Shop tips or...

[arftist]

When I first found this site I read a lot of the blueprints and I have to say, nice work, and thank you. But, I look to this spot every day, and nothing personal, but I am not interested in crowd control. How about some shop tips now and then? I will start with something simple, which many of you probably already know , but maybe get the ball rolling. When I need to make a simple jig for hot bending, I use a piece of angle iron as the base. Then when I use it, I just clamp the bottom leg of the angle in a vice. If this is a repeat, please ignore.

[KevinD]

I just wish I had a shop..............with air conditioning.

[HWooldridge]

I do the same and pretty much all of my scroll jigs are on angle iron bases. I can put them anywhere in the shop in a vise and go to work. My small bending jigs (pins and other forms) are on square stock made for the hardy. Although I haven't built one, I have seen a rig that dropped in the hardy and held multiple tools simultaneously around the edge of the anvil. It was locked into the hardy by a bolt and fit the heel of the anvil. IIRC, about 4 tools could be held. This was a production setup in craft shop so they might do several hundred similar items before switching to something else.

Kevin, I hear you...some days down here are miserable. Fortunately, my shop is on a slight hill so I catch a few breezes when the Gulf winds are blowing. Other than that, it's usually 100 in the shade...even a swamp cooler would be better than nothing.

[arftist]

HWooldridge, what is a swamp cooler? I am a swamp yankee, but I've never heard that.

[HWooldridge]

A swamp cooler a big radiator with a fan behind it. No chilled air, it just acts as an evaporator. They are good for about 20-30 degrees below ambient in very dry areas (hence the popularity in Arizona) but aren't worth much where it is humid. We have a couple at work and they probably only drop the air about 5 degrees. On the other hand, moving air at 95 F is better than still air at 100...it's all relative.

[arftist]

Right, guess I just never heard the term before, thanks for the info.

[divermike]

we call em mold spreaders.

[Gobae]

But, I look to this spot every day, and nothing personal, but I am not interested in crowd control.

Oh?! There's threads here on crowd control (I don't usually read this section). I'll have to go look for them. Cool! Thanks for the heads up.

[Don A]

This is not something I invented, I borrowed this from somebody else, but I guess that's true about everything...

On my actual hardy tools (hot cut, swages, fullers, etc.), I use a traditional solid shank.

However, with some of the tools that sit on the anvil face (guillotine, spring swages, etc.), I simply use a piece of 1" angle for the hardy shaft.

I put the new tool on the anvil face and a piece of angle in the hardy hole, clamp it up, tack it, then take it out and weld it.

On tools like this, where the purpose of the hardy shank is simply to keep the tool in place, the angle is a cheap, quick, light weight solution.

Don

[Pault17]

Don,
cool idea on the angle for hardy stock. I am "lucky" enough to have a HF russian submarine for an anvil with the diagonal hardy hole. so making a post to fit is a bugger. But, while typing that in I realized I could weld the angle on the edges and it would work fine.
thanks for the helpful inspiration!