meco3hp

Hello,
you might go over to anvilfire.com some times the starting picture on the home page is George Washington working in a forge.

Here is the link to the story page on anvilfire

Link removed at the request of Jock at anvilfire.

post drill! This caused Jacko to go running for the doc across the road, as the post drill had given me a cut that was going to leave a mark! He came and took one look at the site before him and exclamed,,,

about that time brother James from down the road came in and wanted to know if we could make a coffin for the undertaker next door to him as he had died in the night from an overdose of medicinal bourbon,,um I mean embalming fluids! "Well I guess so" said I. We procceded to remove the branch from the roof, when,,,

pick the anvil up showing off for my mother-in-law, but he had sweaty hands from working on old man Smith's wagon. It broke an axel while he was,,,,

sure thing on the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Fine Art. I think I toured it way back when I was in vo-tech, I didn't have an eye for it back then though. Yes Jr and I have talked about getting together.

Hello,
Does it have the look of a fine celled bath sponge, with a spot or two of shiny glazzed over spots on it? If so I also had a few pieces of that. I was told it'd burn just fine. I had the same problem, wouldn't burn, wouldn't break up. I finally pitched it into the driveway to fill a rut. I hope you didn't pay much for it. If so see if they would take it back, or prove to you that it'd burn correctly.

Hello,
One of the guys over at the Practical Machinist forum posted that Brownell gun suppy had 1 and 2 lb molds for sale. I checked it our and yes they do. The very same style as what I have, but only in the 1 and 2 pounders though. Check it out!

http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=7608

Hello,
Here are some more pics of the bulk lead melter.

This is the bottom with the burner turned upside down. Notice the bottom rim is intact except for the hole for the blower tube.

Here is a top. I tried to get a view of the inside but I just couldn't get the light right. Watch for a blueprint on this in a few weeks.

Hello,
Now this would make a good reality TV show. Ian if you get to come through the Land of Oz here in the U.S. (Kansas), stop by and we'll tour the Barbed Wire museum (over 900 differnt kinds of Barbed Wire) and forge something!

Hello,
I'm using old junk pallets for fuel. There isn't a fire pot per say like a forge, the bottom rim is unmodified except for the hole in the side for the blower tube. The middle rim has the entire center cut out so all that is left is the part that the tire bead sets on, and the top rim has the center cut out as seen in picture #3. I'll post some more pics tommarrow and see if I can get some better shots of the inside. The chunks of wood from the pallets are cut to about 12" and I just put a bunch in and add a little deisel fuel (about a cup) and light it with some paper. Cutting shorter peices of wood allows more fuel to fit into the fire chamber. I like junk pallets because I can get them for hauling them off and they'll just go to the city burn pit anyways if I don't get them.

Hello,
Here are some pics of my "bulk lead melter". I made it using 3 old car rims. The bottom one is normal except that I cut a hole in the side for the incoming air. It is set so the "face" of the rim is up. The second rim has all of the center of it cut out. The top rim has parts of the center cut out. If you look at the picture you'll notice that it is a old car rim that has the hubcap clips on it. That is what keeps the "ladel" up so I have openings for the exhaust to exit. I also put castable refractory around the top so I consentrate the heat. I also left one place on the side with no refractory so I can preheat small ladels. These are just plain old steel wheels. I've got plans to mount the whole thing (blower and all) on wheels so it's movable. The next one I build will most likely use 4 rims so I can get more fuel into it. When you use it, there is very little smoke or ash so thats not a problem at all. The blower is one that I had around for a while, until I found a use for it. Same with the old electric motor, it's a Maytag motor from a maytag retrofit kit. I made most of this from the scrap pile. The only things I bought was 2 grease zerks for the blower and the aluminum flex hose and 2 clamps. My big ladel is a dairy barn waterer, I picked up in Missouri. The way it was mounted in the barn made it perfect for mounting a handle on it. I can pour 15 ingots from one melt of the ladel at a time even though my ingot molds have room for 16. The 1 has casting flaws that if I poured any into it I couldn't get it out. I didn't get any pics of my ingot molds, I could get some if you want to see them. I figure if you could line the ladel with a ladel coating, you could easily melt aluminum with this setup!







If you have any questions, just ask.

T-Gold,
You'd be surprised just how many people stop and ask, "What are they for?" I've only sold 3 of these hammers at 3 shows this year. I had about 600 people walk by at the show this weekend, no buyers. My engine buddies and I just can't figure it out. We feel $5 is a good price and my replacement deal is a very good deal, but nobody seems interested. I've had a few guys say, "I just use a brass hammer for my stuff". I've messed up threads and the ends of shafts with a brass hammer myself! I also ask them, "What would you use when your working on something thats made of brass?" They just shrug their shoulders to that. I ask it nicely not trying to be smart about it, but they just don't think they'll ever need one, I guess. I think $5 is a cheap price to pay for a tool that when you need it, you need it! It won't go bad just sitting on a shelf or in a tool box! Oh well, I'll just keep carrying them to shows. It's not costing me much to make them so far. The lead is mainly what I've picked up or have been given. The 1/2" blackpipe is stuff that I had in my scrap pile. I'll have to go buy some 3/8" blackpipe for the little 1lber, but I figure I'll only get about enough for 10 hammers for that. That won't be too bad.
I'll get a picture of my "bulk lead melter" tommarrow and post them. I use junk wood pallets (that I get free, for hauling off) to fuel that one! Thats what I use when I'm cleaning/consolidating lead or pouring alot of hammers. It works perfectly! Cheap to make also. I'll also show you my monster ladel I made from a dairy cow waterer. I can melt 50-60lbs with that all in one shot!

