Mellin

Driving down the road out of country and saw a Blacksmithing shop, well actually 3 or 4 near each other. Pardon the shakiness I cant take a picture to save my life.

Pretty awesome shop, I would like to know what the thing they are using for an anvil is, it looks pretty heavy and well used

They sell a lot of machetes and knives they had a couple really awesome blades that looked like a Kris but shorter with a straight handle, I unfortunately did not bring one back because I didn't want to have to explain why I had a dagger if I got stopped as I had more on my itinerary.

Arkie my main concern was leaving an electrical appliance running without my supervision over night but say I was to disconnect the electricity, can I just leave it in the bucket with the electrolyte? 

Thomas your logic is undeniable,  the washer should be first to go. So i progressed on my vise project last night, i sat the vise in the electrolysis tank for an hour then before I was leaving the shop i pulled it out of the tank (as I don't want to leave it unattended) i could see that allot of the rust was gone already and wantedto see if it freedup at all. I tapped the whole vise on a block of wood concentrating the pressure on the end of the slide and it popped out. I'm going to have to read up on straightening the slide bar while I finish taking off the rest of the rust. 

I got the electrolysis tub going and decided to try and take the other bolts out. I had good luck and will be able to keep most of the original hardware the only piece that I might need to replace is the bar that locks the vise in place, it was bent so I used a die grinder to take of the nub and pulled it through then made a custom socket with a channel in it to remove the nut. The bad news is that once I let the pressure off of the base a piece that was cracked off decided to let it's presence be known. Can/should that chunk be brazed or rig welded back on? I also built a spreader because when I was watching vise restoration videos I saw someone use one to get a vise unstuck however their model was a dovetail style and I didn't know if I could use that trick with mine. 

So I am picking up the parts for an electrolysis tub that aren't laying around my shop but I had some questions some may be stupid.  The dynamic jaw is seized into the bottom quite well, should I try smacking the back of the slide with a 2x4 and sledge or get after it with an air hammer to try and drive it out. Upon reading about the electrolysis method of rust removal it is referred to as line of sight so I'm assuming that if I put the whole vise in the solution I would have a nice clean but still seized vise. how does a person recommend getting the dynamic jaw out?

As for making a new vise washer I have a few different types of steel laying around from flat mild steel to stuff like harrow blades, circular saw blades, bandsaw blades, I could even try to cut a portion of brake rotor out from the hub face, what kind of alloy would be recommended? 

On Monday, November 26, 2018 at 8:57 PM, Irondragon Forge & Clay said:

Looks like it is spread and some one welded it to the jaw on the bottom.

The washer was not welded just split the jaws are in pretty rough shape though. 

Here is a better picture, is the second one the retainer washer? I couldn't really find anything on the manufacturer online and it has a few imperfections (some one welded on the jaws where the inserts would go) but it is a nicely shaped vise. 

I believe the number was 45. I saw a washer / bushing on the front jaw that was loose and wobbling but did not check inside the body. The the outside has not rusted terribly but the jaw seemed to be fused pretty well. 

So you are recommending trying to separate the parts of the vise then de rust 

So I found another semi identical forge 

This has many identical properties to mine the casting numbers on the blower and the u in the pan casting I can see I'm missing a few bigger gears and pulleys. I can go out with the boss next time he goes to clean the acreage to try and locate them but it gets dark too early and everything is frozen.  Is it a better idea to just buy a cheapo Amazon blower and duct it in?

So I pulled this old hunk of metal out of the ground and found out from a member here it's called a rivet forge. The only mark on the body is a "U" cast into the pan.

A piece of the blower housing has been cut through with what looks like an oxyfuel setup. The blower has a smooth wheel that turns freely and spins whatever is inside. 526 and 527 are the numbers in the casting of the blower. 

One can only assume that pieces are missing. For starters the drive mechanism for the blower. There's a bracket on the underside next to the "right" leg, no idea what went there. Also one hole on the top lip. As for claying the forge there's a ton of ways I see ranging from not claying and having a thick bed of coal to using common soil clay and then sand concrete mixes.

