BIGGUNDOCTOR

Well, when I was back home it was my 18.5"x54" Monarch lathe that was made in 1946, and is still tighter than some newer equipment I have used in some shops.

M.J.Lampert , if I was making dice I would be milling them square. The tolerance on ones used in the casinos here is.0005" and they also check them for balance. You mentioned using a lathe. If you do not have a mill, you could do them in a lathe and face them to size and squareness in a 4 jaw chuck. A lot more setup time, but it would work. For the dots you can make a pattern for putting them on the die.

In the UK Peter Sharples Waterfoot is a big wheeler dealer in anvils. He has sold a few of this pattern (South Hampton?) IIRC he is in Cowpens (sp?)

It just hit me that the Amish are the real world Steampunks. Steampunk being a "modern" Victorian era that has no electricity, but other forms of energy instead.

This is why the adage of "Forge thick, and grind thin" was adopted. When looking for a flat surface I use light hammering and work the whole surface over to get it as even as I can. You really need to watch the impact spots when hammering and adjust as you go to avoid dents and waves. It takes a lot of practice, but keep at it.

Check out the JHM anvils that Anvil Brand sells. I have a 125# Journeyman that I picked up from a retired farrier who had moved into a small complex, and needed room for his Harley in the small garage he had. Bought the anvil, a single burner forge, folding anvil stand with foot vise, and three small toolboxes full of tools and supplies for $250. I loaned it to a friend who had just come to Las Vegas from Italy so he could finish up some pattern welded knife orders he had, and he mentioned that it was a nice anvil to work on. I have anvils made by JHM, Peter Wright, Vulcan, Hay Budden, Soderfors, and Fisher. My main anvil is the 260# Fisher, not because of its size, but because it is quiet. The 306# Soderfors is a dream to use, and was the anvil I had in my fab shop. That was one of the better $200 buys I have made at an auction. Have not used the 96#/170# HB's yet, nor the 138# PW. The PW has a divot beaten into the face near the horn, and I have seen more than a few PW's with sway due to their soft wrought iron bodies. The 150# Vulcan came from a high school shop class that closed for $50. I use it as a loaner as well. It is still in decent shape,and not horribly beat up like many are. The Fisher was the first anvil I used. Dad bought it up in Lincoln CA when we got interested in smithing back in the late 70's so it has a lot of sentimental value to me when I use it. Personally I don't get hung up on brands like some do. If it does the job, it is good enough for me. If I was starting out today I would be looking at scrap for a good improvised anvil, because I probably wouldn't pay the going rates for the anvils I have.

A cement company had an anvil outside of the maintenance shop that even from 200 yards away looked big. Company changed hands and it disappeared. I never did drive to the office to ask about it. The guy who had two Little Giants that someone had cut the arms in half. He wanted $1,200 for both. I called him a year later when I was up near Placerville and they were gone. Most everything else I have picked up. Now if we were talking cars..... Man I have some deep regrets there. As for opportunities. I always wonder how different things would be for me if I had enlisted when I got out of high school in 1983.

Mig welding with CO2 will do that, just part of the process. Flux core produces a lot of splatter too. But you want to keep the tip in tight and avoid too much stick out.

Christmas is an odd day for me. I am an Atheist , so the religious aspect is lost on me, and it is also the day my Mom passed away. Being the perpetual bachelor that I am I also don't have that "special"" person to get a gift for. After losing my parents, and some other friends, I do not wait for birthdays, or holidays to give gifts. If I find something that I want to give to someone, I give it to them when I get it because tomorrow is not guaranteed. I found a coffee table book at a library book store on old Chicago and gave to to a friend who grew up there. A couple of weeks later she passed away from a heart attack. If I had waited, she never would have got to enjoy it. Even as an Atheist I have seen how Christmas has been corrupted into just a mass orgy of consumerism. It isn't even Thanksgiving and Christmas stuff is up. Black Friday and the fights in the stores over stuff that will be broken, forgotten about, or thrown away in a year or less just doesn't seem very Christian to me. I'll stick with my method of just randomly dropping off gifts for my friends and getting a text later of THANKS! Now having said that, I do appreciate seeing what all of you make. To me that is more of the Spirit of Christmas. Taking the time to make something for someone in your life rather than just buying something. Handmade gifts are also the ones that I cherished the most.

Beautiful work Ibor

Merlin05, personally I would ditch the chain around the waist. I never have liked that look myself, plus it catches scale and blocks use of working/bending longer items down the side. If it was bedded down in caulking that would help a lot, or do what I do an put an old speaker magnet under the heel. And then you always have a magnet available to test for nonmagnetic temperature.

JHCC, I was thinking a spring, or a counterweight underneath a pivot, and let it rock back and forth Or, a catch that releases and just lets it flop over to one side. Then it can be reset when the storm passes.

Looks more like sheet stampings than forging. I take it that it is an oil lamp and the forged piece holds the wick in place?

