maple smith

I don't know about zinus but all box spring or old bed frames I ever tried to work with were just a waste of time, far too brittle

Been there, done that. Do not lift more until the prescribed waiting period or you can very likely pull a muscle loose from the surgery.

Or look up a video by Torbjorn Ahmen, he has one where he demonstrates making a forge using a pair of sawhorses, a wooden box, some dirt and rocks, a piece of tubing and a hair drier. He then uses it to blacksmith something.

Actually the first thanks giving as we celebrate the first harvest in the New World, took place in October, 1621. The Pilgrams landed in Nov 1620, their first harvest was in Oct. 1621. Happy Thanksgiving all!

Is there a reason you can't add a 240V outlet? If there is, you can use a high end 120V wire welder for things up to 1/4 or 3/8" with practice. It however will not get good penetration on heavier stock. We have used a Millermatic 120V on 20A circuits, on that welder going to a 30A will not help because it uses under 20A. I do not know about the "IBGT" welders.

2 years ago about this time of year, I bought 12-15 bags of lump charcoal at Lowes, on clearance, 18# bags for $7 each. Keep your eyes open, when such items are marked down they don't last long. Sometimes you can ask a department manager if something is going on clearance soon. Many times you will get an accurate answer, sometimes not. Lump charcoal is far better than briquettes. Briquettes are made by compressing all sorts of things in with charcoal pieces, lots of poor combustibles. Read this to learn how. http://www.madehow.com/Volume-4/Charcoal-Briquette.html Briquettes will never have the heat potential of hardwood lump charcoal. You can also make your own.

If I'm not mistaken the longest flat rate box in the medium , side loading box. It is11 7/8 x 3 3/8 x 13 5/8. I don't know if those are OD or ID measures. If buying and getting it shipped be aware many add a handling fee over and above the shipping cost and many will have a minimum order requirement. Your best bet is to visit a scrap yard unless you need to know exactly what the steel is. Just drive your bike around the evening before trash day, you can find some good practice material picking thru the recycle bin. Ask the homeowner if you see something that might interest you. Explain that you are trying to learn blacksmithing. Get your parent's permission first.

I have a punching plate with a pin. The pin goes thru the corner of the plate and thru the pritchel hole. Then I can rotate the plate as needed, for the proper hole to end up over the hardy hole for punching. The plate has about 8 sizes if I remember correctly.

I guess I got a great deal in that case. About 4 yrs ago, I bought a coal forge (about 3' square, in great shape, with a good hand crank blower all for $350). I thought at the time that it was an OK price, did not think it a great price.

Do you have a product called Kroil over there? I have used it to loosen a few stubborn things in the past. When I have something that needs a penetrant, I spray some Kroil on it every day or 2 for as many times as it requires until it moves easily, I do not force it. Remove the excess when you take it apart.

Did you weigh the anvil? Many older anvils used a weight code. 110 might be 1 hundredweight (112#) + 1/4 hundred weight (28#) +o pounds. Thus 110 might be 140#.

I know it would be better, but being retired, on SS and a small pension I need to be practical. I'm 73 and don't plan to do this full time, just a hobby. Besides, I'm thinking 14x14 may help be good reason not to buy (or make) too many uses for more space. On this property I already have a 16x24 sugarhouse, a 14x28 work shop, 2- 10x10 storage barns, a 10x12 and a 12x12 storage sheds. If I was 15-20 years younger I'd likely build a 24x36 blacksmith shop but at my age reality sets in.

I don't even have a stand made yet, but I'll try to get a picture of it. Right now it is setting on the wooden floor in my over crowded shop. I plan to build a blacksmith shop off the back of my shop next year. Thinking 14x14, maybe up to 14x22. The new shop will have a base of crusher run limestone base and will be topped with 3-4" stone dust. That packs well with some moisture and a plate packer.

Did I make a mistake? I bought my first ever anvil and it is a 144# Vulcan. Reading thru all of the brand reviews in the anvil section, I found no reviews about Vulcan anvils. One asked a guestion about what a number on a leg might mean, but no reviews. I paid $175 for the anvil and I see no flaws , the edges on the top have no chips, the bench has some nicks. The horn is good. The only chips it has are at the 1" hardy hole, but they are only about 1/8-3/32 down into the hole, the rest is good. The top is flat and the edges have what I think is like new rounded edges. The guy I bought it from said it was 160+ pound, but I weighed it on my shipping platform digital scale and it weighs 143.6#. Did I do OK or was I given a HUGO at a VW price?

