March 28, 201610 yr 30 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said: One of my tricks is that a lot of the "good" smithing stuff is a pain to haul to a fleamarket so when I see evidence of possible blacksmithing stuff I ask if they have any of the heavier stuff back in the barn---if so I arrange to go look at it with cash in hand and am not bidding against other folks... Good tip. I'll keep that in mind if I ever see any evidence.
March 29, 201610 yr Das, it looks like you ended up with a complete Universal meat grinder there. The one I got to use was missing the extra discs, and blades. I just found out that company is still in business, they have been going since the 1800's, now I have to see if they offer what I need individually. Those beam clamps could come in handy.
April 1, 201610 yr Already have a yard light, Frosty. And, to be honest, that base is just too sexy to be leaving out in the weather to rust away to nothing. I'm not sure how I'll use all the tubing since it has a taper, but I'll figure something out. The narrower ends will probably get cut into some short lengths to become small bins for organizing desks and such.
April 1, 201610 yr On 3/29/2016 at 10:44 PM, BIGGUNDOCTOR said: Das, it looks like you ended up with a complete Universal meat grinder there. The one I got to use was missing the extra discs, and blades. I just found out that company is still in business, they have been going since the 1800's, now I have to see if they offer what I need individually. Those beam clamps could come in handy. BigGun, I have a small collection of meat grinders from fleamarkets, auctions and such. this one was in a pile of stuff and the kid just wanted rid of the stuff. it's not in as good condition as others i have but it has some good parts and extras and isnt so bad that it couldnt be cleaned up. what exactly do you need? PM me if ya know. yeah i'm torn on the beam clamps but i'm thinking i may put them in the do not destroy bin of chains and useful stuff.
April 4, 201610 yr picked up a full 100 lbs Propane tank for my gas forge for $100. and it's practically a brand new tank.
April 5, 201610 yr Picked up a Heller Vixen file that is coarse on one side, less coarse on the other. It has the circular pattern instead of diagonal like bastard, second, and smooth. Two dollars at an antique store, and this thing pulls off curls of annealed steel. It might be the best two dollars I've ever spent on tools. Also, a good friend recently gave me a big flatter hammer, a fuller hammer, a really nice 2 pound ball pein, some gigantic tongs, and some smaller tong-like grabbers. I honestly do not possess the skill yet to do much with the flatter or fuller hammers, but they will waiting in the wings.
April 5, 201610 yr 3 minutes ago, boisdarc said: Correction to above post I meant a swaging hammer not a "fuller hammer". Thanks Those wouldn't be hammers, they're top tools designed to be held on the work and struck by a hammer. Swages are often matched with a "bottom" tool, (has a shank to fit in the hardy hole). When matched, swages are good for finishing tennons and other forms where a precise sized round area is needed. Frosty The Lucky.
April 5, 201610 yr On 3/27/2016 at 2:20 PM, Frozenforge said: I have minions at work but it seems the more I get the less I get done. Growing up, I had a pair of cousins, and the three of us were all born within a five-month period. So we were sort of like triplets. We all liked to help my grandfather around the farm, but he was somewhat doubtful as to how much "help" we brought to any job. He was fond of saying, "When you've got one kid, you get one kid's worth of work". "With two kids, you get about a half-a kid's worth of work". "And with three or more, ... you're better off doing it yourself".
April 5, 201610 yr 5 hours ago, SmoothBore said: Growing up, I had a pair of cousins, and the three of us were all born within a five-month period. So we were sort of like triplets. We all liked to help my grandfather around the farm, but he was somewhat doubtful as to how much "help" we brought to any job. is your way of saying he was a poor teacher? (The modern way! Yes we've seen it do'ne many times even done it with you, but you have to spoon feed us while resisting the urge to call us dumb, stupid and/or lazy.
April 5, 201610 yr I have taught pretty young kids a bit of smithing; but I explain to the parents that while 6 adults is a nice sized class for a single forge and 3 or more anvils. 1 kid below 12 is a full class as I have to dedicate all my time to watching them to make sure they don't have any problems. I can't mix the ages in a class and having more than 1 youngster usually is not possible save by working them one at a time and the other one sitting on a dedicated safe stool watching while the other kid has their turn at the anvil.
April 5, 201610 yr 3 hours ago, ianinsa said: is your way of saying he was a poor teacher? (The modern way! Yes we've seen it do'ne many times even done it with you, but you have to spoon feed us while resisting the urge to call us dumb, stupid and/or lazy. 3 hours ago, ianinsa said: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ... won't let me cut-and-paste, ... won't let me delete useless "quotation". Grrrrrrrr I'm not sure I fully understand the question, but I do recognize that not everyone has the same point of reference. My maternal Grandfather was the kindliest of Southern Gentlemen, who doted on his Grandkids. But he was from an era when young people were EXPECTED to behave like miniature adults. I have no interest in discussing the right or wrong of that attitude, and would only add, that it's been my experience that people tend to aspire to expectations. In our "entitlement" culture, it's my opinion, that large portions of the population are "expected" to be useless, worthless, failures. A self-fulfilling prophecy. Whereas, in years past, the expectation was that you were intelligent and capable enough to perform at a high level of competency. And, lacking the option of comfortable, blameless ineptitude, ... that expectation of competency, served to establish a standard of behavior. When commenting on the "retrograde" nature, of the results obtained by increased numbers of unskilled workers with lamentably short attention spans, ... GrandDad was, of course, making a joke. But like much "observational" humor, it was funny, ... because it's true. .
April 5, 201610 yr Well we also expected the "cousins" to be cutting up at times and making the trip to behind the barn for an attitude adjustment was not an unknown thing either...
April 8, 201610 yr just bought something odd, a machine for sharpening HSS saw blades, going to get it next week I got fed up of spending over £24 UK pounds ( about $36 us ) on getting a blade sharpened and waiting weeks to get it back. normally a machine that would cost thousands but got it for about the cost of 3 blades being sharpened and a long drive to collect it
April 8, 201610 yr This sucker jumoed right in the Fiat rental. Interesting to fish tail down the road I that little car
April 8, 201610 yr You made it jump in the car. I would have built a ramp so it would not strain itself and let it drive if it wanted to.
April 8, 201610 yr That's a beauty all right---what does it weigh? I have some suspicions on it's make; if it's not stamped we can start playing 20 questions....
April 8, 201610 yr 22 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said: That's a beauty all right---what does it weigh? I have some suspicions on it's make; if it's not stamped we can start playing 20 questions.... Looks to be stamped Trenton. Nice anvil. Can't imagine it jumping tho.
April 8, 201610 yr EJ, congratulations on getting your anvil...now, rock and roll!!!!! :-) Very nice find!
April 8, 201610 yr 6 minutes ago, arkie said: EJ, congratulations on getting your anvil...now, rock and roll!!!!! :-) Very nice find! Thank you Tom. I am extremly excited. The next couple weeks I forge will be completely tools. Stockin the shop
April 9, 201610 yr CL find. Picked it up this morning. After some cleaning and adjustment I think I'm going to try to get another year or two out of it. Anybody have any ideas as to brand or age? 1950's? No markings I can find. How do you get pic's turned every time they need to rotate 90 degrees. Even when I rotate them on the I pad papy
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