rustyanchor

Kurgan, On the bright side a leg vise is a little less complicated than a drum pedal and a lot beefier. Much harder to mess up. You said the old tool bug has started, well pull the screw and box, get the jaw free, and have a good time learning your new old tool. Pics are nice too ! Mark

Oil the pivot point and bolt, let it soak for a bit and try to open the jaws, if still locked up, try to loosen the pivot bolt a little and more oil on both the cheeks and pivot bolt. Work on opening the jaws and if worse comes to worse and loosening the bolt and lots of oil doesn't free the jaws, try to gently open the jaws with a heavy wood stick. It is by it's very nature a tough piece of metal and can take a bit of persuasion with a stick or wood mallet. Unless it sat at the bottom of the Channel for years it will open with a little work. Once you get it freed up you may want to remove the front jaw and clean the pivot joint of crud and corrosion to get it operating smoothly. When I got my first vise and got it home I tore it apart until there was nothing else to take apart, cleaned the rust and grime off and put it back together, took a couple of hours and made a mess, but I got to know that vise and how it worked.

From my very limited exp. a T155 (weight) on the left of the front foot followed by the A80A91 (S/N) on the right looks like a Trenton marking scheme...If it is a Trenton it looks like it was made in 1908. The second A in the S/N should be a digit vice a letter...maybe a 4? Hope you get it.

Kurgan Glad you got your blowers. Welcome to the club !!! I marvel at the craftsmanship and design engineering that went into the old tools. Seems like the makers put alot more pride into the work. Most of the castings and big parts seem to have had the makers name cast in or stamped in, not a cheap label plate riveted, or worse yet a plastic label stuck on. Maybe a sign of the cost of manufacturing, I dunno, but I like the solid feel of a cast iron or steel tool (until I had to move them 700 miles). A cleaning method I read about for your hand crank: Get as much of the gunk out as you can, close it up and run ATF (Automatic Transmission Fluid) thru it, drain it, do it again until the ATF comes out clean. then refill with what ever you will use for lube. Pics of your new goodie are always welcome.

A couple of years, got it very well used and not in the best shape, but the price was very right and it still cuts straight.

1975 WF Wells A7, used mostly as a vertical with a small home made table.

Kurgan "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" I would say that If using a hand crank gives you a better connection to your work and the craft, then DO IT. If you are not trying to make your living by forging a little sentimentality is nice. I love to find old tools, some are a little wounded, I fix them up and put them back to work, a little connection to the people who built and had to use these tools, and I hate to see a good tool used for decoration by folks that have no clue what it was for.

Pretty mount and spring.

On a hand crank blower a little oil can turn a piece of junk into a beautiful blower. I just bought a small old hand crank (ebay) and was very disappointed at how hard it was to crank. I opened it up to look at the gears and they looked brand new, the whole blower looked pristine, but it was very hard to crank and the fan rattled when it was turned. A little oil and tightening the fan spindle bushing, the blower now runs like a top. Try to get a peek inside if you can and see what the gearing and insides look like. On the 2 blowers I have, opening the gear cases is pretty simple, one is a thumb screw and the other has 3 bolts. Good luck !

1910

Mine is a 1919 150lb H Hudson Tool Co S/N A17717. Years ago some knuckle head used the edges to rest his steel on to torch cut it. "Mr Hudson" is a bit rough around some of his edges but is still a tough old fellow, ring and rebound are fine. Added before and after cleanup pics

It sounds like we agree that we are our worst critic, my wife does QC on my work and thinks some of the stuff I am ready to drop in the scrap pile is just dandy, people that buy it love it, it isn't just right, but my wife saw it before it went away to scrap. My later work is a vast improvement over "The early stuff", but still needs improvement. I made a sign that said Fultz for a wedding present, I was on the 3rd revision of it and finially got what I thought was sa good sign. Vulcan the shop assistant cat liked it, Anita liked it, I thought it was good. Put it in the mail and Anita posted a pic on FB, one of her friends in England asked if the Z was supposed to be backwards....Looked at the pic and darned if the Z wasn't slanted wrong. Big OOPS. I quickly made another sign with a correct Z and sent it with apologies. The customer loved the unique sign ?! Well they got a 2fer-2 fer the price of 1.

Dave, You hit it right, every hand made piece is different and unique. I have to reign myself in sometimes to keep from spending 3X the time trying to get it " just right" for me. Mark

menze: My wife is the negotaitor and she doesn't discount. She figures I am working for sub minimum wage as it is. I am happy to give a customer something they are happy with, she makes sure I don't under price my work. Every now and again I get one by her.... Mark

Centar forge has 1/4 and 3/16 rivets and do ship via USPS. Not sure if their prices are better or worse than the previously mentioned suppliers. They do sell by the pound but it gives an approx number of rivets per poung for a given size/length. Let us know how your quest goes. Mark

I do the best work I can with the tools I have-within reason. I sell my work and I am a prefectionist, problem is I am not capable of constant prefection! The people I make things for have never had any negative comments or complaints about the quality of my work, but I can look at each piece and point out things I don't like or that didn't come out exactly the way I thought it would it. Good enough for me is a satisfied customer. I know that there are things that I can improve on. Comparing my early work to what I am doing now I see vast improvement, I am learning to work faster and produce more in less time and I still see a better product in the end. Will everything I make ever be perfect? No probably not, but will it be "Awesome" to a customer-YEP that it will. Mark

Google 'horseshoe art' on the first page of the top site there is a nice 'office' sign and lots of other interesting creations. The top site is my site, I have no problem if you want to use any of the designs or ideas I have made custom signs for people, horses, farms, barns, all from used horseshoes. 5 shoe coat racks are very popular because they are useful and sentimental. Book ends are good for the same reason. Have fun and get creative. Mark

A little late but ESAB had "ESAB University" on their site, I asked for some welding info and such and I got a CD case of all sorts of welding info and posters with welding info and other good info. Best part of the deal was it was all free for the asking. Hope it helps. Mark

My first post and trying to be helpful ACME anvils were in fact marketed thru Sears and Roebuck. ACMEs were made by both Trenton and Hay Budden depending on the year. This anvil appears to be a 1908 (S/N 74001-82000)100 pound (Z100) Trenton according to AIA. I love digging thru AIA . Mark