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I've done heavy mower blades in canola oil before and they turned out ok. A gallon of it is pretty cheap at the big box stores. It's cleaner and smells a lot better than motor oil.

Made it out for a bit today, and it was certainly more productive than last time. I found my clear safety glasses finally. (Before anyone gets huffy, yes, I have been wearing glasses, but I misplaced my clear ones and the other pair have yellow lenses in them. Not so good for seeing colors.) I flipped the bricks over in the bottom of my forge where the flux from my so far unsuccessful attempts at forge welding had eaten them away a bit. So that's back to reflecting heat as well as it can until I can get some metrikote in there. I got 2 more paper towel holders about 90% done. I still need to make some rivets to assemble them and drill 2 holes in each, but all the parts are made. I flattened out the ends of my last piece of 3/4 round for another pot rack, but that's as far as I got on that. And in between hammering, I managed to finally got two knives I started earlier in the winter profiled and quenched. They are cycling right now in the toaster oven for tempering. I had one very small bit of warp in one but managed to gently get rid of it, so I'm pretty pleased overall. File skates right off. Those are the only thing I managed to get a photo of before the boss came out to tell me it was time to eat.

There is a silver circle on the side of it in the first photo. That is a short pin with a hole in it and there is one on the other side. There is a "bolt" threaded into that one and through the other one with a wing nut and a spring between them. Both have a bit of a taper on one side inside the vise. Basically, if you loosen the nut, the spring pushes them apart and lets it swivel, get it in position and tighten the nut and it holds it in place. I've used the ones like you said without that position lock and they can be a pain. That was one of the selling points for this one. Hopefully it holds up well and doesn't come back to bite me in the xxxx.

I'm betting mine is getting wet again. Almost 60 yesterday, and almost 6 inches of snow today. Supposed to be high 40's and rain tomorrow. If you don't like the weather here, just wait a couple hours.

I've had good luck with vises in the past up until the last one I bought. Had a good wilton on my bench at my last job. Used to yell at the wannabe pipefitters that didn't have a clue and abused the heck out of it. Hopefully this one will treat me well for a long time.

Thomas Powers Yeah, I can probably salvage something out of it, and it took me 5 years to actually get around to putting lights in there. Don't be getting needy with the covers already. Although in the long run they may be cheaper than the bulbs. Doesn't help that my rafters are only about six and a half feet off the floor, so it doesn't leave much room to hang a shop light from.

I may use it for center punching or something like that, but I only have to turn around from it and that's where my anvil sits. Very small shop.

It was........ interesting..... in my shop today. I got a new vise and got that mounted. Been working on a few scrolls and such for shelf bracket ideas and got some of those done. Made a couple 90 degree bends in some flat stock to be a small "shelf" for my heat runs in the basement. Some of the old supports came loose and the pipe rattles as the boiler warms up now. Then things went downhill. I started another paper towel holder for my daughter who came over and wanted one as soon as she saw it. Got it cut, heated and textured it, rolled the ends and put the bend in it. Heated and textured the top piece, rolled one end, put the first bend in it, and........ 2 inches too short. No material left for the second bend. Measured the main piece, and the same thing..... 2 inches too short. Some fool didn't write down his measurements and apparently doesn't have a good memory so I spent all that time hammering out two pieces of fancy scrap. Then it gets even better. I started to work on another scroll and my handle broke on my small ball peen sending the head up and breaking a bulb in my florescent light over the anvil. So I shut the forge down and spent the rest of the night cleaning glass out of everything. But, here is the couple pieces of my first real attempts at scrolling and the paper towel holder I did finish. And please don't judge the welds. They are only tack welds to hold for looks and I'm actually a bit embarrassed by them. You'd think a guy that used to tig weld pipe could at least make a decent looking tack weld....

Got this beast today to replace my old (only 6 months old unfortunately) piece of junk that won't close properly anymore. 5inch swivel vise with the pipe jaws too. Major improvement. Compared to the old one.