George, I have bought several old rifles only to do a full disassembly once I got home to look at milling marks and other clues to how it was made. I still want to know how they made the hinge point on an 1873 Trapdoor Springfield. Even today, that is not and easy operation by the methods they had access to. I have an idea, but I want to see exactly how it was done.

Beef56, you will be better served getting the anvil off of the separator stand on onto a proper one that is either wood, or fabricated out of steel. I have anvils from a 96# HB to a 306# Soderfors, with a 125# JHM, 138#PW, 150#Vulcan, 170#HB, and a 260#Fisher in between, and what do I use the most? The 260# Fisher, not because I need the size, but it was the first anvil my Dad and I used, and I love how quiet it is to work on. For what he and I have done work wise we could have used an anvil around 150# and done just as well. I loaned my 125# JHM Journeyman to a friend from Italy to make pattern welded billets and he mentioned that it was a nice anvil. It is a farrier anvil with more of a blacksmithing shape than most farrier anvils. It has turning cams on the heel , but they have come in handy for tweaking , and bending items. JHM makes anvils up to 260# at reasonable prices, and they supply the anvils for various farrier competitions. It all gets down to what YOUR needs are. If you are only working 1/2" stock, you don't NEED a 200# plus anvil. You may WANT one, but you don't NEED one Post a picture up of the anvil you have now, so we can take a look at it. Many times what newbies call rough is actually no big deal condition wise.

My Dad had a friend back in the 50's who was buying a new car. The dealer handed him the paperwork and told him to put his John Henry on it, so he signed it John Henry. The dealer got mad , tore it up, and told him "I meant sign YOUR name name!" he looked at him and told him "That IS my name...."

It does feel good to help people. When I taught wood carving at Scout Camp I had one young Scout around 11/12 that was in my class. They were using the basic BSA neckerchief slide kits, and I suggested the Comic Crow as the starter project. He used the coping saw and cut the profile out and handed it to me to be signed off. I had him look at it and said it looked like Franken crow with the square edges and that he needed to round it up. He brings it back with a slight chamfer at best to be signed off, and I said no. I grabbed my pocketknife and did one corner for him, and said Now make the rest like that. I kept pushing him to do better, and by the end of the week he had done a really nice job on it. When I signed it off he looked at and said something as he was looking at his slide that has stuck with me all these years "Hmmm, I can do something."

To me it looks to be a fabricated anvil. From the base up it is solild weld beads. Top was probably cut out on a pattern torch, and the horn appears to have grinder faceting.

A 55 gallon drum is essentaily 2'x3' in dimensions, and the ones I weighed ran 33#.

BillyBones, the shop that I was the tool maker for was running Tornos CNC screw machines. 13 axis on some. We were running spindle speeds upwards of 12,000rpm. They did high end electrical contacts and fiber optic terminations. Amazing machines, although they were phasing them out for new Star screw machines which I think was a mistake. One part was .012" dia x .24"long with a 60 degree point that had a .005" flat on the tip and a .0015" radius on the back end.. One rivet type shape was around the size of a period on standard newspaper text. The majority of measuring was done with microscopes and other optics.

I will be getting dressed up and heading to Fabulous Las Vegas to meet up with friends. We walk around the Arts District and Fremont East street party as we bar hop and check out the costumes others come up with. Some are quite inventive, while some are yearly go to's like the Hunter S Thompsons, Mario Brothers, Clockwork Orange, and various Super Heroes. I have done the BIG JC aka Bling Jesus for around 10 years now due to it going over so well. That is one big reason why I have kept my long hair, and it even has some smithing to complement it. I forged out three authentic for size crucifixion spikes out of BeCu when i worked at the shop in UT. When polished they look just like gold. I should have cleared them when we did the chem polishing on them as they were super shiny. I wish the Halloween parade was still going on, but that is what happens when people get greedy and ruin a good thing. We had upwards of 1,000 people walking in it. That was when we would start the night around 8pm and end it at 4am the next morning.

I have a vintage Champion cast iron forge, and will probably shift to a side blast to alleviate clinker issues I have with a bottom blast. Side blast is also a tried and true design found all over Europe. As to the water cooling, you can just make it to accept replaceable tubes that you can replace as they burn away. A lot will depend on if you use coal or charcoal as a fuel. I have mostly used coal, and have dealt with the associated issues of noxious yellow green smoke on startup, clinkers, and stink in general. Really looking at using wood as I can get pretty much all I ever need for free. BUT, if I get a shop built I would love to do an induction forge. Clean, and FAST heating. Look at JABODS for a forge design as well.

Correct, like concrete diamond blades the core needs to be tough, not hard. Saws that are all one piece are good steel through and through. BTW, concrete saws here use a 4140 core, at least that is what all of the manufacturers that replied to my inquiry said.

I'll have to swing by one of the casinos and see what the odds are for your project.

A knife is a basic tool for me, and I have carried one since high school...back when it wasn't a crime to do so at school. I usually have a multi bladed folder type of pocketknife with me. My Dad taught me wood carving, and I was also in the Boy Scouts, so a knife was needed for several tasks.