Howard Raymond

Yes, Charles, water is one of the best penetrating oils available. And it's cheap!

No, but west of the 100th meridian it's more likely stuff won't be all rusty when you do find it.

Note. You guys that live in the acid rain belt... It would be well worth your time to come out west on  a treasure hunt

No, you can't have my wagon! I use it to drag things around. The long handled jack we call a "hound tail" jack. I think they were a thresher jack. I have one I use all the time. There is a big rail road jack kicking around somewhere. I'll have to hunt it up.

I have used this vise in the field and it's a slick little outfit. 3 1/2 in jaws, no markings that I see. A 1/2 hole in a trailer floor and you have an instant work bench

This vise probably came from a farm sale. I used to pick them up all the time for little or nothing. It has 5 in jaws. This one is at my place in town. (I have an old Rockford vise at the farm)

This first post vise i believe is the one my dad had on the workbench at home.I still remember putting blood blisters on my little hands when the handle would slip back. You can see the waythe rounded ends fit it could be a pincher!  His widow wanted me to have it after he passed away. I have been saving it for some special project so I guess it will go in my smithy. When I am gone there will be no one left to care. My great grandfather bought the farm I grew up on in 1884. I suppose this vise dates to that time?

Cleaning out a shed I want to put my blacksmithing stuff in. Ran across this bunch of old jacks. What should I do with them? Clean them up and display them somehow in the shop? Maybe they need to go to another building. I'm almost thinking I should start a whole town with various repair shops. 

You can still buy copper sulfate. It works good to flush down the toilet to kill tree roots.

I have this unique spring loaded hand vise. I guess it is for removing pins from roller chain? Does anybody have any info on it? A web search came up empty except for another like it on Fleabay. 

I probably already have modern type bearings on hand that would fit. But I'm NOT going to do that to it! I did not know if the original type were available?  They are loose ball bearings with fixed cup and adjustable cone like a bicycle. In web searching this style appears to be called a "cup and cone" bearing but most of the references I find pertain to bicycles. I guess if I had an old bike shop handy i would go look through their stash. 

They are hard steel. Hard to work with for a beginner maybe. I had a bolt cutter with a broken jaw. It took me a couple tries but i made a new jaw out of a mower guard.

getting back on track, The first think I made was a fire poker. It was made by drawing out a rail road spike. You get LOTS of drawing out practice! I thinks forge tools are a good choice for a beginner. You can always use more tools!

Rake head tines? I like your thinking Frosty! I'm always seeing something in a piece of junk. I have a set of combination wrenches in my rake head. Most of the hammers hang on pairs of nails or screws.

So far all that I have on the gears is some spray chain lube I had on the bench. I need to find a new oiler for the 1/8 NPT hole and squirt in a little 30w engine oil. Yes, I think whats left of the red is probably original. It must have been good paint because this thing has sat outside for years. Where would I find new bearings for it?

Oh no, No paint Frosty. I may hit it with some Owatrol oil or I may not. I like original. It has a little gear noise but it may quiet down as the gears wear in. I really should have had new bearings and races for the fan shaft. I put the ball bearings in a baby food jar with some sand and brake cleaner and shook the devil out of them for quite a while and it cleaned them up quite a bit. It needed a new wood on the handle and appropriated one from an old cream separator crank. The base was loose from the stand too like they always are. I cut out the old rusty carriage bolt and found a new one for it. It's tight now. 

Well that's done. Now I'll have to find something else to tinker with. 

It's coming apart in spite of myself. Imagine my surprise when I discovered the end caps on the crank shaft are threaded! 

OK, I started cleaning up this Champion blower. I don't want to break anything and have not yet. Has anyone had one of these apart? Particularly the small spiral gear?  The closed end cap appears it may be stamped steel and not cast? Which end should come first and or does the bottom big gear need to come out next? The bottom gear is stuck fast. The small gear and shaft turn as far as the gear teeth will let it. I probably could get the big gear freed up and turning but I'd really like to remove it to do a good cleaning if I can. I have worked with cast iron before and like I said, I don't want to break anything!