Bigred1o1

i just checked my 202lb PW and its 29long 4 /34 wide and 11 1/2 high 

the face is 18inches long as well i don't know if its horn has been trimmed a bit

i love dumpster diving as far as i can tell its better than fishing

and the kit is less expensive as well

the funny thing is i found a vice as well a month or so back not as spiffy as yours but it was a nice upgrade and only took some clean up and a little fire to free it up

ok as there seems to be some confusion here i am going to try and break down a bit more what i was asking

 most of the rates shown here have been for people bringing their own gear and setting up to demo

this means you have more time invested before and after the event setting up and taking down your gear

i live in norther vt these events are put on for the local schools other people come and do other demos some payed some not

the blacksmiths shop is fully stocked i bring my own punches and hammers just bc i like working with my own tools but other than that everything is covered i don't keep anything i make each class that comes through leaves with something to take back to the classroom

i was asked to find out what a fare price for doing such a demo would this is in an attempt to educate the museum as well as myself

so that we can move forward with them knowing what the real face value of the time I have donated is and so that they know that if they want more time what the real cost is

so what would you charge to demo for six hours where you have about half a hour set up time aka getting the fire hot and the anvils and vices where you want them and getting every cool and locked back up when you leave coal and materials are provided

thanks

that is true but as most of the talk on here has involved how much to charge for a demo where you bring all your tools and set up (this adds a good bit of back end time to a demo) and as this is more to find out what it would cost if they had to hire someone ells to do the demo

as to how much or how little my time is worth i know what i would charge per hour if i am making reproduction tools and hardware or teaching but doing simple things like hooks nails and other quick start to finish things for people as they come through seems like it should be on a lower level

similar to the fact that i have a different price per hour for doing on the ground work vs running an excavator

i was hoping for a bit of advice as to what a fare price was to charge not only for myself but for those paying me

I demo at a museum I tend to this as a donation but I was asked to find out what I would charge per event

demos are about six hours at a go depending on the day it can be half hour demo and talk to between 6 and 15 kids and 1-3 teachers/chaperones 

or its on a day that they are open to the public for events on those days it tends to be a tag team event with another smith one working the other explaining and or trading off striking and making hardware on the museums wishlist

the blacksmith shop is mostly stocked I just bring my own punches and the other hand tools (more just to know I have what i need) 

this is not a place that i get much of a chance to sell work or pick up paying work opportunities but I see it as good thing to do (so long story short my costs are minimal besides from loosing a days work on the farm so any feed back would be welcome)

sorry for poking this thread with a stick

i have to admit i tweak my kit depending on where i am going but there is always always vetwrap its inexpensive and good for everything from compression bandages to dislocated knees to just putting some on over a band-aid to keep it on while working

this seems like a good one to keep on its own there are a lot of inventive people out there and I think the idea of reminding people that many things can be used as anvils

bobl have you though of using a ball valve with a solenoid to run the handle open and closed?

now we know they were playing tic tac toe in the foundry

i just destumped my 202lb PW and checked and there is a x on the bottom its not as clean a mark but its there and of a similar size mine is from between 1852 and 1860

the rebound is fine on the anvil and it has no obvious flaws

ok this is my "new" anvil she is a Hay Budden and looks to have a weight stamp of 153 but i am going to try and sneak her into the office the next time i am in doing maintenance and get a real weight just for the fun of it

anyway considering I found this anvil while looking for and finding out i had missed a sale on a set of torches and tanks at a quarry truck repair shop i am blown away at the shape this anvil is in

i think the only thing that saved it was the fact that they had installed a large air compressor in front of it about 15years ago and pretty much forgot it was there

i am still hoping to find a good serviceable 200+ anvil but for now this one is going to replace my main anvil even though its about 40lb lighter the condition of the edges and horn are going to really speed up not having to pull out hardie tooling

when i get the time i am fabricate a better stand the stump while solid is not quite level and is about 2 inches short it

you might consider filling the box with sand the 2 wood bodied forges i have used were both initially filled with slightly damp sand shaped to form the desired depth and firepot shape and then had a coal fire build in them it worked a treat 

he has a thread or two here as well about that anvil

Same here Bentriron i like forged items with finish where its needed and every thing ells cleaned up but with the proses left visible if that makes any sense

and that is one nice looking hammer

i have a 5lb bucket of 9inch ones i picked up a while back they are perfect for drawing out into toasting forks and i really want to make one of those door knockers now i have a piece of light rail as well

i was asked to make a few bottle openers as well as a few other items for our libraries silent auction so out came the spikes

once more nothing fancy but people like them more than ones forged out of plain square stock

2 things one i know for my quarter inch punch that i use the most is forged down out of 3/4s inch round stock  and it works far better than some that i have made in the past out of half inch round (more mass and less flex in the punch)

this has made me realize how undersized a lot of my early tools are as  they were made on the cheap and with less thought to the overall function and more though to i need this now as a result not many of them survived to be keepers

as well i don't know if he is asking this or not but this might be touching more on shrinkage of hot metal as in when drifting or punching you need to over size slightly or you end up with a hole to small to use

i know there are formulas out there to calculate this kind of thing but i tend to just eyeball it as i am horrible with math

do you know if its possible to have the display hang down from the ceiling instead? that might be a way around the stability problem and as well it could turn this from a mug tree into a mug chandelier

i enjoy using RR spikes not bc they are a cost effective means of acquiring steel stock but because they are a recognizable item and to me one of the big things that blacksmiths can do is transform a material that it generally seen as being locked into a static shape

so being able to take a rr spike and reforge part of it into another shape seams to be something that people really enjoy and to a section of the populate this makes them happier and willing to spend more money on a steak turner made in this manner than a simpler one forged out of a piece of simple stock

i cant find any photos of the more interesting rr spike bottle openers that i have made but here is in my op about as simple a one as you can make

as well as a knife and some steak turners

the other knife is forged from a allen wrench

as a side note i tend to give people that want one a regular spike as well as the reforged one

sorry that was kind of a long winded 2 cents (there is a small chance i was channeling Frosty)

i have had no luck finding any info about it on line but i will keep poking around

i find it kind of interesting the way the gearing is set up so you can use it a "high" speed drill with the handle to the side and as a low speed ratcheting drill from the top

i was helping to clear brush around a building and came across this drill it was rusted solid but i had my hopes up that i could be reselected and an afternoon of oil and heat and she is free

my hope is to be able to use this as a pore mans magnetic drill press until i come across one i can afford you can clamp it to a work surface and dill in any direction as well it has a high and a low speed

over all this seems very simple and yet versatile tool

this is a Millers Falls co no 1

i enjoy working on it and it is now living in the teaching shop and has held up well to having both kids and adults attacking it  

sorry it took me a bit to get around to taking the photo and then remembering to pull it off the camera but here it is this is a 1832 114lb William Foster

its a sort of cryptic topic name, i only clicked on it bc of the randomness of "two days time travel" if it had said say "2 day roll back on postes" or "2days of lost posts" that would have been an a bit more of a eye catcher from the information stand point

i have wished i had a reason to make one of these as well

> 

my next trip down south i will have to take a look over there its about 200miles south of me but it is always very good to know of places to look thank you Stewart

ps i should have put on the Canadian border when i described my anvil hunting grounds