monstermetal

Alright, you got me there!

Wow... yeah glad thats as bad as it ended up.... Ive been a part of similar things.. always one of those, "yeah I should have been more careful" after, but never much thought of things going wrong... As I have gotten older Ive slowed down and taken a longer look at things like this...

Thats not true... there is a big difference... The government steals all your money under the pretense of helping you.... the crooks admit they are crooks... At least the crooks are honest....

Its Patrick Maher..... And its outstanding.... has trap doors, and a little fold out ladder Pat does some super cool work Another one of my favs.... Dave Lisch's skull complete with mosaic damascus teeth..

Im not sure yet what all might end up on there... I have 4 enerpac pumps and about 6 30 ton 10" stroke cylinders as well as various other small ones.. and they will be used to a degree.. But Im trying to figure out if I should put a hard mounted big cylinder in place.. I have a 6" bore 42" stroke parker cylinder that is just to nice to not use someplace and a bunch of other stuff... I have a 15PH pump unit and a 5HP... and a 10HP 5000psi set up... So trying to figure out what will work best is really where im at... I really want to have one set up that I can do multiple things with.. I know it looks like I got alot of space but the truth is working on big scale projects you have to have some open floor just to swing things around and stuff..... I build lots of staircases and without having room to stage stuff it can be a real nightmare (from some of your pics looks like you have the same problem Dillon)

Our last one was a real shin dig.... 4 days of great fun. I was a member of the second place Blacksmith wars Team Mayhem and also one of the Charity auctioneers.. We did an iron pour. Had several outstanding demonstrators including Mark Aspery, Darryl Nelson, Dean Mook, Japheth Howard and Alice James, Dave Lisch, Berkley Tack, Patrick Maher Scott Szlock, Steve Lopes and several others who I didn't get to see.. If you can make it out... We put on a good conference! Here are a few gallery pics and random shots through out last falls

I want one... Now only if it wasnt 6000 miles round trip.... Unless the price includes shipping? ;)

Well I can tell you already you lose .... Its closer to double that... The cast top alone is more than that.... Its 14' long and 3' feet wide and 3" thick.. and about 70 percent solid... My guess the top is around 3200lbs The way my 5 ton hoist was groaning and the chain stretching I would say the whole thing is close to 3 ton... I dont have a big dynometer anymore... the one I got is only good for 5K.... Im just about positive its over that.. I made a discovery that was disappointing today.... I reamed out all the 1 1/4 pin holes with an endmill in my mag drill.... put a few pins in and starting looking at layout... and the pins are not all spaced equally which I think is retarded.... The spacing between the T slots is not even identical ( they are only a 1/4" diffrent, but still why wouldn't you make them the same?) running down the table the pin holes are all in a line and equally spaced But the each step across the short way is a little diffrent from the one before.... Just a bummer in my book... if the spacing was the same C to C every way it would make it much more versatile.... Each row is in the same plane and each column is in a plane so I'll just have to work with that....

I know you will.... But hey Im a big boy... and you got to admit, that's a great pic! :blink:

Thought you all might like to see a photo of the maker of this fine knife... We love ya Dave..... Bad teeth and all... :D

Its got an hourglass impression on the bottom.... part of a serial number on the foot under the horn and a weight mark..... I'll see what I can get my dad to do or the next time Im down there I'll try and get a pic....(he is 660 miles from me though so it might be a bit)

Nope its $5000 plus Tax... I make an effort to let people know even at the bid stage that its "plus tax" so there is no shock come bill time... It amazes me how many people think that if you dont have a store front then they dont have to pay the tax... I have had people refuse to pay the tax or think that I put it in my pocket.... I got a deal right now, a railing that my friend Joe basically built in my shop, his job that I helped just a bit on... he delivered it but the customer wrote the check out to me.... Joe got the money but did not collect the tax.. Since Monster Metal is on the check Joe either has to pay the tax out of his pocket or go back to the client and collect it... to keep me on the good side of the state its got to be paid by someone and its sure not going to be me on on someone elses deal... I dont want anything out there that is questionable... Thats the other side of my "no fear" approach... Dont ever give the state any reason to mess with you and chances are they wont...

I should also say that I am licensed with the state as a manufacture.. Monster Metal LLC is not only a licensed contractor, and wholesaler... but a manufacture as well.... And as such in Washington... any thing that a manufacture uses to make something that tax is directly collected on is non taxable.... That includes all machinery used to produce the item... You can only do this though if your a manufacture... If I wanted to suffer though the paper work I could actually deduct any sales tax I payed on equipment out of taxes I collected on sold goods... This is a bit tricky and Ive had some people give me grief... But its legit and a big help when your spending $10,000 on a new machine..... Again the states goal is to make money... they figured out that guys like me make them lots and lots of it for zero work on there part.. Depending on how much "wholesale" work I do I send them $10 to $20 grand a year... thats tax value that I created, not from hard goods, but labor... Compared to a retail store that that is buying an item for $3 and selling it for $5... Hard goods create very little added tax value for the state... and I dont know how it is in other places... but I dont know anyone here doing metal work that has been hassled by the state...

