Kozzy

Here's a photo of the rest of the vise. No markings at all. An age guess would be interesting but those are darned hard on vises. And yes, I'll disassemble and bring it back from the dead. Fortunately, whomever used it in the "years gone by" kept the screw well greased so there is very little wear or corrosion in the critical bits. Oh...and thanks for TPAAT! I went from no vise to 2 vises (the other is a 4-1/2) in the last 3 months just by remembering to keep poking the weeds. Prior to that I never saw one show up in this area (except the rare few which people wanted to trade pound for pound against gold bars)

Welcome to a place where you can learn more than you thought there was to learn on the subject. There are some people near you..hopefully they'll chime in. I'm all the way across the state near Lewiston (on the WA side of the border). Were I to give advice, it'd be to spend a lot of time focusing on the more boring stuff. Although you need to slip in an interesting project here and there, take the time to do stuff like drawing out straights, tapers, reverse tapers, flattening to size, punching small holes in the bits and pieces, etc. as skill building. That will pay off in the long run and really help your skill set. People seem to want to skip the more boring stuff and jump right to making a full broadsword...but making simple hooks and scrolls until you can't look at another one will make you a better smith when you do go for the more advanced stuff. Oh..and while I'm giving questionable advice ( ), pick your starting stock wisely. Just because you got a large axle for free from the junk pile doesn't mean it's a wise choice to turn into that small coat hook. Metal is relatively cheap so pick up a few clean mild steel bars in the 3/8" to 1/2" range to play with and it'll be a lot less frustrating to practice on. No tongs needed if you get something like 3 footers and you can do a lot of great small projects with them. You'll also learn what good consistent KNOWN steel feels (and heats) like vs. a questionable piece of unknown scrap. "free" steel is great but it might cost you more in time and frustration than you save.

I picked up a 5" vise the other day and had a question I was hoping someone could answer for me. On the lower leg joint, most vises seem to have a typical square nut/bolt combo but this one appears to be set up for a wedge to hold the pin in place. Looking through some of the file photos on this site I see 2 in this style but the "wedge" is not clear enough to understand--one looks like it's been done with a modified cotter-style pin and one appears to have a hunk of bent sheet metal instead of the original pin/wedge/whatever. So...anyone know what would have been there originally? It's easy enough to forge a small wedge which would work but I'd like to copy as well as I can the original design. No, it's not really critical: It's more a matter of curiosity since the photos I could find don't seem to tell the story. Thanks

Old school version of a "pipe clamp". One side clamps to a 2 x 4 as your backbone. You can go as long as you can find a 2 x 4 so there are times when such a thing is quite handy. I have used mine at about 12 feet to pull big stuff into square along the diagonal and hold it...but not much else as I only have one and regular pipe clamps are used more commonly for the work I do that needs a long clamp. Usually there is a second end...basically a stop without the screw clamp on it but those get lost over time. You could also just nail a stop-end made of wood on the 2 x 4. You got me thinking...I haven't seen mine around here for a while so I better dig around and see where it went.

Although one could muddle through and probably get it right, I was wondering if anyone had seen information in a vintage book or other source regarding sharpening old-school tin snips. None of my old references seem to make mention of it and I was curious if there were specific tips, tricks or other info to get the old ones sharpened "right". I'm trying to bring a few old ones back into use for some tin-work demonstrations at the museum---and I'd not only like them to work as well as new (and this style never worked great in my experience) but be able to give reasonably accurate advice if a museum guest asks about fixing up the old pair Grandpa left him. Thanks for any help you can give or pointing me to any information source. I can fake it but it'd be nice to see what PEXTO or others recommended for sharpening procedures 100 years ago. Stole this photo from the internet as a reference. My pile is at home without pictures.

Most likely it's basically half a vice or similar tool--there were dozens if not hundreds of patents back in the day for cast iron vices with an anvil feature. Fine for tinkering in the garage on light work, wholly inappropriate for actual smithing. I usually call them "dinking anvils" because if your hammer hits hard enough to make a sound beyond "dink" you are going to break it. VERY common. In fact, last night I was reading a 1915 book on farming and it suggested one of those vice/anvil combinations if you couldn't afford a real anvil. Terrible advice (these were big books sold door to door in farming communities at cheap prices--and often gave bad or superficial advice).

