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I Forge Iron

It followed me home


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This followed me home a week or two ago... =\

Jet VBS-900 36" metal cutting bandsaw. Zoe Crist saved me from a brutal crushing death by heavy machinery. Thanks brother! ;)
IMG_20110627_162658.jpg


Needs new tires, but otherwise, it's a beast, and I got it for a steal. It's amazing how inexpensive a really big piece of equipment can be, compared to a small piece.


Well that's a great save from the scrap pile still lots of life in that saw
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Sask Mark-

wow that is a screamin good deal. If you ever want to sell that big Cannedy Otto, let me know please as I'd be quite interested.

Today on the way to work, I stopped by a used machinery dealer I know to talk for a bit as well as pick up a baby (tabletop) camelback drillpress. Well, when I opened the door, the first thing I see is a MINT condition cone mandrel. a 4' tall one with an approx 20" base. He was asking around the high end of what I was willing to pay, but because it was in mint condition I went for it; tha being said, it was well under $500 which would have been a good deal in and of itself for it. He says "wanna put it on layaway?" I say yes, and he proceeds to load it into my truck. no down payment or anything. So that was a good start to my day. He also had found a metal shaper for me, an old Prema one from Sweden and I got to play around with that for a bit. Him and I do a lot of trading, so we try to find things the other is interested in. I'll be trading him an older style punch press for the shaper.

On ebay I finally found a matching blower for my rivet forge. That was an exciting find, as I was outbid on another one several months ago. Looking forward to restoring the forge to proper working order.

I also got another full size camelback drill. I had picked up a LARGE Cannedy Otto one a month or two back and is still in the process of cleaning and restoring (previus owner sandblasted then clearcoated...which pretty much turns to glue and seizes everything.) the other one I just picked up is a somewhat smaller (about 5' tall)...the brand name escapes me, somewhere from Chicago though. This one runs, and needs just a bit of fine tunining to run perfect.

Lastly, a few weeks ago I took a drive out of town to some antique stores. Digging around through the layers of dust and grunge on the floor, I fin an old Roper Whitney sheet metal punch. the big, two handed version, and not the kind with the lever, the kind that screws down. He was asking $19 for it. I proceeded to dig around more and found a bag with a complete set of 14 dies (that's 14 males and 14 females). we started talking and he let me have it for $15 even though I told him I'd happily pay the full price.

Aaron

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Lastly, a few weeks ago I took a drive out of town to some antique stores. Digging around through the layers of dust and grunge on the floor, I fin an old Roper Whitney sheet metal punch. the big, two handed version, and not the kind with the lever, the kind that screws down. He was asking $19 for it. I proceeded to dig around more and found a bag with a complete set of 14 dies (that's 14 males and 14 females). we started talking and he let me have it for $15 even though I told him I'd happily pay the full price.

Aaron

DUDE, you NEVER tell them you'd be happy to pay full price! even if you are jumping up and down on the inside thinking you'd even go double the asking price. By saying you are happy to pay full price you are then causing the seller to think he has asked too little for his item thusly also causing him to possibly loose sleep on the $$ he lost, and then he starts to question the prices on all the other rusty items he has for sale, and then he questions his judgement on other items...it is just such a disservice to tell them such things. Undrstand, I'm not scolding you, I'm just pointing out the small unjustise you may be doing to the seller of such items.
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went to the local animal auction last weekend and outside there is a small flea market set up. while walking around i saw a table with some old worn out hammer heads on it, there must be 20 or 30 heads in a pale for $10, then at the next table there was a 5" peter wright post vice. the stationairy jaw was about 1/4" higher than the mobile one, wondering if i can fix it? oh and he was asking $45 but it impressed him that i knew what it was at 14 years old so i got it for $30, screw is exellent leg is straight
Josh

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I attended an auction with a LOT of blacksmith tools yesterday. I got a sunburn, a couple of anvils, a bunch of tongs and these:

post-4446-0-57944600-1310356257_thumb.jppost-4446-0-26153200-1310356296_thumb.jp

There is only a table missing off one of the drills. Otherwise they are complete and functional. Note the massive Cannedy Otto in the one picture. That one also came with a set of about 20 bits.

