Started work on a stand for my new Colombian vise and Holland Anvil swage block. 

(Having trouble loading photos; will try to add those later.)

 

 

For some reason, I'm unable to load photos from my phone, so I had to post these on my Facebook page and copy them over here. Weird.

Anyway, the main part of the stand is a big chunk of 7" pipe with an 11" flange that I picked up when they were doing renovations to the college art museum.* I'll be doing a little surgery to adjust the height and welding a mounting plate for the vise on top. The swage block holder will be welded to the back (probably with some additional reinforcement at the joint), with another leg coming down from its far end. The front foot (the thing painted orange, which is surprisingly heavy for its size) already had 1/4" pieces welded to the underside at either end; with the back leg, these will provide a nice stable tripod base.

The swage block holder itself is welded up from 2-1/2" x 2-1/2" x 3/8" angle iron. I had to narrow each of the two top pieces by 1/2", and the resulting offcuts are perfect for retaining bars at the ends.

 

* I retrieved a very large amount of good quality pipe from the dumpster the contractors were using for scrap, but was pressed for time and couldn't get all I wanted. When I went back two days later with a friend, the rest had been hauled off to the scrapyard. The fish that got away....

Further work on the vise/swage block stand, with the latter part basically complete. This is designed so that whether the block is on its face or its side, its top is at the same height as my anvil.

I closed off the bottom of the 7" pipe, so that I can fill it with sand for greater mass and stability:

I also started cleaning up the as-cast rough surface of block's vambrace form:

Next step: finish fabricating the vise mounts.

Wrist feeling good enough to get in a little work. Started another set of sconces. Basically just did a little cutting of stock, scoring and marking,  and a couple hot cuts. Took about 2 hours but i was in no hurry and did not want to push it. Felt good to be back in the shop though.

Going Monday morning to see the orthopedic surgeon. Was supposed to go earlier this week but they lost my imaging.   

Don't overdo yourself. But i do understand it.

Hope it heals fast and well, so you can go full smithing again

Easy does it Billy! Just because an injury is feeling good doesn't mean it's healed! More people spend mucho money treating reinjured stuff they were already being treated for just because it felt okay. 

Maybe teach your brain to be ambidextrous so you can swing hammers, etc. and squeeze tongs, hold nails, etc. with either hand and give the other a break.

Frosty The Lucky.

Dang Shaina, I had something similar happen many years ago. Totally my fault, durn near cost me a thumb.

Yes loose clothing, hair, jewelry, etc. is a no no in the shop.  Back in the day, everyone at NASA, Rocketdyne, Grumman, Northrop, Boeing, et. al., were required to wear suit and tie, even the folks in the shop. machinists, and engineers alike.  My uncle was a team leader at NASA, and had his whole crew wear bow tie, instead of the usual long neck tie. Company couldn't do anything about it because they were wearing a tie.    

  I don't know what it was about the aerospace industry back then, with their dress code.  None of the other industries had that kind of dress code. except for those in the office jobs.

  I need to build a coal bin. I have bags of coal broken open, and spilled out on the ground.  I'll have clinker for a while now.    I have a bent axle that I need to cut into manageable chunks, and a coil spring to cut for making punches and such. Then I need to get to work on them.   I need to make two hinges, and a gate latch. I may get started on that tomorrow. 

Alexandr, cryin' shame you can't ship to the U.S. at the moment.  But mabe things will improve some time in the near future. 

I've been at another 2 day event with the local club Friday and Saturday. I'm wiped, lol

The event was put on by a Flywheelers club so we decided it was high time we got the power hammer running on a hit and miss engine! It was pretty cool to see but unfortunately it only ran about 30 minutes before the engine blew a piston and sort of exploded. So we ended up having to run on an extension cord like usual.

Friday was mostly a rotation of school groups. Saturday was general public, with quite a few kids returning with their families. We were told later that the parents were practically dragged there but the kids, lol. Love it. 

Yesterday and this morning I made stuff for the club to sell. This afternoon, our tables were crowded with items so I decided to make stuff for me instead. I got to use a power hammer for the first time. That was a treat! I drew out one bar by hand and did the second one on the power hammer in less than half the time. Then cleaned up the one I did by hand, lol

Lots of nails, an S hook, some heart keychains, a pigtail BBQ flipper, a little fire spirit dude (pictured), and some vegetable signage (another member had donated plates with vegetable names cut in with plasma cutter - I punched a hole in each then gave a curly decoration to the top of a stake and punched a hole then riveted them on).
 

Thanks for the photo tip, John. I tried multiple other ways of saving, copying from Messenger, from phone, from computer - and finally just created a private post on FB, used copy/paste and boom. Indeed, very weird.

