I was puttering and putting things in appropriate places, and it occurred to me, man I have a lot of wire brushes laying around here, so I gathered them and snapped a shot on my anvil, funny thing was, after this, I found 2 more!!
So what do you have a bunch of laying around??

Not near as much as I used too! I got hammers. I like hammers, I like how they feel in the hand, how they look, their purpose, their vast diversity, I like hammers.

Vises
I have 4 vises in an 8' x 10' shop or I should say I have FOR my shop. 2 are leg vises, 1 - 30 - 40lb? another about 75lb. Then I have 2 bench vises both around 50lbs with 6" jaws. This weekend I will look at them and update. Also post in "show me your vise"

Hammers, pliers, and files. I have more of each of these than I'll ever use.
I just cant seem to pass up an odd shaped file, or set of pliers or a funny looking hammer.
Just today, I picked up an antique bronze tack hammer at an estate sale. I now own five tack hammers.

C-Clamps...I must have 15 or 20 of them in various sizes. I don't even know where half of them came from.

I also have tons and tons of pliers, but those are from my work as a maillesmith.

Hi All!
I'm brand new to this site and I've never posted before, ever! I hope I can grasp the technicalities. I'm only marginally computer-literate.

I have a bunch of scrap brass/bronze laying about. Two days ago, I grabbed an old wrought iron plumber's lead melting ladle and threw a bunch of brass into it and shoved it in my propane forge. I half expected the ladle to give out before the brass melted, but the brass went liquid in a few minutes. I didn't know what to do with it then, so I made a small furrow in the sand of my smithy floor and poured it in. At least now I can reduce all of that scrap to some sort of ingot-like pieces that will take up less space.

C-Clamps...I must have 15 or 20 of them in various sizes. I don't even know where half of them came from.


I took an old 12" or so c-clamp and cut off the bottom. I welded a hardy shank to it and use it to clamp stuff to the top of my anvil while I punch or cut. It's not real fast so you need to get it set close to the thickness of the workpiece before you heat the metal. I have a place to wedge it below the anvil but it will wedge itself into the hardy hole quite nicely without the pin. It comes in handy from time to time. You can also weld a couple of c-clamps together at the backs or bases so as to have a double clamp for holding metal at odd angles or such for welding.

Post vises and anvils. I just can't bring myself to get rid of'em!

Junk. I think that is by far my biggest collection. Scraps of old shafting, springs, brass plates and so on. I just hope to turn it into not-junk someday.

I, too, have 4 vises in a small shop. :)

I put a limit on things so they don't pile up and get in the way. My limit for postvises was 10; when I bought another I had to sell one on. My limit for london pattern anvils is 5 (but if I found a great Mousehole I might go to 6 as I have: Fisher, PW, Trenton, HB, A&H...

Funny it was never hard to find folks who wanted to by an extra vise or anvil...

Not near as much as I used too! I got hammers. I like hammers, I like how they feel in the hand, how they look, their purpose, their vast diversity, I like hammers.

.

I resemble that remark! One thing I learned that I find quite funny. If you own 4 hammers... You will always have the right hammer to do the job. But when you have 50 you can spend 20 min looking through them and never find quite the right one...

I will let you know when I can find anything I am looking for. I always find what I don't need, and then when I need it I remember " its around here somewhere I just saw that last week" ?

I took a metal framework and bolted a couple of pieces of pipe to it in parallel rows to make a hammer rack, holds about 75 of them and is right next to the forge so it's easy to put hammer's back when you are done with them. I bolted on a tong rack to the front of it for my most used tongs too.

I've got you all beat! I have an endless list of projects that I never seem to have time to get at. :-)

Didn't THAT give me an idea! I like the idea of having a C clamp like anvil holdfast but it'd be a lot better if it had a fast rough adjustment. Sooooo, how about after cutting the foot off welding a square shank to it at an angle.

The angle would be critical and maybe pretty tricky to get right, the square shaft will probably need to be bent in an arc. Here's the idea, drop the square shank into the hardy hole, the clamp drops onto the work and the shaft jams in the hardy hole like a regular holdfast and you can use the screw to get it good and tight. Hmmmmm, okay it'll probably work better with a piece of round stock than square.

Anyway, that's my off the top of my birch damaged head idea..

Thoughts? Ideas? comments? critiques? Obvious flaws?

Frosty

My collection/pile/compulsion is screwdrivers. I have more than I can count. I found that if I limit myself to working screwdrivers I spend time fixing them so that they work. Not much hope for this one. :-)

No obvious flaws that I can think of, Frosty, but it got me thinking that if a vise-grip like tool can be bolted to a drill press table for a quick clamp, why not the same thing with a hardy shaft instead of the bolt? It might not handle the larger work but if the hardy shaft is attached at a bit an angle it should wedge into the hardy hole as soon as clamp pressure is applied and release just as quickly. Actually with a long enough hardy shaft it could handle some fairly large work. There is probably something wrong with the theory but maybe my project tomorrow will be to see if I can make it work.

Glad you are back and mending.

Bill

Edited December 13, 200916 yr by wedwards

So far the only tools I seem to have too many of are round tuits. They keep showing up every time I turn around. :>

.....I like the idea of having a C clamp like anvil holdfast but it'd be a lot better if it had a fast rough adjustment. Sooooo, how about after cutting the foot off welding a square shank to it at an angle.....
Frosty

I've seen that done using a pipe clamp. One end of the pipe squared off for the hardy hole, the screw on the pipe clamp used to tighten the work piece against the anvil. :)

I've seen that done using a pipe clamp. One end of the pipe squared off for the hardy hole, the screw on the pipe clamp used to tighten the work piece against the anvil.

I like that, especially since if you need the pipe clamp as a panel clamp you just put it on another pipe!

I seem to have a number of half finished projects lying around. 2 pair of tongs, setting up a bolster for making hardy tools, nail header that is usable but needs a better handle on it. No time to work, er play, till after new years!

Phil

Man I dig the spike handle on your brushes. I will bring my camera to the shop today and take of a pic of a pile of something .

I have lots of old cameras. I bought all the expensive pro-model film cameras that were discarded by their previous owners after digital got popular. It is almost a museum. I restored them with new foam and played with each new one for a while.
I probably have about 30 camera bodies, nikon, olympus, canon, yashicamat. and I have about 60 lenses.
All told I have about a couple grand tied up in it. But, the original aquisition cost would have been closer to a quarter million dollars. I couldn't help myself, buying a camera that I used to want that originally cost $10,000 for only about $50.

Actually, mine is at a bit of an angle. Not that I INTENDED that. I'm just a lousy welder.

No no no! Not a lousy welder it was just serendipity in action! You're a lucky guy.

Frosty

Nah, just lucky in love. That's why I chose the name "Sukellos" in Celtic mythology he's described as short and ugly with a big hammer and a beautiful wife. That's me in a nutshell.