arkie

Twisted, If you don't want to spend the $ to buy a ready-made rain cap, you can make one out of scrap. This is my ash dump when it was new several years ago and clean enough to see the construction details (all covered in rust now). Zoom in for detail. Anything heavy works for a counter weight. I have seen old trailer hitch balls cut off and welded on.

Twisted, you got a really nice looking Buffalo forge and blower there. Enjoy! Frosty's recommendation and picture of a truck exhaust rain cap is excellent. I made one very similar for my forge. After mounting it to the dump pipe, drill another hole opposite the existing one to weld or bolt on a counter weight. In the existing hole which would now be on top, run a 1/4" rod up to your forge to a bracket of some kind. To keep from having to bend over to dump, just pull up on the rod. Attached is a pic of my ash dump and rod. You'll need to zoom in to see the rod setup more clearly.

Finally.................and it wasn't even on a Monday!!!! Wahoo!!!!

Where I live, I just sold some solid steel scrap for $0.125 per pound (that's 12.5 cents per pound, or as the yard said, $250/ton). It's gonna take a truck load of scale just to get enough cash to buy a loaf of bread these days.

Bantou, I used a bathroom vent fan for bathrooms for a few years, but the pressure wasn't quite enough to get enough air through a pile of coal. If you use charcoal (lump, not briquets) they will put enough air through since the char doesn't need quite as much air as coal. Goods had a better suggestion on using a furnace fan. I changed over to a used one about two years ago, and never looked back. Works great. I control the air with a blast gate. Check with your HVAC folks, there's bound to be one somewhere nearby, and see if you can get one off of a replaced gas/propane heater. I think new ones run in the $60-$70 range, but I've slept since I priced any new ones. The used one I have is the Dayton 1TDP5 blower. The model numbers are: Old 2C610 (New #= 1TDP5, 131CFM)

Bantou, one of our members used an old large Igloo insulated cooler to house his blower. He drilled an air intake hole in one end and the blower air hose exited through a hole in the other end. He said it reduced the blower noise significantly. I suppose the power cord came in the intake hole. Good way to repurpose old camping or outdoor equipment!

Frosty, sometimes I don't get the point of jokes either...and I am too embarrassed to ask the person what it meant! LOL Lots of new jargon floating around out there and I can't keep up with it!!

"What color would you like your mail, sir??? Better be the quick drying stuff. LOL" Frosty, I tried to make a tongue in cheek funny there,...guess it didn't work......

What color would you like your mail, sir??? Better be the quick drying stuff. LOL

If you have been reading this thread, you would have seen Thomas Power's postulation a few posts back that the square holes were split in the back, the vertical bars inserted and the splits closed.....

And, it wasn't even on a Monday, LOL! WAHOO!! as we say in the hills.

Twisted, you're the kind of friend we all wish we had. You'll be fine. Stay busy. Time heals all wounds, or so we hope.

Ahhhhhh, haaaaaaaa! Just learnt a new trick today. Thanks Thomas and Davor!

Jen, that is beautiful and innovative to have the race show up as an inlay. Never saw that before. The rivets are unique with the letters as well.

I hold my breath as long and as much as possible when I walk down the laundry detergent aisles in grocery stores or discount stores...if not, I end up sneezing my head off. And, I don't suffer from allergies. It's all the "fragrances" and scents they load the soap up with!

Columbian post vise markings on mounting plate.....

I don't believe a description will be as easy to follow as will a visual. Try to view some YT videos by Technicus Joe (Joey van der Steeg) a member here, Brian Brazeal, or Black Bear Forge (John Switzer). They have excellent videos on far side drawing out. You will get dents and dimples, but they can show you how to work those out.

Thomas, we have all given our opinions. In some respects, we have been having some fun at your expense (some literally). Some good, some well.....mine somewhere in those groups too. I will come to your defense, though. I live in a small rural area with a local elec. co-op. And as you have said you are neighbors with the co-op folks and in some cases friends. Not anywhere like a large city where you can wield threats and so-forth. I suppose all one can do, really is wait it out as long as you personally feel you can before pulling the trigger.

I have followed Dave since he was a youngster...this really hits hard. My thoughts are for Dave, Sarah and the children.....they don't deserve this. They are such a wonderful couple and family.

Thomas, don't despair....there are still several Mondays left in this year...they will show up, just don't know what Monday.....

I agree with Thomas...I never let anyone use one of my "good" hammers at any time, demo, meeting, at my shop, wherever. I have a couple of cheap big box store or flea market hammers that I loan out and if they are damaged, then a couple of bucks replaces them. As a matter of fact, I don't loan out ANY tools, smithing or otherwise. About 30 years ago, I learned a hard lesson when I loaned out some very expensive tools and the borrower said they "couldn't be found", or so he said. That did it...don't care WHO it is, I don't loan out tools. (And...I have made it practice to not borrow tools either.) I didn't consider animal traps to be a tool, so just recently a lady who traps feral cats and has them fixed (a commendable task) needed to borrow one of my coon traps. I buckled in and let her use one.....yep, you guessed it. When I asked for it back, she couldn't find it, but offered two beat up traps in lieu of the "missing one". Arkie SLAPS FOREHEAD....WHY DID YA DO IT DUMMY??????

Thomas, maybe like Arkansas....did they tell you WHICH Monday????????

I've been using Adblock Plus on Chrome for years and have never seen an ad...fingers crossed!!! I'll get caught someday, LOL Works on Edge as well, but I hardly ever use Edge...a MS product.

The body may be cast, but the face is a plate...the anvil experts here can identify anvils with (probably) a cast iron body and forge welded-on, hardened face plate.

I checked that post and the pictures were obliterated in the "update". Would you mind posting one or two again? I'd love to see them.