BIGGUNDOCTOR

What is art? Depends on who you talk to. Some artist guilds are snooty, and look down on what they term "crafts", basically anything other than painting. I am a member of the Vegas Artist Guild, and we have all manner of painters,and folks who work in fabric, metal, ceramics, textiles, tattoos, wood, cartoonists, and more. I was told "We don't care if you have any artistic ability at all, as long as you appreciate art, we want you." Our motto is - Artists helping Artists. Some members came in, having no art ability, but after being immersed in a creative pool like we have, they have found an artistic medium that spoke to them. One gentleman came in like that, and ended up doing a demo for us a few months ago. I work in metal, wood, ceramics, leather, paper mache, and anything else that strikes my fancy. I draw a lot, and lots of doodling. Doodling can create some striking forms, as the mind is somewhat detached, and the hand is just flowing on the paper. Personally I think to be an artist one must look beyond one's personal medium of choice. I find inspiration in many other art forms, and artisans of differing backgrounds. That is one reason why I still attend the Guild meetings, even though it now requires me to drive 350 miles. 200 round trip to work in Utah, then 150 to Vegas and back. To me, art can be just a thing to look at, or it can be functional too. Whichever it is, it has to speak to me.

Insultingly low, depends on how you look at it. Is his price insultingly high? In all of the years I have been wheeling, and dealing car parts/machinery/and general stuff, I have never worried about insulting someone with an offer. It is just that, an offer. Sometimes it is accepted, sometimes not. I have seen items sold at an end of a swap meet for less than half of what was being asked in the morning. A lot depends on the offers presentation. If it is done with some tact it goes a lot smoother than being crass with it.

I would do this. Tell him that after showing the pictures to some other smiths that the consensus was that, for a smithing anvil,it was in rough shape for that amount. Let him know that you have some interest in it, but at a much lower price due to the work required to get it useable again. Leave your contact information, and let him know that if he cannot sell it, to let you know. If he asks how much, say around $75. For $75 I would get it myself. At that price, and some time with a belt sander, and a welder, you could customize it some, and not worry about ruining a nice anvil.

Hmmmm, still cannot open the link.

Dump some lime, or baking soda into it to neutralize any remaining acid. After that, you can let it dry out, after which it is safe to toss into the trash.

I cannot open your link.

My question is why are they removing it? What aspects of it do not meet code? Opening sizes?

Where are you located?

For the ones unfamiliar with chilis,regulating the heat is done by trimming the internal ribs. Deseeding will not do it, it is the rib that holds the heat. Here is some chili info, http://ushotstuff.com/Heat.Scale.htm

Get a trailer, if you don't have one. Easier to unload from, lower center of gavity, and stronger places to strap it down to. Loading a Bridgeport is usually done by putting the forks under the upper ram, be sure to use some wood between the ram, and forks to keep it from sliding. Wrap a couple of chains, or straps, once around low on the base pulling in opposite directions, and one over the top that wraps around the ram once in front of the main frame. Never put metal to metal, it will slide. Always slip a piece of wood between to keep it in place. It can be 2x4's, or even some thin plywood. Wrapping the hold down around the item will keep the item from slipping under the hold down device.

We use quite a few ER, EX style of collets at work. The ones that we use have quite a bit larger gripping range(.040"+) than say an R8 does. With an R8, the farther that you squeeze it beyond the rated size, the greater the wall angles get,and less gripping power. With the double taper style of collets, the sides stay parallel as it is squeezed down providing more, and straighter gripping.

If ya like it, get it. I am kicking myself for not getting the Kukri set(1800's long leaf, WW1 military, and a WW2 military) that IMA was offering when they first started selling that stash off. The price of the Kukris are now about what the set was.

Thanks guys. It feels good to get back into this more than just talking about it. After Mom died in 2003 I decide that there wasn't anything keeping me in CA any longer. I wasn't really happy with how my life had gone to that point, and figured I needed a big change. To start my life over, and to be the person that I had always wanted to be,I moved to where I am now. New state, new friends, new job, new everything. It has been a little slow in coming, due to some heavy self doubts, but I am getting to where I want to be. That little step of firing up the forge, and making something, helped to alleviate some of the doubts I have had in myself. Weird, because I know I have the talent, I just haven't used it. When I was younger I never hesitated to start something new, be it tanning a fresh road kill skunk, or making some contraption with surplus parts. My mind never stopped, but my hands did. Hmmmm where's UnicornForge to analyze this thread? Hopefully I can finish the fork Thursday after work , so I can give it to my friend this Friday. Making a run to CA tomorrow 0 dark thirty, gonna be a loooong day tomorrow, and about 900 miles Got 3,000# of copper, and brass scrap to drop off, and new material to pick up, so I better get rested up for the trip.

