BillyBones

IIRC that number the higher it is the more of the blue spectrum of light and the lower is red. Also IIRC the lower (red) the spectrum the less lumens the lights put out where as the higher (bluer) the more lumens are put out. It is not enough to really change the number of lamps you will need though. You can go to most Lowes stores and they have a display set up that will illuminate things with different colored lights so you can see what things look like under those lights.

We only got a dusting of snow thankfully but yesterday the high was 9*F, today we had a bit of a heat wave and it got up to 17*F. Supposed warm up tomorrow into the 20's then mid 30's rest of the week... except f course the weekend that will be back in the low 20's. Next week mid 40's with a couple days hitting low 50's. Crazy that it is warmer in Ohio than Texas right now. It has been many years since i split wood but back when i was a kid we called it stove lengths as to size. About 12" or so, then split the wood into 3" or so wedges. I much preferred a maul over an axe to split with myself. With the maul i very rarely needed a wedge. Which brings me to... one of the wedges that i used as a kid i always wondered why it had a hole in the middle. Back then i assumed it was for a handle so one person could hold the wedge safely while some one else hit with a sledge. A couple years back i ran across that wedge in my dad's tool box. That was after i started my smithing journey and it was immediately obvious that is actually a straight pein hammer and not a wedge at all. But growing up hillbilly we used what we had and made it work.

One of the guys i work with is going to give ma 30gal air tank from an old compressor he has. I am thinking that would make pretty good slack tank. He gave me one already but that one is destined for my new forge hood. But my slack tank is a 30 gal drum that has had the bottom pushed out from the freezing water a couple times. Welded back in once with a bit of silicone to fill the holes becuase my welding skills are not great. And it is getting pretty rusty. I will be surprised if it is still usable come spring. My forge hood has so many patches there is very little of it left. I have been putting that off becuase that will require moving the stack which the last time i did that i think it took me a month to finely get all soot off of me.

My shop is an old garage that is 12' x 16'. I have 6, 4' LED lights to light it up. I hung them high up on the top of the rafters so they are hung at an angle. My shop is well lit and in no ways to bright. I wired everything in my shop to a breaker box next to the door. One flip of a switch and my shop is powered up. One caution that i learned about fluorescents, do not hang them to low. I put mine at ceiling height when i first put in lights. That worked until one day i was working at the vice, flipped over my project which hit the light and i got showered in broken glass. The LEDs i replaced them with could take a few knocks with out worry but i got tired of them being in my way so i moved them up along the roof. There are a number of online calculators to find out how much light you need. Choose type of room(that includes workshops in most, but the average kitchen is lit about the same as a workshop) that you are lighting, input square feet of room, input lumens per bulb that you are planning on using and it will tell you how many lights to hang. Lumens out put can be found on the side of the packaging for lights along with color, wattage, etc. Keep in mind that color will also play a role in how you perceive things as well.

Kind of cool to read some of these old threads and who is still active here.

Nice shop. Speaking of heat my torpedo died today. So i had to go get a new heat source. Propane radiant heater. Seems to do the job and is much easier on the propane usage than the torpedo but does not heat the shop up as fast. Any way also got my benches cleaned off and tools put away, did some general cleaning. Got a bit of forge time in and got the business end of a cabin latch done. Needs a bit of file work and the bales i will make tomorrow.

I tried playing bass when i was younger, my uncle was an extremely talented bass player, did a lot of studio work. Alas my fingers just are not nimble enough to play.

I love The Palace, the Newport Music Hall has some great architecture as well but is more run down and not as well kept. The Taft in Cinci is also a really nice place. Saw Gov't Mule there a few backs and Peter Frampton encored wit them. That was the night that i realized just how good that man is on the Guitar. Warren Haynes is one of my favorites and he even stepped back when Frampton got going. G-love and Special Sauce, i have not heard them in quite some time now. I saw them with Ekoostik Hookah a couple times.

Welcome aboard. You seem an audiophile. I love music. Everything for Stan Kenton and his orchestra to Motorhead. There is another thread that is "My own motivational music" in the "everything else" heading. Check it out and if there is something you would like to share please do.

I thought skidoo made jet skis ? I do not know i live neither near water nor any where cold enough to need a snowmobile. I have seen them on TV though.

Omar, welcome to the forum. If you would let us know where in the great big world you, or at least that anvil, are located. General location is fine, like New England states, Mediterranean, etc. The reason for one is that anvil prices can very widely from one place to another. What cost me $500 may cost $1000 on the other side of the country (USA).

Northman, that is why i chose the screne name Billy Bones, from the book Treasure Island. And also my location is just SW Ohio near Dayton. Gives people a general local but not enough to actually find me. There are a few here that have my real name and even my address and phone number. If you do ever want to share that it can be done through a PM so that only that person gets it. But yeah i get ya, it is your decision and i for one will not hold it against you. It was bad enough when i bought the house with the solicitors going on what was just public info so i try and stay as anonymous as possible on line. This is my only social media i have or want to have.

