August 10, 200718 yr Whitesmith, that is looking GREAT!!!!!!!!!!! Very lucky find, I would still mod it to race though:D. Habu, GREAT SCORE!!!!!! That should be a nice set of bellows when you are done with it.
August 11, 200718 yr Actually you can, if you really want to... Put eyes on a Dragon with a power hammer that is;-) Just need the right furniture for the hammer, and the right design for your dragon... and if you are doing it on 2" square stock it is probably easier with the power hammer;-) An open die hammer is still "handforging" the skill is the same it is just a matter of SCALE and efficiency;-)
August 15, 200718 yr This is what followed me home today after a visit to my favorite scrapyard. A 4'x8' steel plate 3/8" thick, cat track to get the pins, 2 large sprockets for swages, coil springs, leaf spring, rebar, steel buckets, large chunk of lead, and some round pieces of steel plate to use as base plates for something. I love that place!! Someday I'll get the owner to accept some money....:)
August 15, 200718 yr I finally got my W. F. & J. Barnes Foot Morticer down in my basement Wood Shop. A young husky smith friend from Northern Minnesota (Jeremy K.) came to visit me and my shop, and he just picked it up and carried it down the basement stairs. Oh to be young and strong again. LOL. A few years ago, quite a few in fact, a fellow smith and also tool collector found this Morticer in an Antique Shop, it had a tag on it "Wood Press". He knew I was looking for a Foot Morticer so he bought it for me for $60, yes that's right $60. The 3 Claw Feet are rusty like it set in dirt for a number of years. It has the Original Paint on it yet, just like new, except for the feet. There is no wear anywhere, so it evidently never got used more than a coupla times. The table evidently was never moved from the factory setting, so I had to scrap the paint off the rails that the table slides up and down on. Length of stroke is 2.5 inches, total depth is regulated by the usable length of the chisel, for a mortice in the middle of a piece, you drill a hole in the center and then work first to one end then , reverse the chisel and work to the other end. Depth of mortice is regulated automatically by raising and lowering the table. In the picture you will notice I made an Oak Riser with a sacrificial piece of 3/4 oak on top so that I can cut thru mortices with it. I Only got 2 chisels a 3/8 and a 1/2 inch, so I am going to try and make a 1/4 inch chisel, unless someone has an extra they would sell me. The hard part is the short tapered mounting shank. I got to try it out tonight on some old hard red oak trim board, and am completely amazed at how easy it cuts and how easy it is to operate with my foot. I did a little checking via the internet and it is a Type 3, with a tilting table and a coil return spring instead of the old Wood Return Spring. It was only made one year in 1892. It cost $20 new without chisels and chisels were $1 apiece. Talk about inflation it tripled in price in 115 years. Description as requested; The machine is a W.F.&J. Barnes Foot Morticer. Its about 5 foot tall, weighs about 130 lbs. And this model was made only one year 1892. This is a picture of the head, the arrow points to the handle that you loosen to move the cutter in and out in relation to the width of the table. The adjustment mechanisms for moving the stops in and out and up and down that restrain the work piece when the chisel is withdrawn are clearly shown also. The arrow in this picture points to the ball on the end of the lever you raise and then rotate either right or left to change the direction of cut on the chisel, Notice there is a notch that a V protrusion on the bottom of the handle sets in to keep the orientation of the chisel. The arrow in this picture points to the locking nut that locks the guide on the back of the table so that the table may be angled either right, left or centered and holds the guide in place when the table is lowered or raised.
August 15, 200718 yr The Back Side, the (A) arrow in this picture points to the table locking lever. The ( arrow points to the round guide on the bottom of the cutter operating slide. The © arrow points to the right upper guide that is a milled slot in the maind frame, with milled ways that slide up and down in the slots to keep everything in line when operating. This picture shows the base and foot operating lever. The lever is 24 inches long and the operating rod attaches 5 inches from the pivot in the leg. Thus 1 pound of pressure on the end of the foot lever delivers 3.8 pounds of pressure at the chisel cutting edge. What makes this recognizable as a Type 3 is the cast brkt to hold the top end of the spring that slips onto the original brkts that held the top of the wooden spring. This picture shows a side view (top), back view (middle) and the tool I forged to remove the cutters from thier tapered mounting socket. On seasoned red oak, I imagine I put about 60 to 100 lbs of pressure on the foot lever, which is about 228 to 380 lbs at the chisel point. It slices thru like a sharp knife thru an apple. From experience with my bench scissors morticer, I use bees wax on the front and sides of the chisel and when this is done it takes a lot less effort to push the chisel thru the wood. Length of stroke is 2.5 inches, total depth is regulated by the usable length of the chisel, for a mortice in the middle of a piece, you drill a hole in the center and then work first to one end then , reverse the chisel and work to the other end. Depth of mortice is regulated automatically by raising and lowering the table.
