web sight

thankyou all for your input on this i always forget to put in a markup on materials and it has bitten me in the butt on a few fabrication projects

man am i glad i found this thread i have my first dogs ashes she was one of my best friends growing up and i have not had the hart to scatter her ashes some place i might not stay and this seems like a perfect thing to do for myself and my brother and sister

thanks Judson that's is 2 fantastic bits of info thank you i was also poking around online once more and found metals depot not that i am going to buy from them but for when doing a rough cost they will be perfect but being able to call Capitol Steel for the real price and knowing that i should putt them on my swing by list is a huge help as for buying across the border its a pain i am 4 miles from the border and I do head up now and then when i am in a rush for a odd sized piece of steel for fixing some piece of farm equipment or another plus the only guy that is any good at rebuilding hydraulic pistons is across the border now and they you get to have an interesting talk with the border guards over how there is no bill of sale bc i own the piston and was just getting it repaired

this is more i have about 45ft of 3x 1 1/2 channel similar lengths of square 1x1 1 1/2x1 1 1/2 and several hundred feet of flat stock and another 80ft of 1x1 by 1/4 angle and a lot of other odds and ends i don't need my prices to be perfect but i would like to know that i am charging close to what it will cost me to restock as well my local steel supplier is a 2 man shop and its all still done with hand written price ledgers and I feel bad stopping them from working to run down prices on something i am not going to be buying from them most everything that is not flat stock is hot rolled a36 this was more so i can make up a "shopping list" for a project and have a rough idea as to costs i don't know if that clarify things at all

hi can anyone recommend a good web sight to look up various steels to get a good idea as to what a project would cost i have not found a good sight for just lists of prices for channel and angle and the like by the foot that you can just page through i have quite a bit of channel and flat stock on hand and recently realized how much prices have gone up and that as a result i have not been charging enough for materials on some projects thanks all

you are looking for the tailgating section http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/16-tailgating-buy-sell/