Spears

I smoothed out a taper by hand last weekend becuase I didn't have one of those. I will absolutely be making one soon. Thank you so much for posting that. Spears.

I really haven’t given any thoughts on making any more tongs than the few pair that I needed. Other than maybe giving some away at “iron in the hat” raffles, I may only build myself a couple more pair. I happen to like tongs where when I hold the work piece firmly, the reins are 2-3” apart. This gives leverage for torsion on the work piece more than reins close together. It’s just what I prefer. Using this fixture allows me to make them that way. I made two sets to hold 1/4” thick flat bar .5 – 1.25” wide, and a V-bit to hold various 1/2 - 5/8” round and square. The fixture works beautifully even when the hole isn’t perfectly on center. The results are very good using mild steel. I chose to weld on the end forms. I wouldn’t call this process fast or slow, just simple and successful. I’m glad to see so many people in support of the simplicity. Thank you for all your comments. Spears.

I took the time to design a fixture for starting the slitting of stock right on center. By eye and chisel I am only able to do this so accurately, but mechanically it can be done within thousandths of an inch. Once the split is started it can be finished off by a number of methods but the start of the split many times depicts how good and centered it ends up. The following fixture can accommodate rectangular or square bar stock in a range of .30” to1.45” wide. It requires a bar that is parallel and having the edges being square helps for better results also. All holes were precisely spaced and drilled using a mill. I didn’t have any reamers so I double drilled all the holes. A near press fit can be obtained on steel dowel pins by pre-drilling a hole .010 - .015” smaller before drilling the finish size of the dowel as long as your drills are sharp. A small hole pattern was put in the middle of the fixture to hold a heat treated wedge made out of H13. One threaded hole in the middle and two dowel pins for location and stability. This piece can be replaced if another flavor of tool steel is ever deemed more optimal. I TIG melted some washers to the top of the dowel pins so the disks wouldn’t pull off but rather stay in with the pins. The pins are easily assembled and seem to stay in place very well during use. The four corners would probably do the trick but I added the two middle disks also. With three small springs there was enough clamping force to center the work piece by hand before hammering. The disks act as wheels for positioning the slit lengthwise along the bar. This fixture worked extremely well on whatever I tried in it and with the work piece red hot places a beautiful 1” long groove right on center with very little effort in hammering. Spears.

Thank you kindly for your report Dave, It isn't so easy to put a process into words and you do it well. No pictures needed for me in this case. I've had some trouble getting to long of a bar heat and ending up with as much bar bending as upsetting. I have had better luck with vise clamping and a lighter hammer versus slaming a bar using its own weight. You were able to get such a good mushroom look that I was curious as to whether or not you "block clamped" around the neck to prevent down the bar distortion. Sounds like you didn't need anything like that and you were able to get all three exactly alike. Thanks again for the detailed description. Spears.

I like how the top looks with the main post and the three hooks. If there was upsetting done in those areas I wouldn't mind seeing how you held that in place to do it. I have virtually nothing except a vise to hold the neck of a piece to make such beautiful mushroom tops without distorting the bar. Excellent look. Spears.

I built two sets of tongs last weekend and I do my riveting cold. This was done on tongs having 1/4" drilled holes through the flat sections which are 1/4" thick. I don't chamfer the holes but rather deburr and leave them sharp. I snip a 3/4" long piece of 1/4" diameter low carbon steel and lightly sand or polish the outer surface so it goes through the tongs easily. Leaving 1/8" sticking out both sides I start by striking in the center of the rivet on the anvil. The tongs will come apart a little at first but are easily tapped back together by flipping the assembly over and keeping the rivet centered. When the tongs start to stay together and lock up I start peening at an angle around the edge of the rivet. This starts to mushroom out the rivet head and light repetitive tapping makes it rounded and attractive. It's simply done with a lighter weight hammer. Opening up the tongs repeatedly to bottom out tends to loosen them up and let them work freely. If one requires a slight drag or a tighter tong just smack the center of the rivet. Beware if hammered to hard on center it will cause a lock up and can take quite a bit of working back and forth for them to go freely again. I should probably do a progressive 8-10 picture report of this process but perhaps it won't work the same on tongs with pierced holes so I didn't regard it as a process of popular choice . Good luck with your tong riveting. Spears.

Excellent point Doc, A protrusion is more desirable than a dent. It was just easier for me to make a dent than tap a hole. That definitely would be worth taking the time if someone plans on building a lot of tongs this way. Thank you for mentioning that. Excellent point Phil, I left that corner rather sharp, just merely de-burred it. The thinnest area (even though a near sharp corner) is still ¼” thick. If the tong ended up un-flat or needing tweeked for alignment, I was hoping it would bend in those sharp corner areas instead of bowing over the rivet location. Surrounding the rivet location should be kept as flat as possible riveted tightly together to make a more rigid pair of tongs. In the case of this resulting in a fracture area of the tongs, just smooth out the corners of the middle pad with a die grinder or run a weld bead across those edges to make a ramp as opposed to a sharp drop-off. Something else I didn’t try was to use a top plate over the fixture that is dished out in the rivet location maybe 1/8”. This makes the rivet area of the tongs thicker. In my case this may not be a better idea because I drill my rivet hole. If you drill the rivet hole through an area that is left thicker, you’re removing more material. So in the case of a dished-out top plate, are you really making a stronger tong? Perhaps there is a happy medium. I haven’t got that far yet. Thanks for you input Phil, that is a real good point for anyone who undertakes building tongs this way. Spears.

