Homemade smithin magician type fullering tool

[imagedude]

Breaking down large stock or reducing the section of a damascus billet is hard work without a powerhammer or a striker with a sledge hammer. If you are working alone you will probably end up with a hand full of blisters (especially if you are an office worker) and 1 forearm like Popeye and the other like one of Olive Oil's.
To make life easier I fabricated this device which is simply a fullering tool. .



It's simply a piece of H13 steel in a piece of scaffolding tube. There is also a lower H13 die mounted on a piece of steel plate 20mm thick. I can mount it on my anvil but I prefer to use it on the diameter 10" steel show as it is at a more suitable height. A similar tool can be made even if you don't have a lathe, simply fabricate the guide from 2 pieces of angle Iron. With an angle iron guide you could even use square bar.

Here's the bar being turned in the lathe, remember to allow for the fact that the bar will expand as it gets hot.



The top and bottom dies were made from H13 as previously mentioned, H13 is a hot working die steel. It can be hardened and tempered by heating to an orange colour and cooling in a stream of cool air. Here's a special air cooling device that I made.



The smaller dies were hardened in a similar manner.



Cont...

Title was changes as the term used was a registered trademark of another product

[imagedude]

Tempering is done by heating to a dull, plum red. This is very difficult to see and the use of heat indicating Tempil stick crayons can be a good aid. This operation must be performed in the dark. The dies were placed in a cooling forge and pulled out every minute so that the progress could be monitored. The plum colour can only be seen when the die is placed in a very, very dark place.



A guide was constructed to to maintain alignment of the top and bottom die, this also serves a secondary purpose in holding the dies apart when not in use.

Below we see the die in the raised position.



And below in the closed position. A simple tap with the hammer will cause the dies to close on to the work piece.



Here's a piece of 1.5" (40mm) EN9 (1055) that I spent a few minutes working on.



This device makes reducing the stock easier as it provides a fixed target. With the conventional hammer and anvil method you end up chasing the stock around the anvil no matter how hard you try to keep it still. This device forces the stock to stay in the right place and provides an immovable, fixed target that you can really swing your hammer at. One slight dissadvantage is that as the dies are in constant contact, they will draw heat from the stock until they warm up. This could be rectified by adding a spring that lifted the dies apart between strikes. Tomorrow I'll fabricate a device that locks the stock firmly in place allowing a single operator to use a sledge hammer.

[hdwarner]

my friend made a fullering tool using a slide hammer , about a 5.0 pound slider
that also works
that is a good idea you have there , plenty of room to pass thru with the angled trusses
is that a lifting handle on side?
plus what a clever way to straddle your anvil, it automatically centralizes the fixture

[Paragon]

Neat design.

[RainsFire]

cool, thats basically a blueprint right there!
definatly beats a spring fuller. looks sturdy as heck too.

[rusty_iron]

Gday Imagedude,
nice fuller, well made and looks very useful.
Now you just have to make a bunch of different profiles......:-)
How about a few sizes of your parts? Thanks.

I didn't think H13 had to be tempered, just aircooled? Or have I got it wrong?

Regards
Rusty_iron
Brisbane, Oz.