Chelonian

Looks like a Peter Wright from the flats on the feet and the "Solid Wrought" stamp. It also looks like the edges may have been welded at one point, but it might still be fine if the repair was done well. How's the rebound near the edges?

Very nice anvils. The second is a wrought iron forged anvil of some type. I'm pretty sure it's one of the many English manufacturers, but my specific guess is a Wilkinson Queens Dudley anvil from the short-ish feet and narrower keeled horn. If it is a Wilkinson, it would have been pre-1850 since they changed their feet shape after that. See if you can find two crossed ovals with text above it in an arc. There would also be hundredweight markings on the opposite side. This is just my guess of course, since there were a lot of brands in England making anvils at the time, many of which looked very similar to each other. Looks like a great anvil regardless of maker.

Thank you for the responses and suggestions! Perhaps wire-feed is a better choice here. I will look around at some when I have time. I really don't know much about wiring circuits, but I will look to see if it's a viable option.

Hi, hopefully this is the right place to post this. I'm starting to consider getting a welder, and I'm looking for advice on different options. I think I'd like to start with a stick welder since they don't require the hassle of shielding gas, and I've heard from several sources that it is a good type to start with. Now the problem I'm facing: the only 230v circuits I have access to are wired with 20A breakers. I'm not an electrician, but I'm pretty sure that rules out being able to use a Lincoln tombstone welder for instance. I'm assuming this amperage constraint this limits me to relevantly low-amperage welders, but I don't see myself needing to weld huge pieces of material anyway. Currently what I imagine I'd use it for is repairs and relatively light fabrication. Am I better off buying new, or trying to find a used unit? I don't mind waiting a while to find a good deal, but is buying an old one relatively risk-free as long as the leads are in good condition and it strikes an arc? If I do purchase one used, what amperage would be able to work with the 20A breakers? I know new welders have documentation with information about required input power, but an old one likely won't still have its manual. Is 100A a safe choice? Alternatively, if a new welder is a better choice, any specific recommendations that aren't too expensive? If I'm missing any information, please let me know. Thanks!

Sounds like you got the "nut" size coal. I've had far more success with the "pea" size. You could try breaking up the big chunks smaller just as a test to see if that's the problem.

A week ago I bought a big (at least for me) post vise in need of some work for $65, and today I'm just about done fixing it. It was missing its mounting plate, wedges, and spring, so I made all those. I also straightened leg, which was bent. It weighs 110lbs, and has 6 1/4" jaws. The threads are worn, but I'm hopeful that they'll still last a long time now that it's all cleaned and lubricated. The only marking I was able to find on it was an "AA" stamped on the front leg.

Looks like it has lots of nice shapes to work with. The plural form of radius is radii, BTW.

I think I can just make out the Trenton diamond in the second photo that you last posted. Looks like a great anvil to me.

That looks like a very solid stand!

That's an incredible looking anvil. Congratulations!

Wish I could help but I'm pretty much in the same situation. There's a recycling place close but I don't think they sell to people, nor do they seem to have much heavy scrap.

Well an anvil almost followed me home a couple days ago. It was a 100lb peter wright in very good condition for 60$ on craigslist. Unfortunately, someone beat me to it, and then less than a day later it appeared back on craigslist from its new "owner" for $375.

I can't really have the forge in the barn, since I don't see any way to set up a chimney in there. I can't have the chimney go through the ceiling since the barn has more stories above it, and the barn doors need to be able to close at night, so I can't set up anything permanent going out the door. I used to work outdoors, but I've found that I much prefer this. I think the photo makes the distance look greater than it actually is. I'm only taking a couple steps, and oftentimes I'll keep the wire brush next to the forge, and brush the scale off the piece on the way over to the anvil. That way I'm not really losing much time. I haven't done much forge welding yet, but when I do I just bring a section of RR track out next to the forge, and use that as my anvil.

Here's my corner of the barn: (sorry for the bad lighting) It's not super ideal since I do have to hurry a bit back and forth between the anvil and the forge. (the forge is a side blast jabod in the barbecue in the background of the second photo) Unfortunately I can't think of any way to make them closer together, since if the forge was any closer, the barn doors wouldn't have clearance to close, and I also don't want it to be a fire hazard to the barn.

If you put your anvil and mine together, we'd have one complete Wilkinson! (mine's missing its heel) Is it just me, or does it seem like Wilkinson anvils have a disproportionately large number of broken heels and horns compared to other anvil manufacturers? Perhaps they used a different technique for their welds that wasn't as successful?

