Juc

Howdy folks. I recently bought a little anvil from princess auto, which I suppose is similar to harbor freight for you non-canadians. It said it was hardened steel, etc. but it was asking like 2 bucks USD per pound so I bought it figuring I might get lucky, but probably wont. I didn't get lucky, it's steel but not heat treated, but it's got a nice shape. My tentative plan is to weld a thick steel plate on to the sweet spot of the anvil; what steel plate do you figure I should use for such a purpose? Right now the anvil only has a rebound of like 25%, just need a surface for striking I figure. What steel do you figure I should grab for that? I'll just go out and buy a chunk of thick plate. The anvil as is is made from C45 Or alternately do any of you figure there's some other plan that'd work for this thing to make it usable? It's still decent steel and a decent shape really.

So looking over it, it's an open box. the mounting bit and the spring aren't original to it but everything else seems in order. Figure that's a relatively simple thing for a know nothing, talent-less newbie like me to attempt? I didn't see any markings but I haven't attempted to clean up much of the surface yet. I think it was spray painted red at one point I figure I can make this thing pretty again, although as it stands it looks completely usable and utterly sturdy, albeit a little scuffed on the jaw surface. Whatever farmer or farrier that was using this certainly didn't have it as a decoration.

Ultimately I got it for free. Here's additional pictures, turns out that it is certainly a coil spring and not a pulley.

here's ideas for if you might find them useful. -blacksmith puzzles -kitchen tools(spatulas, forged and riveted skillets, that sort of thing) -yarn bowls (basically bowls a scrolled gap in the side to allow for easy unrolling of yarn balls while knitting or crochetting) -braziers for people who like hanging out in their yard -keychains, letter openers, or bottle openers that tie into a theme of stuff they're interested in. Like musical notes or plants or horses or whatever. -gardening tools -chainmail christmas stocking (why not?) -jewellery, like bangles or pendants -fancy door knocker (everybody likes those, right?) I guess it basically comes down to stuff that helps their current hobbies, general use items that are decorated with stuff they like, or sculptural stuff that are well done or themed to their preferences...might not be as much help as I'd have hoped when I started typing I suppose. I'm planning to go the bottle opener route but I need to get my butt in gear. a treble clef, leaves or just a modified rail spike are the route I'm going since I think it'll nail 99% of the people I want to give gifts to.

provided you're using a web browser on a PC with a decent resolution, you can do the following: log in on the site click the triangle by your login name that's at the top-right of the screen, then click profile click edit profile, which will be in a grey box in the top-right of a bigger grey box toward the top...ish of the page. scroll down to the section just below where it says "Profile Information" in bold characters and location should be the 2nd option down, just below gender and above interests and regarding your purchase price, all that kit for 150 is an absolutely phenomenal deal, whoever sold it to you must really like you.

post vises are worth a fair bit too, how much did you get it all for? if you don't mind me asking.

My family member's going to take a look at it in person in a couple days and bring it into town if the important bits are in working order, although it is cheap enough that I'm tempted to get it even if the screw is wonky just so I can satisfy my curiosity.

A local farmer by some familly is selling a post vise pretty cheap and has a pic for it, I was wondering if any of you folks have seen this type before. I'm mostly curious as to what that pulley is for in the middle, I'd have expected there to be a metal spring. It looks kinda neat and he's asking so little that I'm pretty willing to take it off his hands and figure it out later, but it has gotten me pretty curious.

I think they'd force liquid metal through a small aperture to atomise it.

If you don't have an angle grinder, what would be the alternative tool you'd choose to use to do the same thing?

I just contacted one of the local railways around here asking if I could buy some of the old spikes they leave as litter all over the place and they were telling me due to all the creosote on them they're treated as hazardous waste. (they should probably make sure to collect them all if that's the case imo) I'm pretty sure they were confusing ties with spikes, but it made me wonder, do you guys figure there's any validity to railway spikes picking up creosote and thus becoming less than harmless chunks of steel? I don't really know much about it aside from it's supposed to be pretty cancerous.

The one on the left in the first picture looks like it might be a type of efeminator, the one on the right looks like a hoof clipper, in the second picture those are hobbles, that third one looks like some sort of mangled cobbler's anvil or stake anvil, but I'm not sure about that. My guess for that last one would be a part of some farm machine, but I've no idea of what specifically it'd be for.

