$61 is the steal of the month I would say, probably worth close to that as scrap.
Fantastic score!

Ian

I've been trying to buy a Fly Press through online auctions for about a year now,but never really had enough money to bid successfully,but I kept trying regardless. Well my patience finally paid off, for total price of $61 plus an hours drive to pick it up.It has an 1 3/4 " screw stands about 80cm tall and weighs ?, well my son and I think it weighs more than my 450 pound Peter Wright.It came with a fabricated stand which I'm going to use as a stand for my bench grinder since the press now sits where the bench grinder was. I painted the handle and counterweight and check nut and cleaned the rest up, now to make a clamping plate and tooling.

Looks like you dipped into RT paint closet I saw the purple in the picture before I read that you did it. LOL great score

How about "It followed someone else home" The local scrappers came around Saturday and I used them to clean up the place a bit as there is still a possibility I may have to move to get a job. So I gave them a lot of "ugly iron" stuff that I would have to work hard at using. They were happy, I was happy *and* they are on the lookout for smithing equipment for me...

(closest ferrous metal scrap yard is over 50 miles away and so not worth the gas to sell it myself...)

With a nice 20 mph wind yesterday I was able to fire up the forge even with the temp of 95 degF (but a humidity of 4%).

Champion Blower followed me home. Red outside, shiny vanes inside, moves very easily. $75, so I won't call it cheap, but I am happy with the price. I would be spending almost as much for the remaining materials I need to build a bellows.

I don't have pictures yet, it is in my trunk and won't come out I think I will have to unbolt the stand.

What oil am I supposed to use on these things?

Phil

Champion Blower followed me home. Red outside, shiny vanes inside, moves very easily. $75, so I won't call it cheap, but I am happy with the price. I would be spending almost as much for the remaining materials I need to build a bellows.

I don't have pictures yet, it is in my trunk and won't come out I think I will have to unbolt the stand.

What oil am I supposed to use on these things?

Phil

The lighter the better. I use 50/50 30wt oil & tranny fluid mix. And the $75 is a GOOD deal!

The lighter the better. I use 50/50 30wt oil & tranny fluid mix. And the $75 is a GOOD deal!

K. The gear box has something gritty on the sides, but the gears look greased. It goes more than 1x around coasting, and it settles, swings past and then reverses.

I am glad that $75 is a realistic good price. A number around half that has been bouncing around, I concluded that was unrealistic after pricing new electric blowers ($150) and the parts to build a bellows, seeing I have the plywood and board stock.

I have pictures from my phone. It shifted in my trunk and was harder to shift back to get it out than I thought it would be. This is a heavy sucker!

Now, what are good ways to get air from this 3 inch or so OD fitting to my forge that is a 2 inch or so OD. I was thinking a flexi exhaust pipe and a reducer (or 2), but the thought of sewing a piece of canvas also occurred.

Phil

K. The gear box has something gritty on the sides, but the gears look greased. It goes more than 1x around coasting, and it settles, swings past and then reverses.

I am glad that $75 is a realistic good price. A number around half that has been bouncing around, I concluded that was unrealistic after pricing new electric blowers ($150) and the parts to build a bellows, seeing I have the plywood and board stock.

I have pictures from my phone. It shifted in my trunk and was harder to shift back to get it out than I thought it would be. This is a heavy sucker!

Now, what are good ways to get air from this 3 inch or so OD fitting to my forge that is a 2 inch or so OD. I was thinking a flexi exhaust pipe and a reducer (or 2), but the thought of sewing a piece of canvas also occurred.

Phil

Wow, that really looks pretty pristine. Especially if it coasts that long. I have a Cannedy Otto Western Chief blower and I used a corrugated air hose from a car intake that fit the blower with a pressure fit and then I added just a little bulk to the forge with Emergency repair tape (the stuff that sticks to itself) and a hose clamp. Works a treat.

Regards,
Tim

K. The gear box has something gritty on the sides, but the gears look greased. It goes more than 1x around coasting, and it settles, swings past and then reverses.

I am glad that $75 is a realistic good price. A number around half that has been bouncing around, I concluded that was unrealistic after pricing new electric blowers ($150) and the parts to build a bellows, seeing I have the plywood and board stock.

I have pictures from my phone. It shifted in my trunk and was harder to shift back to get it out than I thought it would be. This is a heavy sucker!

Now, what are good ways to get air from this 3 inch or so OD fitting to my forge that is a 2 inch or so OD. I was thinking a flexi exhaust pipe and a reducer (or 2), but the thought of sewing a piece of canvas also occurred.

Phil

It may well have been greased in the past and with a 1+ coasting rotation is not bad BUT if you will clean the inside with diesel then llube with a lighter it may have a longer coast. I have 6 blowers and all will coast at least 3 rotations and my primary blower will coast nearly 5 rotations. The grease gives too much restriction on the grease and when it gets colder it really will slow down. These things are being hand cranked so the RPM is really low, there is no need for a heavy grease and the light oil give enough lube to minimize wear along with ease of gear-mesh.