The steel used was some left over 4140. Not the ultimate for this application but will work a few times. I used a vertical milling machine to make this. To do this by other methods might be quite a trick. Clamp two blocks in a machining vise and zero in on the split. Drill a through hole the size of the inscribed circle of the size of square rod you plan on notching. Using a larger endmill, counter bore down nearly to the half way point of the thickness of the two blocks. Flip them over and do the same to the other side. Using a dremel, sharpen the small webs of material left in the middle. Heat treatment definitely helps it. You now have a guillotine style notching tool. I posted some more pictures of this tool sometime in the past which you can find pretty easy. Spears.

The following pictures show a tong fixture which basically only puts in the offset and marks where the hole will be. It also enables a visual picture of what the final shape will be. This fixture bolts into my power hammer but could just as easily be set up for a treadle or sledge striker. Use of the fixture isn’t going to complete the tongs but rather take a good portion of the work out making it easier to make two pieces the same and visualize the final result. The Adobe files are of the dimensioned drawings showing a fixture for both 5/8” and 1/2” bar stock. The fractional sizes should make it easy for a welder to cut and fabricate should someone try this for themselves. Two rods 1/2” diameter 21” long were bent up as identical halves. I visually held them over the blue print as a guide for bending. When the shape was close to what was needed, the offset was made. Shape and size was expected to change a little when the offset was hammered in. A good heat was taken generously wider than the 1” square pad in the middle and a flat die was hammered down until bottoming out on the surrounding spacer blocks. A center punch dent in the middle pad leaves a nubbin standing up where the rivet hole is to be drilled. A small hammer was used to peen the small nubbin flat so center punching and drilling could be done right on rivet location. The square pad is merely a piece of stock half the thickness of the tong rods. The outer spacers are the full tong thickness. I used a piece of 1/4” rod for the rivet and peened it down cold and it worked well. The alignment was nice and shouldn’t require any adjustment. These tongs are not yet finished but the durability feels good for mild steel and the fixture worked well. Spears. .50TONG.pdf .625TONG.pdf

Excellent piece of ornamental iron work Dave. Let's let the "purpose" be just plain cool stuff to look at. The general public will find it amazing enough that you turned a bar of steel into something like that. Function beyond "display purposes only" not needed. That store and the school is lucky to have your work making them look good. I look forward to seeing more of what you build. Thanks for posting. Spears.

To build or not to build? Nothing wrong with an extra vise. The two that I’ve made are on page 3 of the “show me your vise” thread. There was a time when these two vises were the only two that I had. The time spent to build them is time in my life I will never recover. They are good tools for specific tasks and the one that opens up 22” and rolls like a wheel barrow is so versatile for certain types of work that I wouldn’t part with it. The “post like” vise can be matched or replaced in its uses but still proves shop worthy as it is there when I need it. I have from time to time discouraged building tools like vises because what makes a good vise is not easily obtained through welded assemblies. Vice manufacturers have a severe advantage having the resources to cast the irregular shapes that make up a vice out of Ductile or Nodular iron having a tensile strength of 60,000 psi. This allows for the construction of a clamping tool that is a lot less bulky than a welded assembly that does the same thing. Hence, a tool with more versatility. That doesn’t render a fabricated or “home built” vise useless. Nor does it define the construction of such a thing as time wasted. It just makes it easier to say the commercial vise is a better tool. My only recommendation for those undertaking the building of a vise is to try and implement some features the one’s you can buy don’t have. If your purchased vise has jaws 4 inches wide, build your vise with jaws 6”. If the purchased vice opens up a maximum of 6”, then make your home built one open 8 or 10. Then you’re adding extra versatility to your shop. Theoretically, (assuming 100% rigidity) a post vise inflicts radial clamping because it has a pivot point. Your vise design using the casters (assume same rigidity) would inflict “linear” clamping. Depending on the task you may desire one over the other. Good luck with your vise projects. Spears.

In the machining world new and improved with CNC, high spindle RPM, and controlled feed rates, yes sir! Carbide is state of the art. But in the freehand environment with a workpiece as soft as brass, there would be no reason to use carbide. Good quality high speed steel drill bits will be more forgiving perhaps even drilling holes slightly dull with lubrication and successful chip eject. Carbide that small with the slightest bit of loading up is going to snap. I use the high speed black oxide coated bit versus the bright finish if I have a choice. Good luck with those tiny holes. Spears.

