Jump to content
I Forge Iron

IRTim

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    41

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by IRTim

  1. IRTim
    Anyone in the Tampa / Clearwater area? I'm down here for a few months helping out my father because he has cancer and I'm trying to find a place or blacksmith club I might be able to do some forging at. Brought down my anvils and forges from Pennsylvania but I can't set them up where my father lives. The condo people won't even let me set up a bbq outside! If anyone knows of any groups or open forges in the area please let me know. Thank you
  2. IRTim
    Can anyone tell me anything about Thomas anvils?
  3. IRTim
    Is this damage? I feel like it is.. There's a PW anvil a little over 200lbs for sale near me and I thought it was just damaged but I don't know what could cause this on a anvil. It would be one xxxx of a dent. I've never seen anything like it..
  4. IRTim
    That's awesome to know.. I've been wondering how easy it's going to be to find coal & coke out that way.
  5. IRTim
    Here is the start of what my new tank will be. I need to strip down my rebar and plan to drill holes in it and around the top of the bin to put bolts through that I will be using to hold my rebar in place as well as using them to connect the 10g wire I have that will connect all the rebar together minus one when using the positive charge. It's going to be getting a lot of use coming up. I have my new forge taken apart and plan on restoring it as well as what I think might be a Peter Wright leg vise I just bought as well of someone in Gettysburg. I'm excited to get this stuff cleaned up and back in use. Should be fun.
  6. IRTim
    $500-$600 for a 100lb anvil is common even where I'm at now if you look on craigslist. (I'm in York Pa) I post wanted ad's and that's my best way if finding things. People might hit you with high numbers but you can luck out. I did. I got my 137lb Peter Wright for $85.00. I know of another PW that's 99lbs for $400 because of my want ad's and I even saw a 100lb PW sell at a auction in Philly for $900.00! I couldn't believe it. Yeah it was mint but $900? Crazy! Last PW I saw at a auction was just under 200lbs and sold for $485.00. Wasn't the best but good and I'd take it over that 100lb for $900 any day! I just bought my Champion No.104 forge at a auction in Lancaster Pa. I paid $310.00 plus 15% buyers fee. It's the vary forge I wanted so I was lucky it was just a farm auction and not a blacksmith-farrier auction. Price goes up at them a lot and anybody interested in blacksmith stuff shows up to pay ebay prices on everything. Box lots of tong that sell for $30.00 sell for $30 per tong at blacksmith sales. It can also be hard buying things here any time you see Quackers are at sales or kinda Amish looking people. THEY WILL BUY EVERYTHING!! EVERYTHING!!!!! They have truely deep bottomless pockets and they don't even have to know what it is they'll just buy it. I hate it..
  7. IRTim
    I started getting my new tank stuff together today and figuring out what I want to use as the tank. I'll post some pics as soon as I actually start putting everything together so people can see how I've been doing it. It's gonna be a heavy duty tank to sure!
  8. IRTim
    Oh before I forget, the first thing I did after seeing the Champion No.5 was pull the skid and try to pick it up. It was on a skid for a reason. It would crush a car! Haha. It was also way to big to fit in one. That's a 4ft wide skid it's sitting on. Even with the door off that thing couldn't fit in a normal passenger vehicle. I am really bummed I didn't get it.. Oh well I have my eye on a 319lb Peter Wright coming up only two weeks anyway so time to start saving!
  9. IRTim
    That's a good question. I went out a year and a half ago and got myself set up in PB and was going to be helping out a friend that has a business selling installs of TV's and touch screens to business's then I had to fly back east for my things and to drive my dog out. First my car caught fire, then I wrecked the van I bought after that and shook my head a little to hard keeping me here and all that was followed by finding out I have Graves disease so I'm running a little behind and have a lot of making up to do. I'm about broke now from it all so it's gonna be a adventure to figure everything out.
  10. IRTim
    Oh this is a good story too, as I was buying things at the auction I would walk over and place them in my forge. I turned and saw a woman pointing at me and jumping up and down. I turned and looked at the forge and had a 5-6ft black snake sticking his face in mine! I sat a hammer on him not noticing he'd found his a nice warm spot to lay in my forge. He wasn't to happy haha. I was thinking the whole time I better keep a eye on my forge incase someone tried to snake something from me. Sure enough I got snaked alright!