Anvil, is the end of the scraper beveled, or is it just a sharp 90 degrees?

I don't think this type of vise ever came with a base. This was sold originally as a stationary vise, not a swivel type. To mount it, I was planning on just cutting out a triangle of wood from the edge of the bench that is the same shape as the protruding support. This is just what I've seen most people do online.

Frosty, sorry, I'm not really sure what you mean by the base. I tried looking for an exploded drawing or patents, but the only information I was able to find for this model was an ad in their 1912 catalog. In the drawing for the ad I did not see the bolt clip thingy; it had just the collar like other Parker vises. The thing is, mine doesn't work with just the collar. The collar seems too big, or the washer thing on the lead screw that engages with it (I really don't know the terminology here) seems too small. Les, I will try that. The bolt unfortunately is slightly bent, which makes it difficult to screw in much farther than it currently is. I got a replacement bolt for it of what I thought had the correct threads, but it doesn't really fit in very far. I'm guessing the bent bolt and the threads that it goes into have worn to fit each other, and now will not really fit any standard sizes.

Here's a Chas Parker 3X vise I got recently. I gave it a good cleaning and a new coat of paint. Weighs 76lbs: Also, there are some things on the vise collar that I haven't seen on a Parker before, namely the angled piece of what looks like wrought iron, and the washers. Are these supposed to be there? All the washers make the end of the handle actually hit the head of the bolt, which doesn't seem ideal. Here's a closer photo of that: If you know anything about this, I'd love to hear it. Thanks!

I've been using a heelless anvil for about 8 months now, and I have not found it very limiting to my work at all. To hold the hardy tools I've made, I've just driven them into a log section that I keep next to my anvil. Also, an old trailer hitch makes a pretty good improvised light duty anvil heel. Just attach it to your anvil log/stand with the sweeping section of the hitch overhanging the edge, and you're done. You could also drift the hole in it to be square if you'd like.

I got super lucky today and found an old Ridgid no. 2 pipe cutter at a flea market today, for all of $5. (the guy selling it clearly didn't know what it was) It seems to be in great condition. Here it is taken apart for cleaning: Is there any way to figure out the approximate age of it?

I would also add that the "Don't even work in enclosed spaces where solid lead has been sitting open for a few weeks." part of the quote is pretty false, as long as the lead is just sitting there undisturbed. (If the quoted statement was true you would probably be able to smell metals, which you cannot)

Looking at the MSDS for red lead primer, it seems to have quite a high lead content at around 45% by weight. I'll definitely keep an eye out for that in the future. Thank you for that information. Glenn, I don't have a huge amount of painted material, but there are some things that I would quite like to be able to use. For instance, A few months ago I was given about a dozen RR spikes, and since getting them I've always wanted to try making stuff out of them (not knives though ), keeping the head intact so that they were still identifiable. So far I have avoided them because they're painted. I also have several large bolts which are painted, and a badly damaged cold chisel that I would like to reforge into a useful chisel again. None of this stuff really is worth burning the likely lead paint off in the forge to me though, so unless I find a good way to remove the paint, they're just going to remain unused. Thanks!

I didn't realize that about primers. Thank you for that information. Also, I notice this thread was moved. I'm sorry for posting in apparently the wrong section, but I don't think I ever would have guessed that this should have been posted in "Alchemy, Formulas, Fluxes, etc".

Hi, I have a few questions regarding painted pieces of metal so that I can use them for forging. Firstly, is there a way to somewhat easily identify paint as lead-containing or otherwise, without the use of rather expensive commercial lead testing kits? If anyone knows a trick for this, I would love to hear it. Are there some colors of paint that are more or less likely to contain lead? Secondly, what is the preferred method for removing paint? I don't really like the idea of any abrasive method that would disperse possibly lead-containing dust across my workplace, since even if I wear a respirator while I'm removing the paint, the dust will still be kicked back into the air by subsequent activities in the area. Also, I don't mind if it takes a while for a method it to work - I have no need to remove paint particularly quickly. I've looked at the MSDS's for some common commercial paint strippers, and I don't really like the idea of spending much time around the ingredients that they are comprised of. Whenever possible, I just use steel that is unpainted, but there are some cases in which I would like to forge something that has been painted. Any ideas or thoughts about this topic are highly appreciated! Thank you.