Dragons lair

Phil's anvil looks like a toe caulk swedge came with it. When I first started shoeing (200 years ago) we forge welded lots of toe caulks on draft shoes. Several outfits sold ready made caulks to weld on. They had a little nib sticking down that you used to position the caulk while bringing to welding heat.We usually made our own caulks up in slack times. Whoops-sorry I digressed from thread!! Old fart here with wandering mind........Please forgive

I'm working out of a 150 year old blacksmith shop and just about all of the small parts in the place seem to be stored in wooden boxes marked "Sweets Toe Calks". I even found some of toe calks and a bottom tool with matching triangular grooves in a drawer together. I'll ask the former owner how those parts went together if I can catch him later in the week.

That's a very pretty vice in the first post, but that price I'd be afraid to use it.

OK with 2 pritchel holes might be a ferriers anvil. Clean the left front foot for weight #. Or just weigh the thing.
Grab the horn tip it up scale under let it down. If ya can't tip it on its butt its HEAVY. Bottom line fore me is can I do what i want/need with it.
Ken.

Huh. I've never had a single problem with my bernzomatic in any orientation. Did I just get lucky with a better valve/torch assembly than typical? I'm a little surprised to hear how many people have finicky torches.

With regards to Phil Cooper's post above, I always use a flint/cap on that torch, so maybe that changes things. *shrug*

Jeffery, there used to be a lot of smiths there 30-40 yrs ago. Around Rutland and lake Hortinia. (Gods country)
Used to camp and hunt up there in the 60s. Ask around they may be retired or closed but every old timer this old Conn yankee meet would talk with me.
Ken.

Things like half barrels are never a waste.The ones we have that don`t hold water are used as planters.We have 2 in the back yard that hold tomato plants every year and one in the front that holds a Norfolk pine that we decorate every winter for the birds.
Well worth the money if you ask me,makes no difference if they hold water or not.
You can always line them if you really need them to be water tight.

BTW-Wood hulled boats that have been stored out of water for a while always fail to hold water.We used to set them up on the pier and run water into and on them with hoses till they swelled and started to hold water.Then we launched them and tied them to the floats at the end of the pier with extra automatic bilge pumps on board and plugged in to shore power.Only after a boat stopped taking on water and we were sure that the owner`s bilge pumps and batteries could handle it did that boat get put out on a mooring.
Barrels and wood boats have a lot in common.The main difference is which side the water is on.

First look seemed like Vulcan. Magnafied I don't see a raised anything. See what might be large stamped letters. Try a little cleaning and chalk. Close up pic.
Ken.

You are absolutely right to stay away from the morphine.It will steal your brain for sure,I know this from experience.
Pain is just how your body communicates that something is wrong.I don`t know why medical science has convinced us all that it`s something to be avoided at all costs.Pain killers don`t stop or repair the damage,they only mask the pain and sever that line of communication between your body and your brain.
When they shot me up with steriods the pain stopped so I went back to work.The same root problems were there and unfixed so I kept doing even more damage till parts of my body stopped working.Still no pain,just swelling and loss of feeling,range of motion,etc.
More meds later I was still bulling along till tendons started giving up because they had been torn and worn so badly they failed.Permanent damage,no repair,salvage only.
Surgery after surgery and BIG PAIN after all the damaged stuff was removed and bone was ground back.
4 years down the road I decided that I had given up my arm and hand but I refused to let them have my mind too.All the heavy duty narcotics went in the trash and I went cold turkey.Worst 2 weeks of my life.
I have my mind back now and I also have pain but it`s something I have learned to partner with and listen to.I now know how much I can realistically do in a day and I know when to stop or pay the price for the next 2 days.I re-learned how to do things like lift,run and hold things.The pain is worth the price of being able to think.

Anybody who is interested in how to deal with pain without narcotics and using only herbal and natural controls as well as mental control approaches feel free to PM me.I will be more than happy to share anything I know.

is this the same thing?
http://www.millerwelds.com/resources/articles/index?page=articles10.html
Phil

one day I gotta meet you...

And that supprises you???
Its not about american made, brand or otherwise. For me its about quality made and made to work well.

Remeber the days when tools had rounded instead of sharp corner and Levi's lasted for a LONG time?