And right there is the gist of it all. I have my opinions and everyone else has theirs but when it boils right down to it do it in your own way that works. It is the results that matter most not the process. Northman, close enough. PNW or just Wershington is good. Machinist you say? I run a Davenport 5 spindle screw machine right now. I had someone once tell me that to sharpen my drills to turn off my oil and run a few parts. I said yeah ,ok, and backed away slowly. Just thought ya may like that one for weird ideas thread. I have never worked with motorcycle or chain saw chain but i have worked a couple pieces of transfer chain form a FWD transmission. Cleaned the ... out of it, brake clean and compressed air did the job. I just folded it back on itself, put a tack weld on it to keep it from being to unruly. Heated it up fluxed it, then with the links flat on the anvil and the pins standing up welded it. Took another heat, pins flat on the anvil links standing up and welded. Rinse and repeat. Until i had what seemed like a solid billet. I then forged a knife out of it for a guy who taught me all about rebuilding transmissions when he retired. I just kept working the material at or very near a welding heat and it came out nice. May have to dig up a piece of chain this weekend to play with. Which of course now i will fail miserably at. But with out much on the schedule if i have fun it is worth it.

Where i work they consider 1030 to be high carbon, at least for the machinery i run. I can get hex in just about any material from the 1018 to aluminum, brass, and even nylon. Although nylon i would guess does not forge very well and i hate machining it. We used to use almost exclusively 12L14 when we would run steel unless of course it was SS, then it is 303. Many of our customers are transitioning away from the 12L14 becuase of the lead so we are starting to see a whole lot more of the 1018 and 1030 coming into the shop.

Frosty, work is right and i had a blast forging this. Wish i would have got a better pic of the diamond doodad, i am pretty proud of it. I managed to get the facets all equal and the "line" in the middle is straight with nice sharp corners. I am not sure what you mean by temp critical. This was a piece of 1018.

I have not seen the wood block thing yet. When i first started my journey into smithing i was told that i should spray my anvil down with Pb Blaster to get forge welds. Later i found i was getting my chain pulled. As George said maybe it is to prevent deformation but then isnt that why when welding we use quick light blows? I think it is the same as i have seen many to say use a different smaller hammer to weld with. It is my opinion that is wrong. My opinion is that if you need to change hammers or use a block of wood to hit it with what you need to learn is hammer control.

Not much on the schedule right now so i got some play time in the shop. Decided to play with hex bar. I got this piece from work that was about 2' or a bit better long. 7/8" wide. So i made a diamond doodad on the end, pointed the other and a half twist. Then made it into a door handle for the barn. Not the prettiest but working the facets down was a bit of a challenge and quite fun. For the first time really working hex i am pleased with the results.

Hey, did you sneak into my shop? That vice is the twin of the one that i just retired, even down to the decretive lines on the screw box. My great grandfather owned it, i do not know if he origianally purchased it or not but i am 95% positive that it came from Belknap hardware. Assuming that it was him that purchased it that would put its date at right around 1900. Mine has no markings on it though. It looks like that screw box has seen better days, which is also the main selling point to a post vise. And the spring looks upside down.

Found a work around for my offset jaws on that vise. A piece of angle iron on the one that is a bit lower is exactly the right size. So for now that is how it will be.

Not sure where he was born but Sabo lives in Los Angeles.

I have seen something similar but one side of the jaw looked kind of like a basin wrench with the inverted "V".

I worked in a tattoo shop for a while a few years back. Not an artist i was the doorman kind of bouncer if need be. That was back when graffiti art got popular for tattoos. I got to the point that i kind of hated typical graffiti art. Now something like Banksy or Sabo i like.

This is by no means definite, but "Mann & Campbell" may be a hardware or mail order company in where i would guess Sheffield England. Many hardware companies will contract out to tool manufacturers to make a brand tagged with their name. For example Sears or Craftsmen tools are not made by them. They just have the tools made for them. Today you may buy a Sears socket that is made by Gray and next year one made by Klein. I use Sears becuase everyone has heard of them but there were many more from the early 1900's up until the 70's, maybe even a bit later. Again like Frosty said if you tell us where you are at it would help a lot. we do not need your exact address, unless you want a bunch of dirty blacksmiths comin over, drinking your beer, BBQing everything in sight, and leaving the toilet seat up, but just a general location. If for say you are in England would it not be much more beneficial for some one from England help you out rather than a couple blokes from over the pond?

Oh good grief another coasty? Just funnin' ya, welcome aboard. I think there are a lot vets that take up the hobby not becuase of working with tools but the self reliance aspect. Yes we love tools, yes we love working with our hands, yes we love creating things, but why smithing and not carpentry? How many times when still in have we found ourselves relying on ourselves. When all we had was our wits and our training? You were expected to do a job even if you were the last man left. And sometimes to get out of sticky situations we had "make a tool, to make a tool", self reliance. So it comes as just kind of second nature to want that. Then there is also the controlled chaos as well. For anyone who does not know i was on an Abrams tank. There were times it got crazy inside the turret. You had to move fast and be precise in your movements. No matter the chaos going on around, you learned how to move with haste but not to rush. Now think about forge welding. The steel is sparkling, you are on fire, but you move quickly and do not rush. Hit with precision and successfully complete the mission. "Yes i know i am on fire, i will put it out when i finish this weld" we have all heard that to i suspect, controlled chaos. I hope that makes sense, it is 4:30 in the AM here so i may be kind of rambling a bit.

Frosty, around about 1/8" i am guessing. The repair looks as if the stationary jaw had broken off and has been welded back on. The welds are just at the top section of where the screw box goes through the jaw. To realign i was thinking i may have to heat up the bend and give it a good whack with a sledge. I figure i will use it as is for a while and just move grandpa's vise to another location so if i want to use it i still have it available. I also have a couple good size bench vices so i am sure i can figure out some sort of work around.