August 15, 200718 yr Sweet machine, Irnsrgn. It almost makes me wish I were a wood worker. Then again I wouldn't find good antique wood working tools around here any more than I find smithing tools. Frosty
August 15, 200718 yr Picked this antique garvin metal lathe offa craigslist. Its in perfect shape( have to modify the tool rest to fit properly as its probably from a newer version).
August 15, 200718 yr SWEEEEEEEET machine JR. Wish i could find one like that around here but would probably have to give them an arm and a leg and probably a few pints of blood.:D
August 15, 200718 yr a few days ago at the resale shop i got a nice old pickax and a double faced sledge hammer for about 4 bucks a piece along with some old worn out cement drilling bits for a dollar fifty for four of them. and three old brass and one copper gas knobs from i guess a furnace. tomorrow i plan to hunt down an old truck rotor for the makings of a portable forge.
August 16, 200718 yr Picked this antique garvin metal lathe offa craigslist. Its in perfect shape( have to modify the tool rest to fit properly as its probably from a newer version). First Irnsrgn now YOU! You guys are killin me! From the land of no old equipment, Frosty
August 17, 200718 yr Good supply run Aprenticeman: I've always gotten on well with the local spring shops, good guys all round. Frosty
August 17, 200718 yr Looks great AM. A friend of mine recently picked up two sets of leaf springs from a log truck. Those things are huge. Some of them get as thick as an inch or more and are about 6 foot long. Huge.. Anyway, a guillotine tool sounds like a good thing to use the stock for. I want to put one of those together sometime soon..
August 20, 200718 yr This followed me home last week, when I borrowed it (he wouldn't sell it to me) from a friend. The side says: "Peter Wright, Patent, Solid Wrought", then 0-3-21 and the other side has "England" stamped on it.
August 20, 200718 yr So was tracking down the spring shop and visiting it a nice experience? I hope you make them something from their "springs" as a thank you gift---but watch out if they like it you may start getting calls to come back they saved you a ton of the "good stuff"---and it's really a ton and a long one at that! I'm always amazed at what you can get by asking nicely.
August 22, 200718 yr Went back to college (only to visit) and helped the guys at the frat house finish up on the remodeling they'd done to the house this summer. Came home with two LARGE, empty beer cans (if you get my drift) and an uninsulated, spark resistant, mouse resistant lock box. Unfortunately, they'd already busted off the combo lock trying to get it open, but no matter, a new hasp and my paper-goods, manuals, and flammable with have a somewhat safer home -Aaron @ the SCF
August 27, 200718 yr me and my bro(hes the one in the pic) picked up this older red star radial arm saw( we already have one other same model) to make one complete saw and it came with two old railroad track grinding blades. kinda neat. Sean
September 1, 200718 yr Picked this anvil up from an auction today- for about $0.75 a lb. the edges arent too bad but the horn is a little blunt- weighs 95 lbs( or 0.3.11). Sean
September 1, 200718 yr Friday was one of those unbeliveable days! A local community has "Farmer's Pike Festival" evry Labor Day weekend. It is supposed to be a large free for all rummage sale. So I pack up the wife and kids and off we go. Turns out that just about every other house within a 5 mile radius is having a yard sale. Picked up 25lbs of misc drill bits for $6. Out of that were 26 taper shank drills in varying sizes, a dozen drills for the old Brace & bit, 1 drill for a manual post drill and about 100 other standard straight shank drills and a few reamers and taps. I bought a brandnew 100 lb propane tank for $40 (I have 5 20lb tanks and it seems like I have to go get refill every few weeks). I bought a brand new 1000 W generator for $20 (bought it for Mom who lives in Florida as I already have one). A brand new Nitrous Oxide tank for $20 (good trading stock). There were countless other deals that I just didn't have enough cash to buy i.e. a 4" post vise in on concrete set post for $50. All of this before I even get to the show. Upon arrival at the Farmers Pike Festival, it wasn't all that great, some nice things but prices were very high. Overall a great day though! Thanks Steve
September 1, 200718 yr Good haul Steve. We almost never see smithing tools and equipment here abouts. Still, garage/yard saling can be fun and rewarding. (If you can keep the wife from spending your half the budget on GOOOOOD deals!) This spring I found a couple jack shaft grinders and the guy made me take an old carpenter's box full of misc wheels, brushes, arbors, rests, files and such. $15 took it all though I would've been happy to leave most of it. Most of the summer Deb and I spent a pleasant afternoon after church hitting garage/yard sales. While I'd find the occasional hammer head, etc. she found all kinds of MUST have stuff. Then a couple weeks ago I found a Loretone rock tumbler, grits and a bunch of polished rocks for $25 and got them to throw in a gas powered weed whacker that'll take blades as well as string. The tumbler is around a 20lb. capacity and sells now for around $400-450. Frosty
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