Brian D

The jaw surface is actually in pretty good shape. It was made with a harder steel jaw insert welded to the inside of each jaw. The hard steel insert was much more resistant to damage than the jaw bodies.

If you do thousands of repetitive motions it may be cost effective for you. Just keep in mind, every aspect must be identical. There are many forms of safeguards and crash prevention methods. These include sensors, vision systems, and proximity switches. Very new robots can also be programmed with force-feedback instructions which can sense an abnormal obstruction and "fault" out. This will only work if the robot payload is consistent from cycle to cycle. I don't know of any simulators, but generally the sales staff will look at your application and be very helpful with helping to determine best fit products. The robots that I deal with each have software and programming that is unique to that specific manufacturer. (GE Fanuc, Yamaha, IAI, ect.) I do not use robots in a CNC environment, but I would be willing to bet that there is a manufacturer who has developed an application that goes hand in hand with CNC machines and programming. The first one I would look into would be Fanuc, as there are CNC machines around that use them for their programming and software.

Let me paint the picture for you of what would happen at my house. At the store, favorite beer in cans was gone, had to buy bottles. Place beer in the fridge in regular spot. Wife re-arranges fridge, places carton of eggs on top of beer. Kids leave the barstool in front of the fridge door again. Fast forward to quitting time: Robot leaps into action, hits barstool in front of fridge, placing a new unplanned opening in the fridge door. Robot grippers reach for a can of beer, but grabs the glass bottle instead. In the process of removing beer bottle from fridge, it scrambles the eggs and distributes them all over the surrounding premises. In an effort to "pop the top" it effectively removes the top of the bottle leaving a foamy scrambled egg with glass shard mess ready to place in my hand. I think I will stick to getting my own beer from the fridge how I want it and when I want it. ;)

You want to see something interesting and often times destructive? Watch a robot out of control with a program that has become corrupted or improperly assigned. The big 5 axis robots can do a lot of damage before you hit the E-stop. :mad: What I was getting at is: The programming is the headache. Every aspect of the job function has to be identical. One little thing changes, and robot job function must change. This is not efficient or cost effective until several thousand identical cycles will be ran.

Trust me, I deal with these industrial robots on a daily basis on the production cells that I am responsible for. Most of the people here would not even come close to a proper application of one of these robots in their shop. The design intent is to perform simple, repeatable functions very accurately and efficiently. They are not very intuitive, and they do exactly what they are programmed to do. Which is a very big hassle in most cases. (new task = new program). With that said, it's time to go teach a few robots.....again.

That is in fact a farriers anvil. Much like the Cliff Carrol brand that I am currently using. It has a little clip horn off of the main horn. It is a really good anvil for what it is, not necessarily a blacksmith anvil. That anvil will cost about $600.00 brand new. I think $400.00 is not too bad as that anvil appears to be in pretty fair shape. You can go to Anvilbrand.com for pricing. (I think they still sell them)

The plan is to heat and torch weld and fill the voids a little at a time. The trick will be to keep everything straight and true in the meantime. I'll take my time and post update pics of progress. I just hope all of the effort is not in vain.

I picked up an old post vise several weeks ago at an auction. The jaws looked pretty straight, the screw and nut was in pretty good working order. It was in need of some repair, and it was obvious to me that it needed a new pivot pin or bolt, I needed to make a spring, and the supports for the pivot were bent and needed aligned after replacing the bolt. I thought that is all that was wrong with it.....I was wrong. I made the necessary repairs to the pivot and the front leg supports, and thought it could use a good cleaning. After taking a wire wheel to the legs and jaws to clean them up a bit, I found some hidden damage. It became obvious that someone in the past had gotten a little carried away with a torch and / or drill and damaged the jaws. There had been an attempt to repair the jaws with some poor welding, and someone also scabbed some brazing rod in there as well. I decided to clean all of the debris and poor weld material out of the damaged area and this is what I ended up with. I have decided that after all of the work I have put into it thus far, I am going to finish the repair of this vise. It may not be worth it, but now it is personal and I will finish the quest.... Here are some pics of the damage after I got the jaws cleaned up and attempted repair material cleared out.

Hey, good eye orgtwister! That is a very dangerous situation indeed. We had a young feller at work turn on a lathe with the key in the chuck and sent it through the wall across the shop. We now have a "key present in holder" switch that will not allow the control relay to close and the lathe will not run with out the key resting in the holder.

