Smoggy

New to me fly press, not sure of make or size, restoration process should throw some light in that area. Took three of us (my self, the Iron Dwarf and the Copper Elf) to load it in the hire van, but managed with the engine crane to unload it easy enough at my lock up. Once I realised the reason it was not lifting of the bed was because the jib was lifting the van up......oops! Intending to strip and clean up each component before putting it to work.

lathes.co.uk Has a little info on this make, including the collet types used.

There are many other bonding options on the market, Which of those you could use would likely depend on what you were doing and where you are.

Is it likely, given the size of the rings that they are cooperage hoops used for setting the staves prior to fitting the barrel bands? Where the found with the axe head?

I don't have a photo but it'll be of little use to you anyway, as you equipment will differ. I have a central walkway with a chair at the far end from the door, one side is the forge with the box bellows underneath, on the other side anvil, quench and other sundries, I have no room for tools, fuel or stock and keep it elsewhere only taking what I need for the session. I do have a small gas bottle stove fitted in the corner that I make charcoal in. You may find it usefull to have a removable wall panel by the forge to facilitate extra stock length and you should consider the same for the anvil. You may also wish to consider what can be placed outside, for instance a quench could live outside the door yet be easy to acceess. I have a wooden work bench opposite the smithy with a vice but only use it on dry days.

Hammer supplies the force, the anvil resists it, the more force the hammer can deliver the more the anvil can resist, if it's big enough. Only then will the metal deform under the force of the blow. The anvil and hammer only need to be suficient to do the work required, but bigger hammers and anvis can do more work when needed.

My 'Smithy' is 6x8', From my seated position I can pump the bellows tend the fire and forge on the anvils.....which is just as well as there is no spare room to move!

From your post above, you do not have, have not made a forge. It's a foundry furnace and I suspect it to be something like a Gngery Charcoal Foundry Furnace. Look it up on the internet or by his book for full information.

An assortment of steel bar stock followed me home courtesy of ID. just got to decied what to earmark it for now!

I moved the shop, well the forge, anvil and stand......from the demo field back home to ID's 'Emporium of Wonders and Fantasmagoria'.

Find a bit of heafty plate or similar to make a 'saddle' to sit atop your anvil and cut a square hardy hole in it, Sit it over the existing replacement hole and the jobs a goodoun, it will double as a cutting plate or you can even drill a series of holes in it to use it as a bolster for punching holes.

I don't need to guess.....

Das, When I'm helping ID on his stand, I spend the first hour selling these and the rest of the weekend telling folks we've sold out. very, very popular item.

That would be my aproach Frosty, you can send them off in small groups to accomplush part of the task, one collecting fire wood, a group supplied with a magnet to source steel and another with a spade an a bucket for water to dig and form the hole in the ground forge...(kids won't mind bending down half the day to reach the forge) etc....I'd supply them with some starter kit to ensure a tleast some success.

I'd go with charcoal, for the simple reason it gives you the widest option of blower types, you could buy or make any version of what we think of as the traditional bellows or nake a chinease box bellows. In fact makig the bellows could be a good initial project for the scouts.....you just need all the bits handy! Just about most other form of air mover you can come up with will or can be made to work, and with charcoal you can turn it off when there's no iron in the fire saving battery life, that may well be all too short in the first place. If you can get manual bellow the scouts can take short turns on it..... it'll be along time before you run out ot scouts!

Something tells me I should recognise that, it's not a fly press stand is it?

Not far from me is the Beamish open air Museum, entry is through a steam hammer, no not walk through, drive. Rumour has it they had to take the head out as drivers where finding getting the timing right problematic!

The following is a direct quote from Alex's web page "...I do not take on custom orders. There are no hammer preorders open and I do not have any work for sale. I am not currently offering classes. ..." For updates I suggest you visit his site and or watch his youtube channel, just in case the situation chnges.

Lets see, I found my way towards Blacksmithing by way of extending my engineering hobby. I wanted to be able to preform blanks prior to machining and to be able to heattreat the components and/or the tools I make. No intention or even thought given to making a knife. I now find my list of to do's including a froe, a spoke shave and some pole lathe tooling, well yes we talking edged tools. Is that any different to a person wanting to make a knife or even a sword an then discovering they need to make a tool to fuller a blade, or make a guide to file the blade and get bothe sides even, or even find themselve making machine tools to grind those edges. The propensity for folks wanting to be a bladesmith or blacksmith to make sharp things may well be down to a fad induced by certain TV programmes, or some other cultural influence, but does it really matter where the journey starts, or is it where it leads to that matters?

Most intersting, as was the Pathe film on the same subject from the UK that followed it. Even i notived afew differences in procedure, techniques and tooling.

I also find it much easier to work multiple irons in a charcoal forge. whilst you'e got one at the anvil the others are soaking in the residual heat with no danger of burning, once you return it to the forge and add air, the next piece is soon up to temp and ready to forge and the first piece sits soaking, working this way gets more work for less fuel and in less time.

Don't know if this would work in the US, but here in the UK we use house number (or name) followed by the post code, identifying it with a premises. It is then easy to ensure an item is retirned to it's owner.

This site may be usefull for swage block identification 'swageblocks.com' It's a bit of an encylopedia on the subject. (If you can't find a reasonable match it may be worth sending the site owner a photo of any unidentified block, they may well know what it is but not have a photo to post on site)

If you incorporate an appropriate (code compliant ) washer between the bolt head and wall anchor I should imagine that regardless of the material used to make the anchor you have satisfied required code and added additional in the form of ornatentation. which you could then make as robust or as fine as you wish. Or at least make provision to install a washer if the inspector requires you to do so.

I would look for no more than 100rpm, preferably as low as 50rpm, you'd then be able to drill just about anything. The bench versions are around £60 mark, so the more versitile pilar drills will be a tad more expensive, so at that price if it's not had a lot of use and many of these don't get worked to death, it could be a good buy, but I'd like to give it the once over before purchasing. If you're in no hurry, just keep looking.....eventually real good ones come up sooner or latter.