Smoggy

Greetings AB, we have a few forum users from Scotland, I'm a few miles south of the border in Teesside. If you could add a town or county to your profile you may find someone on here close by who could help you get rolling.

What you have there is an anvil with 'additional features' ........the only thing you need to do is learn how you use them

I took "turned bowl" as a description of the tool rather than of it's use........never heard of it before either way......good job on the tool and the write up. Google produced this vid......now I know how they make other than round bowls https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbHcFw92B1A no lathe involved.

Try deeper water....!

As stated above, crank rods for this size of engine, 2.5ltr turbo, are typically forged, (smaller, engines could be cast, and some exotics are machined from billet) so should take a beating well be conducive to manipulation. In fact I've witnessed a few being reforged in situ.......water doesn't compress apparently! Knowing what ID has been up to recently I had already been pondering what use these 'off cuts' could be turned to for some time now, but as yet i've not managed to come up with a novel idea. I generally stack such items away somewhere and wait for something to suggest itself.....by which time I'll have forgotten where I put them!

Any locally available clay you can dig up Ethan, you only need it damp enough to mold into shape, just pliable, no wetter. As Charles stated bash it down with a mallet, or hammer, or lump of 2x2". Give it a chance to dry out and then fire it up, if it cracks, which it likely will, just plug the crack with a thumb full of the same clay and your good to go.......originally, forges and smelting furnaces where build of clay. Simple, effective, cheap. They are doing some road works opposite my home this week, I'll be over when they start digging to see if I can find a bucket full or two myself for later use...why dig it up myself when they are already doing it!. (Hopefully someone will ask why I want it and start a conversation, then with a bit of luck I'll score some sand, scraps of metal, broken tools.......) .

Let me think....... Hobby Blacksmith here so no 'for profit production' very limited space, so it would need to be compact, Unpowered forge, so it would have to be an unpowered hammer, So that limits it to a drop or treadle type. The advantage would be the ability to hold the work and a tool while striking, so...... It would have to be a small treadle hammer......Would making one be worth the effort? As yet I'm undecided.....I'll have to see how life pans out!

Welcome Magnet, I'm only new to the forums myself and so glad I signed up too.

As an Adult Ed tutor I also worked for the Families Education Department, where we would put fun practical courses on for parent and child, thus bringing parent back into education and reinforcing the child's education. Getting the child's attention and interest is 90% of the job, once entrapped it's full steam ahead! You already have the children interested, you just need to set the good working example and keep a watchful eye on proceedings, as you would any child regardless of the activity. In every class, I was involved with, every child exceeded expectations, regardless of age, build, health or any impairment they had to cope with.....and some of the parents did quite well too! As long as you keep them safe, which is a parents primary role anyway, why not!

"Portable Hole" a separate stand for hardy tools.

As I have a supply of steel toed boots from a previous profession I inevitably wear them likewise gloves of various types, although I have just purchased a quality set of welding gauntlets as a treat to myself! I have a full leather apron from my apprentice days which I use sometimes but mainly for casting and arc welding. I've a couple of pairs of clear safety glasses and goggles and have used an old welding helmet without the tit, Just the glass, as a makeshift face shield when the need arose!!! For the most part I simply use old clothes and in colder weather a boilersuit oer the top. I would say it is important to only wear natural fibres around heat.....Should you have an "incident" you definately do not want man made fibres sticking to your skin and compounding a burn into a nasty burn!

Then the rope both lifts the hammer and adjusts the stroke area via the capstan style adjustment. Sorted....when will it be running?

I was just about to post as you did.......given the new info from later pictures and now this one with the yellow rope in place..... Is the rope attached to the lifting slide at about it's middle? If yes, it suggest to me that the rope system is to set the stroke height of the hammer.....does that make sense?