I ran into that today. Went from the 20s to almost 60 today. Went to the shop and the anvil looked like I just dumped my water pail over it. No heat and dirt floor here too. Going to break out the wd40 I think.

That is an awesome deal on that saw!

Probably, and that's kind of sickening to me. I can't find a good one in my area and those guys are buying them up to shoot them across the fields.

That nasty flu stuff has been hitting here, and I hope you don't have that. Get better soon!

Something I see that I think may be a problem is having your cone inside the box like that. I think it will melt away quite quickly. I'm sure someone with more experience will correct me if I'm wrong soon, but I would pull it back in a bit. Also, the hard brick are durable for the bottom, but aren't as insulating and suck a lot of heat out so you are wasting a lot of gas to heat them on the sides and top. Do you need them there? Can you remove them and still be in your 300 or so cubic inch size? What are your current cubic inches?

Nice job Mike. Those are handy for sure. That's a nice bull pin you got there too. I need to get me one of those.

It kind of helps to live in a really small area where word gets around quickly and be a combat pistol instructor and expert class competition pistol shooter. Some kids went up the hollow playing mailbox baseball one night and hit every house along the road except mine. I have mine chained to a wood block, and the block is lag bolted to a steel plate buried in the dirt floor. Someone could still get it with enough effort, but the dog would let me know they were there before they could. Admittedly, an 8 pound miniature pinscher isn't very terrifying, but she is a good alarm.

That gillette is a great find too. I find a few around, but there aren't many people around here. My collection of about 60 razors (DE's, SE's, and straights) about 22 brushes, and 25(ish) soaps, is like a museum for this area. Most people around don't even know there really is such a thing anymore. I enjoy using them though.

Thanks Shady! Not bad at all. I still haven't tried a bottle opener.

Actually had a somewhat productive day today. I felt like I was pretending to be a real blacksmith. First I made up some turning cams that will fit in the hardy. Then I made up a fullering tool. Since I made all these new tools, I decided I should have somewhere to put them. Not sure how long this little fire-catcher is going to stay though. Then I started hammering on this heavy 3/4 inch thick piece of truck spring I had to make a hot cut tool. I started pounding away to make it fit in the hardy, then thought "Dummy.... You just made a fuller tool, use it to stretch that material....." It actually worked pretty darn good and saved me quite a bit of hammering. It's ugly, but I think it'll work.

Looks good! I still have that second one I did 2 months ago sitting waiting to be ground........... One of these days I'll get to it.

I'm really new compared to most of the advice you have gotten, but I can confirm from very recent experience about lining your forge. I started with the same kind of brick and lost a LOT of heat. It protects and is durable, but it does not insulate well. I switched to an insulating brick, but the cheaper alternative (and since you already have the box built) would be to do like Binesman said and use some kastolite and matrikote. I'm still lacking the matrikote until I get paid again, but I will tell you just going to better insulating properties in my outside wall made an incredible difference. I heated, hammered, heated, and hammered again on a piece with the new lining in the same time that it would have taken me to do my first heat with basically the same set-up that you have. You have a good start there, but as soon as you get it lined you will notice a BIG difference.

Why can I never find them that cheap!?!?!?!

I got a couple pieces of leaf spring from the one downtown. The guy I got the brake disks from has some stuff he said I can go through, I just have to get down there to look.

I wish I was in Australia.... There are so many things there I could use haha. My stock pile fits in a 5 gallon bucket at the moment. NY state scrap yards won't let anything out once it comes in, and the one near me in PA keeps telling me to talk to one of the 4 owners who are never there. There is a steel supplier near me, but they only deal in structural steel. I can get some nice square/round/flat stock, but it is all mild steel. Good for some things, not so good for others.

That's awesome Mike! My daughters boyfriend was supposed to stop today to work on his project, but he never showed up. I got my hardy cone fit and done, screwed up a candle holder, and did a whole bunch of work making another pair of tongs only to mess them up when I pinned them. I think I punched my holes out of round because as soon as I started to set the pin they completely froze up on me. Bent the handles trying to get them to move......