For some reason that top face is kinda screaming at me that the top's been replaced with weld and hand-ground. Pics are hard to tell if that's true or not so maybe it's just my eyes. Assuming it's actually good, $ 350 is still pushing it pretty hard for what it appears. I'd personally pass unless it weighs well into the upper hundred range as better will eventually show up if you are patient. Patience is an anvil-hunter's best friend. If it's say...150 or 175 pounds (originally)... and the top checks out, it *might* be worth it depending on where you are located. You will likely need what is commonly referred to as a "portable hole" to hold hardy tools and that adds to the complications (do a search of this site for "portable hole" and you'll see some threads).

Hmmmm...the blades look nothing like the many other old dehorners in the museum here so I would not have leaned that way. Emasculators are quite different--I've got one in the shop right now to eventually go to the museum and it hurts just to look at.

As a "little guy" in a big pond where this kind of thing is getting more common, what tends to hurt me is the lack of a "keepable" paper trail. Something as simple as "This specification is based on maintaining appropriate lubrication" can come back and bite you if you don't have access to that paper trail. I can think of a hundred times I've added a minor comment in e-mail or on a drawing that I've had to pull the "I told you so...right here" line and prove it out when the client ignored something I told them was critical. Sometimes I've had to do this years later. I almost always follow up any phone conversation with a written clarification e-mail these days for just this reason. One has to jump through hoops to produce/maintain/file your own paper trail...which might be a contract violation to do in these cases...just to cover your south end and have access if needed. Sure, it could be dragged out of a client in a court case but the little guy can rarely afford to go that far. As to the ethics question---It is unethical for a client to expect/require that you operate without access to copies (or copies in your own file) of all correspondence or documents you produce or add to a project. Imagine an engineer having to give up (or legally destroy) their calculation notes or correspondence on a large project due to such a policy. Unfortunately, ethics in most business seem to be taking a back seat these days.

Just curious about some decisions. Why have sprockets made rather than using the cheap standard ones off the shelf? Is there some other reason you chose to do that? What did you decide on for the final total gear ratio? IIRc the old units vary from 1:20 to about 1:40...but those cheap current units you mentioned appear to have a terrible ratio that looks more like 1:10 from what I've seen in vids. People seem to have to crank like it's a coffee grinder. Are you adding anything in the design to maintain inertia? Since you mentioned a clutch I was just curious if you had some extra inertia so the impellers would keep on going longer than without. Interesting sounding project. If I would building a "one off", I'd lean toward bicycle parts as old bikes can be had for a song and a dance at goodwill and similar. Commercial and reproducible versions I'd have to ponder a bit more.

There are some technical reasons* that the typical light dimmer or similar set-up is not the best choice to do speed control on a motor, especially an old motor. Lean toward using a choke plate or gate instead. You'll likely be surprised how little the opening needs to be to get proper air. On my similarly sized unit, the proper air is with about a 1/8" gap. Anything more tends to be too much air flow. * Most use a triac (or a pair of SCRs) which triggers in such a way that you don't get a nice sinusoidal waveform on the voltage output--you get a partial waveform with the SCR clipping the voltage harshly and abruptly. That's part of what causes the buzzing one often hears when they are used as dimmers. That can potentially cause eventual breakdown of the insulation on the motor windings and likely some over-heating of the motor at lower speeds. Some people have no problems for years or ever, some fry the motor quickly. Since that unit looks to have a motor that you can't easily replace off the shelf, it might be best not to risk it.

Wiki has a pretty good write up on crucible steel and historical references to region and periods. You can certainly see why good steel was so darned costly and generally used only for cutting edges. Also a couple of pictures of crucible Damascus sword blades...darned pretty stuff, having a mostly random pattern.

Steveo above has an interesting point on the era. Although that anvil is likely superior, it does look to have been "whizzed" to make the surfaces look better---something that might be a bit of a red flag and should be looked at with good glasses. At $ 1500 and ignoring the distance (did you need a vacation?) you pretty much can't lose money on it. At $ 2000 it becomes a bit more iffy but you are unlikely to lose much if circumstances required you to sell. Remember, a good anvil is an investment that retains pretty good value so it's only money deposited in the "national bank of iron" and not all expense/cost. No, you likely don't need a heavy anvil like that but dang, a big one can be a joy to use...they don't usually dance, even when you go neanderthal on 'em with a larger sledge.

