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I Forge Iron

Jon Kerr

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Everything posted by Jon Kerr

  1. In my little shop that will be very handy too, as I dont have the space for multiple vices with different throws.
  2. I assumed that would be the answer Thomas but I thought I'd check incase there was some hidden nugget of wisdom about vice jaws Thanks!
  3. Indeed, thanks chaps. Sorting out the fit on those jaws was my next task- it will be easier to do one I have a suitable stand finished.
  4. The jaws are now in position. I intend to dress them with a grinder at some point, including radiusing the edges facing the vice body which may help them sit better. As you can see the alignment of the jaws isn't great. Does anyone have any guidelines as to what the alignment should ideally look like for a closed leg vice? Obviously due to the swinging mechanism they are only going to be parallel at a certain distance apart. I started making a vice stand for this. I still have a ways to go..... Unfortunately, I also made the mistake of leaning the vice up against a cabinet while I drilled out the holes for the stand. I watched in slow motion as the 30kg vice began to topple sideways and crashed into my 3D printer.... I had tools in my hand, and there was no way I would catch it in time. (A stupid mistake. It was a temporary storage location under a bench. Accident waiting to happen. Fortunately the 3D printer wasnt currently in working order anyway, but its certainly not going to be working any time soon now!) *sigh*. Two steps forward, one back.
  5. Absolutely, this ^ Thanks again everyone.
  6. Just to say this is a great video, and very helpful (as are all your videos!) thanks Jennifer! I wish I could make forge welding look easy like you do (actually...... I wish I could forge weld at all, easy or otherwise!)
  7. Absolutely Thomas- I'm good friends with these guys, and the favours go both ways- I often help them out with CAD designs, 3D printing, etc..... but- it would be easy have them solve every problem I ever come across, but the last thing I want to do is tick these guys off..... because when I need their help (like today!) I really NEED it! Hence, I try and only trouble them when I have no other options. The workshop guys will be feasting on cakes and biscuits tomorrow I assure you!
  8. Well, this escalated.... in a good way! Took the vice into the workshop at lunchtime intending to use the pillar drill. One of the chaps had a look and reckoned the hole was too mangled to stop it wandering. He offered to do it for me on the mill! This turned out to be a lifesaver as there was something VERY hard stuck in the bottom of that hole. Even the milling machine with a carbide drill was NOT sounding very happy. Furthermore the hole hardly matched up to the measured holes in the jaws so wouldn't have fitted even if I'd been successful. In the end, my mate succeeded in drilling the hole out in the correct position, and even tapped it for me. Next step, get it home, get the other set of jaws on, and reassemble, then sort out a vice stand. Very happy! Thanks again for all your help and advice. I'd have probably done something silly and ended up in a far worse position.
  9. New removeable jaws made by the workshop. I can dress them up with a grinder and then heat treat as appropriate. As for the "mangled" hole.... I have that half of the vice in the car boot with me. I'll have a go at lunchtime at drilling out the stuck bolt! At least now I can use the jaws as a guide for where the original hole was.
  10. Hi all, Thanks again for all the advice. Still working on this. Tonight I succesfully finished drilling and tapping the 3 good holes. I couldnt move onto the mangled hole as I want to use the jaws as a guide and I left them with the workshop guys. I did try removing it with the "reverse tap extracto thingy" but couldnt get it to bite. I will try once more once I've drilled a small hole knowing the centre point, but I'm doubtful. Thomas et al: are you saying I'm likely to not be able to drill out the bolt with a hand drill? (I have no experience doing so) Maybe I need to take it to the workshop pillar drill. Marc: I hear your concerns re/ M8..... at this stage I dont want to go further to try and move to M10/12, but I understand I'm taking a risk. At my current smithing skill level I'm not likely to be doing very heavy work on it for a while anyway.
