Frosty

I believe the foundry is the facility rather than a single piece of equipment though I'll be happy to learn differently. English is such a slippery thing you just never know for sure. One of our club members is a professional bronze caster and pours over a sand box or outdoors on dry dirt. He conducts the yearly iron pour at Art on Fire event and that's all on the ground. Until a couple years ago I demoed blacksmithing about 50' from the cupola and iron pour. Frosty The Lucky.

When you say foundry it sounds like you're talking about the melter rather than the shop. No? Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Den, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you'll have a much better chance of meeting up with members within visiting distance. Branding plate? Do you mean like a label or data badge? I think that is highly unlikely, the body is looks to be intended to hold a liquid, That appears to be a level or fill plug and if it were to stamp labels, etc. it wouldn't need the big reservoir or body in general. It would probably have a vertical press and compound lever if it were for stamping labels, tags, badges, etc. IVI isn't a Roman Numeral. You might try one of the vintage tools or machinery sites. I'll be interested in what you find out. Frosty The Lucky.

Trentons tend to have longer horns but it's not too short to be one. Try a web search for images, I'd link what I just skimmed through but it's several pages and too much bandwidth when anybody can search it. It could be a Peter Wright too, there are a couple anvils listed in the images that clearly have the name stamped in their sides. A couple on Iforge for that matter. Frosty The Lucky.

Good job Chad, a clear floor and bench gives you so much MORE room to lay stuff down! While drying off after this morning's shower I saw the snow blocking the man door on my closed up for winter shop looks clear enough to shovel my way in. Cleaning it though . . . <sigh> Nice peg board hooks, did you put an upwards curve on the peg so it's locked in when there's weight on the hook? It doesn't take much but it really stabilizes the hook. Not taking much time to turn out things like simple hooks really improves them. When I'm just warming up right after I open the shop in spring I make leaf coat hooks, in part because I use them as a forge product #1 for beginners. When I get my self back up to speed I spend about 7 minutes from cutting the stock to brushing and waxing the finished hook. I start with 3/8" sq. hot rolled, twist the shank, draw the hook, leaf, vein the leaf, counter punch the screw holes, brush hard and apply my Trewax finish at a temp that makes it smoke so it comes out black. Later I may use a leaf die so the veins stand proud but I'm not so crazy about the dies I've come up with. Surprisingly it's more work than drawing and veining by hand. Anyway, in spring it takes me 15+ minutes to make a leaf hook and they're okay. Later when I'm cranking them in 7mins. or so they start coming out looking and working well. I think I have a peg board in the shop maybe I'll have to clean a path and make some hooks. Do your hooks want to turn sideways in use? Commercial peg board hooks have multiple pegs and or a spread bar to keep them facing straight. Turning has always been my issue with making peg board hooks. It's not insurmountable but it is unsatisfying having to add chachkas to keep them straight. An old acquaintance made little snake pegs that looked like they were slithering down the wall, neck and head raising into hooks. As I recall he said he spent 10+ minutes on them. Frosty The Lucky.

Uh HUH and the English book replied, "Go figure." That doesn't add up to a good joke either does it. Sorry. Frosty The Lucky.

It over heated. Cut off disks require a LOT more power than grinding or sanding so unless you have a light touch the motor gets hot. When an electric motor reaches a set temperature it shuts off until it's cooled below the limit. Frosty The Lucky.

That's pretty cool though I don't think unusual for mice. Buy better tasting tools maybe? Frosty The Lucky.

I can't argue. I'm losing track of what point we're on at any given moment and re-reading half a dozen posts is making my headache worse. I'll check back in in a couple days, we've run into Anchorage and back twice so far this week on top of other stuff and I'm shot. Frosty The Lucky.

I didn't see a 2 burner version, I was commenting on the forge pictured above. Helpful? . . . Helpful? . . . Okay, it will be a safe place to burn a mosquito coil when you're propping the door open. Frosty The Lucky. I didn't see a 2 burner version, I was commenting on the forge pictured above. Helpful? . . . Helpful? . . . Okay, it will be a safe place to burn a mosquito coil while it's propping the door open. Frosty The Lucky.

I forgot about the split brick but that's generally my advice about putting a brick in the forge. Forget about it. Like Mike I see so little right about this forge I don't have to "Find" fault. Even the hose is pretty useless being crimped to whatever the "regulator is." One of the guys up here bought one and we discovered the regulator was nothing but a flashy needle valve and did nothing for psi. My best advice is, "Do NOT waste money on it!" It is so badly designed and built I'd be hard pressed to think of anything to use it for. Maybe hardening short blades one at a time. I'd rather build a charcoal fire in the old BBQ. Frosty The Lucky.

Good Wonder Billy. I think it's just the thing to let the experienced trainers figure out. Frosty The Lucky.

You might want to refigure the volume. As shown I see 283 cu/in volume and if you ad another inch of ceramic wool barely 125 cu/in. The measurements shown are the outside dimensions you have to calculate volume with the inside dimensions. Frosty The Lucky.

