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I Forge Iron

It followed me home


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I’ll probably wash it with soap and hot water — perhaps with some judicious use of a toothbrush — to remove any loose dirt (drying carefully, to avoid causing any rust). We’ll see where we are at that point. A coat of paste wax will probably suffice. I’m certainly not going to take a wire wheel to it!

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Here is another item that followed me home a while ago that has been gathering dust in the garage, and I decided it's time to do something useful with it.

It's a B. B. Noyes foot vise (aka, farrier's vise or shoeing vise) that I picked up for $100 USD at an antique store. I thought it was a Wells Brothers vise until I saw that "B. B. Noyes" is still readable in the casting. It's actually in very good condition except for some wear in the middle of the calking block, but since I'm not a farrier, that's not of too much concern to me. There are no repairs, no deep rust, and the jaws are still nice and square. The fixed jaw is some kind of hard steel and the movable swivel jaw appears to be cast iron.

I don't have any extra accessory jaws for it, and the adjustable-height upsetting block is missing (as they usually are), although I'm not too "upset" about that, since I should be able to machine a new one without too much difficulty on some cold winter evening. For my purposes, the "upsetting block" would be more useful as a "depth stop." For example, if I were making a set of table legs and I wanted to put a twist at exactly the same place on each leg, I would just set the depth stop, slap each leg in the vise, and twist, with no need to measure/mark each leg. I suppose that I could even improve on the upsetting block by making one with a socket to accept various heading tools.

I'm now building a base for it, and I plan to replace the pivot bolts, add a removable steel jaw insert/cover for the cast-iron jaw, and install a spring to lift the foot pedal. After installing a new pivot bolt, the jaws will open by gravity and therefore will not require a separate spring. 

The location of the calking block is making me consider the possibility of installing a small, hefty steel plate over it, which would be of more use to me than the current surface of the calking block. I'll give some thought to possible non-invasive ways of installing the plate.

Note: The dolly that the vise is sitting on in the photos is just for temporary transport...not part of the base I'm building.

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Al (Steamboat)

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2 hours ago, JHCC said:

I’ll probably wash it with soap and hot water — perhaps with some judicious use of a toothbrush — to remove any loose dirt (drying carefully, to avoid causing any rust). We’ll see where we are at that point. A coat of paste wax will probably suffice. I’m certainly not going to take a wire wheel to it!

There's some elegant detailing on that spoon, and it has nice proportions.

I'm not a professional conservator, but I thought I'd offer a few ideas that are based on some limited experience. In my archaeology projects I've worked with a couple of conservators who used several methods for conserving ferrous objects that we found. If it's stable and has no active corrosion, you could leave it as is and keep it in a low relative-humidity area. One approach might be to treat it with tannic acid, which would turn the corrosion layer black, which some people find more attractive looking than rust, but I don't think that tannic acid by itself would provide a vapor barrier, so it would still have to be kept in a low RH area. My understanding is that if there's no active corrosion, trapped moisture, chlorides, etc., a vapor barrier coating could be applied, but that might have its own potential issues for possible future conservation options. Electrolytic reduction cleaning might work well, but that might be getting carried away in terms of effort. I think I would steer away from using a typical commercial rust remover liquid or gel, as you could potentially lose some fine detail that may consist, at least in part, of hard, stable rust. 

I'm guessing that you know all this stuff already with your conservation background, but I thought I'd add a few thoughts anyway.

Al (Steamboat)

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Update: not looking good. The cut-and-bend test is giving a crystalline break rather than a fibrous splintering. 

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Oh, well. I’ll cut off the metal strapping and see if I can sell the wooden parts to someone who wants to make rustic tables

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 This didn’t follow me home; it was waiting for me when I got there!

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(My very first shipment of belts for the 2x90 grinder: five Norton R999B ceramic in 24 grit. Probably a bit too aggressive for knife making, but good for any application where I want to remove a lot of material quickly. Plus, they were only a bit more than four bucks each, delivered.)

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JHCC – feel sorry for you too -because the metal stuff didn’t turn out in wrought iron, :( I’m still looking to for some stock to.

Al – very curious to see the vice after you take hand on them. According to what I already have seen from your work it will turn out to perfect brand new looking vice, to pity to use or touch ;)

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JHCC, those doors look like they would make a good mini workbench for a postvise to mount to.  Or if the wood would come apart: make a long table by offsetting the wood joints. (Like running bond  bricks). Some serious wood glue and lots of pipe clamps and then using a sander on them and finishing would get you a nice table for the house even! (Use the straps for scrollwork on the legs/bottom of the table.) Take before and after pictures and find a gallery that likes to add zeros after the price for such things... 

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18 hours ago, JHCC said:

Picked up half a dozen old silo doors for just under 10 bucks, taking a gamble that the metal might be wrought iron.

 

20 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

if the wood would come apart: make a long table

I'd agree with Thomas that the nice thick T&G wood in the silo doors lends itself to being re-purposed as a workbench or table. Maybe a coffee table for the shabby chic couture crowd? My wife would latch onto that in a heartbeat. For a low coffee table, maybe you could utilize the existing brackets as legs, IF they aren't too far gone. Definitely worth the ten bucks.

Al (Steamboat)

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12 hours ago, JHCC said:

...eBay... 

JHCC I was hoping for something a little more narrowed down.  Is this another one of those violations on the site that I don't understand?  Me asking you where you got them, because I too want good deals on abrasive belts is not like you are advertising for them?

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was going to make a quench tank of 3 inch pipe but at the advice of some and considering the volume, potential for heating the oil and splash and fire, I decided to get a bigger one.  the 3 incher would have been about half a gallon leaving some room for splash and this one will be about 3.4 gallons.   This tank followed me home from a local welding supply from their selection of failed hydro/inspection tanks.   If Savanna IL is not too far for you and you want free retired tanks for your projects, they said I could take as many as I wanted.  Looked to be around 30 of various sizes and types.  give me a pm and I'll give you contact.  

 

 

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That should make a perfect quench tank after you've added a sturdy base and a lid. I'm planning to make a new one myself, since all I have now is some PVC pipe as a temporary solution.

I'm planning to make some kind of basket that could lie at the bottom of the tank that's attached to a rod that extends to the top of the tank, so that if I drop anything into the tank I can just grab the rod and lift out the basket with the part instead of having to reach down into the quench solution (if I could even reach to the bottom).

Also, that was a good suggestion to check welding gas suppliers for tanks that failed the hydro tests. I will check with the outfit that I've been getting my welding gases from for the last ten years. Even if they might normally sell their old tanks as scrap, I'm guessing that they might give me an old bottle or two as a bit of lagniappe.

Al (Steamboat)

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Bought this on the suggestion of John at Blackbear Forge.  I was intrigued and I’m glad I got it.  Very detailed information, great projects requiring diverse skills, and loads of clarifying pictures.  I’m quite certain that an individual who could not read could still use this reference.

 

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