  11. Further update: The workshop guys have given up. Whatever material those jaws were made from, its HARD! They tried annealing with a torch and it made no difference- must be air hardening steel. I can possibly anneal them at home in vermiculite, but the guys are going to make me some new jaws from steel gauge plate for now. I owe them some cakes for their trouble! Tonight I'll have a go at finishing drilling and tapping the holes....
  12. If it is, I have some bolt removal bits (basically just like a tap in opposition direction). If I drill a small hole I might be able to use that to extract the old bolt. Depends how badly rusted/seized it is.
  13. Live update: The workshop are fixing the countersink in the removeable jaws for me.... .... I got an email 20mins later to say the countersinking bits couldnt touch the steel as it was so hard! I should have thought to check the hardness and annealed them before I took them in..! I asked the workshop to have a go at annealing them with an oxy torch- I can always reharden them at home.
  14. Hi everyone, Thanks for the tips and advice again! SLAG- I've been using a tapping oil so far, for both drilling and tapping, just because I had it lying around. I was also going to try 3-in-1. I guess I high sulfur oil would be better? What does the sulfur do? Marc- a helicoil is an option but I wanted to try and avoid it if possible. If I can get all the holes to M8 threads, I'll still have plenty of "meat" around the holes. I'm worried about that bad hole though and after your comments I actually wonder if its part of a bolt stuck in there, but its hard to tell. Maybe using successively larger bits as you say is that way to go? IDF&C- great idea- will do exactly that when I come to drill the bad hole. Anachronist- thanks! Yes it was a bit interesting without a pillar drill. As for the mating of the new screws... I work in an engineering company with an in-house workshop. Unfortunately modern Health and Safety rules prevent me from using most of the equipment in there, but occasionally the machinists will do me a favour. I've brought the vice jaws in with me today and will get them to increase the countersink size to suit an M8 screw flush. My backup plan will be to lug the vice into the workshop and drill out any stubborn holes on the pillar drill, but I'm not sure how pleased my boss will be if he sees me!
  15. Had another go tonight. (Only had 20mins in the shop). Watched some YouTube videos about drilling steel earlier and followed the advice. Having a new drill with better speed control and a better chuck helped. I made it through 1.5 holes before the battery died (and it was late anyway). Only openening them up from approx 6mm to 7mm, ready for an M8 tap, but it worked. I also have a new tap wrench, which doesnt slip on the shank. So i managed to successfully tap the first hole out to M8. I've attached pictures of the dodgy hole. Not sure how much success I'll have drilling this one. Any tips?
  16. For anyone else who might trip over this thread via a google search... I'll add my vote to "The Backyard Blacksmith" by Lorelei Sims. This was my first (and currently only) blacksmithing book but its excellent. Full of background info for beginners, starts assuming you know literally nothing, but goes into some detail on some intermediate skills like heat treating. Step-by-step guides to making your own tooling early on, and LOADS of great example products to have a go at too.
  17. Thanks for the replies everyone. I'll post some more pictures and details but I might not be able to get into the workshop till the weekend.
  18. Gotcha! Great advice, thanks.
  19. Unfortunately not Is that the route you'd pursue though Thomas? Trying to fix the bolt holes?
  20. Hi all, I picked up this vice cheap on eBay. Unfortunately the photos are old- its now been fully wire brushed, oiled and is ready to go except one problem... the jaws. The vice has removeable jaws. I have no idea if this is a modification, old repair, or original. I doubt its original. When I bought it, the jaws had bolts in (1 missing), but the vice was seized shut. Once I got it unseized and cleaned it turns out these bolts were in a bad way (they certainly werent holding the jaws in much!)- the threads are mostly ruined and one of the holes is actually mangled and diagonal- I cant see how it ever had a bolt in it. Really strange. My question is- what would you guys do to repair it? I've tried drilling the hole out and tapping but its too tough without serious gear. I had no joy trying to drill the mangled hole out clean. Would you weld the jaws back on? I have no experience welding but am about to purchase a stick welder and gegt a friend to teach me. Would that be an appropriate fix? I'm really hesitant as I dont want to ruin a really nice old vice, but its sat useless for the past few months since I cleaned it and I desperately need a solution.
