Yuppiejr

Honestly that anvil would have sold around here already at that price, you are comfortably under $3 a pound, $4-5 a pound is the new normal unless there's a clear defect in play. I'd offer $300 but be prepared to pay their asking price without reservation. Most of the anvils of that era were butt-welded together in various pieces, nothing to be alarmed with if you see the forge welded seams, it's just the way they were made back then. I seem to recall WF's don't ring much, though it should bounce a ball bearing at least 5-6" dropped from 10". The chips/wear to the edges and horn are typical of an anvil that's been used, it also looks like there's a bit of sway in the face which is also typical. You can verify this by laying a 12" straight edge lengthwise on the face of the anvil and look for gaps I really like the structure of that anvil for blacksmithing, she's got a thick waist which puts more of the mass under the hammer unlike the more common/new ductile iron farrier anvils which have narrow waists and long sweeping horns better suited to shoeing horses. Assuming the seller hasn't simply forgotten to delete their post after the sale I'd be moving fast on that deal.

I also have a forge of this design likely from the same eBay seller, you will want to seal that kaowool insulation with something that will prevent the insulation particles from becoming airborne and trashing your lungs over time. There is a bunch of good info on the topic over in the gas forge subforum. As for insulation, I like the Roxul mineral wool products as they are sound absorbing and fire resistant. I have used the Roxul 80 mineral wool boards to build sound absorbing panels in my home theater and it's really effective across a broad frequency range, the 60 is also good as are the more typical bats (Home Depot sells them) depending on your budget & application. Egg cartons are a valid option for certain types of acoustical treatment, however their primary benefit is going to be dispersion and reduction of echo, not absorption/attenuation of the sound which is what he is after. I'd also be concerned about adding paper pulp/cardboard to the walls of a shop in which he is running a forge & angle grinder, it's a fire hazard. If you want to keep the mice away, get some pure peppermint oil extract and soak some cotton balls to place throughout the space. I had a rodent issue with my camper and shed, this solved it in both (the cat option is also a good one, but ours has passed his mouse hunting prime so this is our best option.

Found the solution, while not perfect a single copper 7/16" flat washer ("Handi-Pack" Part 87718, UPC 738287877182) from my local Menards did the trick. The outer diameter of the washer is slightly smaller than the bearings on the fan shaft. Same basic logic as the 200 repair in the thread linked above, I'll show the part disassembled and displayed in order alongside the fan shaft, and then again assembled for future reference if anyone has this problem with their Buffalo 300 and wants a relatively quick fix. The 7/16's fibre washers from the same maker were smaller than the copper and would not fit the shaft, stainless flat washers were too large in outer diameter. A copper washer on the opposite side of the bearing (closer to the gear) locked the unit up tight (must be hitting the gear above)... and a second of the same copper washer next to the one shown did not allow me to fully lock the bearing on the opposite side when reinstalling it in the gearbox. Some really thin shims of sheet copper might help take a bit more play out of it, but given my blower run I did not end up bothering with the 12mm .. note that the pictures flipped the image, the orientation changed 180 degrees thanks to the photo importer...

