TWISTEDWILLOW

I dunno bout a goldmine but this place is definitely where a lot a ol junk ends up for some reason!!! i have to have a talk with that guy who keeps dragging all that rusty junk down here!!!

Well George it’s kinda a long story but I’ll try to sum it up quick, unlike all the usual blacksmithing junk I drag home while out barnstormin that I usually turn around an pass on this time is a little more important to me, years ago the company I worked for was goin outta business and try as I might applying to jobs an goin to interviews I could not land a job anywheres, every time there was another body just ahead or behind me that had one more feather in their had then I did so as the clock ticked down and I saw there was no more time I opted to clear out my bank accounts and buy up all the fast movin parts and what machinery I could get, then I went in the hole for another upteen thousand dollars to buy out the rest but I needed one more thing a service truck with a 1000 pound lift gate to help me pick up an deliver machines, so….. I traded an sold off every last blacksmithing tool I had, so I could afford to get a good used rig like I needed, This batch of junk a coal was my very first kit that I had put together, that is my very first anvil I ever found!!! when the opportunity to retrieve my original junk presented itself to me a few weeks ago cost was not to be spared, it’s not all really worth that much to anyone else but it means a lot to me to get it back to answer your question I traded a brand new commercial saw that I had purchased for $1450.00 bucks for this stuff an a few more loads,

Had a good haul today, some tongs an hammers, 172 pound Ajax with sharp edges two champion blowers, a forge with a cast fire pot, a cast iron ducks nest, and 3/4 ton of coal and another forge I still gotta haul down here,

Kroil worked good, bottom shaft is busted loose, everything is turning freely now, i have to adjust the shafts, it stops turning immediately after you let go Looks like the previous owner didn’t have a spanner wrench an used a punch on the adjuster plugs the little holes are pretty wallerd out, found a new grease cap off another shot blower that threaded in nicely

Thanks Randy, One of her local guild members has the same blower and he was super awesome enough to take the time to take pictures an complete measurements of the impeller fan shaft size an thread count on pitch for the set screw, so I’ve got everything I need to make a replica, but your right I would be cool to have another exact one here to just copy an compare,

I’ve had a lot of buffalo blowers but I’ve never had a 14” Buffalo 200 silent before, I saw this one for sale on clist a little while back up north of here and forum member Shaniarue was able to pick it up for me!!! today Shaniarue an her wife and their very vicious monster bear dog (actually their dog was very well behaved…. Much more so then my obnoxious dogs lol) all came by the shop for a visit an brought the blower down with them! Thank y’all again! overall condition of the impeller housing an gear box is excellent with no cracks or welds still has the brass fill an drain valves, gear box cover, an all the mounting brackets one leg is rusted off so I’ll need to replace that, it’s missing the grease cap so I’ll dig around my junk an see if I got a blower cap that will fit, it’s missing the impeller fan so I’ll have to either replace it with one off a parts blower or build a new one, The top gears look to be in excellent shape but the bottom gear/shaft is frozen solid, so I’m soaking it in kroil now, overall I don’t think it’s gonna take much to bring this ol dude back to life, can’t wait to get it goin an try it out! currently I’ve got one of my canadey ottos hooked to the main forge, I just swapped it out with the champion midway spiral I’d been using all year, but I’ll probably put this thing into the rotation when i get it goin, I’ve heard others talk about them so I’m excited to try one out myself!

Very nice John!! I haven’t seen that video from black bear I’ll have to check it out!

That sounds interesting Jerry, you got a picture?

I’m sort to here that, I’ll ring my anvil too

Just finished up the header, made from random piece of 1” round shaft, I just cut the keyed part off, made the same way as you the bucking block,

It’s a wroght iron anvil that was forge welded together with a tool steel face lack of a pritchel hole on a London pattern would date it probably early 1800s England had a lot of different anvil manufacturers, so it’d be hard to say for sure who made it, there’s two books out by author Richard Postman one is called Anvils in America the other is Mouse Hole Forge, if you really want to learn in depth about the history of English anvils, their construction, their manufactures, ect.. I’d highly recommend getting both books, they aren’t Available digitally but you can order both books online from a lot of sellers,

I haven’t noticed any major invasion of either bug down here but I do see them occasionally, maybe that’s a regional thing?

It kinda depends on the crowd your demoing for, but just for general public at a festival or something id say quick easy projects, like, S hooks, or nails, or some small scrolls, I think George said something awhile back about making rings from horse shoe nails for a demo, you don’t wanna do anything real complicated that takes a super long time because some people will get bored watching an waiting an then walk off, Also i wouldn’t do no forge welding around spectators, the last thing you wanna do is shoot molten metals out an hit someone in the crowd, also quick easy projects you can sell a lot of cheap to the crowd! I think you’d do way better making an sellin $5 $10 $20 NZD to spectators that only take a few minutes to make then a five hour long $500 project,

Lol well there’s big storage tanks all over here if ya ever change your mind! I was looking at some big ones the other day at the scrap yard but I also see em at auctions all the time, I was thinking about cutting a door an some windows in one and making an all steel chicken coop outta one, my ol coops getting in ruff shape and I’m thinking about starting over with something different,

Well I like you too Thomas! I’m Pretty sure though that the Air Force bases in fort smith, OK city an Little Rock all three might have something to say about anyone steering a ballistic missile down Oklahoma Highway 59 yall got me interested though, Im curious what the lat an long are here, I’ve never bothered looking into it,

Sweet!! I’ve been wanting one of those for awhile!

Went to check it out Sunday, still working on the details of what all we gonna swap, I’ll keep ya posted, Billy, Your right, latitude an longitude with a compass an a topo map would probably be more reliable! I dunno why GPS don’t like my house, it works everywhere else around here, I can find a satellite photo of my house but not by usin the address, I have to scroll down highway 59 till I get to it, maybe all the junk on my property is interfering with the system?

How many 1000 gallons ya want? I come across big ol tanks all the time around here, you’d need a trailer to get em back to your house though, they ain’t gonna fit in your pickup truck bed!

Y’all are weird! aintcha ever heard tell of a feed silo? that auger chews up everything real fine an feeds it to the chickens!

Lol y’all’s welcome! I’m glad I could help! I don’t have a shop phone it’s much easier to screen out callers on a cell, GPS doesn’t work to find my place either, countless people have tried to use gps to find my address over the last decade and they always end up lost, For some reason it will take them all over creation, I’ve had people end up at the county courthouse, I’ve had people lost down a dead end road 30 miles from the closest highway, you name it! infact Thomas an his band of traveling southwestern blacksmiths recently got turned around tryin to get here! but luckily they weren’t to far away!

Thanks Les!

MJL, Looks awesome! Glad you joined in!

I believe it Billy, there’s the shortages everywhere from what I’m being told, there’s stuff I’ve went to order that was available a year ago, and is now discontinued, there’s stuff I go to order and it’s outta stock from every distributor as well as the OEM company and no aftermarket, I’ve been warning my customers for a while now to quit buying used equipment at yard sales an auctions because there’s a pretty good chance that the reason it’s for sale is parts can’t be sourced, Thanks Shaniarue! I need to run to Wally World and find a couple solar spot lights so people can see em after dark!

I’d paint your phone number on it! Bahaha Tell that to the parts suppliers! Last week I finally got a $1k job done on a mower that’s been settin here since July because the parts company couldn’t throw some parts on a pallet and stick it on a truck!

There’s two scrap yards here in stilwell that let ya in, this one sells at scrap price though the other one is a bit higher, but a lot of scrap yards outside the area won’t allow you to walk around, this one actually has some industrial sized steel stock laying around if you’re building something heavy it’s the place to go