Just saying hello!

[piglet_74]

Just wanted to say Hi. I've been lurking for a few weeks. A little while back a friend and I took the Carroll County Farm Museum BS-101 Course. It was a great time. Since then I've nearly wrecked my truck 2 times daily looking for scrap on the side of the road/tracks between home and work! Just ran up to northern PA over the weekend to pick up my first tool. I grabbed a leg vise for $40 off eBay (pickup only). Got it home and took it apart following the bp. Cleaned the old grease out of the screw box and re-lubed everything. Made up a thrust washer for the screw. Cleaned the gunk and paint off it. Now I'm looking forward to getting something to hit on and something to heat with. Just wanted to say thanks for the great resource and hope to be posting something else soon.

BTW below (hopefully) are pics of the stuff we made in class, the vise, and a wrench I grabbed for 3 bucks. Once I clean and straighten it I'll weld a handle on and use it for a twister.

Rob.

[Frosty]

Welcome to the active section Rob.

Looks like you did good in the class and made a nice score on the vise. It looks just like my 6" Indian Chief.

Try not to get too tied up restoring tools, it's the using that's really the best part.

Frosty

[primtechsmith]

Rob great to see you join up with us!

If you ever want to make a trip to Virginia our doors are always open and we would love to see ya! Blacksmith Guild of Viriginia - Home

Peyton

[piglet_74]

Frosty - Good point! I spent a good bit of time on it and didn't really make much of a difference. The threads looked good though and I took a minute to file down the mushrooming around where the bar goes through the screw (caught my hand on it once already). I put some o-rings there to help prevent future issues.

Peyton - I'll definitely have to look you guys up when I'm in the area. My mom lives down outside of Richmond. She would be happy to see me more

Rob.

[Frosty]

Rob:

There's nothing wrong with stripping a new piece of equipment down, cleaning it up and doing whatever it needs to bring it into good working order.

What I was talking about is the tendency some folk have for trying to get everything in as close to factory condition as possible. There's nothing wrong with restoring tools and equipment of course as long as that's what you're into.

The problem comes when folk who really want to learn to use the tools and equipment get the idea they have to have perfect tools to do so.

It all depends on a person's goals, any of us can get sidetracked.

Frosty

[Glenn]

Piglet, BP1009 Post Vise 3rd photo up from the bottom. See how Hofi solved a handle problem on his vise.

[piglet_74]

Glenn, good call on the tape thing. I'll have to give that a try. Thanks, Rob.

[philip in china]

Dis you post details of the vice to Glenn's new thread on the subject?

[piglet_74]

Actually i do need to do that.

[rfb343]

Rob,
so would yuou recommend the class at ccfm? I've been thinking about taking it being a beginer, but the I'm wondering if i'd be better off dropping the money on tooling and stock as I've got quite a bit of practice with the good advice and guidance I've picked up on here...
Mark

[piglet_74]

Mark, it may be a little slow for you if you have any time at the anvil.

The first day (Sat) we didn't start our first fire till after lunch. We talked about all the tools and some things to look for when buying them. Once the fires were lit, there was some down time for watching demos but they gave everyone enough time to make at least three of each exercise.

The first thing we did was drawing out a point on round stock and then curling it up. Next was upsetting the end of some round stock, making a "fish tail" and curling that up. All the while you're practicing cutting off.

Once we had that down we made some hooks using drawing out, curling, upsetting, and twisting. It also introduced half face blows on the near side of the anvil and punching.

The second day you were allowed to come in early and get your fire going to practice some stuff from day one. You pretty much had the forge going the entire second day. You made a coal rake/poker and a watering can. Then the last 2hrs was whatever you wanted to make. The instructors would help. You could practice welding if you wanted etc.

I thought it was great never having touched an anvil before in my life. If you have any bad tendencies then maybe having someone watching you could help. I thought the price was reasonable too since material was included, even for you own project (barring making a section of fence ).

The class was 175.00 for the two days and there were 8 stations. Every station had 10 different tongs. I used 2 ! 5 different hammers one of which was like a 2 - 2.5 lb hofi, english pattern anvils, and your own post vise. Definitely a pretty nice setup.

Hope this helps. I'll post a few pics. Rob.

[piglet_74]

Here's the pics

[rfb343]

Thats awesome stuff Rob, thanks for the picks and the summary... I think youre right I think I've learned most of the stuff yall covered at the Red Creek Forge School of Hard Knocks and Burnt Fingers, lol. but anyway the facility looks quite nice and I've heard CCFM/BGCM has some great instructors, maybe I'll just wait till the have some other classes availible.