TWISTEDWILLOW Posted February 8, 2021 Share Posted February 8, 2021 Here’s one of my older grinders/lawn ornaments. It’s a diamond machine company grinder and matching base. It’s a flat belt drive and pretty heavy I think it was either built for use with in a lineshaft shop or maybe powered off a old tractor pto. I thought if I ever find an old hit and miss engine it would be cool to hook it up but till then it’s just a lawn ornament. The Babbitt bearings seem to be in excellent shape but the one of the stones doesn’t fit correctly on the shaft and I never got around to finding another wheel or building a spacer to help it balance out. Somebody painted over the old machinery green with black an purple but you can see it peeking through in places. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stash Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 Cool piece. Definitely needs to be saved and protected. The base is real nice. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 I got one too! and a larger one (That's a 2' ruler on top from stone to stone.) However it's not a diamond They came in the hoard and need to find a new home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWISTEDWILLOW Posted February 9, 2021 Author Share Posted February 9, 2021 Thank you Steve, i thought it was cool that it still had the matching base with it when I found it because most of these grinders I’ve seen don’t have a base with them. Thomas those are really cool I saw one built like your larger one in a local salvage yard, they had it in the shop hooked up to a 5hp electric motor and they had changed it over to run on modern vbelts. It’s nice to see yours both still have the original flat belt pulleys. The salvage yard went out of business and I was late to the auction so I wasn’t able to save a lot of the old tools and machines that were there. They had been open since the early 1940s and I loved going there because you could find almost anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 There was a really neat place in Lima Ohio that had started as a Government Surplus place back at the end of WW22 specializing in equipment from all the war work manufacturing, especially from the Lima Army Tank Plant and was still there in the 1990's when I visited. Acres of old equipment and tooling under a now failing roof in unheated buildings---I remember watching the snow drifting down on a 4' pile of brooches and freezing my ears off. Every once in a while there would be a "find" shipped to their daughter store in Columbus. I remember seeing a huge buffalo down draft forge, COMPLETE AND UNUSED in the original battleship gray paint. They only wanted $US1200 for it and I cried that I couldn't afford it. I did get it to a good home though by spreading the news on the net back then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWISTEDWILLOW Posted February 9, 2021 Author Share Posted February 9, 2021 Wow that’s a cool story and it kinda makes me wonder every time I here about something like that, how many old warehouses, closed down hardware stores, barns and surplus sites still have vintage tools and machines new In the box that have been forgotten and looked over for decades. This is why I like exploring and following stories and leads sometimes it’s nothing but waste of time and gas and sometimes there’s a goldmine of forgotten history setting in the back of a dusty old building. Here’s some pictures of a couple of things I dragged out of that salvage yard before it closed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 Last year I ran across a hoard of smithing stuff; most used hard; but it was within walking distance of where I work! Anvil in front of the last picture is a 248# PW. Not included in these pics are the 25# & 50# Little Giants and the helve hammer. STUFF is out there! Selling off stuff paid for what I'm keeping so a 6.5" postvise, 1 cone mandrel, 25# Little Giant + firepots and forges and misc tools cost me US$0. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWISTEDWILLOW Posted February 9, 2021 Author Share Posted February 9, 2021 And here I thought I was dragging home lots of rusty gold. Looks like you hit the mother load in one trip. I’ve filled up my truck a time or two but I never found that much stuff in one place at one time or if I did I couldn’t swing it money wise. I seen lots of goodies when I zoomed in the pictures but one thing caught my eye in your fist picture left side middle is that a green river foot vise that I spy or are my eyes deceiving me? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 Hmm I recall that Tinker AFB, OKC area, used to have a smith working with plane maintenance---you needed a wrench with 3 bends in it to get to a bolt without disassembling everything he would make it for them. I wonder where his equipment went. Also there was an anvil at the VoTech east of the City. I remember their anvil mainly because it was mounted on a swage block that was on an original cast iron swage block stand---but they had torched out the middle of the swage block to make it easier to move the stand around. Old blacksmith in Stroud had a nice set up with anvils, powerhammers, etc; but as he was retired when I met him in the early 1980's his equipment is long gone or still shut up in his shop... I got 5? post vises in that hoard. I don't recall a foot vise; might have been an item or two they wanted to keep; like the 100# anvil for shoeing their horses. (I borrowed the money from our savings and paid it back in a couple of moths._ Still need to sell off the 3 post drills: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWISTEDWILLOW Posted February 10, 2021 Author Share Posted February 10, 2021 I zoomed in and got a screen shot of it. It really looks like the top end of a foot vise but I could be wrong. Thank you for the info on the shops out west of me I’ve got some kin out their that may know something I’ll sniff around and see if anyone has ever heard of what happened that stuff at tinker. Are those post drills champions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 10, 2021 Share Posted February 10, 2021 You are right; but that foot vise didn't make it home with me; yet.... They kept a few items; as these have been in that building unused for 25 years I figure I can ask about them later and there is a good chance they will migrate shopward... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWISTEDWILLOW Posted February 10, 2021 Author Share Posted February 10, 2021 If you get it I’d be really interested to hear if it is a green river foot vise. I’ve been hunting for one for several years now but when I find them they are either to far away for me to get them or they are higher than I I wanna pay. So I just keep hunting I figure one day one will turn up we’re I least expect it. Did you get the swage block that’s setting buy the fire pot? Also that cone looks really sweet how tall is it and what’s the top and bottom diameters? Sorry for all the questions I get excited when I see a pile of old rusty tools. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 10, 2021 Share Posted February 10, 2021 Off to see the Dr, back on later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWISTEDWILLOW Posted January 6, 2022 Author Share Posted January 6, 2022 On 2/10/2021 at 10:06 AM, ThomasPowers said: You are right; but that foot vise didn't make it home with me; yet.... They kept a few items; as these have been in that building unused for 25 years I figure I can ask about them later and there is a good chance they will migrate shopward... Thomas, it’s been almost a year since this thread, but I was wondering if that foot vise ever came home with you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 6, 2022 Share Posted January 6, 2022 Haven't asked yet. I haven't paid off my electrical loan yet and so no $$$ to go trawling with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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