Hi, Hopefully a relatively simple question... I'm trying to replace spacers of an unknown organic material that turned into a light brown liquid that poured out of my blower when I opened it up to figure out why it sounded like something had come loose and was rattling around inside. Turns out the rattling was the bearing on the right side of the fan shaft having come off of it's groove on the fan shaft... which presumably was being shimmed/held in place by the washers in question. For those who haven't had to access and service the fan shaft on this style of blower, you first have to remove the fan cover and then the fan itself which is held to the shaft by a single square head set screw. Mine required a squirt of WD40 but popped off with a light pry from a screwdriver. You can then gently pry the retaining caps off of both ends to expose the bearings and, presumably, the washers I need to replace if they haven't liquefied. When you pull the shaft through the body of the blower gearbox, the bearing on the "right" (photographed) side will pop off of a groove on the shaft and allow the rest of the assembly to pull freely out the back of the assembly. The bearing on the "left" (opposite the fan) side simply slides back and forth and is not retained. I did notice the ends of the cut gears on the shaft seem slightly rough and may have been grinding away at the previous washer/spacer for a number of years before it fully disintegrated. The shaft is .475" in diameter. When the blower operates, the shaft seems to "float" and ride on the two bearings... until, as in my case, the travel front to back is so great (due to loss of the shim/spacers) that the fan side bearing pops off of it's groove and the whole thing comes to a halt. I assume that the shims were in place to limit travel of the floating bearing (left side of the photo) which could be accessed by removing the two nuts and spacer at the end of the fan shaft. Anyone happen to have a parts diagram for a Buffalo Forge 300 blower? Otherwise is anyone else that has rebuilt a Buffalo 300 blower able to post a photo of the same fan shaft on their blower indicating where the spacers that are missing on mine need to be located, and perhaps, provide a description of the material they are made of? I figured out that the closest standard size washer that would fit the shaft (with some slop) is an M12 unless I open up some 7/16ths with my drill press, but I'm not sure what material or what position they should be in. I'm going to pick a few options up to play with (brass, stainless and nylon/rubber or deriln if I can find it) but would love to skip some of the guesswork if anyone cares to share. Google is not a great resource as there simply isn't much out there on these guys versus the smaller 200 or more popular Champion models. Thanks! - J * Just found this gem of a post, assuming the 200/300 use a similar assembly I think I will start by shimming between the bearing and cut gears on the left side of the shaft (opposite where the fan attaches).

Thanks for the response gents! Any idea if the "4 foot above the highest spot on the roof" best practice for proper draft from a 12" diameter forge stack would include the additional 48" from a low loss cap? if so I'm thinking of putting the roof penetration for the stack on the back side of my shop instead of the front as originally planned (shed roof, slants front to back) so I could run the chimney pipe 3.5 feet above the lower side of the roof deck to get even (plus 6" for the connection overlap) with the peak of the roof, and then attach the additional 4 feet of cap/secondary duct. Also.. reality check. I noted the third time I read the article about the low loss cap on Anvilfire, the author indicated he needed to improve draft from his 8" stack pipe and saw the significant benefit of the low loss cap when he swapped one from his original "cone" cap. With a much larger 12" chimney pipe that runs vertically (no angles/bends) through the roof in a 12'x16' shop I'm wondering if I'm just adding unnecessary complexity and cost for my small time setup by pursuing this?

Morning, I'm finally working on a proper stack for a coal forge in my 16' x 12' backyard shop and planning to use a 10' section of 12" culvert pipe for my chimney going straight up and through the steel roof, extending 4 feet above the peak. I'm going to use 12" non galvanized black steel chimney pipe to attach my super sucker forge hood to the stack keeping the galvanized culvert pipe at least 3-4 feet above the forge & hood. I originally planned to just fabricate a simple cone/dish rain guard cap secured a foot above the top of the stack, but was considering the Low Loss Stack Cap concept documented on anvil fire (Mod Note: Hot link removed at the request of anvil fire) instead. Following the published guideline, I'd end up adding an additional 4 feet of height to the stack (a 14" diameter, 4.5 foot sleeve secured 6" below the top of the 12" stack pipe) for a total of 8 feet above the highest point of the roof (4' of stack pipe and 4' of stack cap) ... but I'm curious if the height of the stack cap should be figured into the math when figuring out how far above the roof line (normally 4') I need to be for a proper draft or "secondary draft" function of the cap interacting with the main 12" stack. Given it's a 12" diameter stack that will extend perfectly straight for 14 feet right out of the forge hood I will probably have plenty of draft in my little shop with a typical cone/cap, but figured I'd check since I like the concept of the low loss cap particularly when it comes to minimizing dark colored smoke exhaust in my semi-suburban shop... but this would likely be offset by having such a tall eyesore-ish chimney pipe coming out of the roof. Ideally I'd keep the total stack sticking out of the roof around 5' so either 4' of stack pipe and 1' of cap, or 1' (18" with the 6" overlap) of stack with 4' of low loss cap pipe... any thoughts or calculations I'm missing to help me decide which will work best? Cheers -- J

I believe a good "standard" measure of rebound for comparison is to drop a 1" ball bearing from 10 inches.. use a tape measure or ruler, makes the calculation pretty simple (8" = 80%, etc..).

Good point, however a dead anvil is going to be obvious with or without a layer of surface rust, while one that has decent rebound remaining is still going to bounce a 1" ball bearing at least 6-7" from 10." I've tested some pretty grungy anvils in barns + machine sheds covered in all manner of grease, bird droppings, dust, paint and rust... generally a few swipes with the edge of a credit card are enough to knock off anything that will seriously impact the rebound test.

