Joel OF

Yes please do, I'd love to know and I think it's relevent to the thread. A yurt is way out of my price range and unless they're a fraction of the cost in America they'll be out of oldtimer's price range too, but in general I'm interested. Do you mean leave the extension cable plugged in and out in the smithy? At the minute with my extension cable I have to plug in and unwind, unplug and wind up every time I go out to my smithy and it's a total pain in the backside!! Carrying and winding up a 50 meter extension cable by torch light back to the house gets tiresome very quickly and extension cables ALWAYS tangle. ThomasPowers, I second oldtimer's interest in seeing pictures of your pole smithy.

Hi oldtimer, I'm in a similar-ish situation to you so this thread is quite interesting to me! Here's some questions that I've got rattling around in my head for my own situation that are relevent to this thread, most particuarly to the yurt or tent type setup. In this sort of situation what do you do about an electricity supply? Even if you've got bellows/hand cranked fan you'll need light. If you don't have a solid roof or walls to fix lights to, how do you place them? Tripod spotlights placed around the smithy? In a yurt or setup like ThomasPowers described what do you about the floor, if it rains hard and it all runs into your smithy, the floor could become muddy, slippery and dangerous. How do you protect your tools, do you need padlocked storage boxes to put everything away at the end of the day or do you chance it and leave them out and hope nobody nicks them? Really curious about peoples answers to these questions, and I hope they're helpful to you oldtimer.

For that reason I'd avoid using it at the bottom of the firepot, but I'd consider using it where ever it's useful. It's only £3.50 so it's worth having a tub of it knocking around if it's got some use.

I came across fire cement for the first time the other day. If you believe the claims it's "heat resistent to 1250 degrees celcius". Could it be useful for patching up cracks in a clayed forge that's burning coke? I have read in other threads that cement is not good to use in a forge as it spalls, but going by the name I'm guessing this fire cement might hold up better? Maybe it'd be safest to use on the hearth and not firepot? This is the stuff: http://www.screwfix.com/p/no-nonsense-fire-cement-2kg/50751 Any advice and/or experience appreciated. Cheers

Sounds like i paid around the right amount then. Still seems very cheap to me though when you consider their age, how good looking they are etc. Mind you that could be because of the prices i'm used to seeing in my disgustingly expensive corner of England. E.g my 124kg anvil in decent condition frm the scrap merchant was £100, the exact same one frm the salvage yard was £400. I suppose this shows this difference between usefulness value & aesthetic value. Even now knowing that the going rate for these drills is pretty low i'd still pay more because i love the design.

Hi folks, I just bought a Silver MFG drill on eBay for a mere £32. I have no idea as to it's actual value but I can't believe it's only worth £32. Can anyone give me an idea as to it's true value? I don't want to sell it or anything, I'm just curious, I'd love it even if it was worth 32p. Here's the pictures from the auction. It needs a bit of love to get it back into tip top condition. The seller thought dates from around 1900 and he thought the numbers "513" cast into the handwheel could be a model number. Any help would be appreciated,

Cheers fellas. Is there a difference between Automatic Transmission Fluid and Transmission Fluid? This thinner stuff you mention, is that like white spirit or something? The only mechanical thing I've taken apart to this extent before is my bass drum pedal so this malarky is all new to me!

This evening I got given a free post vise! It's very rusted and needs a lot of work! The jaws of the vise won't react to being tightened or loosened so I'm after some advice on how to bring this bad boy back to life, please. I know I can get the majority of the rust off with the wire brush on my angle grinder but I doubt that'll do much for the harder to reach important spots. Incase anyone's wondering on how I got it - I went to see an item someone is selling eBay, (and to try and convince him to sell it to me there and then and take it off eBay, which didn't work), and in passing he gave me the vise for free. I hope I can bring it back life because I've been after a vise!

Well it's an Alcosa F20 for a side blast partable forge. It's in good condition and runs nicely but I had to take it apart to have a nosey anyway...I was so surprised with the amount of gunk in there, I reckon I dug out enough gunk to fill a tea mug, I cleaned it up and I'll re-grease it at some point. I've made a bottom blast brake drum/55 gallon hybrid but I've sure I'll find a way to mount the blower. Even if I don't use it I'm happy to have one and I've caught the 'fixing old tools' bug...at 6.30am this morning when I had it out in pieces of the kitchen floor I suddenly got hit by the thought "it's started", my life flashed forward 20 years before my eyes and I could see a piles of old tools waiting to be fixed.

You mean lefty tighty, righty loosey?? My world will turn upside down!

Thomas - I don't think I'd want to go above 6mm. I doubt I'd use steel that thick reguarly but I reckon these canisters would stand the test, they'd certainly help me to start off the bowl shape.

Blimey I see what you mean now...I found 3 of the right type of canisters today, the steel on them must be atleast 5mm thick! Fortunately 2 of them have already How did you unscrew the valve? This one is extremely tight. It must be empty by now, the tap's been open 100% all day and in fact it was open when I found it in the scrap yard.

This is where the sentimentality/romanticism kicks in...the hair dryer I use at the minute does the job happily, but at the end of the day it's a cheap hair dryer from Argos. *CRINGE* I'd love a hand cranked fan "to own a piece of engineering history" and all that guff, but I'd also love to have one to have a "better connection" with my fire, (that sounds so lame) because I think using a hand cranked fan could teach me alot...with the hair dryer I just turn it on when needed and it's no hassle, but if the hand cranked fan is a hassle then it's going to force me to work more economically and to control my fire better. I know that ultimately that's creating more work for myself but I think it could be a useful learning curve because I think I'm quite trigger happy with the hair dryer and I'm using more air than is needed. Most definitely.

