Rmartin2

I consistently pass on small section of rail at the scrapyard. Any of them could be had for $5. My first anvil was section of smaller sized rail I got at a flea market for $4. Like everyone has said there are much cheaper anvil options out there. 

There is about 3/8” difference in jaw height when fully closed. There was another post about misaligned jaws and that vise was heated and straightened to correct the problem. That’s when I noticed mine was slightly off. You’re right about the leg. I was just going to straighten it while I was correcting the other problem. 

The dill vise is a Wilton 1460. It was $5 with a bent screw. Easy fix on the press. Works great and has the quick release mechanism. I have shown the post vise before. It needed a washer and the rear Jaw/leg is bent. One day I’ll heat it up and get it back into shape on the press. The other 3 need some work to the jaw area. I don’t mind doing it for some quality vintage vises. 

All scrapyard finds. All need (needed) something but were had for $70 total. 

Unknown 4” post vise.

Wilton 1460

Rock Island 574

Wilton 1750

19 hours ago, pnut said:

You other smithin brothers can't deny......

NICE!

I can do that no problem. It’s actually the perfect height when stood on end. I was just wondering if there was anything to be gained or lost by welding a harder steel to the top (when stood on end). 

I guess the reason I’m questioning it I because Of all the posts I have read regarding mass below the hammer and stacked welded steel vs efficiency. Will gaining a harder face be more beneficial over a (possible) loss of efficiency over welding to the existing plate? 

I have a lead on some forklift tines. Would welding a section of tine to the top benefit me at all? Would I compromise the mass

I have with a tiny welded gap? I know I would gain harness, but would this be a waste of time? Am I over thinking this again? 

5 hours ago, JHCC said:

Interesting idea, but you're cluttering up the space on either side, reducing the clearance for moving your workpiece around. 

Never thought about it being cluttered but yeah you are right. 

5 hours ago, Buzzkill said:

In either orientation how are you going to deal with the unsupported leg that sticks out over your stand?   Any moderate to hard hammering at the end of the unsupported leg is going to result in some rotating at the pivot point I think.

My thought was to make a leg to fit between the anvil and stand to keep it from rotating. 

2 hours ago, BIGGUNDOCTOR said:

You are over thinking this. Stand it up on end and get forging. Don't worry about curved sections, etc. Horns are kind of over rated, I rarely use the horns on my anvils. You have a large fairly dense mass that will work fine as is. Weld a square tube  in the round hole so bottom tools can be used, and you are good to go.

You’re absolutely right. I am expecting way too much from this. Welding a square tube was the plan as soon as I get that tap out of the hole. 

So after thinking about this for a couple of weeks I think I want to cut this thing in half to make it easier to handle. I had an idea to use one half as a die anvil and regular anvil on a rotational stand. Thoughts? 

Thanks for posting pics. I have one that is bent a little as well and this is exactly how I envisioned fixing it. 

I found a smaller one similar to this with a late 1800's stamp. Couldn't make out the exact year but it was 18 something.

https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/47142-scrapyard-post-vise/

Awesome! Thanks!

On 8/15/2018 at 10:57 AM, gaswizard said:

The patent is almost finished, waiting for a few details that need polishing over. So far we have made over 600 prototypes of this spring (yes it took that many springs to get the performance from we needed for this project). 

Avenue Trucks????? A guy at the skatepark had some and he let me take them for a spin. They have a cooI feel to them. These with a set 78a wheels would probably feel Cadillac on the street. I'm going to have to get a pair one day. 

Nope you construed it correctly based on the analogy used. Poorly worded on my part.

After getting home and standing it up in the driveway it is actually perfect. It’s about 1/4 shorter than my Vulcan. It must have been sitting on some crap in the yard because it felt taller than that. Also I’m getting around 60% rebound. The hole in the top is 1-1/2” but there is a broken tap inside it. I guess I can break that tap out and sleeve it with some 1” square tubbing. Any comments or suggestions?

7 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

Chrome Molly often used for boilers and pressure vessels.

Well this piece will be used for hammers and stuff I hit with them. 

Interesting to find the material stamped in the plate when I flipped it over. 

SA-387 grade 22

Here are the dims. 

Its a little hard to see the but it’s 3” thick.

On 12/14/2018 at 11:50 PM, Glenn said:

Please describe the trimming. What will it then accomplish that you do not have now?

From the angle of the picture, the face with the hole would be the top face. Ideally I would like to cut off the bottom protrusion which would get the top face close to or lower than where I need my anvil height. I could also cut it directly in half and have 2 anvils with upsetting blocks. I would hate to buy it and find out cutting this thing is more than I’m willing to spend. 

23 hours ago, stevomiller said:

What is the thickness on that beast? A Brazeal anvil would be nice to own.

I never took any measurements but my guess is it’s about 3” thick. If I go back today I’ll be sure to bring a tape measure with me. The piece isn’t super hard so many cutoff wheels should eventually get through it. 

1 hour ago, Daswulf said:

Depends on what trimming it will cost you and how your vulcan anvil is working for you. It certainly is a nice chunk of steel. 

This. The Vulcan works fine for my skill and what I do. But I wouldn’t mind having a Brazeal style die anvil and this would work for that. I am uncertain of the trimming cost and that is holding me back some. Well that and the fact I can’t move this on my own. 

Ok so I saw this thing at my scrapyard. Not sure what it is, but Its just a huge hunk of steel that had an ok rebound with a ball peen hammer. Can anyone ID what it might have come off of? I was mixed on buying it as I have a decent 150# Vulcan and I would need to trim this plate to be at the correct height to work on. What do y’all think? 

Edit: this thing was probably 300#  

Thanks. I really need some more tooling to make this right. 

It was a scrapyard in Pasadena called L&F. It’s really small but the stock rotates quite often. 

Wow it’s been a year and a half already? So I decided I would make the bevel washer that should have been in the screw. After a couple of trips to the scrapyard I found a really thick piece of pipe that looked like it would do the trick. I cut a section off and started upsetting it. After some more pounding, cutting, and grinding I wound up with something acceptable. The bevel isn’t perfect but it won’t be putting that pressure directly on the vice face anymore  

I was at the demo for a couple of hours and I'll say that you did some very fine work. You were also very professional the way you interacted with the audience. Great job. 

On January 7, 2017 at 10:08 PM, HardHead said:

Rmartin2,

this has nothing to do with your post...sorry. But your picture helped me solve a mystery! So I'm new to forging , very new. I run an Allied trades shop and have a beat up anvil in the shop, it's missing a whole corner of the anvil, it's been painted over a 100 times. Since I got interested in forging I got curious about the manufacturer of my anvil but the only part the manufacturer stamp visible anymore was what I thought to be LOAN  and the arm and hammer. When I saw your avatar it clicked! What I was seeing was LCAN!! So now I know it's a Vulcan anvil. Haha

Glad my avatar helped with your mystery. 

On January 8, 2017 at 4:46 PM, BIGGUNDOCTOR said:

That breaker bit looks in great shape. Have you looked into selling it?

On January 13, 2017 at 3:18 PM, Adun Clebr said:

My thoughts exactly... Unless you just want to use it to make a hammer, those are easily $120.00+ bits (new). So, if you got it at scrapyard price...

Anyhow- please post your hammer-making progress; that's cool, too.

I didn't know what those things went for new. I figured they were in the scrapyard because the were no good. There were many there when I grabbed mine, but only got the one. I took a break from forging for a while so the bit is in the same condition. I still plan to do something with but I have no idea when. I will definitely post pics of whatever comes of it.