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If it is a load rating it is likely to be 10 CWT (hundredweight) 11200 pounds or 5 ton. I have seen some other things stamped with CWT but cant for the life of me think what they are....umm ....no, oh well, back to the anvil. ;)

steel tube is induction welded, thats high frequency magnetic resonance for heat and pressure applied, I think that fits the criteria of a forge weld.

I spotted a cat loader with a home made stone bucket with those exact same quick release couplers on it last Wednesday. There seems to be plenty of room to weld some small gusset plates to the RHS / channel to spread the load and stiffen the structure, the top edge looks a little vulnerable to tearing away as the bucket is crowded or pressure is applied to the bottom edge. get some nice structural angles on a bit of plating around that area and it should be perfectly serviceable for years.

charles is not joking, I can buy a stub axle and a hub to suit an unbraked trailer axle 250mm long, square or round shaft, taper roller bearings, seal, dust cap, wheel studs and nuts for less than $40. It may not have the DIY rustic charm of using bits and pieces but in this case standardized parts can make home engineering and repairs cheaper, easier and more robust.

I dont remember all the details Frosty it was more than 30 years ago when I purchased it. It is a Comet 500 (CIG industries) so that is a victor product, its rated to 450kPa. photo of the current model

Hi DSW, I use an old magneto and spark plug to light my torch, I have a very short wire handle on the shaft, a quick flick and the torch is running. I find lighting with the mix already set is by far the best. Lighting propane and judging how much to crack both valves at higher hose pressures can be tricky and time consuming cos propane tends to flame out without some O2 particularly if it is windy. I started out with a propane reg, no gauges, cheap and basic, I would have liked a flowmeter but couldn't find one at the time (and still dont have one). Personally I would not bother with the rosebud unless you are heating a large area (like a heatshrink fit collar), it is just too hard to get the heat in the right spot and that wastes a lot of energy. I like the NXP style tips because the inserts seem to be easier to maintain, plus I cut a lot of heavy galv steel so a quick preheat is essential for me. photo from harris group products

this is the quickest shapes I can think of for the bending and forming but I am stumped on a reliable easy join without a welder.

I would not get to precious about it, its an anvil, it is supposed to be used, you will certainly get your $225 dollars worth out of it. A Good Buy! Looking at the photos I can see some telltale scolloping along the edge, that says the edge has been rebuilt (welded) at some point, so the may be some softer patches along the edge. Provided the work is softer than the edge I cant see that being a real problem. I personally would not be babying it to much, that kinda defeats the purpose of buying a used anvil in the first place. if you run out of good edges to use, it will be time for a replacement or rebuild. Although glancing blows on the edges from a cross-eyed striker wielding a 12 pound tool steel sledge hammer might be asking for trouble :D

My preferred method is to build a cutter that is the exact shape of the finished job, get it close with standard tools and angle cuts then finish it with the shaped cutter. it works something like a router bit or profiler except the work is spinning not the cutter. the only thing is you need to think how you are going to mount and hold it so it does not flex or slip while you are using it.

I think that is a good distinction between the two. The point where it stops being a wrap (or helix) and starts being a twist should be dictated by how much free space there is for metal to move into. four square bars has none so it is a twist right from the start. three square bars would wrap with only minor deformation until the space is gone, then extra energy would be needed to stretch the metal to start a twist. two round bars will have quite a lot of free space around the total diameter to move into. I have done far to much fencing, it is quite obvious with soft tie wire when you get to that point and everything tightens up and becomes hard to turn.

Here is where I admit a was wrong ..again :( . My rough calculation was for half a turn or a single helix full turn and it still comes up slightly short if you double it. this link should get you closer if you can guesstimate the height you want for a complete turn. Calculating the length of two twisted copper wires http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/53155.html

For a perfect 45 degree helix I think the magic number is 1.414 (that's the % cross section diameter of the rod at a 45 degree angle) So each full twist height will be 1.41 times the rod diameter and the starting length will be 1.41 times longer than the finished twist. Or the twist will be 0.707 of the starting length if you prefer to look at it that way. I cant back it up with a mathematical equation, it just feels right when I roll it around in my head and compare it to calculating pitch. it will be something like Sin(twist angle) X length = twisted length.......I think

I think that is used to move the belt across from the idler pulley. If the belt is run onto the drive pulley to quickly it is possible to snap the belt.

I have a 250 and a 350 (approx) sizes 250# 12H X 28L X 5.25W 350# 14.5H X 33L X 5.5W they are both the shorter stumpier looking versions. The 350 has an inch plate and a lot more meat under the plate. the 250's plate is 5/8 to 3/4 ish

I think it is for feeding sheaves of fodder to stock. it needs to be well gripped and solid so they can tear mouthful's off. The hook underneath the jaws could be used to hinge it up and out the way. cattle or weaner calves?

