In the shop! – Chuck Grimmett

Restoring an old anvil

I picked up this anvil a couple of years back thinking I would get it home and restore it the same week. Well that didn’t happen! At Christmas my son was home for a visit, we ran across it in the shop and decided to make a base for it. We found a piece of cherry log approximately 18″ in diameter, trimmed it up a bit and marked the shape of the anvil on one end.

After a bit of discussion on how to remove the end grain of this cherry, we decided on the router with a straight bit, freehand. Go slow if your doing this freehand, end grain will catch the router bit and it will run out on you!

The anvil must weigh at least 80-100 pounds! It has some faint markings on it “USA 0 . 3 . 19″ not sue of the maker. The top surface of the anvil had a large gouge or a burn out from a cutting torch. I welded the hole in using Eutectic 640 chrome alloy rod with my arc welder. I ground the weld down with my 4” grinder, then switched to a flap disk to clean the surface up. A bit of sanding and hitting the entire anvil with my wire cup, it was ready for a coat of paint. I sprayed it with primer then two coats of implement enamel from TSC. This is good paint. This will be a nice edition to the shop!

Giving new life to an old dutch oven

I was helping my mom the other day re-arranging some stuff in her attic. Mom is 83, a very active 83, but I still get nervous for her to pull the garage attic ladder down and navigate the stairs. As she was digging around some boxes, she asked if I wanted my grandmothers dutch oven? I was thrilled! Its an old #9 Griswold dutch oven with a Tite -Top lid. The inside is a bit pitted and rusty, but definitely usable. My grandmother on my fathers side was an outdoors woman from West Virginia. She loved to camp and fish the rivers for trout. This dutch oven was used over an open camp fire many, many times.

After a couple of hours of sanding and hitting it with a wire cup and grinder, it was ready for seasoning. I cant wait to start cooking in it and taking it camping for a pot of chili.

Cowboy Kent Rollins has a great YouTube video on how to season and care for cast Iron. Check it out!

Making a wire clamping tool

Having the right size hose clamp on hand or needing a large clamp usually means a trip to the big box store. Worse yet, not having a clamp that fits in your emergency bag while on a trip.

Here’s an easy project to make your own wire clamp tool.

There are a bunch of designs on YouTube and some great videos on how to build them step by step. My version is very simple, an old router wrench and a 7/16″ bolt and washer. I filed a notch in the end of the wrench to accept the wire loop and drilled a 7/16″ hole in the wrench. I cut the threads off the bolt and drilled two 3/16″ holes in the bolt to accept the wire. You can go smaller, I chose 3/16″ so I could use 10 gauge wire for heavy wood binding. I welded a washer between the holes on the bolt to control the bolt on the wrench. You can use any size wire you would like. For the mallet repair, I used 10 gauge galvanized wire. The small 3/8″ hose repair, I used galvanized bailing wire. You can use copper wire, coat hanger or aluminum wire.

This tool and 10 feet of bailing wire will definitely be in my vehicle emergency bag!