Chelonian

Yes, I remember being impressed how large some of the pieces sucked up and blown out the top were. Must be a lot of air volume moved!

Also Justin, I just saw the dog's head hammer you made on the last page. I must have missed it previously. It looks very nice and clean!

I also burn anthracite (In an outdoor forge) but I still like using a chimney to get any smoke and gasses over my head. It's pretty much just an 8" stove pipe with a hole in the side that sits next to the fire. It wouldn't be adequate to suck all the gasses up if the forge was indoors, but it is a lot better than nothing.

Does it get really smoky in there without a chimney on the forge?

Other than that it looks like a really nice place to work.

Do you have any photos of the repaired parts?

I'd say a screw jack is the easiest repair. Chances are you can find one pretty quickly for a lot less than it would cost for a machine shop to do the repair. However, it you want to keep the original handle and back of the screwbox, using new acme thread might be the way to go.

One thing to keep in mind with new acme thread is the threads per inch compared to the original square thread. All acme thread I've seen from McMaster Carr or similar has more threads per inch than the original, so you will need to turn the handle more times to travel the same distance in exchange for higher clamping force at a given torque.

Any reasonably sturdy C-clip of the right size should work, since it looks like a pretty light-duty vise.

It's really coming together fast now! It looks great.

I think they're for handling it while grinding the face after casting.

Very cool find. What are you planning to do with it?

I would choose the Holland as well. I've never heard anything negative about their anvils.

Finished up some shelf brackets for a customer (He requested the texturing):

I remember seeing that one for sale a while ago. If I remember right it was originally on Craigslist for $500, disappeared quickly, and reappeared on FB marketplace for the increased price. I guess someone made a pretty good profit flipping it.

Looks like an excellent anvil! I imagine the damage is just some slight casting defects that won't be an issue.

It's really looking like a building now! I hope to come see it someday.

Very cool. Thank you for making these videos.

It has to do with more than just the unobstructed volume of air the air supply can move though. The reason axial fans like the one Scooter is using are not typically used as a forge blower is because they produce quite a low static pressure as compared to centrifugal fans (blowers). This means that while the fan might seem to move a lot of air when unobstructed, as soon as the fire becomes nice dense bed of coals the fan may no longer be able to force enough air though the fire. Also, axial fans will not be able to blast through obstructions like ash buildup (or clinker, when applicable) as well as an air supply with higher pressure.

As TheWanderingLlama mentioned, not all centrifugal fans are the same. Squirrel cage blowers generally don't produce much pressure because the impeller is wide, and the vanes are short. In contrast, a thin impeller with long vanes will produce much higher pressure (at the cost of airflow, of course). Housing design also can change the pressure vs. volume characteristics.

I certainly agree that an unregulated shop vac would produce far to much air, but if you have issues keeping the fire going once it becomes a dense bed of coals, you may want to look into buying or making a centrifugal blower with suitable characteristics. If you have a suitable motor, making the impeller and housing of the blower yourself is not too difficult. Box bellows are also a very good option for charcoal forges.

That looks like a very nice anvil as well. I've always liked the look of the later Fisher anvils.

Looks great. Congratulations!

I don't foresee need to use over 100A; or at least I doubt the 20A breaker will allow me to. As I said, I'm just wondering if getting around 100A output from a 20A breaker is realistic.

I don't remember the brand of the one I tried (maybe Airco?), and I don't know when it was made beyond that it was fairly old. I always thought that all the old transformer welders were more or less the same on the inside, but maybe I'm misinformed about that.

It's been quite a while, and I still haven't gotten a welder yet (mostly because of indecisiveness as to what type would work best). However, recently a friend with several types of welders let me try them to get an idea of what they're like. Of the ones I tried, I liked using the stick welder best. It was an old 230A transformer welder. I asked him if there was any chance one like it would work with a 20A 220V breaker, and he thought it would work as long as I didn't set the output much above 100A.

It was set at 100A when I was using it, and to me it seemed like it had quite a bit of penetration for the types of things I foresee myself needing to weld (Of course I have almost no experience, so take that observation with a large grain of salt).

So my question is: do you think his estimation that an old transformer stick welder could work up to about 100A before tripping a 20A breaker is correct? I just want to make sure, since it would be disappointing if I bought one and found it tripped the breaker whenever I went over 50A or something.

Thanks!

I wonder how large of a Fresnel lens you would need to heat up forging stock in a timely manner. It probably wouldn't be practical but would be interesting regardless.

I've been using a 185lb (213lb originally) anvil broken at the heel weld for close to two years now. It's usually not very limiting in what I can do, but it is fairly often some sort of an inconvenience. Overall I'm very happy with buying it, however I only paid $125. Where I live I would not pay $390 for that anvil, but I don't know what prices are considered normal where you are.

Is there any way you can see it in person before placing a bid? Did the seller give you the face width? From the photos it looks like it would be around 5" wide if the hardy hole is 1.25", but it's hard to measure because of the angle. Is there a direct overhead photo?

It does look like a very nice anvil; I hope it works out for you.

If it's 12" tall I'm pretty sure it would weigh more than 60lbs. I would guess somewhere around 175lbs from those dimensions, although if I were buying it I would certainly want to see it in person to make sure. Do you know where the 6 is located on the anvil?

I'd be really interested in seeing photos of them as well. I've wanted to make chisels for a while but I've never really known what shapes they should be.

George N. M. : Thank you;  I will keep it around for special uses like you mentioned.