  11. IRTim
    I own a Reed 108, 106 and a lot of other unnecessarily large items. It had my name all over it. The auction was 30mins from my house and I got dropped off knowing I might not get a ride home but I was to buy the blower and a Champion No.104 forge. I got the forge and I really wanted that blower! If it was my vehicle that sucker would be mine for sure. I thought I might be walking my forge home so I was stuck. I'm in Pa there's more. (Somewhere) Clearly not carrying that blower out of the woods and down the highway home haha. Moving to San Diego from Pa is going to be a big change, I don't know where I'm going to put anything! Real estate is top top dollar there! I have it easy here in Pa. My neighborhood has metal shops, iron shops, RR tracks, even a coal mill. Homes cost $40K. If I didn't get this stuff and only have this vehicle coming for me I'd a found a way to secure me having that totally unneeded blower! LoL
  12. IRTim
    I went to buy a champion blower at auction today. I had to pass it up. I knew it was larger but I had to pass, It was to big to get in the vehicle we had with us haha. Sold for $80.00. Thing was awesome.
  13. IRTim
    From everything I've read 2amps is all you need. Higher amps makes more bubbles but will not improve anything or make it faster.
  14. IRTim
    There's old rail like that all around me and I see people taking it all the time. I personally use a Milwaukee cordless bandsaw to cut all kinds of rail. I got it at Home Depot it's nothing special. If the rail is to big I dig under it or if I can I put a car jack under it and block it up. With old rail like that it's much easier to cut. In fact they cut it on spot with no tools a real long time ago. This is how they did it.. Take a cold chisel and mark a clean line around the track. Then take a good size sledge hammer and hit your mark. That's it, it will snap and much easier than you'd ever think! Back in the day they'd mark the rail with a chisel and drop it onto another piece of track and the rail would snap clean. That's how it was done with old track. They didn't have power tools out there on site back then. All you have to do is mark and snap it. New track you can't do that. New track is steel old track is iron. Steel track will not snap! I'm in Pa and there's tons of old Pa RR track around and that's even today how they remove it. So just snap it if you don't have a cordless bandsaw. People think way to much into cutting rail and it's really not that hard.
  15. IRTim
    Sorry for the late reply I went for a CAT scan and some blood work. For power I'm using a car battery charger on the 2amp setting. Haven't started the new tank yet but will tmw.
  16. IRTim
    Oh just washing soda in hot water.
  17. IRTim
    I'll be doing it in two parts. This is to big for the tank I have now. I'm using big thick rebar for the electrolyte. If it wasn't for the screws holding on the bench vise jaws I'd skip it all together but I'm hoping get them clean and free enough to back out using a hand impact driver.
  18. IRTim
    Hopefully will be starting to build a electrolysis tank large enough to fit this Reed 108 in tonight. Looking froward to getting all 300lbs of this vise cleaned up, painted and restored. Haven't done one this big yet. Should be fun to see how it turns out.
  19. IRTim
    Oh wow, 281 miles for a vise. Haha. Mechanics vise are everywhere here. There seems to be a big jump in popularity with them though this year. Last year I was looking for one and I kept finding leg vise but bench vise you could pick up cheap. This year it's getting hard to to leg and I know auctions are not the place to by a vise at all here of any kind. They're selling top dollar at auctions. It seems like on craigslist people this year here are pulling out old vise and they get online to check the values and one after another people are seeing each other post way to high and it's been staying that way. Nothing is selling. Leg vise are listed at $250 and bench vise are posted up to $1250. Last year at this time it didn't matter what you wanted. You could find it for $40-$50 on craigslist here. Swage blocks are not easy to find at all!! I have a box van I try to put what I can in. Weight ads up fast but should be able to bring a few extra things for sure. Anvils and blowers are the easiest find here. Leg vise are hit or miss. Cone anvils are here but hard to say what you can find one for. I've come across two swages blocks. They sold super high and both didn't really look like they could be workable.