I track nothing... zero zip nada... And have pretty much no fear of anything bad coming down on me... The fact is I spend maybe $50K a year that I buy tax free.. I show 200K plus gross.... I think any bean counter at the state that is keeping tabs on me would think that a 400% tax value increase is acceptable My wife and accountant hate me... My invoices say "Railing - $5000" I dont itemize or break anything down... I Buy materials, I buy them and a bit extra if I got money in the bank... have an inventory and collect for the finished product.... I know a lot of guys who spend lots of time on the bookwork end of things... Not me... I wing pretty much everything... Once in a while it bites me when I totally blow a bid.. but when I do I suck it up and move on... I know pretty much what things cost... I bid things based on how many days work it is... 7 days work is $5000 ( 7 days work is about 90 hours ) Actually when I bid a job I figure $5000 for 5 days knowing it almost always takes 90 hours to do 5 days work, If I can get it done in 5 days I'll spend a day with my wife and one working on my projects... that almost never happens My theory is life is to short to worry about those things.. My wife is a great help in keeping things sort of in line... I also have a great accountant If I didnt I would be a total mess... I just want to build stuff Regardless in Washington and at my scale there is no need to have proof of how the things where used and where they went. Now if I was buying 200K a year worth of stuff tax free and telling the state I sold 50K a year worth of stuff? diffrent story.... Keep things on the up and up... Pay tax on things your suppose to pay tax on and dont cheat the state out of there cut... And my feeling is you'll never have to explain anything to anyone

Its not marked with a name but from the look I think its a Hay Budden... Marked 365lbs, actual weight 360 I havent seen it in person, he lives 600 miles from me.. but from the pics I would say its a fantastic anvil.... Id tell you what he paid, But I dont want to hear it from all you guys who say... " I wouldnt pay over a $1/lb for an anvil.. I paid $16 for my 800lb'er" or what ever.. I think it was a fair price... matter of fact If he has second thoughts I'll gladly give him back his money..

Thats a tough one..... I would say in this case that worth could depend a large part on need. If you have a job that it would make easier or more profitable it could be worth alot. As far as a tool though in this neck of the woods I would expect it to fetch $150-$250..... That being said things are more money on the west coast... Anvils, vises and just about every other old tool brings better money here.

I dont know about cars... But big heavy steel things for sure... My hope is to have around a 100 ton of combined force and be able to push in 3 axis planes at one time.... We'll see how that works out :unsure:

With the stiff back welded in place you can start to see the "heavy duty" part... And flipped over with the cast iron in place... I got all 55 1/2" holes drilled and tapped... I'll bolt the top down tomorrow... Im going to have to work on some paying work though... I spent about 40 hours in the last three days working on this thing... thats what happens when you have to scrounge and make due with what ever material you can find... I bet I could have saved 15 hours buy buying new stuff...

Ive had one in Washington and not had any problems... My feeling is in this state anyway they pretty much leave you alone as long as you keep sending them money.. Im registered with the state as a "Other Construction Material Merchant/Wholesaler" Which is not what I am, but im not complaining because most of the guys like me get lumped in to a contractor category which does not provide near the lead way I have on making tax free purchases.. Its in there best interest not to hassle guys like me, Because in this state labor is taxable I make them a ridiculous amount of money. If I buy $500 worth of materials tax free and turn it into $20,000 dollars worth of ironwork, They get the taxes on $20K, I mean truth be told here in the land of 9.8% sales tax the State darn near makes more money on my ironwork than I do.... Anyway I do every thing on the up and up, I pay all my taxes... There is no motivation for me to cheat... Cash, under the table or hand shake deals only help if your making money.... I hardly pay any income tax... You have to have an income before they can come after you.. My crippling overhead makes sure I dont have to worry much about income...

So I have spent some time working on the sub table for my bending table... This is 3' wide and 13' long to match the cast top So the 3" thick cast iron T slot table will bolt to this with 50 1/2 Cap screws.. The top is 1" plate.... I used what I had for the stiffeners... The box lookin things are 8 X 8 X 3/4 angle... the big blue chunks are 8" X 2" flat bar.. the small ones are 6": X 1" flat... the long way is all 5" X 3" .250 tube... the legs are 5" X 5" X 3/8... I am going to put a chunk of 8 X 8 X .250 sq tube between the legs as a strong back spine... This has to be up there with one of the Heavy duty tables of all time... I welded the one side to my 2" thick fab table and clamped the other side... trying to keep it flat... the sub structure is all welded together, maybe tomorrow I'll weld it down the the 1" top.. The cast iron Top that will go on this is on the right... I think will all those chunks welded across the short way it should be good and stiff... Once I get the cast iron top bolted down I'll start building the fixtures for the hydraulics

Did all the Oilers survive? So what do you think? Is it what you expected?

hey Dave I think I'm doin pretty good if It takes Jesse James to one up me ;-)

I dont know what production hammers are typically made from, but my guess is a water quench would be way to hard on it and likely cause it to crack/fracture. Oil would be my bet... If you have a forge I would just bring the whole thing up to non magnetic and quench it.. Anneal it in an oven... check how hard it is with a file... It would be better for the leave the eye part a little soft, which should happen because more mass at the heart of the hammer...

I'll see if I can get a few posted... Every picture I ever posted prior to the change over is gone, its not just this thread...