Recently walked an old section of RR track at FT Meade in MD. Got half of bucket of spikes, rebar, and about 20 feet of 1/4 square that was just there. MPs even drove by and didn't give me a second glance. Might go back with a pry bar to get more spikes.

Went to a local metal dealer to check out their drop/scrap bin. Got a nice haul of various stuff dirt cheep. Also am going to a local spring shop to check on drops there too.

Went to a local car salvage yard and got break drums and coil springs for free. Talked up the counter guys so I will be welcome the next time I go.

Make sure to bring gloves and talk to guys working the yard. They can be helpful.

When you go to a scrap yard, always wear eye protection, gloves, and steel toed shoes. One of their main concerns is someone getting hurt, so show them you know what you are doing and are being safe. Keep a hard hat in the truck and ask them if it is needed. Do not be shy about wearing it on their location from the time you get out of the truck till you get back into the truck to leave. A box of donuts is sometimes like a key to the front gate.

New old anvil, $175, 120# very good condition. Don't really need it but I've always wanted a Fisher. Yes Thomas, we all know how much you paid for yours


The real score was a tire machine from my neighbor who runs a small auto shop, one of the foot valves went bad and he needed a new one pronto and isn't very creative about fixing anything but cars, so I scored it for $40. The rear tower is an air reservoir, it has 2 good size air pistons, a huge vacuum piston, a 1.5 hp motor, various plumbing and air line bits, hex bar in a sliding sleeve, and enough scrap aluminum on the platen to more than get me my money back.

I have an old Coats 10/10, but would love to have one of those rim clamp types. They work a lot better on some of the new aluminum rims, and low profile tires. Get it working, and you could sell that for at least 10X what you paid. I paid $200 for mine, and it paid for itself the first year we had it in the shop. Handy item to have around.

I am a newbie here and just wanna say Hi to everyone. I am Daniel from Pennsylvania, US.

Hmm, could you build some jigs and use that tire machine as a powered scroller?

Went to the Las Cruces NM flea market and came home with another ballpeen for the bucket of hammers and a can of 20 unplated 3/8" lag bolts---working on the shop extension mounting leg vises to each roof support utility pole was running me through the one I had on hand. I also bought a large hand made ceramic mug for my medieval camp set---I try to pick them up when I can get them for US$1 as "ceramics" combined with "camping" and "smithing" seems to result in low life expectancies for mugs...

hi all just thought id post a few pics of some stff that followed me home one week.
My old boss was closing down to move to australia so he rang me up and asked me to help him shift a load of rubbish from his yard, in return for a weekends work i got all this.
there are 4 gas tanks an old bandsaw, bench drill and bench grinder. a burning gun with hoses a tap and die set hardly used a pipefitters tri stand 4 reactive welding masks a 2 ton winch and about 2 dozen clamps plus other bits and bobs that i never photographed all in all a good weekend.

Fantastic haul!!! That looks like you hit the lottery of freebies. :D

there was also a crap load of hand tools spanners, screwdrivers, chisels, hammers allsorts there must be abot 200 spanners

Well I can finally post here, as I've been admiring all the goods people come across I finally had my day, though It wasn't cheap. The story goes like this, I was having my new shop wired with 220v for all my machinery(I'm leasing the building)and the electrician doing the job just happened to be a retired farrier who had acumulated a few blacksmithing tools and wondered if I'd be interested. I took a gander at his offering and had no doubt I wanted what he had! In the group was a near perfect #187pd Peter Wright anvil, a small portable riviters forge(fully functional), a swage block of about 75pds,three top fullering hammers, and a cone mandril-51 inches tall.The total package cost me $500, but it was worth it to me, and you know, if you price them out separatly, I feel that I got a good deal, what do you guys and gals think?


The Peter Wright is in excellent shape and weighs #187pds(digital bathroom scales)and most of you will notice the little groove just back of the step, well he ground this in(it's about 5/16 wide and does not go all the way through the plate). He was intending to use this anvil for farrier work but found a real farriers anvil soon afterwards, anyway, as this is going to be my new blade forging anvil, this groove might come in handy as a blade straightening device.


A week later I was at auction and stumbled into this Columbian anvil for $300. Very good shape and as you can see I cleaned up the face and dressed the horn.I would guess it weighs just short of #150pd ( no scales!) and I'm short on space for this anvil so I'll probably sell it( I know, you can never have enough anvils, but you can never have enough money to pay the bills either).

Yep, I think that you got it. That looks to be a sweet deal. the second anvil should not be a problem moving to someone elses shop. If it's a 150 pounder, the price was fair. Looks good. :)

Viking,
Did the electrician you got the anvil from say why he ground that groove in the face of the anvil? There was a thread earlier speculating on why an over priced ebay anvil had a similar groove in it. Good score :D

Well I think you got a decent deal, just that cone mandrel and swage block would eat up almost all of that price leaving the anvil pretty much free!