Arm and Hammer anvil for $2 a pound? Run, don't walk... but bring a bearing to check rebound just in case it's had it's hardness annealed out in a fire, otherwise that looks like a winner in pretty typical "barn find" condition.

I'm surprised how many random bits of wood and plastic I'm fishing out of this stuff, the bags that were in the center of the pallet are fine but the ones on the edges that were exposed to sun and rain pretty much disintegrate on contact. I can see why they are clearing it out, what a handling nightmare of a whole pallet of this stuff would be if it broke down and spilled all over the place in their warehouse or yard. If you don't mind doing a little bit of sifting before you throw it in your forge or small stove it burns just fine, it's not as noxious and smokey as the bituminous coal I compared it with. If you heat your home I'd probably look elsewhere, for my purposes @ $2.25 a bag it's still the cheapest coal source in town by far. The Lehigh bags are totally the opposite, mine have held up fine while exposed to sun and rain all summer, the contents is clean and consistent so far without any foreign inclusions like the Kimmel stuff.

Might want to check your local Tractor Supply, I was visiting a local store with my wife yesterday to pick up chicken feed and when I asked about coal the manager said they were putting what they had left on clearance for $4.50 a bag. He wasn't sure if this was simply because the bags they received earlier in the year had degraded after a summer of sitting outside, or a lack of demand overall... but I was able to score 28 x 40 pound bags of the Kimmel Nut Anthracite coal for a further discount to $2.25 a pop after agreeing to take everything he had left to get it out of inventory. Half of the bags were pretty wet and torn so I planned on spreading it across my driveway for a bit to dry before transferring it to large bins for storage. Comparing this with the Lehigh Anthracite Coal (also nut size) I'd purchased from a different TSC location earlier in the year, the Kimmel seems to include a lot of smaller bits and also crumbles & dusts more. The Lehigh coal looks almost like obsidian and has a silver/black shimmer where it breaks (which requires a hammer), while the Kimmel is notably more dirty/crumbly with a brownish tint and more of a rainbow tone along facets where it breaks (which can be done by hand). The Kimmel actually looks a lot more like the bituminous coal I purchased from the local guild coal pile than the Lehigh, will be interesting to see how it burns. So yea, $63 bucks plus local sales tax for 1120 pounds of "bagged" anthracite coal, not a bad buy in this area. Might want to check your local TSC stores to see if it's a national vs local clearance though.

Nice, it's all about that rebound, kind of cool that it's a quality but less common brand of anvil than you typically find out there in the wild - congrats!

Appreciate your service, that's a lot to balance with a family! Where are you located? There are always options, perhaps you can barter/trade with another blacksmith near you? Maybe someone can put you on to an auction service that allows credit card payment but will allow you to outlay a lot less than buying a new anvil at Centaur Forge / Blacksmith Supply, etc... Otherwise building a post anvil from a decent size drop or scrap of steel is a really good and affordable option.

One follow-up comment on the sugar option - it seems like a majority of the harmful hexavalent chromium will bond with the sugar to form Chromium III at a 93-94% rate, not 100%. The pollutant is still present and may require the same disposal methods as the untreated waste, I still wouldn't be pouring it onto the ground near near my house where it is likely to find it's way into the water table and ultimately my well. I'd avoid dealing with it entirely by only using carbon steel electrodes, and even then let the liquid evaporate and then bag the resulting solid/powders as household waste to be disposed of at an approved facility the next time you drop off paints/solvents/oil/etc.. I assume many of these anvils and other tools were painted or slathered with the cheapest oil/grease available at some point in their history to prevent rust in storage/transport, and the likelihood of their being lead or other harmful chemicals present along with the rust that electrolysis removes is pretty high.

Nice, honestly that price seems pretty reasonable for the anvil pictured/described.

.. sorry, not sure why I added the "high" carbon to my response, I typically grab rebar out of the scrap pile for my e-tank. That's a great tip on the use of sugar!

Not sure if this works for every style of smithing, but I had it drilled into me early that having the forge running without metal in it is a waste of fuel. I usually start with 2 pieces in the fire and then alternate between them as I work... though I probably burn through more metal stock as a result so there's still a cost (though if I get the work done right at least I have another to sell/gift/use).

