It followed me home

[JHCC]

Yesterday was our town’s yard sale day, and I picked up a few items for cheap. I’ve been wanting to see how a rotary paint stripper works for scale removal, so this was fortuitous. 

Today was the day when people put out for free the stuff that didn’t sell yesterday, and I got a few containers of old hardware, a bucket of rollers, and a couple of tools. One man’s trash…

[Jim86]

13 hours ago, Daswulf said:

. As it sits it is 45" long

Daswulf that's a massive pipe wrench.... It must weigh 30+ pounds..

[Frosty]

You guys are making some sweet scores down there, makes me glad I hardly ever go garage saling!

I'll be interested to find out how the paint strippers work for scale removal. They're probably a little harsh to bring out wood grain.

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

Also from someone’s freebie pile (along with a box of knitting books for the library at For Ewe), I grabbed a couple of little metal containers for shop storage, a couple of books of design inspiration, and a copy of my college advisor’s opus contrasting the Iliad, the Aeneid, and the Epic of Gilgamesh.

 

[Daswulf]

Jim, I haven't weighed it but it certainly felt that heavy. 

Nice scores John. 

[JHCC]

A couple of days ago, I was thinking that a box of just that size would be perfect for my ongoing shop reorganization, and I was delighted to find one this morning. 

Now, of course, I can’t remember what I wanted to put in it. Screwdriver bits, maybe?

[Daswulf]

I've been reorganizing my shop as well, kind of in a hurry, to accept a new toolbox I am purchasing and will take delivery of this week. My other one is full and when tools have no home they end up wherever and hard to find or keep track of. So I am giving all my important misfit tools a home of their own so they can rest easy and I can find them when needed. 

The amount of stuff in my shop is intimidating. Much needs not be in there but most I don't want to be out in the elements. 

At the moment I have my forge and welding table blocked off And I have a vending event this weekend and then a forge demo next weekend to prepare for. 

 

[Frosty]

All this talk of reorganizing shops is sort of disturbing. Every time I organize things in my shop and put it on it's place I find all those places get so disorganized I can't find the places and have to buy new things! 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Daswulf]

That's what happens when I don't have a "specific" spot and try to use random space. Been there done that. This new box will have specific space for specific tools. Sure it will get cluttered on top like the other one but in the drawers the tools will return. I tried other ways and having been a body man for years, I need a toolbox for stuff. 

Funny enough I've only lost one 10mm socket in 24 years of doing body work daily. That was also early off in my career. I have found more tools than lost. 

[Brian Hibbert]

I got a couple of cast iron pots from my mother.  They were found in a barn when they moved into a house when I was a toddler.  She's used them as flower planters for 60 years.  I'm told they had 'wrought iron's stands when they found them, but a truck backed over one and she's not sure what happened to the other. 

They're 24" diameter and the only marking I can see is xxv on the bottom and 25 at one of the handle loops.  I assume that's 25 gallons, but just guessing.

I'm planning to make a couple new stands out of 3/8 round bar and probably 1/2 round to make the legs with scrolls at the feet. 

 

[JHCC]

23 hours ago, Frosty said:

I’ll be interested to find out how the paint strippers work for scale removal.

Very well. Here’s the before-and-after of about 15 seconds with the stripper chucked in an electric drill:

I’m very pleased.

It occurs to me that I could also chuck it my die grinder, which has both a speed control and a bracket (made by a previous user) for clamping in a vise. 

[Goods]

John, it there a max RPM shown on the paint stripper? My die grinder runs way faster than a drill, just don’t want you picking those spikes out of you hide.

Keep it fun,

David

[JHCC]

I don't recall a maximum RPM shown on the stripper, but I'll check when I get home. A similar model on Amazon says it should run at 1600-2500 RPM maximum, whereas the die grinder at its lowest setting is at about 7000. Probably best to stick with the drill.

[mcostello]

I think He might not pick them out, They would find their way out very fast.

[Frosty]

8 hours ago, Brian Hibbert said:

the only marking I can see is xxv on the bottom and 25 at one of the handle loops.

XXV is 25 in Roman numerals. 

At that size I'd call them cauldrons, make stands and use them as planters myself. Unless they cleaned up well enough to cook in though for the life of me I can't think of anything Deb and I would eat 25 gallons of. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

To be used for cooking the holes drilled in the bottom would need welding up.

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s.
Semper Paratus

 

[JHCC]

It’s not the pot; it’s the ingredients. 
 

[Brian Hibbert]

Yes, they're going to be put back into service as flower pots.  The stands are a good excuse to try new things at the forge.  And like iron dragon said, unless I can find someone that knows how to weld cast iron properly to fill the holes, there'll be no soup for you. 

Cauldrons huh?  I think I will start calling them that. It's much better than just "big cast iron pots".  

I don't really know what they were originally used for, but we have been speculating that they were used to render fat to make lye soap.

Like you say, 25 gallons each is a bit more soup than we can eat. 

 

[Frosty]

Man, I just don't get people who like thin soup. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

A big pot like that could be used for a lot of things: cooking, making soap, rendering fat, washing clothes, you name it. 

[George N. M.]

Rendering pots is a likely expalnation.  Just about every farm with hogs had one or more. Rendering for lard is probably more likely than soap making since that gradually fell out of use during the 19th century when commercial soaps became more available. 

Just brazing would fill the holes but, if they are going to be used for planters, you probably want some drainage to avoid root rot.

Fancy stands can make them more attractive by orders of magnitude.  Think scrolls and lots of ornamentation.  Too much is never enough.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

 

[Daswulf]

2 hours ago, Brian Hibbert said:

don't really know what they were originally used for

I have a large copper pot with an iron bale that I wonder about. It is from my ancestors and I still don't know its intended use. Often i ponder it and think maybe for doing laundry. 

Maybe it was for rendering animal whatever. I dont know but it isnt caked in anything. Just darkened with age. Has to be somewhere around a 30# capacity. 

[Brian Hibbert]

I was probably trying to over simplify, these cauldrons were most likely used for all those things and more.  George's guess at rendering for lard is likely correct given the old house and barn where they were found, the house was on the edge of a small town and definitely had animals in its past.   It's unlikely they were limited to only that use though.  Anything that needed a large container to heat things would have called for them.   Good tools are not limited to only one use.

I know making your own soap is now an artisan thing,  but I remember my grandmother making lye soap when I was very young.  I can't remember her making it by the time I was in my teens though.  I think maybe finances got better and spending money on fancy store bought things like soap became OK. 

[JHCC]

8 hours ago, Daswulf said:

I have a large copper pot with an iron bale that I wonder about. It is from my ancestors and I still don't know its intended use.

Large copper pots were often used for cooking apple butter. 

[Frosty]

My Grandmother used to talk about mopping the floor after washing it with lye soap to neutralize the lye. She bought lye soap for tough cleaning, they used modern "hand" soap to bathe with, the lye soap tended to cause burns. They used home made lye soap when she was little but commercial lye soap became available around the turn of the last century and being more consistent wasn't as likely to burn you as home made.

IIRC candy and chocolate is "cooked" in copper kettles and before the right alloy stainless steel, maple syrup to maple sugar were boiled in large shallow copper pans.

Frosty The Lucky.