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I Forge Iron

It followed me home


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I like the first version myself but mostly for the laugh value. Please don't spoil the fun by telling the new guys about the edit function Phil. <sigh>

Good deal on the forge, it's good to bring these things back to life.

Frosty The Lucky.

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Checked out the local scrap yard for the first time in seven months (I've been away.)

Found out the manager has changed (the yard is part of a group owned by one fellow.) His attitude towards picker's is the same, and both he and the office staff appreciated that I asked first before going into the yard.

Picked up a cradle scythe blade and a few attaching parts, and a six foot piece of 1" by 3/16" hot roll bar stock (have to look closer at it later might be stainless!)

While I was looking around the manager asked what I was looking for, I told him I was a hobby blacksmith. He noticed me eyeing a diamond harrow on the stack and asked if |I'd like it put aside! So I'll be going back tomorrow or the day after with a heavy hammer, punches and hacksaw to bring that home.

From comments on other sites the scrap yard(s) that will sell or allow you in to look around are becoming rarer, so I count myself lucky.

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Considering how close I am to you, I wont ask where you hunt but we should get a hammer in together in in this area sometime. Nice find, little jealous.
ok I hunt where people will let me most dont mind it you go rabbit hunting. but getting together is a good idea. I dont live in oronogo but out in the country. its 13 miles north of joplin on 43 hwy. I have 32 acres I dont know much but what I know I learned by doing and thats how wisdom grows
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Follow up - I went back to the scrap yard today and picked up the diamond harrow, 64 lb's of 1/2 and 5/8 inch square stock. Plus 14 teeth, 5/8" square by 6" long. Added in another quick peek at the scrap pile and found a draw knife.

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I was looking around on kijiji for some tools (every once in a while blacksmithing stuff comes up) and on a whim i searched "welder" after lookin through ads for 10 mins i stumbled upon a mastercraft 120v stick welder with 2 brushes, chipping hammer, mask, 2lbs of E6013 rods and a pair of gloves for $100, welder looked new... so i called and they told me to come by tonight, i waved $50 in their faces and took it home.... my first welder, the guy only used it three times before he was given a lincon mig, I'm a happy camper! my first welder.....
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free steel!! Went to pick up my steel order today from a local engineering firm. Got great prices on some stuff that I ordered, at cost with their bulk buying power, and was told I could scavenge their offcuts so I picked these bits out... for free!! Yay, I love free steel!!

Thomas, nice to have a little memento of a journey, especially one you can use and create with!

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wife wanted to go yard selling today and so we went looking around. at one house i found this 1950 Power King drill press Hardly used and still working. for 15.00. Good Day. it works dreat. just a little oil on the table and it is good to go.

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Great find, David. Old drills like that are as much a work of art as they are a tool.

Being a utilities locator I have the good fortune of walking around a lot of properties and always seem to find some really neat stuff. Today, I was working in a subdivision that's being built and found an iron gadget that I have absolutely no idea what it could be. I think it's off of a train because there's an retired bed (no rails) about 300yd away, but it could also have come off of some of the heavy equipment being used to grade the land. It's a very odd piece that I can use to form rings and sheet metal with. Just wish I knew what it was. Wouldn't have even found it if I hadn't stumbled over it as it was half buried and thoroughly rusted.

I'll post pics as soon as I can.

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Went by the local scrap yard, they are clearing out the pile closest to the street so some old stuff is turning up from the dirt/bottom of the pile.

Picked up 10' of 1/2" dia wrought iron fairly rusted and a WI band about 2" wide, 1/4" thick and riveted into a circle about 2' in diameter. Also a 6' chunk of blackpipe I needed for a project and some other odd bits that look useful. Looks like I missed out on the 3" sq stock---it's gone but some 2" came in while I was there...

The big score was a chunk of I beam with a plate welded on it that's just perfect for my planned treadle hammer build as it stands---cost me $15 and was the only item they weiged and then gave me the price for it.

Now I have a 1" thick baseplate, a 5.75?" diameter anvil and the back upright, (and lots of stuff for various dies, springs, etc) almost time to start building it!

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I went garage sale hunting on Saturday and came home with a couple emergency road triangles ($2), two tiny oil lamps (one is a junk souvenir though)($1) and a Delta 23-710 wet sharpener ($40) that apparently has horrible reviews.

The sharpener works pretty good so far, but will need bolted down.

Phil

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A friend wanted a steel sign topper to put on top of his construction business sign...well we came to an idea as to what he wanted and i quoted him a price of $100 cash and we dickered a bit and decided on $50 in cash and this ski-doo trailer......and he was tickled pink with it so everyone walked away happy!!

Keith
MMM Fab & Forge

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That is a nice score on your grandfathers O/A tanks and if you have the receipts the tanks should be "grandfathered" as you as the owner. I don't think you can own tanks any more so in a way you are lucky. You can always exchange them since you have the receipts they won't think you stole them off of some construction site.

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Fleamarket report Socorro NM: I bought an old cast iron file handle for US$1 and a can with 15 wood augers, 6 twist drills and a small metal chisel for $2. The augers were quite rusted---just as well as they are getting forged into a Mother's day gift...

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I have recently had a few things follow me home. This hammer I found at a thrift store for $2--it is a sledge that must weigh 10 pounds on a short hatchet handle. It looks more costumey than functional to me--I imagine it as an accessory for a Thor costume. (At least, I couldn't swing it one handed for more than a few strikes.)


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Also at a thrift shop, I found this heavy winch--no idea what it was for, but it weighs over 20 pounds:


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I do not know what I will use it for, and the chance exists that it will not get used...


Then there is the grommet press that I found at a local antique shop that always has an abundance of cheap old tools. Paid $5 for it.



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The same shop also had this hand crank grinder. I wish I could find more information on it, but the google force does not seem to be with me:



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It has a metal plate that says Buda Hyduty Special Grinder.



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I gave $27 for it, even though I don't really need it. It had been collecting dust there for at least 2 years, so I figured to give it a home.



I saved the best for last: my first anvil, which I posted yesterday to the Hay Budden list:


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I paid $200 for it yesterday. #144 Hay Budden in great shape. The guy who sold it told me his wife's grandfather found it "in the dirt" and had owned it for 50 years before he passed. It has sat on the step grandson's workbench ever since, and he decided that he could use the space better and the cash more. Glad I check craigslist almost every day. The little hole in the corner ( and in the diagonal corner) is how his grandfather had it mounted--I will be making a much beefier mount than that.


All in all, I have had some pretty good luck and am happy to give these a new home.

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Nice looking anvil and that grommet press looks a lot like a riveter for horse tack that a friend of mine has so you may want to investigate that further. My leather worker friend's press has several different dies that screw in to it for different sized two piece rivets for mending reins and the such. I like that "Thor's" hammer of yours, try wearing that around your neck :P

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Bentiron, I will look into different dies. I was considering making some of my own. I do some leatherwork as well, so that was the main thing in my mind when I bought it.

Phil, I wish tools had a memory card I could access to see what they had been up to in previous work.

Thomas, my Buda hand crank is a bit hard to turn, so I will be opening it up and looking inside. Hopefully it just needs to be greased.

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