I don't know if I honestly plan on coal forging any time soon, i don't know the first thing about it but I would prefer to get this ol boy back in usable condition.

I recently got a rusted together bench vise and was hoping that I could restore it to a somewhat usable condition.

The threaded portion spins with a little enticement however I don't believe the jaws are moving. The "hole" that the rod goes into doesn't look stripped out  but with the jaw rusted into the position it is  it doesn't make sense that the screw can be turned unless something else has given up the ghost also the vise does not rotate and there is a chip of the body missing to the left of the logo. Is this worth trying to muck around with.

3 hours ago, Irondragon Forge & Clay said:

Yep, it's what is commonly called a rivet forge. It needs to have the pan lined with clay to keep it from cracking. Looks like the blower is there but missing the gears & lever.

thank you I will look into it, I'm sure I can find something on it here somewhere

Warning a few pictures

I took half a day off working the mill to help my boss clean out some land and got some goodies.

6 rolls of various types of barbed wire

A small lube can that might become a forge body

A larger texaco lube tube that might become a forge body

An old propane can that might become a forge body

That's it for the "small" things I also pulled what looks like a solid fuel forge out of the ground and a small bench vise that is pretty rusted together but I reckon it will loosen up with some tlc

I am pretty interested in seeing if that is a forge.

Big gun and JHCC It supposedly doesn’t work and the place I got it from didn’t consider it worth repairing so I will consider it a gift from the blacksmithing gods, and I know a foundry will require hotter temps than THAT burner can make, notice I’m skipping the sarcastic jokes about deep frying my Twinkie’s next to my aluminum. I like the stainless construction, cylinder is 12 inches wide and at least as deep if not more. I however am lacking time and a plan for a foundry if you have good designs you could point me to that would be awesome.

Followed me home I feeeeeeeeel like it should be a foundry. Like it is asking me to fufill its destiny and upgrade it from a fryer broaster thing.

I coated the inside of my first box forge with zircopax and letting it dry. I have just under a quart of it made and saved in a jar. 

 So it's been snowy can't get to the shop snowy but finally it's nice and the snow melted. I took a picture when I first started up the forge. I can't tell if this is normal. I ran the forge for a while and it works great I can't tell if it is better or worse than the other flare. Does a frosty t burner need secondary air? I feel like the pieces scale more with the frosty style flare I'm no expert. This is my first item I am making well a pair of tongs. They don't match. I still need to draw one out about half an inch  and the area around the pivot point are sloppy. 

What constitutes a junk spring I have a set with one broken leaf, and 5 unbroken, are they all junk? They seem older and have some pitting

The new coupler that I have been trying has not increased performance as far as I could tell I tried trimming down my mig tip but that did not bring the flame within the end of the flare, this also made the flame on the old reducer flare end seem very flamey or not as jet like. Frosty do you have any guidance.

i heated up a slug of some sort of metal, pretty hot but forge atmosphere seemed to scale the piece while in the forge more, unknown alloy.

I’ll go back as soon as the snow melts and see what kind of deal I can get there were 2 I think in the six inch range. Don’t know if they work. What should I look for in problems, the screw box and eye As das said? I turned the handle on a 4 inch and the jaw did not move.

one has a 3 bolt mounting fixture, is this necessary

Thank you I’ve been reading quite a bit getting sidetracked into the heat treating section now and then as well. 

I do scrap art, welded not forged but I was looking for a list that could tell me things that are going to be different alloys.

tortion bar—alloy—use I.e. hardy tool

coil spring—alloy—use I.e. chisel

harrow blade—alloy— use fire bowl, cooking disco, bench grinder stand.

leaf spring—alloy—use don’t use

Or uses could be avoided entirely and the alloy can help decide its best function

I’m sure there is a thread and I’ll try and find it, but what else do you guys look for at the junkyard as most of us can’t take the junkyard home with us. It’s a vague question but kind of the essential scrap to have around. Maybe with common alloys?

So a six inch jaw is desirable and reasonable for 125-150 dollars? Obviously 50 is better. I’m looking to go back to this guy and buy some rusty wagon wheels , possibly a post vise or 2, maybe some cheap barbed wire to use for additions to projects.