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I Forge Iron

It followed me home


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Thanks Nodebt,

thanks Irondragon, 

yes there are 19 tools, i wish I had more time and money on me this morning then I would have just bought everything on the truck an trailer,

I recognized what most of these tools were so I started pilling them up, but there were a lot more tools I didn’t recognize. 

I didn’t already have any of these so it’s gonna be fun learning to use them,

the cutters I think will come in handy right away since I started practicing splitting metal and making hotdog roasters, but I’ve never used fullers, flatters or the swage tools, so that’s gonna be new! 

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My own hypothesis is that the really good and useful tools tend to get retained by people who actually want to use them, while the less useful ones continue to circulate in the market, accumulating dust, rust, and markup.

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That makes sense JHCC,

hopefully I’ve found some useful tools today, 

maybe after I’ve built up my tool collection, and I’ve learned how to use everything I find then I might let go of the stuff I don’t use too, 

but right now I’m still dragging home every blacksmith tool I can find that way I can try working with a little bit of everything till I find what I like and what works for me.
    Or like you said find what tools I’ll actually use lol. 
 

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TW, I'm getting the impression you don't realize how fantastically lucky you are to have found such a collection of useful tools in such good shape at such a reasonable price. I passed on a collection like that once when I was young and foolish, and I've been kicking myself ever since.

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Excellent buy TW!

I was at our regional “mini-conference” for a while today and picked up a new toy:2543C6D6-5EE9-432A-AFCA-2E5F09A3CA27.thumb.jpeg.4d5f392c38224fd52796e7ccee809911.jpeg

It needs clean up and the vise need some work, but it runs great and the price was really good! As a bonus, came with five née blades.

(I’ve really got to get my shop setup moving…)

David

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That’s awesome Goods! I have yet to find a power hacksaw! I’m jealous! 

JHCC, I’m sorry about your lost deal, I hope you get another shot one day! 
I know how that feels I have humhoed around before an lost a chance a buying something an that feels like a kick in the backside… 

I am very happy and excited about these tools, even though I don’t have experience with using some of them now, I will definitely learn! 

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"but there were a lot more tools I didn’t recognize."

  Those can be fun to find.  If they are cheaply priced (and they usually are, most others have no idea what they are either)  I buy them up and "figure it out later".  Or haggle around and get them thrown in to boot... :)

  That's a nice saw, Goods.  I wanted one badly and searched for years with no luck.  Finally, I gave up and built my own.

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Goods - I once had the same Marvel #2 saw which served me well in spite of having numerous repairs - broken cast iron pieces with sloppy brazed repairs.  Then one day I was sawing something and noticed one of the guide pieces for the saw frame wobbling so I put my finger on it to sort of smooth out some of the wobbling.  The saw immediately convulsed and broke in so many places that repairing it seemed to be an overwhelming task.  I scrapped it.  I believe I still have the saw frame and maybe the vise parts in my scrap pile.   I have a Johnson bandsaw now.

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Gazz, what condition are the vise parts you have? The ratchet jaw on mine needs welded up and ground in, and the rack for the ratchet “rack” needs cleaned up. Probably just file work needed on the rack. I would be interested in hearing what all you have available. PM me if interested…

Thanks, 
David

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TW, I paid US$150 for my swageblock on OKC in 1981.  I don't think prices have come down!  When I'm in such a situation---limited time but coming back a possibility. I try to get the stuff I really want the first go around; because when I come back it always seems that the price has doubled. (And the seller is grumpy at having sold stuff to me at the price they agreed to!).

Scrapyard was open Saturday!!!!!!! (After a massive storm Friday night---everything was *clean* and the mud was *nasty*!)  I managed to take home 137 pounds of steel with the big pieces being a 2.25" x 2.25" x 31.5" solid piece, I'll be interested in checking it's carbon content! Also some 1" diameter sucker rod sections, another garden rake head, a couple of tools, a carabiner, a tarp, BSB for a billet and finally a LARGE screw jack with a broken base.   It looks perfect to modify as a replacement screw/screwbox for a 6" or larger vise.  I may clean it up and bring it to quad-state in case anyone out there needs one and wants to  buy it.

 

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Thomas, that makes sense, I’m very happy to have found this one, I’ve been hunting for a swage block for awhile now, but I sure wasn’t expecting to find one for $50.

I wasn’t expecting to buy all those tools either,  I was just going there for a block, but when I started digging through the boxes I started making a pile without realizing it lol,

had I been 5 minutes faster there was another swage block and a really nice 120# Peter Wright with a clip on it, but they sold as I was walking up, 

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TW, sorry I missed your question before… In the manual it shows the max cutting size as 8”x8”. (I imagine it would take a very long time to get through a block that large!) I doubt this saw will handle that size. It has some wear that will have reduced it’s max.

Maybe I’ll report back when I get it setup. Right now, I have much higher priority projects.

David

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Also took a gamble on an eBay listing for a propane-rated brazing nozzle for the torch. The gamble appears to have paid off; at very least, the nozzle fits the torch handle. 

283FF8C1-9E1E-4571-94C0-2C9F478335B3.jpeg

36 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

Put you to work young, did they?

If memory serves, the first thing I attempted to forge with this was a piece of coat hanger wire heated in a candle flame. 

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When i was a kid i used to heat needles to red hot in a candle flame. Then when i got a bit older, 8 or 10, i would go out to my grandpa's shop and heat nails with a propane torch and make little knives hammering them on the same post vice i use today. 

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Monkey see, monkey do. And one day while mom and dad were at work, it wasn’t hard for 9 or 10 year old me to copy what I had seen my dad do countless times and light the cutting torch. That was what I used. I don’t remember what I used for stock. Just something from dad’s pile of junk. What I made were a few latches for some of the wooden gates around the barn. 
 

Dad didn’t find what I had done nearly as cool as I did, but he did begin to actually show me how to how to use his tools AND to only do so when he was around.

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