Cheers for the help people! I'm sure they'll be in a "used but not abused" sort of condition, but it's always worth getting some tips before buying just so you don't go in too naive. With regards to the hand cranked, assuming it's in OK condition how does the price sound, £65 sound fair? How significantly do mounts affect price? I very much doubt it's got one as I think he would have mentioned that when he rang.

Cheers John, they're Lister ones and just tiddlers. I can make out a date of 2012 on one but the labels are 99% covered in gunk so I don't know anymore than that. Not very thick at the bottom and also convex in shape as opposed to concave but I took a punt nonetheless for the sake of giving it a go and all good experience - unless it goes bang. I've got some 2 and 3mm sheet off-cuts to make some bowls out of and I thought the canister bottoms would be solid enough to take the hammering.

The short story: Tomorrow I'm going to look at a hand cranked fan and an electric blower, both priced at £65, (though I'd imagine there's a little wiggle room). I've been told that the blower is super strong, (and likely to be 100 times stronger than I need it), and that the hand cranked fan is well made. What should I look out for when inspecting these items? I'm guessing there's more to check with the hand cranked than the electric, but as this will be an antique shop and I doubt I'll be able to take the items to bits so what I'm really asking is - how do I tell from a look over that they're OK? Is it as simple as "if air comes out one end, it's fine"? The long story, (for those that can be bothered to read more): A little while ago I stumbled across some small foot bellows at an antique shop, (which is ironically located in an old smithy), and got chatting to the dealer who sourced them, turns out they came from a retiring blacksmith who worked on the other side of my county. Supposedly this blacksmith over the years has accumilated TONNES of stuff and is now getting rid of it, the antiques dealer gave me the smith's name but I was unable to find a contact number for the smith and cut out the middle man! After buying the bellows I left my number with the dealer and said if you get anything more in - swage blocks, hand cranked fan and the like - let me know and I'll come take a look...the dealer rang me this afternoon saying he's got some blowers. I'm the kinda guy that'll probably buy them whether or not it's useful to me now for two reasons A) it might come in useful someday and they're an investment, or B ) , so it goes to someone who appreciates it rather than some pretentious yuppie that's going to let it rust in his garden as an ornament. The reason I wouldn't buy them is if they're broken, hence my original question. Any help would be appreciated! Cheers

Hi again folks, i scored some gas canisters today, they've all got a bit of gas left in them so i've got to let that out, are there any hard and fast tests or methods to let me know its ok to start cutting? I dont really trust my sense of smell and hearing to let me know its ok to start cutting. Other than getting someone else to do it for me, is there a one way thats safer than any other to cut?

Sorry to divert the thread further but this seems to be the "blacksmithing" course Canterbury College are offering...http://www.cant-col.ac.uk/studying-with-us/Courses/full-time/engineering/ENGINEERING-LEVEL-3 Looks like it's part of a general engineering/metal work course and only 2 days a week. Something's better than nothing I guess but my memories of Canterbury College still make me shudder.

Where in Canterbury? I heard that Canterbury college were doing a smithing course but I think that's at the Thanet campus.

Wow, thanks for all the help!! I'll look into everything you guys have raised.

Hi folks, I'm a novice with a desire to make bowls, I know there's no substitute for good technique but I was wondering if there's any particular tools that could make my life easier? I've been doing some browsing on the Vaughns website for tools that might help, could anyone shed any light on how suitable hide, wood or bossing hammers would be? Also, could a leather sandbag be useful? Can they be used with heated metal? At the minute I just have an anvil and metal hammers, I'm aware that some swage blocks have bowl shapes but I don't think I can even afford a second hand one. The two things that give me the most grief at the minute are the way the sheet steel moves around on the anvil and the loud clanging noise as it bounces. I spent quite a lot of money at Christmas with a local woodturner who makes bowls, I saw him again the other day and asked him if he could indent a bowl shape into a hunk of wood for me to use as an "anvil" as I imagine the wood would cushion the bounce a bit more, he said he could and he's do it for free! Could this be useful? I'd imagine I'd need to treat the wood somehow to stop it burning, or another idea I had was to get some very thin sheet and hammer than cold into the bowl and then nail it down around the sides so the wood is protected a little. Any help would be appreciated. Cheers

John, trust me I'd be there in a flash if I didn't have frustrating chronic health problems that makes things that like impossible, my only option until I'm better is to learn from books and forums. I'm considering asking for a few months unpaid leave to finally sort my health, give me the time to do such courses and spend a decent amount of time practicing blacksmithing. Cheers Hunterbow, I'll give that a go.

I didn't mean I can't be bothered, my "smithy" is at my parents place an hour's drive away so time (and diesel) is precious. I'd been considering that. Thanks but save your breath, my brain's already a mush of info I'm struggling to take in.

My Dad bought his DVD for £7 at some sort of wood fair/timber fair in Wales...turns out they're the same vids that are on YouTube for free.

Vicks? As in the stuff that unblocks your nose? A box of latex gloves will be my next non-essential addition. I don't have a tap in my "workshack" and I'm getting bored of walking back to the house to clean my hands when I want to eat.