I’ve been working on hand sanding a clever I forge out almost a year ago. I had a pretty bad wrap after heat treating, but I bought a carbide bearing tipped ball peen with my last grinding belt order and taping around with that straightened it right up, even after grinding it clean. I’ve spent many hours hand sanding, but it’s done. Unfortunately, I can upload any pictures myself… I can’t use the FB trick, I’m not on FB and I’m still resisting.

Keep it fun,

David

Power hammers are a lot of fun aren't they Shaina? Once you get some time on one you'll be able to draw a taper in 1/4 the time or less.

A Frosty power hammer taper drawing tip. Start the taper from the end and work back into the stock. it goes faster because the hammer impacts a smaller area and stops when it meets the narrower section so it self blends and it's easy to gage length. You don't have to estimate how far back on the bar to start, you just stop when it's long enough.

NICE hearing protection! I LOVE my Howard Leight noise canceling headphones, they're like studio quality sound reduction 35db and above but mine squeeze my head pretty hard and aren't wireless so I have to thread the cable through my shirt.

Before the TBI and my case of shingles I wouldn't have minded the squeeze but it gets uncomfortable now. I wear Bose wireless noise canceling headphones now and they stop anything above 50db. I love them but they aren't the head armor my Howard Leights are.

It makes me happy to see newcomers to the craft doing so well and having fun doing it. 

Frosty The Lucky.

 

Finished the stand for the Columbian post vise and the Holland Anvil armorer’s swage block I picked up at Quad-State.

The vise’s mounting bracket bolts into a circle of 3/4” thick plate welded into the top of the 7” pipe.

This plate has a hole (normally covered by the bracket) for filling the pipe with sand for added stability and mass.

I may have mounted the vise a bit too high, but I can adjust that in future, if necessary.

 

 

 

 

I'll be interested in how you like it. My one problem is with the bar on the floor, it's too much of a trip hazard for my shop. It needs the footprint but even 3/8" plate is easy to trip over. I grind the edges so they slop almost to the floor. 

Tripping in a hot shop is no bueno.

Frosty The Lucky.

JHCC, computer lagged for a moment and it scrolled down a bit to far and i thought you had made you a new stool. 

No guys i am not going to push it. Like i said a little lite mostly cold work and the most i had to do with my bad hand is hold a chisel. 

I had a teacher in wood shop in high school that got his tie caught in a table saw. He was fortunate to be a bear of a man and was able to push himself up away from the blade. 

When changing the wheel or disc on any grinder it is a good idea to turn it on for a minute. Stand or hold the grinder so that you are not in the path of the wheel or disc. If a wheel or disc is going to come apart it mostly happens on that initial start. 

Rings also. I have not worn a ring since i found out about degloving. 

12 minutes ago, BillyBones said:

Rings also. I have not worn a ring since i found out about degloving. 

Wait 'til you see a drill press go between the ring and the finger. We had a guy at Ft. Huachuca put his hand up on a mounting ring for a big boxed sigint system on the back of a humvee and jump off. His ring caught on the mounting bolt somehow. He went down and the finger/ring didn't. I've flattened a few with the finger still in it too - you tend to remember it. Didn't break the finger, but it's a hell of a squeeze while you're looking for pliers or a vise.

46 minutes ago, Frosty said:

My one problem is with the bar on the floor, it's too much of a trip hazard for my shop. It needs the footprint

Yeah, that’s the trade-off. It’s fortunate that it came to me painted such a bright orange!

One of the drillers I worked with had a pretty gnarly ring finger, he caught it on a chain link fence when jumping over. The surgeon had to turn it right side out while rolling it back down on his finger bones. It amazed the surgeon and his doctor that it actually healed and the nail even grew back. A little weird but it was there.  Ayup, rings should be in your pocket or tool box in the shop.

Orange or not I'd have to think long and hard about ways to keep anybody from tripping over that bar. My technique for things that can't be trip proofed is to put something too high for anybody to try stepping over on or between the hazard and traffic. That'd be a tough one for that set up.

Frosty The Lucky.

Nobody, it was when i was stationed in Germany i learned out about degloving. One of our guys in support platoon jumped down from a truck and his ring caught. Peeled the skin off like a banana. 

My ex-wife used to get mad at me for not wearing my wedding ring. I kept it on my keyring. 

Dad never wore any kind of jewelry, except a wrist watch with a breakaway band. 