  20. IRTim
    I'm currently located in York Pa but moving to San Diego Ca. From what I'm told blacksmithing equipment isn't the easiest thing to find in Southern California. I've been thinking about grabbing some things to take out with me to San Diego and hopefully sell when I get there. I'm really not to sure just yet as to what I might try to bring out. Biggest problem in me trying to figure out if I should try to buy some things to flip when I get there is that I have no clue what things go for in SoCal and right now I'm about broke as it is. There are some sales coming up, not sure if I'll have cash or a way to them right now, I'm fighting vehicle issues but I won't have vehicle issues forever so if I can possibly help myself out with the cost of moving and meet as well as also help some others get things that are harder to find in SoCal I'd like to try if I can. What do anvils go for in SoCal or forges, blowers? It would be a lot easier for me to justify buying prices for things if I know around about what people would be happy to spend on them once I get out there. Just to give people out on the west coast a idea of what Pa has auction wise from time to time here's a pic of one auction coming up. Clearly every auction isn't like this one but in the summer there's normally a few. I'll happily hit what auctions I can with whatever funds I can have available at the time if someone wants something.
  21. IRTim
    Biggest vise I've even seen in person is one right here. I bought it about a year ago and still haven't gotten around to cleaning it up but I will be in the coming weeks. It's a Reed 108. I bought it out of a barn in Reading Pa. It's actually what got me interested in blacksmithing. The guy had it sitting next to two 500lb anvils. If I knew better I would of taken them home with me too. The guy who had them wanted $1000 each per anvil. I had no clue what they should cost or if they were hard to find that size in good shape or not so I didn't think of much it other than spending $1000-$2000 more that day might not be a idea at the time. I keep thinking about how I liked the big anvils though and I wanted one. So now here I am starting to play with blacksmithing. Image of the anvil stuck in my head. This vise is so much bigger than my 137lb Peter Wright anvil I have now it's funny to see them together. Out weighs my anvil by 163lbs. It's a awesome vise. I love it!
  22. IRTim
    I can see in the pic it's been capped on the end. Oh well still was funny to see
  23. IRTim
    Hmm what are the chances of finding that at the building behind your house while going to see if they might have something for a striking anvil!! Hahaha. I'm not sure what or why they have it tacked to a ibeam but it looks the part that's for sure! I guess I'm asking these guys what's up on their scrap in the morning for sure. Hope it's not hollow or ordered to fit. Might luck out knowing I'm the guy across the alley. Check that thing out!
  24. IRTim
    Alan, I have a beeswax, turpentine and linseed oil mix that I used to put a vary thick coat all over the anvil. I applied it while vary soft by warming the wax mix in the oven till it all but melted than rubbed it on the anvil with a rag. Thomas, I'm sure Ohio has a lot of blacksmith stuff. Someone told me the American Pickers show said the best place to find and pick stuff is Pa. Living in between towns called Steelton and Iron City theres a lot of cool stuff to pick from. Prices are hit or miss. Blacksmith is almost sways over priced unless you get lucky or hit the right auction from what I've seen so far anyway. Some things are cheaper. Like blacksmith vise. People here do ask high like $250 down to $150 but for every 2-3 people shooting for that number you can find normally find 1-2 even nicer leg vise for $40-$50. Xxxx the York craigslist right now if you search vise has (3) Reed 106-s bench vise! What's even crazier than that is they're all in good shape and priced at $180, $425?, $1250. All the same vise! And hard to find vises at that. Everything you can think of was made in York at one point so if you look you can normally find it. Total crap shoot on what you'll pay for it though!! Rust, paint, more rust and even some kinda green stuff that had grown on the anvil before it was painted the first time is fully off. Looks good. Does anyone know what the (2) 4's on the front feet of the anvil mean? I can't find anything on what the numbers are.
  25. IRTim
    I just got done coating it with beeswax. Figured I started by stripping the paint off it so no point in putting back on. That and buddy I'm staying with right is married to a girl who's parents are bee keepers so her mother likes that I get a use out of it. I found out her mother keeps honey bees after coming home and complaining that I spent $10 riding the bus all over town to find and buy a $20 block of wax. I still get laughed at and made fun of for it.. (As if bee keepers are a dime a dozen) haha.
×
×
  • Create New...