It followed me home

[Frosty]

Hmmm, Couldn't have fit at least one more where the rear seat is? How about taking the passenger seat out too? Take the lid off the trunk, turn it over attached to the rear of the trunk and make a barrel rack out of it? Oh heck just take a saw to the car, turn it into a stake bed! 

Bear in mind the generation barely ahead of mine used to cut the top off Cadillacs and make RVs out of them. By time  was old enough to start thinking about that sort of thing decent sized campers were getting common. 

Perhaps someone was poking fun at you but you need to start thinking more like a blacksmith and BSing things to your advantage. I mean, HECK a spelling error is mighty darned plausible isn't it? A little linear amplification of the plausible is the essence of good BSing!

Kids these days!

Frosty The Lucky.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

I wish I would have thought to take pictures when I hauled 700 lbs of cut off sucker rods home in my 86 Honda Civic CRX.

[JHCC]

One of my neighbors put this out by the side of the road. It felt heavy, like there might still be some gas in it, and a quick check with the gauge on my forge regulator tells me that it’s practically full. 

(That’s as full as this gauge ever shows, so we’re in good shape.)
 

[Shainarue]

2 hours ago, JHCC said:

Septa Unella from "Game of Thrones" springs to mind

Right?! Or the dodos from Ice Age! 

26 minutes ago, Irondragon ForgeClay Works said:

700 lbs

Load limits need not apply

[Frosty]

Buffalo Dodo fingers Mmmmmm!

Frosty The Lucky.

[Will Brouwers]

Picked these up for $60 today. The post vise is a little guy with 4 1/4 inch jaws. It’s overall length is 27 inches, so I’m trying to figure out how to best mount it, including getting a spring and bracket forged.

 I am hoping that the shear will work for me too. I sprayed it with penetrating oil and will hope for the best.

[JHCC]

If I were to come into possession of a 27” tall post vise, I would simply make a robust stand and use it as a striking vise without repairing the leg. Great way to get more power for upsetting at a height that’s more convenient for swinging a heavier hammer. You can use it to hold hardy tools (swages, fullers, hot-cuts, etc) at that height as well. 

[Will Brouwers]

Ooo!! Good idea! Thank you! Would such a small vise stand up to that kind of beating, I know they are made for heavy duty use, but it looks so frail next to my other post vise.

 I was also thinking of making it an only outside vise, because when I want to forge right now, I have to haul my big one upstairs. The only thing I really use it for is twists anyways, so I guess having a smaller one would work well.

As I have been going over it, I saw that the jaws aren’t smooth, they have lots of teeth for grip. I should probably just leave it like that, right?

[Les L]

I would leave the teeth and make a set of soft jaws to insert when you don’t want the project market by the teeth 

[JHCC]

I wouldn’t put a four-person sledgehammer team on it, but you should be okay for most work. 

One of Alec Steele’s earlier videos showed a shorter vise he was using for striking and grinding; the relevant section starts around the 3:30 mark:

https://youtu.be/_4ZE1AnCHVw

[Shainarue]

Happy camper here! I brought a haul of scraps home from a very generous forum member, SFC Snuffy. 

Most of this stuff I have an idea for but some of it I'm just not sure... I don't know enough about various metals yet to know what I'm looking at - like with the shiny silver pieces. Are they stainless steel or is that a coating? I don't need to know now, there's plenty there to keep me busy for awhile without using the mystery metals. 

 

Oh, and I'm going to take the springs to a local garage for safe removal.

[George N. M.]

Good haul.  I see that you have a snoopervisor making sure that you are doing it correctly.

GNM

[Shainarue]

Yup, Stella insists in inspecting all objects new to the house. She's not much of a snoopervisor but she's a thorough inspectfur. 

[Frosty]

Looks like a good haul Shaina. I don't see anything too mysterious. The bolt looks plated and if the round stock laying next to it has a similar look/color it's probably galvanized don't put it in the forge. Be careful of anything plated, some stuff can really get you.

Good move having the struts taken apart by professionals. They are VERY DANGEROUS to disassemble without the right equipment and knowledge.

Give Stella a good ear scratching for me please.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Cavpilot2k]

Question for the gallery about that post vise above: I see it is missing its normal spring. I have one a friend gave me for free that is also missing its spring. 

My plan has been to fabricate a new spring from a length of good steel, heat treat it, and bring it to a nice blue/purple temper for springiness. For Size and shape of the spring, I will just mimic the spring on the intact post vise I have. 

Are there any pitfalls with this plan that I don't foresee?

[Les L]

Cavpilot, you can use a piece of mild steel flat bar to make the spring, it doesn't need to be special steel or heat treated/tempered

[Frosty]

You need to make the spring fit the vise it's going into, the width of the jaw the U bracket fits over that holds the spring and mounting plate is the most critical followed by length. It doesn't take much rebound strength to open the jaw, mild is usually plenty. If the pivot bolt and hole is sticky it MIGHT take something springier. 

I lucked out by having a trailer spring almost exactly the right width, a smidge narrower so only had to bend the L at the bracket end and cut to length. 

If the jaw moves easily, as forged and bent mild is plenty of spring.

Frosty The Lucky.

[George N. M.]

As Les and Frosty have said, you don't need to go to the amount of work you describe.  All the spring has to do is push the moveable jaw back about 5 degrees as you open the vise.  Then, gravity takes over to move it with the screw.  Also, you don't want a strong spring to have to compress as you are closing the jaws.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[NoGoodWithUsernames]

I can confirm a spring is not entirely necessary, I have still not gotten around to putting one on my post vise. However the way it is mounted it leans just enough that the jaw opens on it's own most of the time without any help. Occasionally I'll need to wiggle the piece in it to open the jaws and pull the piece out, but not usually. 

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

21 hours ago, Shainarue said:

She's not much of a snoopervisor but she's a thorough inspectfur. 

I made the mistake of having a sausage egg and cheese McGriddle in my coat pocket yesterday

Mrs pink nose, one of the shop cats decided to inspect my coat pocket and all but climbed In there while I was working a not payin attention….

needless to say before I realized what was goin on I was ham buglered! 

[Daswulf]

10 hours ago, Cavpilot2k said:

spring from a length of good steel

I made one from a thinner smaller trailer leaf spring chunk. Forged to the shape of an existing one on another complete vise I have and just air cooled (as in tossed on the concrete floor once done to cool.l works perfect. Mild would work but I had the leaf spring steel in close to shape so cut, forged and used it. Don't go overboard, it just needs to push the jaws apart initially. After that gravity usually takes over. 

Posted before I read George's wise reply. 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

This one is made from wrought iron normalized. The important thing is the pivot point is not tight, I had to loosen up the nut and oil the joint. Works like a charm.

 

[Cavpilot2k]

Thanks all for the input. 

I do have some spare old leaf spring lying around, so I will still probably use that, but I won't overdo it. 

[Jobtiel1]

I also made mine with leaf spring. I didn't heat treat it and it works perfectly fine. 

~Jobtiel

[natkova]

Bought myself drill press .

Can be good for making knives.

Used it to drill reins of tongs too.

Lots of easier to drill holes then previous drills

Any other tips what in blacksmithing can be used for, I know some woodwork task for it.