FrontierBoundPrivateer

Well my main reasons for thinking about using cast iron was fuel and the simple ability of my furnace. I just watched some more vids and seen several successful pours of it with a very similar set up to mine. And I've only seen one vid on steel in a propane furnace and it really didn't melt to a proper pouring consistency. I've seen people make a big brick furnace and use coal/charcoal to make wootz/crucible steel before. But I don't currently have enough fire bricks to do that. And yes, if I do decide to give this a shot I will use all the proper safety gear and safe location. Before I got into blacksmithing, I spent several years working at a local foundry. Now it was an aluminum foundry, so it wasn't near as hot, but we made all sorts of stuff. Molds to make truck bed liners, canoes, big parts for machines making plastic skids and such. It was a pretty old tech operation compared to some of todays modern equipment. The furnaces were these giant electric ones that use a large rod to melt the aluminum. Huge drags for the sand and no shake out machine. We'd help first shift do the pour with the overhead crane, then use jackhammers, picks and sledge hammers to break it out. Grind the haul, clean and cut wires, grind, and more grinding lol. But I planned on making it similar to the ones holland anvil company makes. The circle dishing shapes, probably one spoon, a shovel maybe or cone and the round/ V sides. And 60 degrees, good to know. And to Iron dragon forge and clayworks, I thought so. And your very right, I have seen broken/beat up ones on ebay. Makes sense. It may be futile, very much so indeed. But if I do decide to, it still may be a fun experiance even if it fails. Watching John and his friend make that clay furnace on his channel and get an iron bloom was so cool to me, and got me on a thought train of all sorts of stuff. I'll keep this up and post anything I decide to do or don't do. Thank you both!

Hello again! Just wanted to do a quick final update. Everything came out great! Got it mounted, the spring forged and a decent wedge in place. Opens nice and smooth, and ready for years more of work. Thank you guys for the all help! One day I may reforge a second spring, cause mine has funny looking ears, but it does its purpose lol! If I remember I'll take some pics and post em too. Take care!

Hello! Alright, ill just lay it out. I believe some of the older swage blocks out there were cast iron, right? I think John at blackbear forge mentioned it once. If so, does anyone have advice on casting my own? I'll give some more details. I have a nice 10kg furnace, and have done a few sand castings already. Nothing large, but I do have large enough drags to do a decent sized swage. I've never melted cast iron, but I know it can be done with the type furnace I have. (I've seen BigStackedD melt and pour it. He uses a devil forge furnace and mine is a cast master. Only difference I can tell is he has a fixed lid with a hinge, and mine just fits snug on. They both look identical besides the paint job. Plus his looks older than mine and slightly beat up from use. So I'm not worried about the actual melt.) My plan I'm working on is looking/getting a Styrofoam mold made or get some large thick stuff and cut it out myself and go from there. Possibly look into plaster. I imagine the lost wax method would be better, but with everything else I'm doing I don't have enough time currently for it. I know that I'll need good sand, and planned on getting some professional green sand or Petrabond (I think it's called) for the project. Since I'm only working with a 10kg crucible the piece would only weigh like 20ish pounds. But that would be a great start for me until I can get a larger/steel one later in my venture. Basically I'm seeing if cast iron would work, or if anyone has any advice on going about it. Like I said ive done a few small castings before. Little skull from a hollow Halloween decoration,a bunch of ingots, open face coins, sea shells, a little 3d printed gnome. Oh! Maybe a 3d printed mold would work as well... not sure. Currently im using a log, and a large steel pipe thingy I rounded the top off of and they dont do quite what I'm aiming for. Having one for projects would be great obviously, and it would be another thing I could add to my skill set. If it works out of course. Besides the larger stuff(anvil, vice, power tools ect) I've made most of my tools I use daily already. And if I can really get it nice, possibly make em an item for sale at my spot at the market. But yeah, any advice or suggestions/precautions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you guys/gals and have a great day.

Ah, I see it now. Right on. Makes sense. I'm gonna be cleaning it up tomorrow and looking to move some stuff in my hut and start planning a mount for it. Wire wheel it, coat it with linseed oil. I'm probably gonna use a chunk of telephone pole I have for now as the base. I want somthing secure, but not permanent. Might use 4x4s and put feet(a square with lag bolts) around the bottem of the pole. I did that with my anvil and it hasn't moved in 3 years. But yea, the vice will have to me moved when I get into my new home here in a few years. Thanks again for he help!

Nice! Thank you! And nope, it had no wedges. Now I don't know about those. When I had it all together the mount sorta wedged right below the jaws and seemed like it would just hang. I'll look at some more pics. Good looking out! Will do, I thought I put ohio lol. I'll check it out.

Hello, I'm new here. I just picked up my first post vice at the 127 garage sales. It looks to be in pretty good shape. Some rust but the center screw is still nice and greased up. I noticed it was missing the spring, and the seller was trying to say you just open it with your hands... I may be a novice but I know better than that. But I was able to get him to come down to $100. My fist question is what should I use to make a new spring? I have plenty of leaf spring, and mild steel. I've read that both will work, coil spring too. I can watch some vids on how to go about forging it up, just curious about the material. And my second question is regarding who made it. I have only found one marking on it, a near worn down "50". It's 4 1/2 in. I'll add some pictures if anyone has any idea. Thanks you guys!