Total price for all 5 drills = $5.
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Thomas, Thanks for the information on the hex keys. These were the long hex keys, around 10" on the long arm, so I cut them all in half to double the number of tools I could make. After letting them cool down over night they all filed down just fine and I got a nice number of them done up to a nice polish. I then heated them to orange and quenched in oil, shined them up again and added heat until they turned blue. Now I am in the process of putting a high shine on them all with tripoli and the polishing wheel. Maybe next month I will go see what the salvage yard has in the way of copper sheet. In the mean time I will be researching pitch recipes on line.

Nice lookinmetal bandnd saw you got there and I like that old power hacksaw, those are so cool to have. :P

Thomas Dean, Why not tell a man you'll be happy to pay full price? I have been to estate sales, yard sales and told folk that they didn't have a high enough price on some tools and have paid them what I thought was a fair price. I don't think it proper to take something from someone without paying a full and reasonable price or at the least informing them that they have made an error in pricing of said item. It just ain't right and fair. I think it is also reasonable to dicker on the price if it is to much. No use being taken to the cleaners just because you can. We must not take advantage of others nor be taken advantage of.

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Thomas Dean, Why not tell a man you'll be happy to pay full price? I have been to estate sales, yard sales and told folk that they didn't have a high enough price on some tools and have paid them what I thought was a fair price. I don't think it proper to take something from someone without paying a full and reasonable price or at the least informing them that they have made an error in pricing of said item. It just ain't right and fair. I think it is also reasonable to dicker on the price if it is to much. No use being taken to the cleaners just because you can. We must not take advantage of others nor be taken advantage of.

Whoa, time out, king's X, and all the rest. It's obvious that you did not see the intent of my post, nor the "tongue-in-cheek" of the post. I have on more occasions than not told the seller that an item is priced too low. I have dealt in the antique world for nearly 40 yrs and have priced items for estate sales as well as in our antique booths. I have no problem paying full asking price for something I want and do so. Do I dicker with folks on their prices, why of course! but I never offer a price to insult them. If the item is rediculously over priced I normally say nothing as not to offend them. I have never, nor will ever take advantage of anyone. Your comments suggests that I have and/or do and I deeply resent it. If you have read my posts regaurding buying or selling items I have always suggested a fair approach.
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Thomas Dean, Well it looks like once again I have Hoof and Mouth Disease. :blink: As has been mentioned before it is sometimes hard to hear the tone of sarcasm in the written word, however the statements made seem so out of character for a person of your standing on the forums it was hard to fathom. It was not my intention to besmirch your fine reputation here in the least and therefore I offer my sincerest apologies for any damage to that reputation. You are a wheel that turns true, while I on the other hand am a loose nut on the wheel of life that far too often leave a somewhat wobbly rut for others to follow in. Once again sorry for any damage to your fine reputation here, Jerry :unsure:

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Apology accepted and forgiven and now let's forget it. I too have mis-read someone's intention and I also can see now why you thought I was somewhat serious....all my little " :rolleyes: , :P , B) , :( ", and so forth did not show up in my post. I will make SURE they get there so not to be misunderstood again. Now, my friend, let's get back to smithin' stuff. TDean

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well I went to flea market and was able to get a few things including a hammer, a great neck hammer, from italy
Ive never heard of them before so I tried to do some research on the maker
all I could find was great neck tools based out of great neck NY and they do not sell this type of hammer, atleast not anymore
so does anyone know anything about great neck tools? and why does it have italy on it if the company manufacters thier product in NY?