Nice overall appearance but on some of your leaves, the groove running down the center falls off left or right of the leaf tip. Not sure if that is the “imprecise on purpose” look you were aiming for, but if it is going up for sale or into an exhibition, I wouldn’t want the “eye for detail” types to judge it as sloppy. Just an observation. Spears.

Excellent display of a beautiful inventory. Very informative to know that people really favored those smaller items. I've seen large items at art shows that left some people wondering how they were going to get it home. I'm happy to see you had the endurance to make it through all the obligation of looking after a booth. I've heard people talk about how exhausting that is. If I tried to do a weekend art show, I'd be afraid I woundn't make it to work on Monday. LOL. Good job and thanks for posting. Spears.

On Autocad, fast, ugly and hardly ever dimensioned. Unless I go to construct the thing. Probably not what you're looking for, but responses to this post didn't seem to be picking up. This new way of making drawings in the world just taint what it used to be. Spears. MACHSKETCHES.pdf DOGCATDESN.pdf

I'm all for purchasing tools (even though I get stuck building them), but when you can do THAT in less than an hour it kind of puts a damper on going to the store. I had to round out a pair of junk needle nose plyers to get my scrolling tongs and they only work for small stuff. Nice job. Spears.

I only wish I got to see a beautiful inventory like that at all the art and craft shows I go to. Sorry to see it got blown down. I would have really like to have looked that over before the storm. I hope everyone was ok. Spears.

I was at a historical renactment fair where a guy was forging titanium spoons using propane. From the few times I've seen this it looked like it hot forged very well. Although there probably wasn't any titanium available at the prominent time of Blacksmithing so I didn't really find it as thrilling but hey, it makes nice colors!! Best of luck with alloy forging. Spears.

Thank you sir! You have my sympathy for your injury and time off from forging. I also have injured my right arm while lifting a toolbox into a truck. I have never been injured before so this type of thing was greatly unanticipated. I was ready to sell off everything I own and stick a sign in the front yard until I talked with the surgeon. It will be a few months. Use your machining knowledge and think of dedicated tools for your forging. A bit of time off may require a bit of practice to get back, but all that thinking you get to do might just generate a new and improved plan. Thanks again for your kind words and I hope your healing goes well. Spears.

I use old crankcase oil for my power hammer dies and have had good usable results. I temper in a small oven at just about 400 deg F for 1-1.5 hours per cross sectional inch. You can not overtemper a part so lengthen the time as opposed to shortening. I fixture the part in front of the mouth of my gas forge and try to ramp-up to temperature +1600 over say 20 minutes. Thinner things like blades which have great value needing superior integrity throughout should use the best quenching medium money can buy. Thick power hammer dies used for shaping and texturing can get away with using less strict processing methods and still get pretty good results. Without "checking" it you'll probably end up with Rockwell 45-50 C scale using 4140 quenched in oil long temper session ~380-400 deg F. I use a tub of ~17 gallons for a maximum of 2 dies per session weighing in at ~5 lbs each. Good luck. Spears

Notch the corners of a square bar with a hacksaw or gullitine tool and the twist looks like squares stacked up.

That's exactly how I was going to build my bend forks whenever I get around to it. A 1/2" reamer should just about give a press fit on steel dowels of the same size which any machine shop has a few laying around. A small tack weld on the back side even if hard cracking occurred should hold the dowels in place for the purpose. Did you make a couple extra ones for me?

This subject will probably explode into a political discussion bigger than the revolution I wish would happen. I can't imagine anyone on this forum liking the facts, reasons, or people responsible for shipping our jobs to other countries. However, at this time our country is rapidly going down the toilet, one CAN ask the question "why educate someone in metal shop if there aren't any metal shops to get a job at"? Better yet, "why pay thousands of dollars getting a college education when you can't go out and get a better paying job with it"? Or even get a job at all for that matter. I loved this world a whole lot more when it was all about industrial capitalism. The good thing is, after I had taught shop for three years, I threw in enough extra math and science so many of my students are now employed in other industries that still exist. I didn't cancel or cut down my program, THEY did! Good luck with all you do with your free metal. And if anyone rants, I completely excuse and forgive you. Spears.

I had a trial piece left over from my corner notching die that I figured would make a good stem for a candle holder needing only the addition of a base and cup. Using a 6” diameter disk of 1/4” thick plate, I filed three small notches equally spaced around the rim. Looking close you can see the small notch at the bottom of the closest dip on the finished piece. In my power hammer I used a dish for the bottom die and a peen for the top. In the picture of all the dies it would be the one on the lower left and the one just right of the upper left. The tiny notches around the rim of the disk still remain visible when the disk is red hot. Taking eyeball aim at each one using a few strokes of the power hammer until “bottom out” I created three nice “edge dips” around the rim for a three-point candle holder base. This base was drilled and then plug welded from the bottom side to the stem. Little to no bench grinding was needed before wire wheel and beeswax for a nice clean looking art piece that drew quite a few tickets at an iron-in-the-hat give away. Spears.

I have to say if you're one of those folks who doesn't make blades, it would be because you hold the sword of truth.