It all comes down to cost of labor. Since this country was started, it was fueled by cheap labor starting with slaves and then poor immigrants. The problem now is that with the current labor laws, cheap labor is not possible and we will therefore never again be able to compete with the manufacturing of poor un-regulated countries. Current American manufacturing was only been able to continue due to heavy automation.

That being said, I buy American or high quality European products when I can.

While I an blessed with a partner who is willing to get us solidworks. For yrs I delt with PCM (plasmacam)
Then turbo cad finally autocad 2000.Senior says here is the guy who makes the machine and the tools to make it work.
IE todays project. Mount a mix motor in a 1700 gal tank. Manhole has 9degree walls. Mixer weighs 80+lbs. 4" front to back with a curved lip. If the motor gets loose ya loose $28,000 in chemicals and maybe blow off the roof. Any
one want my job? BTW motor and shaft is over 7.5 ft long going thru a 20" hole at a 30 degree angle. Also the hole is 8 feet up. If no update tommorow I am toast.
Ken.

Frosty,There are such things as standardized hand signals for directing cranes.
The people who are using whatever they have devised probably do it because they don`t know that correct standardized signals exist.
If an operator doesn`t understand or refuses to abide by standard hand signals competent riggers will refuse to work with that operator.
As someone who has worked as a rigger in the past I can tell you that the lives and safety of everyone in the immediate vicinity of a suspended load depend on an operator`s immediately complying with direction from his rigger who serves as his eyes on the ground and the load.There is absolutely no room for seat of the pants flying,ad-libing or cowboy BS.That`s how people lose parts,the kind that involve flesh and blood.

No need to cut it. Concrete it in a bucket. Bury the bucket to a height you like. Bucket don't care if it sits on the ground or is burried. Want a london pattern? Took me a week to torch and grind one. It's still only 37lbs
ken.

mmmm yeah interesting... I had a 7.5hp motor and a VFD on my 135lb Say Mak hammer when I first got it.... I ended up pulling it off and going with a 10hp with just a on off contactor and found I like it better simpler.... Not saying a VFD is a bad thing, just for me having the hammer set up to run like I want it with nothing but simple controls works better...

Found this Dake benchtop screwpress in the back of my van when I got home today. I'll never tell how it got there...lol!

It's tiny... only 21" across. Model P 10 according to the manufacturer plate. Not sure what I'll do with it but I'm bound to find something.

Just kidding about the shooting part.
Maybe I`m jaded but after being in the service and blowing stuff up for real(and getting paid for it)anything less than 50 cal or measured in pounds of C4 is sort of anti-climatic to me.
When things go BOOM I want more than an anvil shaped hole in the ground to show for it.

Any one else wonder why the MSC ad didn't say cast steel. The amazon one says cast steel???
Ken.

Arrow in the barrel is a nice touch.
Ken.

I need one!

Yes location and condition plus which model. H-Bs after 1908 had the entire upper half made of one piece of tool steel. Worth more to me. Have one and one with a top plate. Big differance.
Ken

Just a thought on this. Last few years we have had a lot of members having young ones hanging out or working in the smithy. For those folks I would caution the use of acids.
Ken

Just a little lighter note. This from my guild myster. Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave in a great looking body but to slide in sideways totaly worn out shouting holy ___ what a ride. Not being a smart ass just saying do what ya can not always what ya should.Been inna work force/military for 50 yrs 25 yrs ago the bone doctor
Said " I hope you have a good sit down office job" I said nope been welding and iron working all my life guess I'll
have to die doing it. I still have my shop and am running 2 others. One of my great men summed it up in his book.
Ride hard and shoot streight. Ya can't get any better than that. gdnite all.
Ken.

the discussion was orininally about my lincoln 225 ac welder I got from my gradparents, and my intention to get a wire welder in the future. I'm just considering the chicago electric wire welders being sold by harbour freight, or save longer and get a lincoln wirefeed welder that is adaptable to a mig. then these guys started ading in their two cents and the converation started drifting...no big deal, I like to see where they end up, besides I got the info I needed already..lol

ok guys continue, mig welder with shield gas, running flux core wire. sounds interesting tell me more.