Justin Topp

Finished box jaw tongs. And a pair of 1” tongs from old hoof nippers

Box jaws in progress

Hot chisel and square punch rough forged along with a 1/2” round spring swage

Thanks!

2 pairs of tongs. Didn’t bother putting a finish on the left one because it wasn’t turning out too great. The other one came out nicely .

Drifted the hole square and cleaned the horn a bit for fun

Forged a simple hook with a single “chain link” on it to add to the swivel shackle I forged a few months ago

Will do that. Thanks

Got a grindstone but there is wobble horizontally. It’s good to go other than the horizontal wobble? Any ideas?

Took 5 minutes to cut 1.5" x 1.5" x 0.25" angle iron. Not too bad for what it is and the fact it has a 32 tpi blade. It says to use a 18 tpi blade so I’m going to buy one and test it out. Regardless I love this thing it’s so cool to watch. Hooked a 1/4 hp motor as that’s what the originals had. Pulled it off a old broken scroll saw. The pulley happened to use the same belt the hacksaw uses. And it was 2” diameter like the hacksaw recommended. So it works perfect. It was real loud but after a liberal oiling of all oil ports and the chain and all that. Including the motor it’s nearly silent. Makes noise when cutting steel of course but not too much. As long as it’s oiled well it cuts straight. Slow and steady. I’ll oil it of to. As I’ve read power hacksaws like to be practically bathing in oil (birdseed bag was to catch oil and shavings)

That’s the plan! It’s lot as efficient as my Horizontal bandsaw or chopsaw. But it wins style points!

Found this and couldn’t pass for 45$. Works as it should just needs a motor. This beautiful old iron mike 3.5” capacity power hacksaw is around 62 maybe a bit fewer years old. Manufactured in grand forks North Dakota. Around an hour away from me. Just a neat little tool.

For some reason leg vises are cheap here. When all other blacksmith tools pretty much cost a lot. 75$ for a good condition 5” vise is fair here. Anything 100$+ takes months to sell. I see them a lot for 50$ and some for less. I missed it because I got there late but I saw one sell at an auction for 15$ haha. I should buy them and take them somewhere else to resell haha

I opened them most of the way and they looked good to me! Funny thing is the last leg vise I bought also was 30$ and both that seller and this one tried to sell me a post drill with my vise haha

Bought a Colombian brand leg vise for $30. 4.75” jaws. Works apart from it needs a spring. And some de rusting

Well I won’t be making the tackle. That’s a lot of chain to make or a lot of rope to weave. Although I do know how to weave rope from grass from back when I was in Boy Scouts haha. Forging the blocks sounds like a challenge I might have to at least attempt. But for real use I’ll be picking up a chain hoist. Seems to be the best bet. Thanks everyone on a side note I have applied Matrikote 90AC to my forge and I’m overall very pleased with the results. Forge takes slightly longer to come up to temperature. But it gets hotter and seems to heats steel faster. I did no real testing before but 1x1/2x6 inch flat stock took about 1:30-1:45 to reach welding temps. Heated a hammer to a bright yellow temp in 4

Sounds like a chain hoist is what I need than. My block and tackle has a lock on it that seems to work pretty well

Working on a thing to help lift anvils onto stands by myself. Or other heavy things. So I can make it easier and not do damage to myself haha. Looking through some stuff I bought at auctions I found A block and tackle that should work for my needs. 4:1 ratio. Made lifting the 150 pound Henry wright super easy

Hmm thanks for all the insight. I’ve been looking online and everyone wants like 40$ for a broken or poor condition one. Haven’t seen many at auctions but I’ll have to keep an eye out

I’m looking for some advise. I’d like to attempt to forge a block and tackle and I was wondering if there was some insight about that the best way to go about forging the pulleys themselves would be. I was thinking perhaps form a circle or maybe take some bar stock and fuller it to make the pulleys? Unless there is a better way I’m unaware of?

I’m well familiar with 4140 it’s my preference for hammer making due to it being pretty tough. It’s also what I make hot work tools out of as it seems to hold up well. I would’ve never guessed the applications it was designed for haha. Thanks everyone for your insight

Been busy with things other than forging unfortunately and a storm took out my canopy fully this time haha. but I’ll be back Forging soon. During my involuntary break I discovered sucker rod for sale near me. I’m in a state with a good amount of oil so they are easily available. I was just wondering a few applications y’all have made with them. I know it’s 4140 or similar. I can get 3/4, 7/8, and 1 inch rods 25 feet long. 7$ for the 3/4 stick 8.50$ for the 7/8 and 9$ a stick for the 1” round. Figured i should pick a few up since it’s so cheap and was wondering what to do with it.

Thanks and no worries! I’ve got a few projects in the works I think will be really interesting. A small leg vise of some sort is on the list to be done eventually. And a small anvil. Maybe 1-2 lbs. but first I need to make up a complete set of cold chipping chisels now that I have the info I need

Thanks frosty!

That would be quite the stack to see!