Hefty

That's an awesome set, David!

I found it interesting, but my favourite part was the added foley sound of the sharpening of the hand cutting blades that was identical to the filing of the surfaces to prepare for cutting .

Is that the bevel, or a really popping hamon?

Looks like a fantastic, fun and successful weekend, David! Nice work!

Some people put stainless needles in it, like they do with small scale, fancy concrete castings.

I'm slowly making a swage block of of a short section of rail and I used one of the v sections I cut out to make the bit to steel a small tomahawk. It holds and edge well, but I made sure to temper it well back so it didn't crack or chip with use.

Hi everyone, I've been doing a few small billets of Damascus by hand and really enjoying the results. I don't have access to a power hammer or press, but I would like to go a little bigger. Does anyone here have any experience forge welding billets with a striker? Would light strikes on a flatter work effectively for forge welding larger billets? Any advice, especially from experience, would be greatly appreciated! Cheers, Jono.

Thanks for the comments everyone! You know, Brian, I didn't even think of that until you pointed it out! But yes, they are slightly different sizes and the one side has a slight key slot sort of shape for the outer thread of the screw box. Also the hinge plates only go the one way so it would feel a bit weird to have the jaw open away from the screw handle. Today, I managed to get back to it and fix up the backwards assembly. I had a bit of trouble when I ground off the tenon/rivet. I got a bit gung-ho on the heave-ho and sheared the tenon off when I tried to twist it. At least that made it easy to punch out backwards. Then I ground it down a little, welded it back on and then plug welded it into the existing hole in the clamp assembly. And a video in summary: Thanks to everyone who has followed along and thanks for all the supportive comments! I'll keep an eye on this thread and chip in every now and then with review updates, especially if I get an acme thread or square thread for it. Cheers, Jono.

Oooooh, I really want to do this in my shop! Eventually I'd like to get an oxy/propane rig, but a decent torch that can run on a hose off a gas bottle (propane tank) would be sooo handy!

Yeah, the lathe at school has back gears for the lead screw. I would just need to find the time to set the right feed and pitch. In the meantime, in today's episode: The maiden voyage! I was keen to get a lot done today because spending the day with my wife tomorrow and I'm in a fishing competition Saturday and Sunday and then I'm back to work. I wasn't meaning to rush, but I did make some simple mistakes that will mean re-working a few things. The first part of the day was spent working on the bar for the bench clamp. I needed to drift the hole for the tenon again, then punch the undersized hole for the clamp thread then alternate the two bends around riveting the tenon in place. What actually happened was I got excited about riveting the tenon and did it before punching the second hole or making the first bend. This made the punching and bending much more awkward than they needed to be. Oh well, at least this one didn't cause any extra work to fix things. Then I had to go and buy some 12mm all thread and an M12 tap because none of my bolts had thread all the way to the head. I cheated a little bit and just stripped the galv off two M12 nuts and the end of the piece of all thread for the clamp with hydrochloric acid, neutralized them and then forge welded them to make a meatball/cylinder for the clamp handle. I ground a ball joint shape in the end of the thread and made a little clamp disc and drilled a hole in the back of it the same size as the maximum o.d. of the ball joint, then I heated it and ball punched it on around the back joint. Now what's wrong with this picture? ... Yes. I assembled it without putting it in through the clamp! I had to heat it, knock it back off, put it through and re-punch it. Thankfully, it worked and still even swivels in the ball joint. The last step was to drill through the screw for the clamp, put the handle in and then upset a ball on to the end. This just went all wrong. I got it in the end, but initially it upset on either side of the meatball, jammed, and then bent. I had to beat it back and forth, flatten it the bends, and file and grind the slight upset and marring on the handle shaft. So, I got it together! I took it to the table for its maiden voyage. It works, but again, what's wrong with this picture: It's backwards!!! It functions. It holds on the table well and it holds a work piece firmly, but I'll have to grind the rivet, grind that section of the clamp thinner and then turn it around and re-rivet it. Therein lies the challenge, my holidays are nearly done. I'll need to try to keep up some momentum to actually finish fixing the problems. I took a video of the maiden voyage, too, for anyone who's interested. https://youtube.com/shorts/wAXlfYYl0Kc?si=hfAcbqE7vxPUFd7G Cheers, Jono.