(in case the O.P doesn't know) Most chucks mount on an adapter...jacobs taper that fits in a tapered recess in the chuck and morse taper to fit on the spindle end. You can pay about 15 bucks for a soft chinese made adapter that's primarily machined finish or about $ 40 for a fully ground and hardened USA made version (very rought numbers..it's been a while since I purchased). That makes almost as much of a difference as a quality chuck. The actual spindle bores tend to be pretty close, even on Chinese machines---it's the error added from the lower-quality adapter and chuck that usually give you bad runout. Definitely agree with your recommendation for a MT spindle. Dylan's comment about the light is an excellent one also. I battle poor light constantly, always thinking that I'll do something about it "some day". There are aftermarket magnetic lights that are not expensive for an easy "fix". Light is well worth it as a feature to add or look for in a press. Oh...and it's been said before but is worth saying again: Top quality drill bits are an order of magnitude better to use than some of the home center (or worse) crap. It'd be better to spend an extra hundred bucks on top quality bits than that same extra hundred on a fancier press in most cases--more bang for the buck.

What's the nature of your use? Yea, I know...smithing and fabrication...but is it a home shop situation or are you looking for more of a production quality machine? For occasional use, you are probably about stuck with a lower cost chinese machine (on the new market) As long as you get away from the bottom of the barrel, most can be tuned up to work adequately. Part of that tune up is usually replacing the chuck with a much better quality one which will set you back another $ 50 to $ 125 in general. After tune-up, they are perfectly adequate machines. If it's got to be a better machine than that, I would be patient and look for a used machine. You can get a great quality press, likely even USA made, on the used market at the upper ends of your budget plus a little more. These tend to be 220v and are sometimes 3 phase. They are definitely worth it. My Do-All brand geared-head drill press (so darned easy to change speeds with a geared head!) was $ 500 at auction and worth every penny. There are similar units with variable pulleys so you can change speeds by cranking a dial---much better than changing pulleys. A couple of the better industrial brands are Powermatic and Clausing...but there are others. Checking internet links, it seems that the industrial presses have gone up a little in price on the used market so you might have to be patient and wait for a deal to come along. Like anvil shopping, patience is your best friend.

Ouch! That one hurts to see. That appears to be one of the straight-cut gears rather than the bronze worm driver so there is a very slight possibility that you can get a replacement. Gear specification can get really complicated---you have to determine "diametral pitch" and tooth count from the existing gear. Also pressure angle but that's not as hard a deal. There are sites online that will help you understand diametral pitch and how to figure that so I won't go into a long diatribe on the method. Once you pin that down, you can search something like the catalogs of Boston Gear to see if such a thing even still exists. Note also that in the past some odd gear pitches were sometimes used-- the world standardized on fewer options in more modern times. That might make it a much more difficult project to find a matching gear from modern stocks. Obviously the best bet is to have a donor blower with one of the other gears bad to steal this one from. Buying a new gear (if one can be had) is likely more costly than the blower is worth in the first place. This one might be best as a donor for someone else's project at this point.

Save that thing NOW. It's not only a blower, but an excellent one to have and use. The negative is that sitting might have made the needed re-hab a lot more difficult. Here's a video from Joey van der Steeg on that specific blower and what you need to know. He has several others on rebuilding the blower as well as some other excellent smithing videos that are always well worth watching.

Back in the dark ages, Fairhaven U as the "hippy" part of WWU had some blacksmithing...mostly art but also some real work. If you happen to be attending WWU for another year, maybe you can weasel in there for some forge time? Not sure if things are the same as 35 (dang!) years ago there though....

You've opened a bit of a can of worms there. Nothing is particularly hard or expensive but to do it right, there are a lot of odds and ends to collect. Lost wax is definitely the preferred method. That means you need to scab together a vacuum degasser to get the best results as well as a burnout furnace. Neither of those have to be fancy--a simple refrigeration pump from China is enough for the degasser...using a silicone sheet for the seal of whatever you can scab together for a "dome" to go over the mold canister. Burnout can be done over charcoal if you can protect the canister from direct flame and control temperatures. However, a real burnout oven is a LOT better choice. Get the canister too hot and the casting plaster degrades. Keep it too cool and you won't drive out all the wax from every little detail. Centrifugal caster is probably the easiest for "do it yourself" but you can also do a vacuum caster pretty easily if your degassing pump can be set up right for that also. NOT grocery store plaster for the casting mold---real casting "plaster" is cheap and easily available. You may need a special spray (cheap) on the wax to help the plaster get into all the details. As to the wax models: Although it is possible to make your own, literally (tens of) thousands of pre-made ring/jewelry wax castings can be had easily if you find the right sources. Heck of a lot better to have a failure with one of those than some custom version you spent hours making "just right". At worst, I'd slightly modify one of those that was already close to what you want so you can call it "custom"...that's what most makers actually do rather than starting from scratch. There are also very basic forms to build on so "custom" can get as custom as you want without having to do the most basic parts. Amount of silver used for a ring or most other jewelry is so small that the usual procedure is to torch-melt it in a small ceramic cup crucible rather than melt a larger volume...basically one casting worth at a time. Most centrifugal casters have a special crucible for this that fits them specifically and goes right into the machine for the actual casting process. LOTS of good books on the subject. I'd lean toward those for info rather than some nutter like me on the internet. You never know what critical detail we kooks forget to mention in a post. And...the used equipment does have a fairly strong market. If you choose to buy a bunch of the proper stuff (I would), you could probably use it and then be able to re-sell it quickly to recoup all or most of your investment--making it almost "free". Haven't done rings for years so I am a bit rusty. Do you have specific questions?

