Hello to all

[hiltsbilt]

well been reading through the posts for a cupple weeks so i thought i would say Hi. picked up a post vice today at a antique shop for 60 bones better then i could find on CL so im happy and picked up a 50lb bag of coal sence i was down in ames ia about 30 min from here not sure if there is a closer place. the coal was 19$ for one bag and cheaper if u buy a pallet worth. not sure if that's to much or about right. haven't got my forge built yet though need some stuff before i build it probably in the next cupple of weeks because ill be building a side draft hood as well, gets to cold here for a outside only forge. I have also got quite a few different hammers and safety gear, just need to get the tanks for my new torch and i can start building more but the tanks are pricey for the first buy.

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard, glad to have ya. $60 isn't a bad price for a leg vise at all. How wide are the jaws?

Don't overthink the forge when you build it, they're really straight forward but easy to over think. There are plenty of different forges, drawings, pics, plans, etc. for the copying on IFI. Make sure you're fire safe of course.

We'll be looking forward to construction pics and the chance to kibitz. We love pics you know.

Frosty The Lucky.

[hiltsbilt]

jaws are about 4 inches not to small:) ya the forge will most likely be a brake drum fire pot, depends what i can get for scrap, then im going to build the box type bellows probably get the wood and start those this weekend depends how much cash the wife left me from my paycheck lol.. but ill be getting mt torch tanks tomorrow from airgas $325 not as bad as i thought, and worth it to have a torch agen. already have a welder its a little Hobart 125, that i have a tank for. small but a nice little one had it for 10 years no problems:) so im getting closer. I also have a 7 foot section of rail that will become my first ASO untell i find a anvil of my liking. ill post some pics of it when i get it done to, should work well see:)

[Taye]

Hi, fellow newb smith. i think i might be able to help you out on a few things, i have an old brake drum that i used before i got my current forge that is just lying around. nice to meet someone else form iowa.
by the way, we use the same kind of coal B)

[Frosty]

Sorry to be so slow on the reply, things a happening here in the northland. 4" is a nice post vise size, maybe the most common I know of.

Brake drums are fine, so are smalish cast iron frying pans, or nothing but a open place in the forge table for the draft to pass through. I have my two forges set up as duck's nests and tune the size of the fire with fire bricks. Your forge doesn't have to be heavy steel at all, it only has to support a modest weight, not counting the forge table itself, under 100 lbs. is a fair guess. Seriously, how heavy a piece of stock do you want to beat on?

I have an even older Hobart 120 and it's been a super reliable little wire feed so long as I don't do anything with it on more than 1/4". The RR rail will make a good start, especially if you have access to a suitable welder. You almost never need an anvil face much larger than the face of your hammer so standing rail on end makes an effective anvil. The thing that really counts is the depth of rebound, meaning how much iron/steel is directly under your anvil, the total weight while important has a lot less to do with it's efficiency being struck.

So, with 7' of rail you have several alternatives: First, just cut it to a useful length, grind a horn on it if you wish and mount it. This makes a good anvil, I have one in the shop though not my first one.

Second is to mount it on end after cutting it to length so the nicely cut and ground end is at a good working height. This gives you weight and excellent depth of rebound, plus you get to use the remaining flange and web for useful things. The end of the flange grinds into decent fullers while the web makes a nice hot cut or smaller radius fuller. The angles where the flange and web or the web and rail meet are useful for bending into or as swages.

What I like is cutting the rail into three lengths, in your case around 2'4" each and stack them the way RR rail is shipped after doing a little shaping and cleaning up. So, stacking two lengths, sides touching, rail up with the third rail down between. If you've ground a horn on one length simply shift the horn out so it projects out from under the flange of the top piece. If you want a heal slide the other bottom piece the other direction. Now, tack them together, pre-heat and weld them as solid as you can, I like opening a couple long gaps in the webs of the bottom rail so I can do a fillet to make the whole sheebang as solid as possible.

What's nice about this alternative is it gives you a very flat face of high carbon steel with a horn and a tail if you wish. Okay, so it'll look a little odd, nothing strange about a double bick anvil but these will be offset, the horn on one side, the rail on the other. Give some thought about where you want horn and tail before you weld it up. Here's the part that's pretty sweet. I used the 7' you have as an example. Let's assume it's 100lb. rail, that's 100lbs/ yard and this example would use nearly all of it plus however much welding rod or wire get's included. So, a rough guestimate is this alternative would weigh around 230+ lbs. have a face about 5-6" wide and about 24" long, plus whatever horn and/or tail gets ground in.

Other alternatives include cutting a short length of rail and welding it to the end of another, then mounting it standing on end. this gives you a good depth of rebound and a decent face and horn if you grind on on.

Okay, that's my long windedness for today, time to give you guys a break.

Frosty the Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

I bought two bags of Sewell Seam coal at Quad-State at about US$18 per bag. So depending on how good of coal you got the price seems reasonable---do a calculation on "dollars per hour" and forge fuel is generally much cheaper than going to the movies!