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Went to the local scrap/metal dealer this weekend. I picked up a couple 20' sticks of round stock 3/8" & 1/2", a 24" length of 1" square for hardy tools and they had a slab of surplus brass just over 1/4" thick that weighs 13 lbs. I don't think I'll be needing knife furniture metal any time soon. It should work really well for many different applications. :D

Regards,
Tim

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Slowly I going through all my stored up treasures, more stuff than I can ever take with me, and I found a large hoard of brass and copper. I used to attempt to make knives so I bought all this thick copper and brass at my favorite salvage yard for cheap. I guess I can try and make jewelry out of it. I just remembered that the thick sheet brass went into several lock plates for muzzel loading rifles and pistols, wonder if I still have the skill for that kind of work. Not as many folk seem to be building blackpowder guns these days, they all go buy the fancy ones from named companies now. Most days I just hurt to bad to have the ability to sit for hours and fit the sear to the trigger and the hammer and frizzen to the pan, it's a lot of work to make a good lock and then fit it to the stock and make all of that hardware for the stock and fit the barrel, they're otogon not round. No, I not going there again, wonder where all those chisles are? Way too much stuff! :(

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Slowly I going through all my stored up treasures, more stuff than I can ever take with me, and I found a large hoard of brass and copper. I used to attempt to make knives so I bought all this thick copper and brass at my favorite salvage yard for cheap. I guess I can try and make jewelry out of it. I just remembered that the thick sheet brass went into several lock plates for muzzel loading rifles and pistols, wonder if I still have the skill for that kind of work. Not as many folk seem to be building blackpowder guns these days, they all go buy the fancy ones from named companies now. Most days I just hurt to bad to have the ability to sit for hours and fit the sear to the trigger and the hammer and frizzen to the pan, it's a lot of work to make a good lock and then fit it to the stock and make all of that hardware for the stock and fit the barrel, they're otogon not round. No, I not going there again, wonder where all those chisles are? Way too much stuff! :(


Well, you could consider that copper and brass an investment now, My slab of Brass was $3.00/lb. and one of the guys there said it had come down. You could watch the prices and reap a windfall while cleaning out the shop some.

Regards,
Tim

P.S. - Or you could ship some of it to me, I particularly want a thick plate of copper as a cushion when using a hot cut. :D
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P.S. - Or you could ship some of it to me, I particularly want a thick plate of copper as a cushion when using a hot cut. :D

Although a copper plate would make for a pretty cutting block a one of mild steel would be better...and a heck of a lot cheaper!! The copper will give under the pc to be cut and you get a less desirable cut. This is according to Francis Whitaker in the book "A Blacksmith's Craft" by George Dixon. Note sure of the page. He was refering to an alum. plate best I remember but the copper will give the same results. I used to use a 1/4"thk pc of alum and now use a mild steel block the same size-- 1/4 x 4 x 6 -- and have better results with my cuts.
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The copper will also suck the heat out of your part faster.

The only things that have followed me home lately have been non blacksmithing items; cooking gear - (2)5' SS tables, lots of 6"x6"x12' pine crates and nylon slings from work, 3 new 1" bandsaw blades that didn't fit the shop's saw, books, some spec items from thrift stores ; Spicer u-joint for a semi, case of new baseball card hard covers, medical feeding pump, 4 Oreck vacuums, a mess of military GoreTex pants/coats/boots, and some other misc.......

Still got my eye on a post vise, and an anvil that I spotted quite awhile ago. Haven't been able to make contact with either of the owners yet. The post vise will need some work, and the anvil looks like a 150#-175# HB similar to mine. I haven't seen any evidence of either being used in the 6 years I have been out here.

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Met a fellow Tuesday evening that moved into the area and just joined an organization I'm in. Upon learning that I did smithing he told me that the farm he bought had 2 forges and a large post vise and that he had sold them already...sigh. Then the current president of the group asked me to keep an eye out for a postvise for her Fine Arts Metals class when I go to Quad-State. Money is tight for that class so I'll look for a deal. If I find one then I get my 5.5" post vise back that's on "extended loan" to that class and is bolted to the I beam of it's building---and that the University keeps trying to put an inventory number on and claim it's theirs>

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