JTF

Love the idea of putting in the lounge room

some of mine , oh and my drill bit collection as well. i have another 612 buffalo in pieces, once i mount them all i will post photos of them completed, so many projects so little time. have found a Sears post drill for sale , i don't have a Sears { yet}

My 2nd Peter Wight , post 1910, 0-3-26 {110 lbs} . Photos show it sitting upon my 305 lbs Peter Wight

Just picked up my latest anvil , a little pocket sized Peter Wright 0-3-26 {110 lbs} post 1910. good rebound , but I have no history of the anvil , the chap i got it off was given it 10 years ago used it once as an anvil then used it as a step in his shed for the next 9 and a half years, so where and when it was sold new and places it worked are lost forever. ]

Just added another to the collection , Picked up this no name cast iron steel faced pre 1950 anvil , it does have the cwt on it, 2-0-14 { 238 lbs or 108 kg }. Picked it up on Sunday from a farm in the Mena Creek area { FNQ , Australia } where it had been sitting in a corner of an old stables come tractor shed for many years collecting dust. I say pre 1950 because the family that is selling the farm now, took over the farm back in 1950 and the anvil was in the shed then, so I don't know how old it really is or for that , the brand either. The only other markings on the anvil is " 1 1 " in the centre the toe of the front foot. Came with 2 hardy tools and a pair of light tongs. One of the hardy tools has the brand of " PLUMB AUST. PTY. LTD." stamped into ,this company started using HYTEST FORGED TOOLS as a trading name in 1946 because of the usa brand Plumb inc. , and the company was sold in 1965 to the Trojan tool company. Cast iron is far from the best material for an anvil but I could not walk away from it . Now I own the best door stopper in the street.

and .... check out the mounting plate, it has the holes in it to fit the 616 { you can see which ones it used } or the 612 drills, the 612 is a smaller body drill and line up spot on with the plate. I have never seen a metal mount before and at first thought someone had homemade it , but it has the fit for the smaller drill. I am wondering is this a rare find . If anyone has seen one of these plates before please let me know.

I have started the overhaul on 616 , so hopefully this is the cog you are missing, otherwise let me know which other you need looked at. it stands 3.3 inch tall, the cog teeth are 3 inches across and .8 inch broad , the centre is a .7 inch bore , there are 23 teeth. if you are missing this cog then you don't have the 8 inch shaft and the flywheel ? the cog is different to the 612 one in the way it is offset to the main body { and has the prevision for the handle to be fitted for the second speed }

Just picked up a 616 for $100 , the only thing wrong with it { other than it needs a overhaul} is the weight for the racket and pawl has snapped off, this I can and have replaced before on another of my 612 drills. ..................BUT , the best be is that it has it mounting plate , which I have never seen before. this makes 3 Buffalo Forge Post Drills , One day I will have the whole set.

nice job, any chance of getting close ups of the other 2 in the back ground of the 2nd photo

Nice bit of work. Well done.

Here is my attempt at making one , have not really used much, one of those things you see and think I can do that and then find you didn't really need it anyway , a couple of different dies made and it works ok ,I just don't use it.

I forge the spring and mount collar and plate on my 6 inch, the spring I used an old car leaf spring { don't quench the spring , I found that out the hard way }. I never did take any photos of the forging but here is the finished product. before , as bought and after mounted on railway line stand and bolted down

This is mine, it is 14" x 14" x 4.5" and weighs a little over 154 lbs. {70kg}. It was given to me by a mate ,who, for over 20 years, had used it as a counter weight on the back of his bobcat and before that it was keep in his shed as something to trip over , he had no idea what it was and can not remember when or where he got it from. So sadly I don't know the manufacturers name or the full history of it , but it does show the signs of heavy use by a blacksmith. At the last swap meet there was a chap trying to sell an Alldays and Onions swage block for $600 { the same size as mine and almost the same patterns } , I offered $300, and well , he still owns it.

$300 is a bit rich, I would of tried much less, I have 1 Buffalo and 2 Rapid blo blowers and the most I have paid was $140 . But in saying that ,none of them had a forge with them , that I had to build myself . So if you are unable to built one for less than $160 then it is a good buy.

this was my first tuyere and clinker build.

my 6 inch

What a great idea, so simple, but it is one of those " until someone shows it to you ,it's a hard thing to fix. " Thanks for that.

G'day, Just chuckin' myself into the Aussie roll call. I am James , up here in Cairns, FNQ. Hobby smithing at the moment , hoping to make something out of it in the future, once the kids leave and I move out to the sticks where the nearest neighbour is a .303 round away. Got into blacksmithing because I needed to make a tow hook for the 4x4 and one thing lead to another . I have a craving for of old tools and machinery , so anywhere in the bush where there is something quietly rusting away you'll find me { trying to drag it home }.

In 1910 anything produced in England to be exported to the rest of the world had to have MADE IN ENGLAND placed upon it, so any Peter Wright without this branding is pre 1910. My Peter Wright 2-2-25 { 305 pounds } landed on the docks of Cairns in 1901, it had been ordered for The Tilly Sugar Cane Farm { Edmonton, Nth Qld } and remained with the farm until it shut down. The anvil came up on eBay a couple of years ago and I paid $700 for it, this seems a lot but, 1. it is a Peter Wright , and 2. up here in Far North Queensland anvils are as rare as rocking horse xxxx, this end of the country settlement was only 150 years ago, even today I might as well be living on Mars when it comes to buying blacksmithing gear. The old girl has had a hard life, the edges are rounded, chipped and blunt, but has great rebound and a beautiful ring. I am going to retired it to "The Pool Room" soon, only because I need sharp edges on the anvil for some of my work. I am going to get a new Doug Slack anvil about $850 for a 95 kg { 210lbs } and it will have to travel about 1500 miles to get to me. You will never lose money on a pre-1910 Peter Wright, there will always be a collector { or an idiot } asking if you want to sell and if so how much. By the way if anyone reading this is in Far North Queensland and has a Peter Wight anvil and is wanting to sell please let me know. { I am unsure which one I am , the collector or the idiot }

Here is a better shot of it , this time I was Allowed to touch it.

All most done , I have to find a hard wood slab to mount it on and have to turn a wooden handle. This one will be for show since it is complete and original { except for the timber parts }. She'll be goin' straight to The Pool Room.

A mate of mine found this adjustable double ended spanner/wrench , it has no markings to show where or when it was made. The tool is about 10 inches long . It was found in the dust of an old closed down sawmill. The mill ran from around the 1930s - late 1980s. Does anyone have any idea of the age or who the maker may of been ? ?

Thanks, any info is a great help, and that was more than I had before. Again, Thank you, James

Made mine out of a straighten coil spring out of an old Ford ,annealing it allowed me to use a Dremel and file to make the letters JTF as one , after that I tempered and hardened the tool. Anything made in my smithy wears the mark. It's not the prettiest , but it does the job.