G-ManBart

I finally got my new No. 57 330lb Refflinghaus home...super excited about it. Here it is next to my new (to me) 130lb Vulcan and a bunch of vises to give it some scale.

That's kind of what I'm was thinking...give it time to soften up the top layer, and repeat. Made a video of it in action...we'll see if it works. 13B4590D-222F-4EFD-959E-B9BA710F627B_zpsksgj9cgc.MP4

Thanks...I use both of those methods pretty regularly on other projects and you're right, they're very handy. I hadn't thought about Murphy's Oil Soap, so I'll see if I can dig some up. The crud is so thick I know it's going to take some manual method to remove, but even softening it up first should help.

LOL...honest, it was marked at $95 and I just barely got there ahead of the next guy in line who wanted it. It had so much crud on it that I couldn't see any paint at all, but that showed up as soon as I did a little cleaning. The layer of dirt/oil/etc was so thick I couldn't make out any of the small letters. I'm going to try a gentle cleaner to see if I can get it reasonably clean without removing the paint, but it was almost dissolving before my eyes....we'll see. I will say you're right...it's pretty darned quiet!

Well, it all worked out....got there early enough to snag the blower....$95 which seemed more than reasonable. I spent about ten minutes with a bronze brush and some cleaner to get a better look at it, and I'm happy. The fan turns freely, moves what seems like a lot of air, and there are no weird noises. The oilers are all free, and everything seems to be in working order....if very dirty. The original red paint was coming off as I cleaned it, and there was still some of the gold paint on the raised letters. I'm thinking it's worthy of a nice cosmetic refresh after checking that all the moving parts are good. The fan has a little bit of in and out movement, but not enough to hit the housing and I couldn't get it to move up or down, so I suspect the bearing is likely still good. Here are a couple of quick pics I took:

Thanks guys, that really helps! Luckily, this is an estate sale, not an auction, so it's just a matter of getting there early, and hoping they haven't done much research on it! I'm interested in a couple of other things they have, and it's not far from my house, so I'm going to do my best to get there early....fingers crossed.

Yeah, I thought it was pretty stout for the weight. It's got some very minor pitting on the surface that I suspect is really from someone using it improperly, but other than that it's really solid. I'm going to get that ugly paint off it soon! LOL...I hope I don't have to move the big anvil very often! I have enough room at my shop that I can set up an inside and outside work area. I think the inside area will have to be flexible enough that I can move things around, so that would be the smaller anvil. Still, after I get it all set up I might decide to swap that around....hard to say.

Spotted this at an estate sale coming up nearby and wondered what folks thought a reasonable price would be? Obviously I won't know if it turns freely until I see it in person, but there are a number of other similar items around, and it's on a horse farm, so I think it was used rather than stored. It looks to be pretty decent, and the stand adds a few bucks to it, so what's a fair market value? Yes, I know it's worth what someone is willing to pay, but we all know that's not much help. I saw a similar one sold on eBay for $200 plus shipping...is that normal, high, or low?

I picked up a 130lb Vulcan over the weekend and hope to pick up the 330lb Refflinghaus next weekend. With the Refflinghaus on the way I was torn on buying the Vulcan, but the price was reasonable, and it's in pretty darned good condition.

The one does look a little funky, but they were real enough to put my finger in. I sold it, so I can't post better pics....sorry. I still have the originals on my phone, and there I can zoom in enough so see the dirt/oil/grit in the hole, and the irregular edge to it as well. While I like a good challenge, and have been slowly teaching myself to do hand-cut file checkering for gunsmith work, and would like to try my filing skills on the anvil, it may be going to a new home before I get to that. I was waiting for the weather to break to get my setup in order...still need a forge and a bunch of other stuff. Tonight I put a deposit on a brand new 330lb Refflinghouse #57 that a friend has locally. He imported a #57 and #58 and is only keeping one so I'm planning to sell the HB to help pay for that. It's overkill, I'm sure, but I was able to do a partial trade for a very cool vintage Wilton vise as part of the deal, so it was too good to pass up.

Yesterday I was picking up a couple of Baldor grinders from a Craigslist ad, and when I got there the guy had a really nice shop full of good tools and amazing RC airplanes. I noticed he had a Wilton 400S bench vise holding his cigar, and then I saw a small anvil under the bench. I told him I'm into vises and anvils and he started chuckling. He grabbed the anvil, wiped the dust off it, and said he picked it up years ago really cheap, and it hadn't moved since then. He handed it to me and said "you drove a long way, call this a bonus" and gave it to me. Talk about cool! I did a little research and couldn't really turn up much info. I did a rebound test with a 1" ball bearing, and it has surprisingly good rebound. It appears to be cast steel, with a machined face. It's supposed to weigh 8lbs, but I haven't remembered to put it on the scale (heading over to the barn to do that soon). As best I can tell it has never been used....if nothing else, it's a cute little thing I can put next to my Baby Wilton. I did a search here and didn't get any hits, but figured somebody has to know at least something about them...when they were made, etc. Thoughts?

