Bantou

I got the 4in1 kindle edition last night. The first part of volume one is a bit of a slog. Mr. Richardson must have had a thing form hammer, he dedicates a whole chapter to their history.

If it was by weight, it’s probably a 7 then. I estimate the weight at about 70lbs just from handling it.

In doing further research, it seems a bunch of them were never labeled by the manufacturers. There is another mark on the front of the fixed jaw but it is illegible. I think it was another pair of numbers but all I can make out is the 0. Got her all cleaned up and mounted. She got a healthy coat of BLO before I put her back together.

It’s a small world. The pastor that married my parents lives in Wasilla. He was the pastor of the Baptist church there until he retired several years ago. I don’t suppose you happen to know a Fred Stroud do you?

I need to learn to sharpen my bits. I’ve looked up how to do it several times, just haven’t attempted it yet. I’ll also look for some better oil. I’m quickly getting an education on what is right vs what I thought I knew lol. Looks like I need to scrap my “knowledge” and hit the books.

It boggles my mind. Why would I pay you half or more the new cost for your clapped out drill press that sat in the shed uncared for, for years? Who know what kind of work I’m going to have to put into it, just to get it functional again.

These aren’t old enough to be antique either. People think a little rust and dirt make it “antique” or “vintage” and want a premium for it. Trying to get them to understand that their beat up 20 year old piece of equipment isn’t worth the $75 they want for it is an exercise in futility.

I think I ran into that until I remember you have to use lube while drilling metal. The bit definitely cut better and faster after a couple squirts of WD-40. I think I’m going to have to do some research. I thought I knew how to drill metal so I didn’t bother looking it up. I’ve been keeping an eye out, but people in my area seem to think that “antique” equipment is worth 3/4 the price of new. I ran into the same problem with bench and angle grinders.

Can you wonderful people help me identify this post vise? I’m in the process of restoring it. So far I’ve found two markings. A 17 on the bottom of the mounting plate and a 28 on the back cap (not sure what the technical name is) that the screw goes into. If I find more, I’ll post them. The “cap” looks like one off of a PW vise someone posted earlier but I haven’t found anything that says PW.

I considered that but was worried about the bit grabbing and snapping. Now that I know it works, I’ll give it a go next time.

I’ll take real Mexican food over Tex-Mex any day. I did a week long mission trip in Mexico many years ago (back before you had to have a passport) to this tiny village that was literally “dirt floor poor.” The local ladies fed us lunch everyday. I couldn’t tell you what it was we were eating (sometimes it’s best not to ask), but it sure tasted good.

I’ll give the slower speed a try on the drill. I was taught fast and light for drilling metal so that’s what I did. Yes I stood it up on edge because I couldn’t get the center part hot without risking one of my finials otherwise. I know how easy it is to reconfigure the JABOD. I’ve done it a dozen times trying to get it to work right. Part of it was not wanting to fiddle with the JABOD and have to spend the next week trying to get it to act right in a new configuration. Part of it was that it was late, I had the fire going good, and I just wanted to get it done. The rest was being in a rush trying to make and engrave three crosses that I’ve never done before by Sunday. I should have stopped when I realized what I was doing wasn’t working right. I didn’t and payed the price for it. I am going to cut the bricks of the fire back down flush with the hearth. It was fine for smaller projects but it’s causing me a lot of frustration with this one.

I’m not a huge fan of fish tacos and working next to a Chicken Express for several years kinda ruined me on the smell of fried chicken. If the shop started smelling like chicken fried steak, I’d either be constantly hungry or too fat to see the anvil.

I don’t have a drill press yet and the last time I tried doing it with a hand drill, the bit walked around on me. The hole wound up being off center of the bar just enough to be noticeable. I marked the hole location with a deep center punch but it still decided to go walkabout on me. The area I was punching never got above that heat. The side that burned was deeper in the fire and got hotter than I anticipated it would before the center of the bar got to a workable heat.

Thanks for the tip. I’ll pick one up today.