The date is usually part of the serial number, or stamped on the data plate. Can you go look at the mill, or is it too far away? I ask this because some things are best determined with the mill in front of you. These type of mills get a lot of use in the middle, which wears the thread in a small area. When you run the table from end to end it will be loose in the middle, and tight at each end. With the table centered grab each end of the table, and push/pull back and forth alternately to see if the table wiggles. Sometimes a gib adjustment will fix that, sometimes not. How noisy is the head? How sloppy is the spindle? Variable speed, or step pulley? Does the vari speed work smooth? Where are you located? Lots of these types of mills on the west coast. The mill weighs around 2,500# for a late model with a 9"x42" table, and varispeed head.Shipping can add up. You might also want to check with some used machinery dealers. I have seen nice mills with digital readouts for $2,500. I got mine at an auction for $1,800, and a used machinery dealer I know has picked them up for as little as $500 with all of the shops closing. Don't be shy about some of the Taiwanese imports. I use the Acra, more than the Bridgeport where I work. BTW, some of the sniping software can outbid you with a couple of seconds left B)

Hadn't thought of Damascus, but that could look nice. Probably best with fewer laminations. Maybe even some of that Mokume stuff. Hmmmmm, mind going really fast now :D

Well, I finally did it. I lit the forge for the first time in close to 20 years. I had drug it out and started arranging things last summer, after letting it sit since I brought it down from the folks estate in 2005. Last year I bought out one estate sale, and a farrier who was hanging up his hammer, but it still sat cold. Not sure what sparked me to get it lit, but I did. Tossed in a RR spike, and wailed away on it to get the feel of things again. Made a sparkler of the first one by not paying attention to my heat The second one became a sortahawk. After those two exercises I grabbed a piece of 3/8" round stock and started a BBQ fork for a friend of mine. Did a flared flat scroll at the top, and got a couple of sections of squared up reversed twisting before my neighbor invited me over for dinner. Being a single guy, I don't refuse a free dinner often It all started to come back after all of those years. Dad was my smithing partner, and much more to me. I sure could have used him a couple of times yesterday, as I only have two hands. This August it will be 10 years that I lost him. Guess it was just time to start again.

The problem with a punch press is that it needs to do a full stroke, or it jams up tight. There isn't any cushion built in like a Little Giant, or other mechanical hammer to accept material of varied thickness. Also adjusting the die height is a slow process. Now if you need to blank out some sheet metal parts,stamp a part, or some other repetitive operation on the same size material they are great.

You should have titled this thread In A Gadda Da Vida, Iron Butterfly Can you do tie-dye wings? This project got me thinking. You could polish the wings and flame color them, even do designs with a torch. Make wings out of copper, brass, or combinations of these. Hmmmm, may have to look into making one of these myself.

Here outside of Las Vegas it is in the 60's during the day, and high 30's at night, no snow here @ 1,500' elevation. This weekend was beautiful. In a few months when summer hits we will be hoping for some cooler days, and nights. We have 3 months where every day it will be at least 100(starting by 9AM), with overnight lows in the mid eighties (around 3AM). One week will be 110-115 each day. Humidity will be in the single digits, I have seen 1% reported. Even with that, I still like living here. You adapt pretty quickly, and learn to buy cars with cloth seats, that is if you want to keep the backs of your legs from frying Again , nice job on the candle holder.

I second Kroil's effectiveness, great stuff. It also works to loosen copper, and lead fouling in barrels. I believe it is advertises as being able to work into spaces as tight as one millionth of an inch.

Good decision adding the age requirement I don't fit me since I graduated in 1983. Dang, it's been awhile.

I like it, kind of snake like. Welcome to IFI from warm sunny Nevada. Just looking at those pictures makes me cold :P

I think that some see this as a solution to a nonexistent problem. I did a search last weekend and found over a dozen anvils from 100# to 400#. Some were priced around $1 a pound, some $4 a pound. I also found forges, blowers, etc. Blacksmithing tools are available, it just depends on how much you want to spend. I think another factor in this, is that smiths like to make things, including tools. They also take pride in "Look at what I made". Your "base" would probably be better as a print that they could use to make one themselves using local scrap. Tim is correct in saying that what works for me, may not be suitable for someone else. I see what you would like, something akin to machine tools with standard arbors, etc. Using that analogy look at how many different styles of arbors there are for milling machines; R8, various Morse tapers, various B&S tapers, #30/#40/#50 NMT, and the list goes on. Now each one of these has been standardized, so that whatever brand of mill you get, an R8 is an R8, and it will fit any machine with an R8 spindle. Your modular BS tool may work for some, but it won't work for everyone. The other thing is it is nice to have dedicated tools that do not need reconfiguring. One shop I worked at we had a Miller combo welder that did TIG/MIG/Arc, and it was a PITA swapping leads, and plugs all the time. I much prefer my home setup where I have separate welders. If I want to TIG I use the TIG. If I want to MIG I grab one of the MIGs. Having soooo many variations in BS tooling isn't like screw threads. Way back before SAE,and ISO threads, a craftsman would determine what diameter, and pitch he felt would work. They did work, but when the industrial revolution came about a standard need to be established, so that shops all around the world could make fasteners that would work with everyone elses fasteners. I don't think that there is as great need to standardize BS tooling. Other than for marketing a mass produced product. It isn't like smiths are swapping tooling all of the time. If we get tooling that doesn't fit our anvils, we can modify it to fit. If you can come up with an item that can be made locally with available materials it will greatly reduce the costs involved. Instead of a solid steel plate maybe something like trailer hitch receiver tubes welded up. Welded into a steel box that was then filled with concrete, or even packed sand could work. I don't see that I would need something like this. But then again, I have tons of stuff to work with, and the machine tools to make anything I want.

I like it. How did you make it? What is it made of? How big is it?

If the anvil will do what you want it to than it will suffice. Check it for cracks, rebound, all of the usual stuff. Really doesn't matter how it is made, or who made it, as long as it will work for you. I would be more concerned about the shape,and size. Will it accommodate the types of items that you want to forge? You have other anvils, so you know your way around them some, so see how it compares. Will the owner let you try it out first? If it doesn't work out for you, you can always resell it.