Good point (pun intended)....a file it is!

Better pics....the edges aren't perfect, but not bad. I'm pretty sure it won't be the limiting factor as I get started

Thanks guys! I'm pretty excited about it....good pictures in the next day or two :-) Thanks...that's what I figured based upon a little research. It seems that was the year H-B started the transition to a two-piece anvil with the top half all forged rather than just a forged top plate. Good stuff! Heck, that was probably the same week!

Finally got the Hay Budden home....145lbs and pretty nice edges (sorry for the poor pic). Serial number looks to be 146868.

I know this picture is pretty bad...just brought home my first Hay Budden. It's 145lbs and the serious number appears to be 146868, which I think should put it at 1907 based off other posts here (feel free to correct me). Better pics tomorrow:

I know, right? I put a bid in thinking I would never get it, and I did...shocked. I'm hoping to pick it up this week!

That's a good point. I wonder if it would apply for something as small as 200-220lbs? I decided that both of these were too small for my plans, so they've gone to new homes, and I'm sure I lost a few dollars after gas money is added in, but it looks like I have a 145lb Hay Budden to pick up in a few days

Yesterday I had a chance to look at a 200lb Peter Wright and 220lb Columbian Type F double horn anvil. Funny thing...neither one had better rebound than these two little fellas had. The same guy had two new 330lb Refflinghaus (one style 57 and one style 58) that were in another world entirely....wow! Guess I know what I'm saving my pennies for now. I took a picture of the Columbian for a friend, but you can see one of the Refflinghaus in the background:

I don't have any nitric acid handy (will find some), but I did have cold bluing for gunsmith work, and tried that (two different kinds with different acid). The face on both turned black like it should for steel. The side of #1 also turned black. The side of #2 turned a brownish color with a change obvious where the seam appears to be for a top plate. I also found that running a wire brush on the side of #2 produced long sparks below the seam that appears to be for the top plate, and nothing from the face itself or right above the seam. It's not easy to measure exactly, but I got right around 1/2" thickness from the seam to the top. That is also where the acid changed color slightly. A file skipped over the edges of both, which seems like a good sign. Doing a hammer drop test with a 1lb ball peen hammer left no marks in the face of either, and decent rebound.

The acid etch is a good idea...I'll try that. I didn't have a file with me, but that's easy enough to do. My thought on #1 was that it could be a more modern cast steel anvil since it had a reasonable amount of rebound and it sure looks like a steel face on #2, but I'll find out. I wasn't expecting much from these two, so I'm not disappointed either way. I've got a 150lb anvil that I can use...it's got some damage, but it was under $1/lb and there's enough left to work with. It's got about 90% rebound and I think can be fixed if I can find an anvil repair day nearby. I'm still looking for something bigger/better, so all of these are true starters for me. These two little guys came up when I was looking at a #6 Fisher & Norris double-screw chain drive vise...still in negotiations for that. I did a quick rebound test on these two....not so I uploaded them. IMG_3480.MOV IMG_3492.MOV

Well, they were cheap, so I'm not too worried. Still, I didn't think ASO's normally had any reasonable amount of rebound? #2 very clearly has a top plate, but that doesn't show up well in the pictures, and I didn't think anybody made ASO's that way.

Hey all, I went on a bit of an anvil finding trip today and came home with two small anvils that aren't marked. I'm not overly concerned with ID, but figured it was worth getting a few opinions. The one with the smaller horn weighs 52lbs and the other is 57lbs. Both have about 6" of rebound when tested with my 1" ball bearing, so not great, but not completely worthless. Neither had a really loud ring, but the sound was very consistent everywhere I checked. So, fire away with any ID ideas you have, and what you think fair market value is. I'm probably going to keep one and sell one to hopefully cover the cost of gas to go get them, but I didn't really buy them to flip...they just happened to be 20 minutes from one another. Here's the one that weighed 52lbs: This one weighed 57lbs:

Many people copy Parker's idea of drilling and tapping the spindle so you can put a brass/bronze plug that will make contact with the handle. You put a small spring behind the plug and a screw behind that. You can adjust the tension on the handle with the screw as well as compensate for wear.

I started building my barn/shop a couple of years ago, and all of the lights are LED. The ceilings are 13'4" so I went with high bay lights rather than the 4' long kind, and I'm really happy with how they look. The shop side of my barn is 24x40 and I have 5 high bay lights and it's more than enough light. The one corner has a storage room/bathroom/utility room framed out, so there's no light over that corner, or I would have gone with 6. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lithonia-Lighting-2-ft-White-LED-High-Bay-Light-IBH-11L-MV/203812710 These are older pics, but give you an idea what I'm talking about...a bit dark over the utility room, but everything else is really well lit. Much older pic looking from the other corner...this was with only two lights in place before the interior overhead door and man door were installed, and not all of the walls were covered in metal.