 For me when it comes to gloves, I found that tight fitting ones, while easier to handle small stuff, if they get grabbed by machinery, your hand will go where the glove does.  I prefer to work bare handed around large machinery, and when using trigger operated tools, such as nail guns, drills etc.  I've been hurt due to the glove more times than I've been hurt without gloves. If i do wear gloves, they fit loose enough that all the machine gets is the glove. Have you ever had slag jump into your snug fitting welding glove?  I have, But with my gloves it's one shake of the hand, and glove is on the floor.      OSHA requires gloves to be worn in places where they create more hazard than safety.  So, some folks wear some kind of surgical gloves, which are technically gloves, but fit like a second skin, and do nothing except meet the osha requirement for gloves. 

   Got some forge time in.  I cut a few coils off of a spring, and straightened out two of them.  One became a slitter, the other became a hot punch for rivit holes in tongs.   I hardened the edge on the slitter, or so I thought. Then tempered.   I didn't think about the rest of it becoming brittle, as it cooled in the air as I was working the rest.  So after I got the punch made, I set it aside to cool, and took the slitter for a test drive.   Went through from one side, then I flipped it over, and one whack the slitter broke in the middle.    After that fiasco, I decided to normalize the punch.  It's buryed and cooling right now.

 Back to the slitter, I think I should have drawn a longer taper on it. It gets pretty thick fairly quickly. So, I'll remember that on the next one.

I worked with a guy who had his ring tattooed on so he could wear it at work and not loose it.  He had kept his ring in his pocket previously, but after loosing it (and finding it weeks later) a couple times decided the tats worked better.  

When I got my driver's license my sister was being treated for a minor injury, so my first "job" was taking here to a few orthopedist appointments.  The only reading material in the waiting room was a professional journal with an article on degloving injuries.  The pictures were still vivid 10 years later when I got married.

(When I did get married, I started storing my ring on the temple of my glasses so I don't forget it when I run out in the morning.  Now that I'm using prescription safeties, the same habit makes it easy to shed my ring when I'm headed for the shop.) 

I started thinking of making silly suggestions about reading material to bring with to doctor offices before finishing Mike's post. THEN I did a web search for degloving injury images. 

Don't do it! Don't deglove a  body part!! And for sure do NOT look up images!!! A whole arm! I'm going to have the willies all night now!

Have fun but play careful out there gang.

Frosty The Lucky.

On 10/4/2025 at 11:07 PM, Frosty said:

but mine squeeze my head pretty hard

Mine also squeezed but I had already read that feedback somewhere (possibly you) and replaced the standard pads with gel pads which also have an indent for the arms of my glasses to run through. Still gets uncomfortable after about an hour but much better than the 10-15 minutes I was getting before!

On 10/5/2025 at 9:28 AM, BillyBones said:

Rings also. I have not worn a ring since i found out about degloving. 

Yes! Rings go into my pocket whenever I grab the grinder or welder - but after reading some of the other above stories, I think I'll start leaving the rings on the nightstand when I change to go out and do ANY kind of work! 

 

 

Gel pads? Cool, where did you get them? Maybe better pads will ease the pressure and I'll be able to wear them longer.

Frosty The Lucky.

I got mine from NoiseFighters - called 'Sightlines' - because they were recommended on a hunting forum as wearable for long periods of time while wearing shooting glasses. More $ than I'd usually spend but I used money I received as a gift. According to Amazon, I have also purchased "Prohear Gep02 Gel Ear Pads for Howard Leight" just this past December but I have no idea why. They are much cheaper and do not have a recess for the glasses but reviews say they seal around just fine. I found them inside the packaging of the NoiseFighters with the 3M backing still intact so it appears I never even used them? I'm sure I had my reasons, however frivolous they may have been at the time, lol

Thanks, I'll check both out. I've been wearing prescription safety glasses for so many years they've indented little channels in my head. I have to wear them tight or they keep falling off. Safety glasses are my daily glasses because I have dry eye and the side shields break wind and make my eyes more comfortable.

There's a good chance you missed it when Amazon's AI added it to your order because you bought another brand. I HATE the "you might be interested in" BS that gets tacked onto searches and especially when I'm looking for specific products online.

I was looking to buying a couple boxes of wintergreen Altoids on Amazon yesterday and had a heck of a time closing the site. Cancel buttons are deliberately hard to find and evidently just looking at the page to check prices meant I'd committed myself. 

It's no accident it's easy to hit an accept button and almost impossible to find the cancel button. The last few times we've received stuff in the mail we refused to pay and blocked the scammer. Our credit union calls to confirm all but established online sales.

We have Amazon Prime so it requires a password a couple times before any sale. The free shipping more than pays for the membership fee, Deb takes care of that all by her lonesome. Heck, I have to get her to help when I want to buy something and I'm on the account. 

Frosty The Lucky.