Hello,
I've seen the hammer molds on ebay (I'm bidding on a 2lber right now), or in antique stores, same with the ladels. I've seen a 5lber on ebay one time. The molds go anywhere from $25 to $75, the ladels anywhere from $1 up to $10. The lead is any lead I can get my hands on! Mainly lead tire weights from the tire shops some times for free or most of the time for scrap cost of lead. The last lead I got was $0.40 a pound. I also tell the guys I sell hammers to, that when they need a new hammer head, I'll pour a new one on their handle or exchange them a new one for $3. I like to put some kind of deal with the tools I make and sell. Kinda like a warranty type deal. I get my coupola furnace set up to pour cast iron and I'll make some of these molds to sell too.

Hello,
Here are some pictures of my hammer pouring activities.
I had a request at the last engine show I was at to pour a babbit hammer for one of my engine buddies. He bought one of my lead hammers but asked if I could pour a babbit hammer also. So I'm heading to a show tommarrow and he might be there so I was going to take these up to him. I melted down a big babbit bearing half and a ingot to make these two hammers. The bearing half was one I picked up at a auction. It was brand new but it didn't have any numbers on it and I don't know what it was for. About 3" shaft is what it would fit on. It was brand new.
After I clean up the sprues with a lead file and the new owner puts grips on them they'll be great. The big one is 3lbs and the small one is 1lb. The big one uses 1/2 black pipe for a handle, and the small one uses 3/8" black pipe. I seen one that had the factory handle with it and it's a nice cast iron handle. I know the 1/2" black pipe handle will take a 3/4" heater hose well enough that you'll have to cut it off of the pipe to get it off. (I did mine that way and have done some hard beating with it and it's never moved) I take them to shows and sell the big ones for $5. I haven't taken the small ones to any shows yet, but I'm figuring about $4 for them.
Just something differnt I do on my forge every now and then, and some thing else I can sell at shows, wether I'm smithing or showing engines.

Hello,
I'm hot forging.

Hello,
I thought that might be the problem today with a couple of pieces of scrap I was playing with. They wanted to crumble on me after a while. Before I could try it, I had to get back to work. I'll play with it some more tommarrow. Thanks!

Hello,
Thanks for the link. I'll see what I can do now.

Hello,
Looks interesting, I'll have to make some. Anybody have a picture or link for one of these russian roses?

Thanks
Richard

Hello,
I've got a small project that uses brass to make forged tapers in a rectangular shape. Anybody know what brass alloy to use? My Machinert's handbook calls out old SAE "standard" numbers. I doubt anybody locally would even have the slightest idea what I was talking about.

Thanks
Richard

Hello,
I'm planning to use a cut off saw to cut it. The first one that I'm wanting to do is only about 5" long (it's been well used). After I cut the bad end off I'm going to have about 4" left. Thats a good idea about the wet towel. I'll have to let you know how it goes.

Hello,
I've got a couple of wood splitting wedges that have had some fair size chunks knocked off of the hammer end. If I used a cutoff saw to cut the bad ends off and then welded a hardie shank onto them would they be worth the effort? I figure I'd have to reharden the cutting edge. I'm just trying to make a useful tool out of a piece of scrap. They wouldn't be good for splitting wood after I cut the bad end off, as they would be way too short for splitting any more. I'm pretty sure these are old wedges and not some new chinese junk. I'd swear the chinese ones are cast!

Hello,
It looks like part of a early indicator. You might go post it over on the Antique Machinery and History section of the,
http://www.practicalmachinist.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php

Hello,
It's kinda like the old 6" Starret bench vise I found at a garage sale about 9 years ago. I asked the guy about it and he said $5 then said $3 because it was missing the swivel base! I made a base and stand so it was easier to use and move around. The guys at work thought I was nuts for mounting a "bench vise" anywhere other than a "bench"! This vise is one of my crown jewels. Here is a couple of pictures. The base is a car rim filled with concrete. I brace my foot aginst it to get leverage. It makes you think about how to hold something and get the best leverage, which makes you think about some of the ways NOT to hold something that could damage you or the vise.





Edit: Image reduced

Hello,
I think I got the problem hammered out. I changed the orfice size to a #60. As you guys said the forge had to be warmed up for a while for the flame to stableize. When I was adjusting and testing it I was only letting it get about 10 minutes of warm up time. That was just starting to get a good orange color to the surface of the refractory. When I let it run for about 30 minutes and the refractory was a bright orange almost all the way through and I shut the door, it'd run fine, with no "huffing". I'm going to run it for a few days and see what happens. Thanks For the help!

Hello,
Was looking though a blacksmithing tool cataloge, thinking up ideas for tools I could make in the shop, and I saw 2 tools that I wondered what they where used for. One is a "monkey tool", one is a "anvil devil". What are they for and how do you use them? I looked in all of my referance books and I'm not finding any info on them. I could make them easy if I did have a use for them.