For steel you should be able to use zinc, magnesium or aluminium for some degree of success. (I think) I think magnesium would work better than zinc but I'm not sure how wet the air would need to really be to work at all. I did see some anvils with aluminium bases the other day, future I think. If anything would work I'd figure it'd be them, can't get in much better contact than having part of the anvil made from a sacrificial anode

Any of you folks try using a sacrificial anode to protect your anvil? like you would a boat or the frame of a car you're particularly fond of?

the sparks that happen when you hit hot metal ... am I way off base?

I did look up the soft firebrick forge, those things seem pretty cool, I didn't previously know about them. I'm more worried about sparks and the like. My house is pretty new so the basement is framed with steel studs and insulated with fiberglass but has a plain concrete floor. I was thinking maybe I need to actually put some concrete board or some such on the ceiling and walls just to be safe. It seems pretty interesting as something to try.

Forging in the basement seems comfortable, and the appeal of keeping all my fingers is certainly there, but the risk of a fire has me a little worried for that situation. I'm not really sure how great gypsum board is at keeping that's all safe. I've got an OK air exchange though that'll do something like 20 air exchanges an hour down there though, so that's actually something in my favour. Did you need to take special precautions for a basement workspace? My parking situation isn't very flexible at the moment unfortunately; I've a little storage space but not enough room for a trailer bigger than what'd fit behind a bike. I didn't actually think about working copper and brass for some reason. I actually could do with a number of brass hinges and whatsits anyway for some purses and pouches I make for folks.

-40 F and C are basically the same and the reason I picked that temp is because that's about as cold as it can get without me questioning my life choices as I leave the house. And this year I got a gut feeling it's going to be unpleasant. The worst I've seen is about -60F some years ago, my eyes froze shut, that was not fun, but above -40 I can manage to at least function. That reminds me I need to invest in some goggles this year. It's taken me many years for me to be able to actually have any space to do blacksmithing at all, so I don't really want to waste any time. I've years to make up for. It's sorta sounding that for cold weather it's tough to beat an enclosed area where you can just either pop the walls off or hinge a couple sides wide open for the 8 months of the year when it's not miserable outside. But it might just be wiser to keep things portable and just store things until the warm 0F and above weather rolls in; I mean summer does come here, after all. I prefer to be able to do stuff for 12 months of the year but let me tell you 8 months of the year working on things is better than the 0 I've been able to get for quite some time. You guys are being very helpful I very much appreciate the responses.

I'm planning to work on scrap leaf springs, coil springs, railway spikes and whatever else I can get super cheap, at least until I get far less bad and less ignorant. I suppose some 01 steel bar wouldn't be a bad idea either. I finally have at least a wee little space I can do this stuff so I really want to make the most of it. I assure you folks I'll not wear synthetic stuff, being lit on fire would keep me warm for the rest of my life, but being dead afterward seems like a pretty big downside. A wool coat sounds plenty decent.

I like the qssshhht sound I suppose. If you don't use a tub or barrel or what have you, what do you use?

Propane for how I can pack it up easily. The -40 is in F or C, they're almost identical at that point in both of the scales. Leather parka maybe? I think if I had a radiant heater I could work well enough if I could keep the wind off but I didn't think about keeping the anvil warm. I guess the solid ice in the slack tub is an issue too eh? Enclose the really tiny shop and make an induction forge maybe? Those don't put off fumes but they always looked pretty dangerous to me

Hello folks, I was wondering if you can provide some advice. My goal: I want to set up a hobby workshop for making small items such as hinges, knives, bottle openers and the like. My Problems: I have very little space available to me and what I do have is more or less taking away from my kid's play area, so I want to minimize the footprint as much as humanly possible. I would still like to be able to work in winter (-40 degrees) and not suffocate in the process. How would you folks go about approaching these problems? I'm a little stumped at the moment. I was thinking maybe an awning but I'm not sure how to keep the wind off of me, or maybe like a 4x4 tool shed to put everything in and just roll it out on good weather days and invest in a good parka? I'm kinda just spinning my wheels at this point and was hoping you folks had some thoughts how to you would approach these two problems.