  21. Oh I see! You remove the wooden handle. I've seen these rod tools before but never using an old hammer. I suppose the hammer just has the advantage of the eye which is a nice strong joint to the rod? I'll definitely look into that. Is this essentially the same as a handled punch? Is replacing the wood with a rod just for the purposes of heat proofing? Or do people tend to use both rod tools and wood handled punch type tools for different jobs?
  22. Thomas- what do you mean by a rod handle?
  23. Thats a good idea, thanks guys! I have loads of little ball peens from car boot sales. I'll do just that. I also have some bike chain ready to make a hold-down, which I'll probably need soon. I'm very sympathetic Pnut- I know exactly how that feels. This time last year I was out braving the elements. Cold and drizzle I can deal with but DARKNESS at 4pm is a problem! I'm very lucky now with my new shop. Most Wednesday evenings I rush home from work for a forging session between about 4.30pm and 7.30pm (when the neighbours kids are heading for bed). I couldnt even dream of that until I had a fully lit shop.
  24. Hi everyone, More updates- boring by most people's standards but its progress for me I made 2 small hooks, and rigged up a temporary bending jig with two round piece of steel in my vice. This worked a treat and was much easier to get the bends to match. As soon as I have access to a welder I'll be making myself a proper version. I started two bottle openers, but reacher the stage where I'm missing the tools needed to continue. SO, rather than try to bodge it with tools I have, I've forced myself to be patient, stop, and make the necessary tools to finish the job properly. So.... I made a simple drift from an old masonry chisel. Its not perfect but it will do the job. I removed the rail track from the post so I could safely cut a notch out to make a mini horn. My portable hardy anvil is now a really useful tool- the holes are fine for punching and drifting, and the square hole works well for my only current hardy tool (a hot cut). I'm hoping to make a spring fuller soon! Next time I'm in the shop I can use the drift and mini horn to do a little more on the bottle openers. Then, I'll have to pause again to make a rounded punch (for the opener tab), and a chisel and a centre punch as I want to try a dice twist. (These will be gifts for my boardgamer/wargamer friends!) The final pic is the current view of the forging area of my shop. I couldnt be happier with this, given that I was forging outdoors, at the bottom of a muddle garden next to a falling down shed this time last year!
  25. Poor guy is probably very aware he was doing something silly then. I'll do everything I can to be safe...... I'd be heartbroken to burn down my brand new shop. I'll probably go with the simplest option of a thicker piece of steel in the bottom to prevent anything being pierced..... and simply kick myself if I drop a knife and break the tip off when it hits the hard bottom! At current levels of progress I'm about 30 years away from making my first knife anyway. Thanks Thomas! Pnut- Ah! There you go. More Scottish Kerrs- it does seem if you go back far enough thats where theyre all from. Interestingly...... my great grandfather was also an Irish Kerr (from whom my name descended)! Maybe we're distantly related Pnut?! Clan Kerr history/legend in Scotland is quite amusing. Apparently they were a pretty troublesome border-tribe and gave the English (or, really, the Anglo-Saxons) plenty of trouble. Apparently a disproportionate number of Kerrs were left handed, and as such they built the spiral staircases in their castles to be backwards (anti-clockwise) to give advantage to the left handed men. Sounds like a load of rubbish to me (because it would also benefit their mostly right-handed enemies!.. not to mention the Kerr TROOPS probably werent all right handed!) but.... the staircases are indeed backwards in a couple of their castles! (Fot those wondering what I'm talking about.... castle staircases were often built with a clockwise spiral. This provided benefit to right-handed defenders as their sword arm was not impeded when defending the staircase from the top, wheres right-handed attacked would have a harder time swinging thanks to the centre of the spiral.)
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