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I Forge Iron

Charcold

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Everything posted by Charcold

  1. I think a really good idea would be drilling/tapping a length of roundbar or hexbar. tapped longer than the exposed thread but not through. Then just thread it on, hex bar could be tightened, and you've got some solid handles. That is insanely easy for someone with a good lathe setup, but not so much without though. Edit: I think pre-tapped hexbar can be bought pretty easily and cut to size. I'm spoiled that i can order stock at work, so i'm not up on what's available regularly in store.
  2. I'd personally be overjoyed to score a full set of tools like that. For someone with the time to heat and free up all the tongs and wirewheel up the hammers, swages, and anvil that's a heck of a score. Very curious to see the anvil cleaned up and tested for rebound. Could easily be a 500$ anvil on my local craigslist 7 days a week.
  3. Careful with those threaded rods. I'd either counter bore them into the wood to get them out of the way or get some acorn nuts.
  4. A cast iron ASO piece of junk isn't "broken". but it's not usable either.
  5. Personally I wouldnt touch a repair attempt like that with a 10 foot pole. I'm no expert welder but for me it's just a what's on the line versus what's gained proposition. You'd gain a hardy hole and pritchel, and risk the hardness of the anvil as well as the aesthetic of it being original. I've seen pictures where people attempted to repair similar defects and they end up with what looks like a Frankenstein, when they were shooting for a "restoration". There are very simple solutions to not having a hardy and pritchel. And post-repair I wouldn't feel good about striking on the hardy area 2 handed. IMO make yourself a hardy holder and something to use in place of a pritchel and use that ample face area for your work. take what i say with a grain of salt, i'm new, haven't repaired an anvil, etc etc. would just hate to read about another sad story from a failed restore.
  6. I'm just left wondering IF this is a legitimate item that was cast in Ford's plant what type of steel would it be, what type of rebound does it have, etc. it's interesting to hear they had such a nice foundry, that's a good bit of info there. Reminds me of Johhny Cash's "One piece at a time" song.
  7. I'm assuming the bottom plate is because you're worried about the rail busting up the wood it sits on?. I would be worried about your shins with that current plate with sharp corners however. Looks like a really bad time if you catch yourself on one of those. The latch plate on the top portion may be the same but at stomach level. Looks less sharp but a corner is a corner. If you have access to an angle grinder with a cutoff wheel the bottom plate looks easy enough to cut to the size of the base. I'd suggest under-sizing it to make sure you don't cut your pants on a metal edge and can work around the anvil without having to constantly watch your ankles. The top plate you may want to just grind a radius into the corners, if it's tough steel like it looks cutting it wouldn't be a good time investment i'd say. Egg on my face, just read more carefully and see you're planning on cutting the bottom plate. I'd still suggest radius'ing the top plate corners and under sizing the bottom plate. The rail anvil itself looks really nice!
  8. I can say one thing for sure, glad you've rescued an anvil from the dreaded yard art category. If yours is anywhere near as solid as the one pictured that is. On my local craigslist right now there are 3-4 anvils that are terribly damaged that would make a much better lawn ornament than a fully functional Trenton!
  9. Face looks clean other than that chip, great anvil for the price of free!
  10. oooff. 881 pounds? That's a real monster! Would also love to see pics
  11. Its impossible to say how good it is without knowing the rebound test. As was said there is about a 90%+ chance that it's a cast iron junk anvil. That said many of those do not have a thick top plate like yours appears to have. Most of them are entirely cast or have a very thin plate, at least that I have seen and remember. You need to buy or get access to a ball bearing, and a ruler. Take them along and take a video of you dropping the bearing, see how far it comes back up. That's assuming u want to get scientific, otherwise just the bearing drop can be eyeball'd. Anything back over 60% is good, as was said. Unfortunately it's near impossible for someone to tell you if its junk or usable at a glance. U need to rebound test it in person. This is a step that is needed even when buying antique anvils from reputable makers, as they can be damaged and lose rebound over the years. If you want to buy the anvil, given that it's only 50$, it may still be of good use. It has a hardy, pritchel, and horn. If that's cheap cast you cant really pound on it with a sledge using the hardy but it can still hold top tools. The horn is similar, it may not take a lot of abuse but will work for light work. However, in terms of rebound, a large piece of scrap steel of decent quality will have much better results i'd guess.
  12. A thread on beginner anvils would be a great resource to post when the question presents itself, that happens quite a lot. From my own experience I think confusion sets in because people overvalue a horn, hardy, and pritchel holes. Mainly because they don't know how easy it is to get the same thing done with an alternative, be it a square tube hardy holder or improvised round shape for the horn.