Lets see if I get I've got this correct..... Referring to the 1st pic of your last post..... Belt drives the large lower pulley when tensioned by the smaller pulley which is pivoted. Large pulley turns shaft on which a cam (or crank) acts on a lever, on the end of which a rope runs through a sheave. The rope, being anchored at one end and via a second top sheave, connects to the hammer. Thus the hammer is raised and lowered by the movement of the sheave we see in the pic. .....yes?

I've no power tools to worry about in my forge and I use solid fuel, I always have enough layers on to keep warm without moving or shelter and peel them back as I get warmer, if it ever gets cold enough here to worry about the temp of a hammer or chisel.....I'll be indoors in the machine shop! However, from many years of working out doors in the winter, those steel toe cap boots can get real uncomfortable at lower temps......standing on a bit of boarding can be a great help at halting the drain of heat from your feet into the frozen ground.....just as putting your coffee mug on a piece of wood rather than a steel surface. I have previously "warmed" the anvil by sitting any old lump of metal, pre warmed in the forge, on it (placing it back on the forge to reheat during striking), not to negate the effects of the weather but to reduce drain from the work piece.....is it effective? it is on my small anvil.

I'd suggest trying it out first, as if it does get warm in there the last thing you'll want is insulation. I have a metal shed without insulation and plenty of ventilation and it soon gets warm once the forge is lit, although it's only a small shed, it's only a small forge too. However, should you find you need to insulate it, I'm ignorant of the weather conditions in your local, please ensure you chose a suitable insulation material!

Because you don't open the valve until the heating charge has expired, then you light it which only requires a spark to the vapour, unless it spurts liquid, then, no spark, turn off, refill charge, and try again.........I was never taught not to light with a flame, so it's new to me, so I'm only offering a suggestion as to why the "rule" may exist. It may simply be as others have alluded, to save getting a flash burn to the hand in close proximity of the torch, not something I've experienced but makes sense, One wonders therefore why it has never been explained to anyone! Edit: Pondered on this a tad more and did a little searching, only found a few references to it but all without explanation bar this one,,,,, http://www.cdxetextbook.com/toolsEquip/workshop/usingWork/setupoxytorch.html (see 1st item "summary" ) Which would seem to suggest it is less to do with an open flame and more proximity, as a lighted spill would give clearance or a empty lighter would provide a spark,

I suspect it originates from the original blow torches, pressurised liquid fuel type which needed to be preheated prior to ignition. If it was not hot enough when the valve was opened. instead of vapour, liquid would spurt out and splash everywhere, in which case you certainly would not want a flame burning in the vicinity!

I was watching that too Wayne, it's shot up since I last looked! £225 inc postage !!!! I've given up an ever getting a hand cranked blower unless I get extremely lucky....hence building the box bellows....

The very questions they ask identifies their ignorance of the subject. I suspect that every visitor you have at your shop, leaves at least a little wiser. As a tutor, I wish I could have claimed that for every class.and if you manage to make a nail header along the way......Bonus!

A hole in the air supply pipe works well as a pressure switch....!

It's not unlikely that the delivery date is dictated by the available shipping slot, it's common to look for unused space in a container that would otherwise travel part empty, That way a cheaper shipping rate can be negotiated. And I suspect with a lot that comes from China.....a saving of transportation cost could be the largest part of the profit!

Tallow was always used by machinists (and some still use it) as a lubricant on the dead center of the lathe, and in cutting and threading operations. As long as you don't overdo it, you don't get everything coated in it....!

I'm no expert in this area, but I'd suspect that since time in memorial, when ever a builder has needed to join two items together, be they for a boat, building or battle armour then all manor of fixing have been employed. Nails, rivets, bolts. screws, roves and clips in many and various guises......I very much doubt that with the exception of the likes of the snap head rivet much has been a modern industrialisation invention. Look at the item, ask yourself could you make one at the forge, if the answer is yes, it's likely that is from where it originates!

"Life Long Learning" I well remember from my days as an adult ed tutor......we tutors had to constantly take one course after another ourselves and for most part they were either irrelevant or repeated what we had done previously! I always used to say, "...Life Long Learning, I'll be glad when it's over..."!!!!!!!