Have you check to see what they are bringing on eBay!?!? crazy prices. and yes I sold a nice blower about 3 years ago for $175.00 and the guy was tickeled to death to get it! he had been seeing them for that and higher and then having to pay shipping and driving to pick up. He told me he figured he was saving at least $100.00 by purchasing mine.

The fles hose is a great thing and if you can lay out a cone, easy to do, then make one out of roof flashing. You can get a piece from any sheet metal shop and if you tell them what you are doing the may make it for you.(if they do it for free the take them something you have made from the forge! cold get you some other items made for cheep in the future!) I made one in about 15min. for my forge and it has served me well. I soldered the seam with soft solder but you could just crimp the ends.

BTW, really nice looking blower! I would have jumped at the $75!

Great Price! I consider 3 full coasting turns the minimum as the fire keeps up as I am trading blower for hammer---or taking a swig of water, getting more stock, etc.

If you will be set up in a shop a rigid permanent set up is nice if you travel with it a more flexible set up is nice. I once found a couple of round duct reducers that worked great going from the blower to flex pipe to the air pipe for the tuyere---slip them on/in and one round of duct tape and I was in business!

So, Thomas, where are going to go if you get a job? Somewhere that let's you have a fire I hope! :o

I would like to stay fairly close to NM as my Parents are needing more help these days. However AR is a possibility as we have tons of kinfolk there---and my "family land!") and it's about 1/2 way between my parents and my stepson and grandkids in OH (not to mention my step daughter and the twin grandkids in AR!)

Really it depends on the job and the location---no big cities if possible! I'd still do a year or two in Chile if they asked...

Oh man,gots tornado they has in AR for sure! WOW! I know how it is with aging parents, I took care of my mother for years and she spent her last ten living with us. Not an easy choice. What line of work are you in besides smithing? :huh:

I have BS degrees in Geology and Computer Science; worked as a mud logger in Geology and as a Unix system tester in CIS. What kind of work is fairly open as far as I'm concerned; but I don't do well in sales as I tend to tell the exact truth...

Are things that bad in NM now? There have been billboards up in Phoenix looking for folk that know Lnix but you want to go the other direction. :(

Nice score Stweart! I've been saving wheel weights just in case but you can go first class now.

Frosty the Lucky.

Asked my father and grandfather how much it would cost to get an oxy-acetylene rig for my garage. Just an off-hand question over lunch on Saturday. They both took this as an opportunity to divest themselves of some extra equipment they had cluttering their shops.

I'm now the proud new owner of a set of full sized tanks, four regulators, 11 gauges (some are either broken or suspect, thus the spares) two hoses, two cutting tips and a rosebud. Happy father's day!

Gotta love it when a question or a conversation turns into "stuff".

I had a similar thing happen when I was talking to my dad about post vises. His ear perked up and to my surprise he had one laying under his porch in the back yard that he happily gave to me. Maybe next time i'm in town I'll ask about power hammers

Yeah, you just have to let folk know that you have an interest in something and stuff just starts crawling out of boxes and the woodwork. I have been working on improving my jewelry making skills for the last two years and I have been getting all kinds of little tools that folks great grandpa used back in the 19020's and earlier for nothing and some of this stuff goes so high on eBay. It's like I had been trying to sell my LG for a couple of years and Harold bought it and now all kinds of folk are saying "If I'd a only known", what they do have ear plugs stuck in their ears? It weren't no secrete, why I even had it on craigslist and that guy offered to haul it of for scrap. You got to ask, seek and knock! Them really old ladies at church are a gold mine of old tools you know and a lot of them know their grand kids don't give two hoots and a holler about old tools except how much it will bring for a computer game. And all them old ladies want is the tool to be loved and cared for by a righteous man. :blink:

Helping my friend move his shop, hydraulic pump and angle plate both size XL.

Now that is a SCORE- great looking pump set-up!

My first swage block:



As you can see, it was made by AB Jardine. They were based out of Hespeler, Ontario, Canada. I have seen trip hammers, tire shrinkers, caulking vises, and other blacksmith/farrier tools made by them.

Good find. The edges look pretty sharp and you've got some added decoration where it looks like a shaft was stuck in a sprocket

Went to the monthly flea market here in town, hoping to find something to follow me home. I left the flea market wondering why they even call it that. There was nothing but a bunch of new crap from china and not much of anything else. I remember going there as a kid and it would take all day to walk it, now me and my family walked it in around an hour and 1 1/2 sections that used to have booths are now parking. Guess im going to have to range farther from home to see if I can get anything to follow me home.

Very nice swage block! Great score there for sure :P

Nice swage block Mark.