Wait a minute, didn't you just score that sweet Peter Wright anvil that the lady held for you at the store earlier in the week? Man you've got some skills/luck at finding the nice ones, another beautiful example there! Well, if that is an early Mousehole anvil it should have it's markings on the opposite side pictured, perhaps he can send you a shot of what's on the other side with a bit of chalk rubbed to fill the low spots and then rubbed off? That anvil looks to be in nearly perfect condition, clean edges and table, no significant damage on the edges, and at 400 pounds it's a relatively uncommon size... To the right buyer that could easily be a $2000+ anvil. I recently sold a very rare farrier size anvil for $8 a pound to someone who was particularly interested in it's pedigree and condition. I've sold "working man" anvils with various types of wear for between $2 and $3 a pound which seems in line with what they went for at quad state this year. I've seen people rescue 100+ lb anvils from the scrapyard for $20... It really depends on the market, and what the seller is looking for. I paid a bit more than I should have in today's market for a Buffalo rivet forge with blower because a woman was selling some of her ex-husband's tools after he left her with 3 kids to take care of... I've paid less than I should have by watching auctions or helping someone who just wanted the heavy chunk of metal out of their way. So, what's fair? Finding the right collector who would appreciate that anvil as more than a tool and pay him $5 a pound or more could take him years... but really $1200 ($3 a pound) is probably as low as I'd consider "fair" given the current prices in the market around me given the size and condition. If it's a friend or relative perhaps they simply want to see it stay in the family? Honestly that's probably a once in a lifetime find if you don't spend a LOT of time and miles looking for anvils, as long as it hasn't lost it's temper in a fire or isn't some really good gray iron cast knockoff its probably worth whatever he/she asks.

I was just reading Richard Postman's other anvil book today (Mousehole Forge, page 68) and he specifically indicated that many early Mousehole anvils had the shear steel plates welded in pieces rather than a single plate, larger anvils = more plates that make up the face. That anvil looks well taken care of, check rebound and listen for any strangeness in the ring (should ring like a bell if it's not got any serious cracks, etc..) and buy it!

Nice looking anvil! Problem - stainless steel contains chromium, which is consumed during the process (bet your tank turned an interesting shade of yellow) and is a known skin irritant and, ultimately, carcinogen that's rightly considered hazardous waste for disposal. Your electrodes should be high carbon steel, not stainless.

Nice looking shop! What are you doing for a fresh air supply? Not sure if I'd do the sealer either, the borax is certainly an inexpensive fireproofing option.

No 4140 today, but I saw this nice sized bit of A2 at Discount Steel on my way home from work today. It's roughly 3 x 7 x 18" and 118.9 pounds as shown. Not sure the best procedure to heat the face to 1750 (many options), but it sounds like you would then let it air cool and then temper at 550 for an hour to end up in the high 50/low 60 RC hardness?

Very nice, congrats, that's a really nice looking anvil and a great example of a seller doing it right! I'd be sending her back a care-package of work (hooks, bottle opener, etc..) that you craft on that anvil as a thank-you for being such a good sport about holding that for you. Could get you a call the next time something blacksmithing related comes into her store before it ends up on the sales floor as well...

That was me: http://www.menards.com/main/heating-cooling/fireplaces-stoves/fireplace-blowers-tools-accessories/refractory-cement-1-2-gallon-buff-color/p-1444439439282-c-6845.htm Mine is coated in ITC-100 as well (purchased from Wayne Coe). My approach is probably more the "if it's stupid, but it works..." variety than the correct application of refractory, but my little forge heats up fast and makes metal hot so I'm not inclined to change it until I need to.

VaughnT - I would find it fascinating to watch the interaction between you and Kent Knapp if you shared your opinion that he and his family lacked honor, integrity and self respect (your words) directly to his face. These shows are entertainment, plain and simple, they are not billed as documentaries or they would be called... documentaries! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. You have your right to have an opinion about the quality of the show or the work... but, with due respect, I'm not buying the 'decline of modern society and traditional values' argument from someone who is so willing to question a man's honor and integrity in a public forum of that man's peers semi anonymously. It's a big leap from talking about technical errors in quenching a blade or plasma cutting indian logos on the show...