Usually problems with seizing is rust and crud in the bearings. you may have a bush stuck on a shaft somewhere. Most times some cleaning and a polish with some emery cloth is all that is needed to free things up. I dont know anything about dealing with fibre gears but if the two gears are binding it doesn't sound good. A bent gear and broken casing would indicate that something hard has gone between the gears and damaged them.

Sorry Thomas, it was a very poorly put together post as I was rushing out the door. colloquially fire, burner, forge and furnace are swapped a lot in Aussie slang. it is hard to get out of the habit. I was pontificating about points perhaps pertaining to post puddling procedure. What happens in that period between finished puddling and starting to work the lump if you are in an industrial shop? I dont have any tools that are up to the job in my motley collection of gear. My logic was that bosses dont like people standing around waiting for the next piece, burning time and fuel. If you are standing back because of the heat the job is not getting done. I was thinking more in terms of what would have been the main big industry that a folk song lyric would be aimed at. An iron works seemed like a good choice, with lots of apprentices getting told what to do. Now that FM Phil has mentioned it, manufacturing gear for rail seems a likely candidate. Those wedges certainly look like pigs trotters.

My guess is that it would be a local variation slang for pig iron. The pigs would be broken away from the sow and heated in the forge then forged under the drop hammer into a rough wrought. I am thinking its a timing thing, the next one must be hot enough to work just as the team finish working the one before it. They were called pigs because the cast piece looked like a row of suckling piglets. of course my record at guessing these sort of things is not that good.

Have you tried wiggling it back and forth from the fan shaft end to see if it will loosen up? you have to be a bit gentle from this end cos there is a lot of reduction on the gears. if it comes up against something solid and jams it may break a tooth if you force it to much. You may have to replace the bolts in the case first so the shafts and cogs stay aligned. if the shafts will move, even a little bit, it may be possible to remove the bolts, slip a thin blade in the join and tap it in while rotating the fan and break the gasket seal.

Over here we make a fire on the ground and shovel the coals out of the fire, into a standard forge with a long handled square point shovel.

The industry standard for heat straightening 50mm plate is oxy/acet with a size #8 tip or size #4 rosebud, if you cant do it with that your heating technique is faulty. Cooling the plate quickly with water will just make it brittle it makes no difference to the final shape, compressed air is fine. Once the temp is below 315o C you can dump as much water on it as you like. You are supposed to hold the tip still and just inch it along not wave it around all over the place. Go back and read my last post and try and get your head around the idea that you are trying to upset the metal vertically with the cold metal in front and around the sides of the expanding hot spot clamping and squeezing it and forcing it up. the only time a large area is heated is if the piece has torsion stresses that need to be relieved before starting the job.

I dont think that heating a wide strip will work. The way I do it, I think of it as a traveling spot. I would use an oxy torch start at one edge and heat a small spot almost to 1200F then work my way across the plate keeping the heated line reasonably thin (1.5-2 inch maybe) letting the metal cool behind the spot. You dont want the underside to get too hot or it wont work. the idea is the cool steel in front of the heated area is holding the heated spot under tension and causing the upset in the hot metal that you need to make it move back as it cools. If you heat a whole strip at once it will just bend up and shrink back to its original shape. Pretend you are welding it, but with the oxy torch. edit 1200F is not that hot, it is a silvery look after the torch has been removed for about 5 seconds in average daylight. So dark red in good daylight is a little hot for heat shrinking. that is the best I can describe it, sorry!

Beautiful timber to work with, very forgiving. I was at boarding school in the early eighties and my grandparents lived not far away. I would sneak out on the weekends and spend some time with them. My grandfather carved 18th century style furniture as a hobby. The first piece I made with him was a french polished side table, that was western red cedar imported through Canada, I remember it was in short supply in Australia then, the timber for that piece cost me $400. A lot of money for a 15 year old. My grandfather took lessons in woodcarving and upholstery at his local TAFE (technical and further education) when he was in his late sixties and built furniture ( and pendulum clock cases) for more than twenty years. We made a lot of carving tools in the two years we spent carving together But he did not use draw knives or large scorping tools. He used to say at his age he didn't have time for that (and hand sanding) so all the rough shaping was done with routers and templates and a pattern following bandsaw. His teacher was very disapproving of his non traditional approach.

:( I have had a week to get over it but it is no use! I am still totally green with envy about your coopering lessons. Congrats Nicole. I only get to read about this stuff in books.

This reminds me of "how long does it take to become a local" I think if someone lives in my community for more than 3 weekends, they are a local and I treat them as such. Others think it takes about 3 generations.