Yea, That surround around the door is going to get HOT! ITC makes a product ITC-213 that is designed to coat metal. I have not used it, but from what I have heard, it works pretty well. It is designed to reflect the heat off of the surface and not allow the metal to soak as much heat. You may want to try that, but I think it is a little expensive.

Howdy from another Utah feller. Where in Utah are you? There are quite a few members here from Utah, but I think that most are located down South. It's good to see the Utah crowd getting larger. Keep reading the pages here, there is a lot of information here for the taking. Enjoy!

Congrats Mark, That is the exact anvil that I have decided to save my pennies for. I have called and talked to Steve about his anvils several times and I think that his anvil will suit me well. Please keep me/us informed as to how the anvil is working out for you and if it is meeting your expectations. Another bonus for me is I can drive to his place in about 3.5 hours to pick it up and save a bunch in shipping when the time comes. Enjoy your new anvil, You lucky scoundrel.:)

The welder is pretty easy to use, just takes some practice. Clamp the blade in each side, set heat and pull the lever to weld. (it will squeeze the blade clamps together at the same time) Make sure you anneal the blade after welded while it is still in the clamps, there should be a button on the welder for this. After welded and annealed take out of the clamps and grind the weld joint smooth. You should be able to get bulk band at any machine shop supply or industrial supply house. I would just keep your eyes open for it to go on sale. I have also found rolls of it really cheap at business liquidation sales and shops that are going out of business.

I would like to find one of those DoAll bandsaws. We kept one around work for quite a few years after the saw "Died" just for the use of the band cutter/welder/grinder. It worked very well. Now you can buy band in bulk, various pitch and width, just cut and weld to fit different saws.

Wanna bet! I fight like crazy to keep those ignorant weeds from growing in my pasture.

Hello TMIB, I enjoyed reading through your intro and browsing through the picture collection links posted. My hat is off to you for volunteering your time with the Boy Scouts. I often reflect on the many lessons leaned and countless fun times that I had in Scouting. Very good, Keep it up.

No need to invent something, they already exist. Go to McMaster Carr or another industrial supply catalog and look up compressor drain valve or moisture drain valve. You can also buy assemblies that remove the oil and moisture out of the air and self drain when it accumulates in the bowl. If you don't want to spend the money to do it "right", you could always just buy a pilot operated normally open valve and plumb it into the tank. When you loose air pressure in the tank or "pilot pressure", the valve opens and lets the moisture out.

The news of poor CO sensor reliability is a little disturbing. Sounds like there is reason to question the CO sensors on the market. Make certain that the ventilation system is engineered to supply adequate fresh air. As far as monitoring the air.......I guess I'll live on the edge with a questionable CO monitor.

OK, thanks for the info. I like to watch the shipping section of the e-bay adds, I got burned by that in the past. (my own fault, did not look closely at the shipping cost) I paid a lot more than the small item cost me for a handling charge. :mad: That shipping seems very reasonable for the power hammer if that is in fact to a terminal for pickup. But it seems very high if it is just to load it on a trailer or truck for you.

Burner looks pretty good. Sounds like a lot of work the way you made you burner flare.....but looks really good. Can't wait to see your finished forge. I like the idea of the shape. I think I will build my next one in the shape of a mailbox. Should make it easier to suspend the ceiling. (arched vs. flat) Please post pics when done.

Sounds like you have not done a good enough job of explaining the concept of "He who dies with the most toys wins". :rolleyes:

Looks like some good stuff there, definitely worth a closer look at if within driving distance. One question for you e-bay savvy folks: The items are marked for Shipping: $100 or $300 and also says "local Pickup" Does that mean you have to go pick it up yourself and then pay the seller the shipping fee of 100 or 300 dollars?

I have been thinking on this subject also for when I build a shop. What I have been thinking is to install an exhaust fan / system which will draw fresh air in while forcing out the old air. I also plan on making the air flow adjustable to be able to adapt to conditions and also install a good CO monitor to measure the air quality. I will not allow the fire hazard or CO threat to force me outside. I WILL make arrangements to use the shop when I get one built, I have been too long without one.

I own all of my gas bottles and just do an exchange for a refill. It costs more money to lease them at the rate I need to exchange them.

John, Nice shop you have there! I also have shop envy. Sounds like we have a few things in common. I also have a wife and two kids, keep a few horses, and have enough going on to prevent spare time to get into trouble. Look forward to hearing from you on the site.