HammerMonkey

Frosty... the sign of the eternal optimist... pouring a thick footing just in case. I did the same thing . Jen, I hope the crossroad you are at won't take you away from the anvil, and especially teaching/helping. You are highly valued and appreciated!

Hans.. When I was in the Army, 30 some years ago, I was stationed in Butzbach Germany. It was here that I was first introduced to the wonderful German bratwurst. Shortly after my first one, I got caught twice sneaking off post to go to an Imbiss stand to get myself a brat... I cleaned a lot of latrines and was stuck on KP duty for a long time because of this compulsion... Hence, I became known as the Bratwurst bandit, for a while. I still love them, especially roasted on the BBQ. When I am in Germany , my first stop, is always the nearest imbiss stand.

What.. wait, what...? Did someone say bratwurst??? I am inspired... Time to fire up the grill!

I actually think the brass looks good as an accent. Otherwise it would be very monochromatic. Very nice pattern. It looks very well balanced. I bet it is comfortable in the hand.

Very cool find and interesting back story. Good researching!

I was thinking the same. It looks like it’s in good shape. If the rebound is decent, I’d say you did well and will have a very usable anvil with many years left in it.

Ha, no... not a Texan. At least not by birth. But I lived in Brenham for a while back in the 70's, and a short stint in Houston too.

Truth ^^ Thanks JHCC. And Thanks all. It's been tough since he's been gone. I still catch myself picking up the phone a few times a week to give him a call for advice. He was the most enthusiastic fan of my blacksmithing work. And most anything else I did, for that matter. He was the smartest and most remarkable man I've known, and I was so lucky to have him as my father. The best gift he gave me was that he was always telling folks how proud he was of me. Coming from him.... Well, it made me feel awesome.

Thank you Hans.

Thanks Das. I miss him so much.

ahem... Sir... I am a red necked desert rat!

I picked this up last weekend. Apparently my father left it and a bunch of other tools to me when he passed away. I'll be going through his shop next weekend to see if there is anything else I want before the estate sale. I'd take it all of I had the space. The estate sale should be a good one for guys.. tons of tools...

Nice job Luke & Eli!!

I like it! It just looks like it feels good in the hand. nice work!

YW

simple brass needle valve you can get in the plumbing department of most hardware stores. There are a bunch of videos on youtube about rebuilding hydraulic cylinders too. It is not hard. This is similar to what I used. Here's some pics of a few different sized ones. you can see that some have a ball valve in addition to the needle valve. That is to be able to lock the saw in any position without adjusting the needle valve. I have one on mine too. not required, but handy.

I made the downfeed cylinder for my horizontal bandsaw. you can use a small hydraulic cylinder, or as I did, you can even use a pneumatic cylinder as the pressures in the downfeed control are not great. Here is a sketch (sorry for the quality). The concept is simple. it is a closed loop and the needle valve just controls the rate of flow between the two halves of the cylinder. Just finding the right sized lightweight cylinder is the hardest part. And if you have a lathe you can make it from scratch. There are Youtube videos showing that too.

Maybe some wood strips on the bottom of the rockers, countersunk and riveted. you could also do wood strips on the armrests as accents to tie in with the rockers.

Looking good Das! Fun project.

JLP, You have friends up here in the northwest too. I know I t’s a looong way, but you are always welcome if you find yourself wandering out this way.

Nice job Das. What steel do you use? I really need to start making some hardie tooling. I have a couple of em that I bought when I first got an anvil with a hardie hole, but I need a spring fuller and a couple of others.

Or paint the bucket red with big white letters that say "FIRE"...

I cut a bunch of angle iron tonight. The pyramid orientation worked awesome. Thanks again Frosty.

Way to go Finn! Nicely done.

Cone of shame!