Greetings,

I found some more interesting metal. I'm not sure what it came from, or what kind of metal it is. I'm assuming it's mild steel based on a quick spark test. The odd thing about it is the shape. Any ideas what this could have come from or been used for?

The plate is 5/16" thick, longest dimension is 56", width is 26" not counting the pointy bit, and it weighs about 100 lbs. Looks like it was a green color originally, doesn't appear to be any other color on it. It came from the right-of-way behind my house. The area in question was a farm / dumping ground at one point.

I'm using part of it to build a portable forge, which I'll post pics of when it's ready. The other part (with the pointy bit) will be part of my larger home forge.

Thanks!

Jamie

Edited September 4, 201510 yr by doggonemess

Are there any fixing brackets, bolt holes or old weld fillets...or was it just held in place by gravity?

If none, maybe it was the waste bit they cut out of the plate rather than the object itself…though the paint would tend to indicate it did have a former use.

Is the large radius anything like that of a grain silo? An access hatch cover?

The better condition paint areas on the second image looks like it was protected by being adjacent to another structure.

What sort of farming goes on around you?

Alan

Back of a chimney ?

dous look to be a cover of some sort and fit for  the job 

Side of a table, welds on back anywhere?

It looks like a drop in gate say for a dump truck to deflect the material to one side. Or similar to a grader gate which mounts on the end of a road grader's blade. We used gated grader blades for snow removal so we wouldn't plug driveways.

That plate obviously isn't a grader blade gate but it's an example of a might be kind of what it could've been for. Personally I'd put it on the stock pile for when it's handy.

Try to avoid the natural desire to figure out what to do with it and just use it when it or part of it will work for a job. I think most of us who've been at IT for a while have a bunch of "things" we've made because we found a THING that'd be perfect for a . . . thing. I have em all over the place mostly getting in the way.

Frosty The Lucky.

I'm using part of it to build a portable forge, which I'll post pics of when it's ready. The other part (with the pointy bit) will be part of my larger home forge.

Thanks!

Jamie

looks like he already knows what it is, and is just curious about what it used to be.

Try to avoid the natural desire to figure out what to do with it and just use it when it or part of it will work for a job. I think most of us who've been at IT for a while have a bunch of "things" we've made because we found a THING that'd be perfect for a . . . thing. I have em all over the place mostly getting in the way.

Frosty The Lucky.

Thanks for all the great ideas, I'm thinking that it might have been a sliding access hatch as suggested by Alan Evens. The pointy bit could stick into a bracket and the curved part would facilitate it moving out of the way against a curved wall. The farms around me were primarily corn and cattle, from what I've seen. I don't think there was ever a silo in the area I live, although there are some about two miles from me that are extant.

Who knows, someone like me might have found it in the middle of nowhere and dumped it in the woods after deciding it was junk. Either way, I've already used some of it to make the top of my portable forge. It worked great for that. I just have to stick it in the fire to get rid of the rust.

Jamie