ThomasPowers

Take it apart and determine what the trouble is.

Have you called up Machine Shops to ask about drops?

Yes/no they would follow a UV trail and would stop and beep at your door if they had a package for you, (scanned in at the mailroom). Luckily Artemis Gordon worked for us back then!

My eldest Daughter is a Veterinarian and is DEATH on folks leaving out old fashioned anti freeze to get rid of varmints.

Ahh the JABOD can be a coal forge. I was given a swedish cast steel anvil by a retiree and just remember there were more anvils in the cities than in the country! I lived in inner city Columbus Ohio when I got most of mine locally. I didn't get the one that was in a car repair business that had been in the same place since 1918; I got their 6" post vise at that Auction. I did get the 134# HB at a HVAC business that had moved to their "new" building in the 1930's. You close to any boat building or maintenance areas?

At 25 you should be paying a LOT of attention to A: reproductive hazards and B long term health toxins. At 65 I don't need to worry about either; but I do invite a lot of young folks to my shop including grandkids and so it behooves me to run it *SAFELY* anyway!

Is there a window near your end? Easy to run a chimney through a window and then up. My chimney just goes through a hole in the wall. Remember "Too much ventilation is just barely enough for a propane forge!"

Since you don't need to spend a lot of money on a London Pattern anvil, (Not standard over most of the world!) Why?

The X pumping system is well documented in several variations to the medieval period; but the frame takes up a lot more space to travel with. I mounted two smallish bellows on a piece of plywood so they can easily be used for a ground forge or a forge I build on a table from adobe. The green bellows cost less than US$1 to build, the reddish brown one was more expensive as I sprung for real leather. Scale is 2' long. They work great with charcoal. They are getting a bit bedraggled as I have been using them over 20 years now for a forge based on the one depicted in the Hylestad Stave Church carvings. BTW do you have a copy of "Cathedral Forge and Waterwheel" Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages, Gies & Gies, lots of good illustrations and answers to such common questions as "When did they start using coal for blacksmithing in Europe?" I assume if you are interested in Medieval smithing you have a copy of "Divers Arts" and perhaps "De Re Metallica"; know any good sources to share?

Let your improvised anvil pay for the one you want! Of course I would argue that a type of anvil that has been in continuous use for 3000 years over most of the "ferrous" world is decent---Japanese swordmakers use them and they are considered to do decent work! I've a stack of London pattern anvils and use them often; but I've also made my own stake anvils and used "cube" anvils. If I had to make a living at ornamental ironwork I probably would go for a southern german double horned anvil and if I was making tools and doing heavy forging something like a Nimba. But I'm cheap and so use the ones that the TPAAAT brought in and am happy I anviled up before FinF came on tv...been forging 41 years now; it's my primary hobby. TPAAAT also works for power hammers; I found 3 for sale 2 blocks from where I worked in this small rural town. I was able to buy a blacksmithing "hoard" and sell off what I already had or didn't want and pay for all I kept; so my 25# LG and cone mandrel and coal forge for billet welding were *free*. (NM is tool poor as it had a very small population in the latter 19th and early 20th century. Florida had about 2.5 times the population of NM in 1900 and NM is almost twice as large.) If you read a lot here you will probably run across me saying over and over again: 1000 hours forging on a US$100 anvil will make you a better smith than 100 hours forging on a US$1000 anvil. It's skill, stamina, muscle memory that counts the most!

I celebrated it by driving from Van Buren AR to Albuquerque NM with my Mother.

It looks like a good and useful steel anvil. Personally I have been bringing an 80# rectangular solid of steel to demo's and classes that I paid US$16 for at the scrapyard just to show that the style of anvil that has been used for 10 times as long as the London Pattern has, still works! I would NOT suggest getting a cast iron ASO; and be careful---I have found a brand called "Real Steel" selling cast iron anvils---guess which words were largest on the box? The fastest way to go from nothing to good work is to start ASAP and practice! Do you have any relatives or organizations you are part of where you could start using TPAAAT? I'm an introvert and talking blacksmithing to folks has helped me a lot in that regard.

I'd check with the local ABANA affiliate as to what a good "going rate" for that item would be where you are at. Then take it to a meeting and sell it off!

Yes those often rust into oblivion.

Any charcoal on/in the firepot will want to burn; not all of that will contribute to heating metal. That is why trench forges help slow charcoal use; or if you see some of the ground forges used in 3rd world countries; they are actually quite small---heat is money! When I forge with charcoal I tend to build a fire in an outdoor firepit and shift coals over to the forge as needed with a shovel I made from shaker screen. Dig a pile out of the fire, shake to get with of ashes and fines and dump into the forge. A hand powered air source will really save on charcoal too; most motorized ones are way too much for charcoal!

To make a good anvil you need solid steel from the top to the bottom. Most of that is air and so is loud, bouncy and NOT a good anvil substitute. So what can you find that is? Bull dozer parts, massive chunks of army tanks, broken knuckles off railroad couplers, scrapped dies from metal stamping machines. Not knowing where you are at makes it harder to suggest what you might be able to find.

Note that rolling and slitting was cutting edge technology being used at Saugus; most ironworks in Europe and England didn't have it! England believed in mercantilism; where a country "farmed" their colonies for raw materials; but all "value added" work was done in the "England" with the profits (and employment) accruing to England. So American colonies could refine iron ore; but further processing was to be done in England and the products sold back to to the colonies. Protective tariffs were enacted to keep out other sources. This was a major gripe that helped incite the revolution.

What happens if it "explodes" during use? Your liability is quite high I believe.

That hole is definitely a blaster burn; looks like a helmet for a SF con anyway. I rather like the "brain" look however... for dishing: use a much "flatter" dishing hammer ground or forged from the main face of a ballpeen or my favorite; a railroad bolt---not spike, bolt! Forge into a block of wood with a dish carved into it. (The rule is hard on soft and soft on hard; so steel hammer over wood dishing form and rawhide or wooden mallet over steel ball stake for smoothing things out. Check with the local SCA group for someone doing armouring locally; they are generally very helpful with new folks---I claim it is because after doing it yourself; most folks decide that the "excessive prices" on things are DIRT CHEAP! (And the others become friends or shop help!)

Not heuristically complicated? I have an auction catalog (Christies? Sotheby's?) for a medical item auction that includes a hand crank bone cutting chainsaw and that was NOT the squickiest item! (I have it for the early glasses included in the sale...)

Hmm have the thumb latch rotate bushy eyebrows...Have recently read "Deadly Feasts" about the spread of prion diseases; I hope you didn't have grandpa over for dinner!

Details on how you want to use it? 1/4" stock or 5" stock for instance!

If you are in the USA; I strongly suggest you try to ILL books from your local public library---gives you a chance to look them over before shelling out the money for them. One of my first knife forging books, I bought new and later gave away I disliked the fellow's methods so much; wish I had ILL'd it first!

Pneumatic tubes

For that implement wheel I use one to hold my forging pliers, (different set from the ones NOT supposed to get hot!) I use the old steel/iron wheelbarrow wheels as tong racks---4 so far sorted by "commonly used" (by the forge); flat bits, round bits and oddballs.