The quantity of syrup varies year to year, mostly depending on the number of freeze thaw cycles in a season. My best year was 456 gal of syrup when I had 1320 taps, which is only about .345 gal per tap (gpt). The gal/tap or pounds of syrup /tap are the best methods of comparing. While I ran far fewer taps in 2018 and 2019, I averaged .52 gpt in '18 and .49 gpt in '19. By the way, a gal of syrup at proper density weighs slightly over 11#/gal. I found that when I ran more taps I just collected the sap and rarely if ever walked the woods to fix leaks in the tubing, when I cut my taps to the 800 +/- I had this year or the 325 I had last year I took the time to walk the woods and fix leaks. That may be one of the bigger reasons my GPT rose significantly. By the way, I had kidney cancer is 208 and cut back so much because at first I didn't have a surgery date. Then when I got the date I only tapped around my sugarhouse and left a lease set idle. This year I'm well, and tapped 350 at my sugarhouse, then started tapping at the lease, 7 miles away. Then on Mar. 13 as I was drilling and tapping, about mid morning I noticed that each hole I drilled ran solid stream. I then decided to process the sap from both locations and return to tap the rest the next day. As it turned out, the sap ran like that for 9 days before I got to tap more, or instead of having about 800 taps I would have had about 950 taps. At my age I have now decided I will let the lease go and just do the most taps I can from around my sugarhouse. I think I will have about 425-450 in 2020. At the lease I spoke to the land owner. He thinks he will start collecting the sap from there in 2021 but will haul the sap to me for processing. I can process far more taps than I can properly manage in the woods.

I started wanting to try black smithing about 15 years ago. Then in 2016 I finally bought a 168# (reportedly) anvil in good condition ( I have a syrup scale that goes up to 300#, I can verify, it has no weight code that I see), a coal forge, large rectangular, commercially made unit, a #400 blower and a post vise needing a spring and a mount bracket. They all sat in storage until recently. I also bought a 1/4 ton of blacksmith coal and 10 bags of lump charcoal on clearance sale @ $7/20# bags in 2017. 2-3 weeks ago I took them out of storage and moved them to my current workshop. I don't have enough room in there to do black smithing (besides it has a wooden floor). My plans are to build an addition off the back for my black smithing shop. Just drawing plans now. I have my own sawmill and will cut the lumber for it using hemlock, off my land. I'm now trying to decide how big to make it. I know the old saying about building a barn or shop, figure how much you need, double it and you will have half enough. The issues now are age, health and finances. I will be 73 in less than 2 weeks, I had cancer last year and I have moderate arthritis in both thumbs. With all of this, I still want to try. My main focus would likely be tools and hardware. In the shop when I build it I will put down about 4-6" crushed stone covered with 4" stone dust, well packed. The structure will be pole barn construction with about 8' walls. The trusses will be made to match my current work shop and the ceiling will be open to the roof deck. My current shop is 14x28', hip roof and I plan a lean-to addition to that and add 8' out one side. I'm trying to decide, I will make the new shop line up on one side, on the other I could stop at 14' to match the current shop or go out to 22' to match the future extension. Just trying to figure what I can afford (roofing mainly) and how much I want to saw for the lumber. The posts will be PT, the rest my own lumber. I have enough hemlocks of good size to cut all of the lumber. The siding will be board and batton. I have a 100A service in the shop and could put a sub panel at the full 100A if I thought I'd need it. Really, if needed I have a 200A service in my sugarhouse (I also make maple syrup), about 110' from the shop, I could even bring in more power if needed. Decision, decisions!

While not real recent, I got some free stuff. I was telling a friend I shoot trap with that I was trying to get started blacksmithing. I had bought a 168# anvil, a #400 blower, a coal forge (moderately large, but no hood yet) and a well used post vise. A week or 2 later when he came to shoot trap he told me to back my truck up to his. In it he had 2 disassembled heavy truck leaf spring sets. Just guessing but I think that was maybe 200# of spring steel. Since I have not yet set up a shop, that steel is waiting on an old trailer bed near my shop. I also make maple syrup, although as I got older I started reducing the number of taps, about 6-7 years ago I did 1320 taps. For 2019 I did about 800 taps, but about 450 of those were remote, in a lease. I decided not to do that anymore because of the steepness of the hills and the time it takes to haul the sap. For 2020 I will be between 425 and 450 taps, all around my sugarhouse. Getting back to what followed me home, the friend (who gave me the heavy springs) father gave me an old dairy vacuum pump. Since I have a good pump I use and 2 spares that both work well, I will likely use that vacuum pump in a project some day. As I said, no shop yet, my plans are to build a blacksmith shop onto the back of my other shop next summer. At this point I'm thinking 12x14 up to 14x22. Have not yet decided. I did buy a 1/4 ton of blacksmith coal from a company that was going out of business and I bought 10 bags of lump charcoal at Lowe's 2 years ago when they had it on clearance (20#@ for $7.00 each)