Be sure and back-calculate the volume to get a good estimate on stroke speed so you can properly match the pump/motor. One common theme that seems to come up with people planning hydraulic presses on this site is undersizing pumps and motors so the stroke speeds are quite low. That will definitely drive you crazy when using the thing. The price of undersized pumps is sure tempting but in the long run not worth the savings.

My local scrap yard will use their XRF gun for a one-off test without much whining if you are nice to them. That kind of thing is probably the easiest way to get a definitive answer. I work with a local shop that makes those big and heavy bars for the forestry industry in the USA--mostly via water jet cutting of a very tough material (can't think of the grade number off the top of my head) that would not really be suitable for much forging. Lots of manganese in it which would make forging a real workout--stuff you have to always work extremely hot to avoid cracks. Can't say if yours are even close to the same though as the makers of such things all claim theirs are "special" relative to the others.

There is a good video on youtube from Technicus Joe about rebuilding/rehabbing that blower (or close to it) which is worth watching. I believe the one he was working on is a Champion 400 if that helps narrow it down. He also has a ton of wonderful videos that will teach you more than you knew you needed to know--great for a rainy Oregon day. It looks like you might be a little shy on tongs. When just starting out, I highly recommend picking up a couple of commercial tongs from one of the suppliers (I used "Quick & dirty tools") because that gets you rolling right away with some useful ones--and they aren't that expensive. Tong blanks are also sold to roll your own with less hassle than going from complete scratch. Save scratch tong making until you have a bit of practice under your belt and can decide what you like and dislike about tongs in general. You didn't mention much on coal. The cheapest is the Tractor supply coal (not great but cheap in the NW if your nearest store carries it or will bring some in)--however, it prefers a constant airflow so you probably need an electric blower rather than a cranker. Proper smithing coal is EXPENSIVE in the NW and takes some effort to get hold of. Charcoal....well, I can't speak to that one except if that's your choice, you'll go through a lot of volume and that makes making your own (not a hard process) worth looking into. And welcome to the wonderful world of soot, slag, and smoke: It'll become an addiction for sure.

I've been searching on that name with no real luck Possibly COL F & I for Columbus Forge and Iron? Columbus Forge & Iron branded most of their vises as "Indian Chief" vises. If you do a google image search on that you might be able to compare details to see if it matches---not a perfect method as makers copied a lot of details from others but at least a path to research.

Yea, I looked into that Henrob torch after it was mentioned. Not cheap for a set but it sure would be nice in the long run. It's on my list of goodies that I'm trying to convince myself are worth buying for my business. I've got to buy a really expensive fancy cold-wire-feed TIG set-up for a CNC welder that I am building and maybe I can slip the Henrob in on that and pretend it's a "necessary accessory"

Their catalog was a huge book. Apparently their main business was wagon makers supplies. There is a text scan of their catalog online here https://archive.org/stream/SDKimbarkCoCatalogue1903/SD Kimbark Co Catalogue 1903_djvu.txt but it does not include the photos. It does include a bit of company history but I didn't read far. Will get the shovel and dig a little deeper... Here's a large newspaper ad showing they were also heavy into raw steel material sales in addition to the many other items related to wagons/buggies/carriages https://newspaperarchive.com/chicago-commercial-advertiser-nov-22-1877-p-14/ And there is a link about Kimbark anvils on this site https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/34342-sd-kimbark-anvil/ If you do a google image search for S. D. Kimbark there are a couple of photos of the building including one interior shot of wood parts...and if you search on Seneca D. Kimbark there is a bit of history on the owner. Can't seem to find anything specific on the post drills though. Many people are selling catalog copies but there doesn't seem to be much online in terms of catalog page images.