Larry, I hadn't thought about that with grease. I've sprayed it with WD-40 for the time being. Maybe I'll just leave it at that for now. I think, long term, I'll look to replace the current screw box with more suitable square or acme threads, but knowing where to get them is a sticking point, without cannabalising some existing existing tool. I have access to a small metal lathe in my department at the school I work at, but I haven't turned threads on a large since I got my degree! Anyway, hopefully I'll get the bench clamp well underway today! Cheers, Jono.

Thanks JHCC! Ooooh, I got pinned! I'm a little bit proud I was out most of today so I only got the hole punched for the vise tenon to be riveted onto the bench clamp. I'll have to drill and file it out a little because I only have a 12mm drift or a 16mm, but the tenon is about 13.5mm. I was just glad to make a little more progress. Cheers, Jono.

Thanks, I'm really happy with how it's turning out! Not sure yet about teeth on the jaws because it's going to be a small, fine work vise. I was thinking of making a bunch of different jaw covers out of different materials and/or with different teeth or textures. Cheers, Jono.

In today's episode: a new milestone reached! So, I had to anneal another meatball in the morning, and I started the two handles. A longer one for the vise and a shorter one for the bench clamp. I used my rivet heading tool and upset one end of each one and then rounded them into ball ends on the anvil. Then I drilled the meatball, only realising I'd made it slightly too short when the drill cut through the bottom of the meatball on either side of the shank. It still works, it just looks weird. I put the handle in my hand drill and then ran it against my little belt grinder to get it all nice and smooth and shiny and round and then I put it through the screw, heated the other end and repeated the ball end process. I still managed to put it back in my drill (the ball end was just small enough) and then run the other end against the grinder. Another test of the screw assembly and it was still slipping in the hole in the jaw, so I welded a bead asking the top to let it into the elongated jaw hole and it worked. With the last of my current little batch of charcoal I took ILikeShinySteel's advice and made a double ended spring, out of garage door spring, which I'm affectionately referring to as the wishbone. I didn't leave enough on each end for wings to wrap around the jaws so I was just planning to use this as a test piece but I dropped it in place and it worked perfectly! My thanks to ILikeShinySteel!! With that done, the video of it the project is complete! I've marked out the 'C' of the bench clamp and forged a one sided taper on one end where it will grip against the bench, opposite the screw section. I've centre punched where I need to bend it, where I need to punch the hole for the vise tenon and where I plan to punch undersized and then tap a thread for the screw. A great sense of accomplishment today! If you've made it this far. Here's a link to a video of the successful testing other wishbone spring! https://youtube.com/shorts/JzAJftY5GY4?si=MY4nh4VUCa-SSue4 Cheers, Jono.

In today's episode: a setback on the meatball! I got in to the shed a little earlier this morning and annealed the screw so I could drill the handle hole in the meatball. I heated it in the JABOD and put it in a metal bucket full of ash. It did the trick and my drills were able to get into it. Unfortunately, half way through, disaster struck! My forge weld had held better to the underside of the head of the bolt than to the shank, so when I drilled the handle hole to full size, it broke through the shank and the whole meatball came off! Oh well, I took another of the bolts and made a collar by drilling a short section of 25mm round bar, instead of forging flat bar around it. I am more confident in the weld this time around, but I will go with a slightly smaller diameter handle so my drill hole doesn't remove the entire shank of the bolt. (I had to go back out to the shed tonight to get a photo) In between all of this, I also welded some angle iron wings onto my rivet heading tool so it doesn't keep sliding down through my vise when I hammer on it. I'll use it to form the balls on my handle. Getting closer everyday! Cheers Jono.