That's awesome. Great machine and great associations.

I should definitely stop by the next time I'm visiting the monastery.

JHCC, please do. Door is always open to smiths and farriers.

4 hours ago, Hickory Wind Forge said:

….. However I wanted to share this: a blacksmith acquaintance just learned he is badly sick and decided to sell off most of his shop to prevent his kids from having to deal with it. ….

Mat, I had a similar experience yesterday. One of my mentors passed last year and I had wanted to buy his drill mill. It was a piece of equipment I wanted, but it was also a piece of His Shop. I couldn’t bring myself to ask about buying it from him. It made me feel a bit bad, didn’t want him to feel like it was coming to an end… Well yesterday I got a call from one of the smiths in our group who was helping the son clear out the last of Ray’s blacksmith shop and the drill mill was available. I was there in five minutes and after about 2hrs of reminiscing, I brought it home:

I now have a piece in my shop that was Ray’s! Next step is to get it setup and tooled up. I just hope I can put it to work as well as he did.

Keep it fun,

David

That's great Goods. Funny how something that's just an inanimate chunk of metal to most people can really tug at the heart.

At the start of last week I had no plans whatsoever to buy a power hammer but I came to realize that I would never ever have another chance to buy one from someone who I like and respect and who I knew took the same quality of care of his tools as I do. Finally decided I'd much rather pay what Rand was asking and get a well-maintained cherry than buy one from someone who I didn't know even for half-price. Rand was really glad it was going to my shop also, rather than some stranger.

Matt.

A visit to the town scrap bin yielded some nice chunks of black iron pipe (about 5-7 feet long) as well as these two interesting pieces of acme-threaded rod with round nuts. Not sure what they were for originally, but I’m sure they’ll come in handy.

To me, the sections of acme-threaded rod suggest parts of a house jack or scaffold. You are fortunate that the town scrap bin is available to be harvested, around here more and more are off limits with the excuse that it is for our safety... Grumble!

--Larry

Hi everyone, it has been awhile since I have posted but have to brag on the estate sale deal of the century. $75

It needed a drive belt but other than that it looks very lightly used. Even with an old worn belt it eats metal like crazy. Big upgrade from my 1”x30” craftsman.

New belts coming, cant wait to really use it.

Wow, excellent score Rojo. Rather than rolling in his grave, I'll hope the prior owner is smiling for you too!

--Larry

For years we have not been allowed to take stuff from the scrap metal pile at the local town dump and I've seen many good and useful things there that were unfortunately destined to be melted. Recently the town changed the policy realizing they could actually make money by charging residents a small fee to take stuff. Yesterday I took my trash to the dump and I always look at the metal pile to see if there is anything interesting and what do you know - I saw this. So five dollars later it was in the back of my truck and is replacing a cheapo popular mechanics brand tool chest in the shop. It's bigger and of better quality and I spent the evening transferring tools from one to the other.

Nice!

This arrived in the mail last week. After almost a decade, the theater department at the college remembered that I have their Lincoln 125 amp MIG welder and decided they wanted it back. Since Eastwood was running a sale on a 160 amp machine that can run off 220V, I decided to take the plunge.

While I haven't fired it up yet, I'm delighted that I'll be able to switch between DCEN and DCEP simply by moving a plug on the front panel, rather than fussing around with wingnuts inside the machine.

Another nice detail is that it came with a stinger for SMAW, and there's an available torch if I decide I want to try TIG.

I've not done any blacksmithing to speak of yet, but I have been gathering bits for a makeshift forge to maybe try my hand at making knives, other tools and small useful objects - I also dabble in woodworking/turning and various other crafts, and would like to add metalworking to that.

So this hasn't quite followed me all the way home yet, but in a small grove near me, I found an old cart that someone must have left 100 years ago or more. It's a public area and quite densely overgrown, so I don't think anybody's going to have any Feelings about this. The ground is quite soft and I was wondering if it'd be worth it to dig e.g. the wheels out and reuse the iron - maybe not for blades, but other objects or just to practice on once I get my forge setup.

Obviously there is some rust, but the rims are very substantial and I think there's still some good material here?