Well I'm sure you'll enjoy it while in your care.  I have to say, a few of my best investments have been my first MIG welder and my anvil(s). They have been real workhorses. 

I had planned to buy a welder a couple of months ago, but the domestic finances fell through. I'm sure Lisa is happy that I've got this one for now: it takes the pressure of the Christmas gift budget!

I picked up an old Lincoln tombstone for US$40 and expect it will last longer than I will.   Mig is great for production work; but stick still covers a wide range of shop work.

I'm seriously thinking about getting a tombstone; around here, people are offering them on CL and FB Marketplace for around $100 all the time. Never done stick before, though, so that'll be another learning curve. I'd also have to run a 225 extension cord from the laundry room into the garage....

Lucky you; I have to run one from behind the kitchen stove; funny most of my welding takes place while my wife is out of town...

Well, the ProMIG takes 120v, which I already have in the garage. Very lucky me.

I made up a 40 foot extension cord so I could use the Lincoln welder and plasma cutter from the kiln plug in the garage. Had to change the plug on the old Lincoln to match but I can weld & cut pretty much any where within reason now.

Went to the scrap yard today. Came home with a small assortment of medium carbon steel and a 1 1/4" bar of what looks like wrought iron...not to bad for 14 dollars.

"is wrought iron"

Good...now what to do with it? I have a couple of ideas.

 

High authenticity replicas, also items where you can etch it to show off the grain structure---like knife fittings.

Found this for sale on a local classifieds site. Not the cheapest, but seemed in pretty decent shape on initial inspection.

 

Made a start on cleaning it up with a wire wheel, and discovered a few things.

1. I need a better/bigger wire wheel

2. I need a better drill, or a wheel that fits onto my grinder

3. A couple of markings hidden under the surface rust.

 

 

The jaws are about 4 1/2", and it opens about 5" before running out of threads, so i'm not sure if it's been broken, or if that's just as wide as it was designed to open.
Plenty for anything i'll be using it for anyway!

Something I've gathered from work over the last month or so...

All kinds of random steel from the factory scrap bin. Some discarded axle heads from a winder unit. A pipe flange, long bolts and heavy steel blocks from a PE extrusion unit. Some small rollers and a smallish axle shaft of unknown origin. A bigger roller from a roll core assembling machine, this might make a nice anvil, as would those blocks in the upper left...

I need to apply some degreaser to this slide bearing(?). It's just icky! I had to pack it in a metric poop-ton of paper to not make a mess. The 20mm bearing balls are a nice bonus...

50 is probably the weight in pounds and within the range I would expect for a 4.5" jaw postvise.  Columbian; I've owned a bunch of them.  Next time I get home I can measure the throw of a couple I have; but it will be a couple of weeks...

6 hours ago, JHCC said:

The only downside is that I’ll eventually have to give them all back!

Give it all back except for that drill press... it's a gem.  Everything else is either inexpensive or available elswhere.  But an old American iron press is worth it's weight in gold.  Point out to them that the chuck key is missing, the switch is defective, the wires going into the light are frayed, and there are NO osha approved guards or emergency kill switches, and it lacks the required safety stickers and labeling.  (wink)

This is *Theater*; they'd just stare at you like you had forgotten your lines in the second act...

No, this is theater *tech*, where the true masters of illusion have to turn wood, steel, canvas, foam, and paint into any setting you want, and still have it be safe and strong. You don’t mess with these guys. 

On 8/4/2005 at 7:31 PM, oakwoodforge said:

A machinest friend of mine droped by my work this afternoon with a 5 gallon bucket of large used allen wrenches, said they were throwing them away at work. Anyone know what kind of steel these are ? Everything from 5/16 up to 3/4" was in there. Now to find a use for them :?:

This guy Jake, makes knives from them. I have been searching for a 1/2 to 3/4 wrench since I viewed his video!

 

10 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

50 is probably the weight in pounds and within the range I would expect for a 4.5" jaw postvise.  Columbian; I've owned a bunch of them.  Next time I get home I can measure the throw of a couple I have; but it will be a couple of weeks...

Thanks for that... after having a look again, it might just be the throw so the thread doesn't stick out the back when it's fully closed.

 

Am I right in assuming these are drop forged?

Any ideas about the huge globs of weld under the jaws, repair, or part of the manufacturing process?

Hi Meadowgrove,

the last of your pictures (‘sliding bearing’) is a wagon of a linear conduction. Together with a piece of fitting rail it is a very precious and expensive possession.

I used a smaller version 'followed me home' as the hart of my power hammer to guide the ram up and down.

The linear conduction is very strong and precisely in compression with many DIY conductors made for a straight guiding, sliding and greasing of the hammer ram with his upper dice running against the dice below. In my opinion it’s a pity to use the spheres for other humble purposes 

Cheers, Hans

 

Thank you for the valuable info, Hans. I will leave the piece untouched until I find a real use for it. I will also curse myself for not taking all four of the things when I had the chance :S

I have not seen a vise with welding like that as stock; but I have seen several with substantial repairs.  However I can't rule it out...

It just stuck me as a bit odd.

Above the weld, you can clearly see the die lines, but below it's solid bar. That had me wondering if they just had a smaller set of dies for the upper part, and saved some time/effort by just welding on a couple of lumps of bar that was already the correct size.

Could well be a repair, or alteration... 

I'm guessing repair: replacement of the bottom part of the movable jaw, the hinge plates, and the central section of the post. Is the bottom (more slender) part of the post welded on? If so, they may have replaced the middle part of the vise, keeping the jaws and the bottom of the post.

I can't see any signs of another weld other than at the top, so possibly a repair or reinforcement at the top where the weld is?