That's Way too hot. Did you look up the melting temp of aluminum? 1220f is pure al, casting alloys tend to run lower say 1150f +/- depending on % and alloying metal. You should just be able to see red in a dark room, at orange temps it's oxidizing as soon as it starts to pour and the flux is no longer keeping air off it. 1250f is pushing too hot but should be okay. It isn't filling fast enough, hotter is not the answer. You can see how it was solidifying by the swirl patterns in the casting. You need to improve the flow rate so it fills the cavity before it cools. Aluminum has a low specific heat, it loses temperature fast, the greater the temperature differential the greater the change. That is why making the melt hotter doesn't do any good. You have a flow problem. Look to your runners, gates and fill cup to increase the flow rate. You want the fill cup to gulp the melt, not drain nicely. Frosty The Lucky.

Looks like cast iron to me but malleable cast iron isn't the same as cheap Chinese ASO cast iron. This is all I found regarding the manufacturer and it looks like there were financial issues over quite a bit of it's history. http://vintagemachinery.org/mfgindex/detail.aspx?id=3485&tab=0 I didn't see anything about anvils or other blacksmithing tools or equipment but I'd say from your picture they made anvils at least. Frosty The Lucky.

You're progressing pretty well for not having hands on instruction. when you say you're judging the al temp by incandescence, incandescence of what? Certainly NOT the aluminum, it should barely show color in night time dark. Judge it's readiness to pour by how it feels when you stir it. You DO stir it in the crucible, at least when mixing the flux, yes? Molten aluminum has a distinctive feel when it's the right temp to pour, getting it hotter doesn't help and often makes things much worse. Next time melt at least 50& more than you think you'll need. Weigh the most complete one you've cast and add at least 50% more to the melt. That is why you make ingot molds after all. BECAUSE there is always extra melt and you'd be crazy to let it freeze in the crucible. Yes? Make ingot molds from angle iron in lengths about 1/2 the depth of your crucible. Weld a bunch touching sides between a couple pieces of strap stock. You don't need to weld the ends solid the al will solidify before much can leak through a tight contact fit. Once the ingots are cooled flip it over so it bangs on the ground and the ingots will fall right out. Muffin tins work but pressed steel ones don't last very long but cast iron ones don't take to being banged. Then again I've seen corn bread pan ingots in the shape of little cobs of corn. Soooo. Frosty The Lucky.

Now there's a thought. Keep a nest or 5 of domesticated packrats behind the back stop at the gun range to collect the jackets, and lead for scrap value. No, I'm not forgetting casing at the firing line but those sweep up of the pavement, it makes for easy clean up of the brass you know. Frosty The Lucky.

Bingo Scott! It doesn't show in Vintage Vises. A web search for "Halls Sudden Grip Vise" found that very catalogue page. I've read about the type if not these vises before too, if not here then maybe on one of the vintage tool fora. Thomas probably pointed us to it it'd be right up his alley. I lost track of where that thread lives, probably in the bowels of my old laptop. No matter what the computer tech says they never transfer ALL your data. <sigh> That is a great family story Nimrod, thanks for sharing. I ran it by a current inflation calculator and it looks like it cost around $408.66 in 2024 dollars. I hope you find bench space for it at 79' I'm pretty sure it'd enjoy a couple few more generations hammering away on it. I wonder how it'd far here at 4x the elevation? 380' above mean sea level whatever it is at any given second in the Knik Arm of Cook Inlet. Frosty The Lucky.

Thanks Beaver CR, tinning and brazing in place sounds good to me. Tinning and clamping parts to be brazed is pretty standard when there isn't space or there is too much distance to rely on the hard solder to flow reliably. Do you use a past bronze? There are products available that are fluxed bronze or almost any alloy hard solder you can spread in the joint, clamp and heat. I've never used one but if I were in the business. . . Frosty The Lucky.

A ballista would be fun. On further thought I have made log cabin tools with leaf spring though not draw knives. Slicks flat, curved, etc. and a couple froes. The froes were kind of different and used for splitting firewood at the stove not making cedar shakes. Frosty The Lucky.

Be nice to turn up something like that digging in our land. Frosty The Lucky.

Or linking another thread because it contains something relevant to the topic being discussed. You see marketers bumping ads so they're always at the top of search results. I run adblock to keep ads and bumpers off my screen but they sneak through anyway. Worse they advertise their marketing "service" boasting of their ability to keep your ad at the top of search results. Targeted advertising is often aimed at one word or combination in a search. I think I'm getting a handle on how Bumping applies to IFI. Frosty The Lucky.

True, like everything the technique should have a "within reason" disclaimer. I don't know of anybody forge welding strap stock edge to edge. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Reindeer, thanks for serving, glad to have you. If you put your general location in the header you'll have a much better chance of meeting up with members living within visiting distance. Telling us once won't stick in our memories after we open another post. Our club has quite a few vets, many are enjoying the therapeutic properties of anvil time. Getting into the zone can be very Zen. What do you want to make or do you have an ultimate goal? We love pics, work, shop, tools and equipment, pets, scenery, anything you'd show a child without having to explain adult stuff. Frosty The Lucky.

One of my stock answers is in a conversation, music came up and asked what my favorite rock group was. Was/is "Sedimentary though metal sedimentary is up there too." You don't do melts in a melter? It doesn't need to be much, just a few insulating firebricks. I don't recommend kaowool unless you rigidize and cover it with a proper refractory or you end up with vitrified ceramic fibers in your breathable air. Frosty The Lucky.