A post vise followed me home on Monday. My boss also plays with hot iron and had a spare sitting in his shop. It looks a little rough but is functional. For $50 USD, I’m certainly not going to complain about a little rust and flaking paint. I figure a couple hours with a flap disk and some new paint will have her back turning heads again.

The tie downs are mostly just to keep it from dancing around on me. I’m going to make a base out of old cross arms soon. At 4x6”x8’, they are a good size and they have pre-drilled holes in both sides that conveniently all line up perfectly. They are also treated agains weather and bugs. I’m just waiting on enough DA bolts (5/8 all-thread) to show up in the scrap dumpster.

That something I’m well aware of fortunately. I did a fair bit of bullet casting before primers got so scares. It didn’t take long to figure out why pants and leather boots are universally recommended. The first time I refined wheel weights down into clean ingots (a nasty job btw), my ladle dibbled a nice pretty line across the toe of my boot. I work in an industry that requires FR clothing and steel toe boots. As a result, all of my forging is done in “bad” FR pants and steel toe leather boots. It doesn’t take much for a pair of pants to fail a safety inspection so they usually have a lot of life left when they go “bad.” I have a few hot metal related scars as well though. Interesting point of fact, a BB sized drop of molten lead will make you shed work gloves in record time. It also leaves a BB sized dimple that turns in a perfectly circular scar.

When you are as green as I am, pretty much everything is an experiment. Unfortunately, a lot of lessons come the hard way. Tonight’s lesson was that holes should be punched before the finials are made; if the hole is less than 2” from the tip of the finial. I had the piece completely done with the exception of punching the hole and melted part of the main beam off trying to get the hole hot enough to punch. The only way to get the main beam hot while protecting my finials was to stand it on edge and crank the fire up. My finials are fine but I’m now missing a ~1/16x2” section off the main bar right below where the cross piece would sit. An inch higher and it would have been hidden behind the cross piece. Instead, it would be at a junction where it would be extra noticeable. As it sits, I wouldn’t hang it on my wall, let alone give it to someone else. I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew at my current level. Fortunately, these are gift not commissions (I’m a long way from being ready for those) so I don’t lose anything if I back up and punt.

I actually wound up splitting that one the same amount since it was marked already. I decided to go with 1 1/2” stock for the actual piece and slit it 1 1/8”. I figure the extra material will make up for the shorter cut.

Picture of the method I learned (bottom) vs the method Frosty suggested (top). For me, Frosty’s method was both faster and easier to accomplish. I think it also produces better looking finials.

I can’t say that I’ve ever been on fire because of a torch but I don’t use them all that often either.

Mine was at the cuff fortunately. I was cutting up a lattice transmission tower that we had laid over.

It will indeed. It will also set your pants on fire if you aren’t paying attention to where the sparks are going... not that I have first hand experience or anything Thomas, It’s more a time constraint issue. I have projects that need done by Mother’s Day and I can get a better result faster by forging it flatter instead of grinding, fixing a mistake, grinding, fixing a mistake, etc.

You should come to Texas where we have the best of both worlds. Numerous poisonous snakes, spiders (only two are venomous though), mosquitoes that have been known to carry off small children, dry heat, damp heat, dry heat and damp heat alternating daily, dry heat in the summer and snow in the winter... you can pretty much pick your poison depending on what part of the state you want to live in. We also have numerous game and non-game animals to hunt, including a few exotics that have flourished here and have open seasons as an invasive species (public land is VERY limited though). There are numerous bodies of fresh water to fish and decent saltwater fishing in the gulf. In far West Texas, Big Bend and the Davis mountains both offer fantastic hiking trails; or so I’m told, hiking isn’t really my thing. The Piney Woods of East Texas are a real treat assuming you can stand the humidity. The Hill Country is absolutely gorgeous, particularly in the spring when the wild flowers are blooming. Ok, enough advertising for Texas, back to hot cuts. I need to reduce the profile on mine. It is too thick to grab the grooves made by my cold chisel. The questions is whether to just grind it down or draw it out some more. I’m leaning towards drawing it out more, mostly because my grinding skills need improvement. I struggle to keep a consistent angle, especially with the bench grinder.