BTW those are not fullering tools but swages. Fullering tools are convex swages are concave.

The electritian said he ground the groove in the face for making the pritchel on the horse shoes(I'm not a farrier so that doesn't mean a whole lot to me). Your right on the terminology of those hammers as being swages, my mistake. Wes

The groove in this anvil is not nearly as deep as the other anvil and it would be an easy fix for a welder with some skill

Horse shoe pritchels are the nail holes. I have a block for my anvils hardy that is similar to that groove, and I understand it is for making clips. You can also make positive veins or feather shafts with it, as well as swage in reinforcement ribs on the inside of metal tool handles while you make them.

Phil

Every time someone stops by the forge I give them a Fredricks Cross. I tell them that everyone that stops by and shows an interest, gets a cross. I think that one of the most recent visitors who owns a large seed farm in the area played Santa but I can't say for sure.

As my son and I were setting up the forge area yesterday (day before Christmas) I noticed a new addition to the area. There it sat on a previously empty stump.



There are no markings on it, it has seen some use and it does not ring, but it is the purtiest thing I have gotten in a long time.

Merry Christmas to all!

Mark<><

Sounds like someone knew that you could use it more than they could. Congrats, Mark, and Merry Christmas. :D

Myself and the old man had a little scrap yard hunt today he got 10 sheets of rebar mesh for foundations and i found, a tool steel worm (think its tool steel) an old blade off a machine and assorted steel blocks one of which i think is hard steel plus a couple of bits of suspension springs.

Every time someone stops by the forge I give them a Fredricks Cross. I tell them that everyone that stops by and shows an interest, gets a cross. I think that one of the most recent visitors who owns a large seed farm in the area played Santa but I can't say for sure.

As my son and I were setting up the forge area yesterday (day before Christmas) I noticed a new addition to the area. There it sat on a previously empty stump.



There are no markings on it, it has seen some use and it does not ring, but it is the purtiest thing I have gotten in a long time.

Merry Christmas to all!

Mark<><

It looks as though the spirit of St. Nicholas is still around making people happy after all. Congratulations on the best gift of all. The one not asked for or sought.

I have a question about salvage.

If you found a large amount of iron and steel, from a former railroad, along the side of what is now a public right-of-way (a walking path that used to be the railroad tracks) would you pick up what you could or try to find a more "legal" way to gather the left overs?

Yes, I know of exactly this situation not far from me, so this is not hypothetical.

There are two ways to approach this.The first way is to locate the man in charge of maintaining that area,I`m assuming he would be a local guy and interested in making this area as safe and usable for people like families with children.He`ll be glad to see it all go away so he can get on with improving and landscaping the area.
The second approach is to contact the state for permission to take a few pieces and get wrapped up in miles of red tape and end up with nothing but a pile of rust and being forced into taking responsibility for clean up of a toxic waste site after several decades of debate by rotating blowhards at the state`s capital.
I recommend the first approach.
Don`t even think about the third approach,that`s state property you`re eyeballin` there bub!

GSM, you can have the best of both worlds by taking the high path.

Get together with your local tech school welding department or blacksmithing group and offer to do a public property clean-up. Local gov't will clear the hurdles and you might even get some good press out of it. With any luck, that exposure will provide you with more opportunities.

That is what our CC welding clubs have done with the local Park & Rec. For the cost of one staffer for a day, they get a dozen workers with cutting torches, picks and shovels to clean up a dump site on public property. We have obtained literally tons of scrap metal in the last few years, when we could not afford to buy it. The good stuff goes into student projects, the bad becomes cutting class practice, the awful goes directly into the rollback to be sold to the recyclers. Getting our picture in the paper in the Community section and not the Crimes page keeps the Dean happy.



Or, risk a criminal record for a few bucks worth of scrap. Your choice.

I totally agree that it should be legal. Maybe I should explain further about this particular situation, but that would take too long. I'll look for anyone who will claim responsibility for that mess and write up something legal at the least. I know about the "now it's all yours" routine that communities like to pull, so I'll stay away from that choice.

I wish there was a local group, but I've never found one. I'm sure if I want to travel at least 40-50 miles one way I can find a small group that likes the name of the club and doesn't do much. Since this is a followed me home thread I will ask if there is any use in forging for a furnace balast tank I have. Maybe for the oil burner or parts of it? I doubt the cast sections that weight 200-250 a piece are good for anything except scrap.

Back to what followed you home.

I wish there was a local group, but I've never found one.

Brentwood Teaching Center in NH may be close to you.

NEB North East Blacksmiths, or Mass, RI, and Conn have some meetings you can attend. Do a web search to find them