Speedmouse

haha Thomas you and i share a lot of things then, all my metal comes mostly from the 80 odd cars we have at home and i make my own char coal and i like doing things on the cheap not to save money but for the experience, would you believe we even share a first name. I was going to make on that looks like Yves and Raven 154's but i have read that bounce back makes that style rather much less effective than putting the rail up on its end, so with that in mind i was going to make a horn and anvil surface and weld that onto the top end of a piece of rail... the only problem i have with that is i only have two pieces of rail. one is a about 2ft long and weights in at 30lbs the other is about 10ft long and i dont have an oxy to cut the dam thing with lol suggestions? if i cant figure out a way to cut it i will turn my 30lb piece into a stand alone anvil and make it look all pretty. im a fan of pretty things you see.

wow thanx guys, i particularly like the one Mat made so i might look into doing that myself.

So im building an anvil out of a 2ft piece of track, its pretty slow work but its getting done. what i am curious about is what other people have done and different designs people have used and particularly how people have done it. particularly things such as hardy holes or just round holes. i googled track anvils and started drooling a bit, now my head is spinning with ideas i never had previously.

thanx a lot for the info Thomas, i will confess buying this vise was very much a spur of the moment thing as it was the 1st one i have ever seen for sale. i did check the thread when i was looking at it, before buying it that is and couldnt see any damage. this is because when un screwed the damaged thread sits inside the outer jaw and so is never exposed when the vise is open. that is a good point about maybe the two damaged pieces happened separately, it looks to me as if the thread was wound to far into the screw box until it ran out of thread on top forcing the first ring of thread in the screw box to expand as the thread ran out. i dont not have the facilities to braze unfortunately and i don't really have much of a welder either lol otherwise i would have attempted to rebuild the thread (weather or not thats a good idea i do not know lol) i will defiantly be looking more closely at my next one but im still pretty happy with this one.

When screwed in fully, that is not in the vise assembly, the thread does enter the confines of the screw box. i cant tell if this is so when in the vise but its likely. there does still remain a large amount of thread which is undamaged, i am curious how something like this actually occurs. my guess is that the stripped section of thread comes into contact with the inside of the vise jaw if left to hang loosely, then the damaged thread no longer fitted back into the screw box and so peeled the tread away when re-tightened. no heat was not used however i barely touched it so i doubt it would have done much good.

so i bought this post vise on the weekend which seemed pretty good. its a 4.5" jaw and generally looks pretty well, once i got it home i pulled out the thread and saw the 1st 3 turns on the male thread were stripped and on the female the 1st 3/4 of a single thread had peeled off (see pictures.) it still tightens up fine so im not overly concerned but i dont want it to get any worse. my idea was to bash the section of thread back into pace and weld it, however, when i tried this it broke off (see pictures.) i thought welding the remaining section would provide enough strength to prevent the whole box from unwinding in this manner. I have reassembled the vise and it functions well, although i dont have it on a post yet so cant really tell. will the stripped section of thread become an issue? Thanx.

Today I was a the Lake goldsmith steam rally and at one of the few stall selling goods I saw a 10lb hammer of 6 bucks so I picked that up. as I was walking around i stumbled across a blacksmith shop and I stood out the front peering in and one of they guys comes up to me and asked about the hammer and if it's in good nick so I showed him the slight crack in the handle which he passes over saying it isnt an issue then asks me if he can borrow it. Turns out one of the large steam tractors dropped a steering linkage (which was 5ft long and at least 4" in diameter) and when half of it dug into the ground it rolled up into a very mis-shapen banan and they guys at the shop didn't expect they would need a big hammer so they didnt bring one. Anyway an hour or two latter the linkage was good as new and as it turns out that small crack in the handle isn't an issue haha

To day while at a steam rally I stumbled apon a post vise it looks really nice and stands about 4 ft tall or up to my hip, il try get a photo up tommorow. Anyway I was wondering what one should actually look for in a post vise. What makes one better than another and things to look out for when buying them?

there is a lot on here about forging swords and knives and all manor of weapons but why are there no threads on armor? is there anyone on here that makes armor, this is just a curiosity because i enjoy perving on all the swords and axes and knives but there is no armor D: lol

I love the look of the last handle, great job on all accounts

thanx for the link Jeff it looks really good however it is 9 hours away from me lol which is a shame because i would love to make it to an advent like that, i have got two numbers of local blacksmiths that are quite well known in the reenactment society so im going to contact them soon,

just made my 1st batch of charcoal using a 44 gal, put the lid on it a few hours ago but its dark now so i will have to check tomorrow but i have high hope, it was looking very promising.

I live in Victoria Australia haha Yeah i got the sizes wrong in my guestimate because im trying to convert to inches and also without seeing the it at the time it can be difficult. they are both quite meaty and i dont invisage them breaking anytime soon particularly the 2nd pair haha The next set i make will be a small pair of 10" approx to use to grip something tighly while bending both in a jig and with a hammar

i actually made some charcoal yesterday altho not in a 44, i think i shall try that next. i dont actually know any blacksmiths in my area, i do have a lead which might help me get in contact with one tho haha Brian Brazeals video on how to make tongs is actually what inspired me to make the 1st pair, i attempted to use the techniques he displayed with the 1st pair of tongs, but i ended up modifying the process to better suit my equipment, its hard to get an even heating with my fire. lol the 2nd pair of tongs was made out of 1/2" round bar the 1st pair was made of a slightly smaller section, at a guess i would say made 2/5" or 1/3 altho to be honest i dont really know, just grabbing whatever i can get my hands on lol EDIT: The 1st pair is made out of 1/2" round stock and the 2nd pair is made out of 1". i went and checked haha Thanx for all the support guys :)

haha thanx guys, yeah there is no sense in letting them go, but i would have never expected people to hang onto them so tightly. really is a great thing to be able to make something and still depend in it years latter.

I have just set up a forge, its probably as basic as you can get, and im making tongs. the idea is to make tools that will help me make MORE TOOLS. lol anyway so i decided to make a pair of tongs after watching a tutorial video made by one of the members here, it took me 2 days and i had to make three halves lol i made the 2nd pair today, i didnt bother squaring the handle this time so it took me much less time. I should mention it takes me quite a while to do anything Because im burning hard wood so the fire is reasonably inconsistent anyway here is a picture of the two tongs i made. the one on the top is the 1st one i made, it is a total of 20 inches long however the shorter handle is only 13 inches. The one below is 24 inches long. Also the 1st pair have been adapted no less than three times which explains why they are kinda all over the place. haha