  13. Talk about a score steel-wise! I'm sure there are plenty of beginner smiths out there with a blob of mild steel that are very jealous of that
  14. If you don't properly learn the box method you will have a hard time with matrices, unless i'm misunderstanding what google is telling me. The box method didn't exist in teaching until i hit college, where they told us it would help in a lot of different calculus lessons.
  15. Thinking back on my college and even highschool careers, the teachers who i got along with the least are the ones who taught me best. And tried to teach me against my will that i had a bad perspective that time would correct. At the time the fun loving teachers who gave me lip service were my favorites, but now i look back and thank my lucky stars that i had a few teachers willing to hand me subpar grades and tell me when i was dead wrong, even when i wasnt ready to hear it. I argued with math teachers for years about "showing your work". I'd say, "if i have the answer right, why does it matter." Now i am required to show my work professionally, so that when i'm wrong others can see where i went wrong and adapt the gameplan. in short, my biggest "complaint" from school is now something i see real value in.
  16. I just figured that was one of those goofy fonts you turned on by accident
  17. Just a few points: On Math: it may seem your school lacks the engineering classes you desire but math=engineering. Working as a draftsmen who handles plenty of light engineering work i can tell you i'm constantly having to relearn math i've forgotten. And in my engineering classes i was constantly doing the same. If you're thinking of going that direction do yourself a favor and invest in math classes heavily, you'll thank yourself later. On English: I have in my life worked a wide range of jobs. I worked in corrections, life insurance, machining, assembly, and now drafting/engineering. In all of these jobs I had training programs, resumes, interviews, etc. Your communication skills are constantly being scrutinized in these situations, most of the time when you don't even realize it. English and grammar are the backbone of your communication skills. Even if you feel that you won't be using these in your future career, and i can tell you from experience, you don't know what your future career is with 100% certainty. I thought i did, 3 times, and i was dead wrong.
  18. And here i was thinking my 90 lb vulcan on a stump moving from one end of the garage to the other was a bother. I'm still going to put on some casters, but i have a new perspective lol
  19. Oooof. I hope that she's still got rebound left! When I first started looking for an anvil I did quite a bit of reading and two important answers were all over the web: How do I repair my anvil to look like new again? Answer: dont. What do i use to protect my anvil? Answer: hot steel and linseed oil to taste.
  20. If you have a connection at a large machine shop you may want to just have him call you when they get a large hardened piece of drop steel from a job. They could radius it properly and maybe even weld something like gusseted square tube to it to act as a hardy. You'd still have this old girl to use the horn on. I guess another question tho, are you interested in blacksmithing or did you just jump at the chance when offered a free anvil? Just trying to gauge how much effort is "worth it" if others give you advice on a repair of the face and cracked heel.
  21. eh. i probably did a poor job of explaining the situation. it's not a family heirloom or even a sentimental item. he got it in his head that it's worth thousands of dollars. its a hefty anvil, i'd guess 250 lbs or so. but it's got a scarred face from rough work. he picked the thing up in the 80s or so and never smithed. just used it for a cutting surface. i did a poor job of conveying that when he said "the shop wouldnt look the same without it" he was being short with me to shut down the conversation. when i first saw it I offered to weigh it then pay a fair price, between 2-3$ a pound depending on what kind of rebound it had. This was before I got my current anvil. And he was put off instantly, told me that he sees craigslist anvils go for 5-6$ a pound all day. I can only assume he was referencing the same 10 anvils on our local CL that haven't sold in a year or so at that inflated price.
  22. Those collecting for educational purposes are doing a real solid to the community in my opinion, it's the true hoarders who get my goat. A friend of mine's dad has a real beauty of an old anvil in his shop. When I asked about it he told me he hasn't used it in a great many years and likely never will, even went so far as to complain about whacking his shin on it at one point. I offered to buy it, was quickly told no. His son asked if he could have it, he's somewhat interested in smithing, he was told he could forge there if he really wanted it. then went on to say the shop wouldnt look the same without it, and that it was a great conversation piece. Nothing I'm fuming over but a bit silly all the same.
  23. I assumed the chain was to stop the whole stand from walking based on the "for weight" portion in the post. But i'm also interested in the sound that would make
  24. Not sure if there is a metal detectorist club in your area but they may have the wrought you're looking for. I personally detect lots of old homesite areas and have a few jars full of old square nails from that period. Just an idea, I'm not entirely confident that ALL of them are wrought nor sure how feasible it would be to form them into anything of a decent size from pieces so small.
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