Making tools for my hardy hole.

[short swing]

Your tips are priceless to us noobs. You personally changed how I was going to build my tools. Thanks

[Frosty]

Gee, how come I'm feeling picked on here Grant?

I followed your directions exactly and Deb just LOVES the dragonfly sculpture.

I've done similar on the fly though not as precise. Next time I need one I'll give this a try.

Good explanations all round Grant.

Nice job on the hardy tools Gerald, well done.

Thanks both of you. Yeah, even you Grant, you old meanie.

Frosty

[arftist]

Grant, please take it for granted that we apreciate your posts.

Here is another non traditional method:

Start with 1/2''x3'' flatbar (1/4'' or 3/8'' would also work, but I like overkill)
Make a bunch of 3'' squares. Punch a 1'' square hole in the center (fits my Hay Budden).
Draw out a peice of 1'' solid sq bar, reheat and tap into hardy hole for nice fit.
Mark the bar 1/4'' higher than anvil face, cut and return to hardy hole.
Place square plate over stem and weld severely.
Use this mount as a base for whatever tooling you need.
I made a dozen of these plates some years ago and still have two or three hanging on the wall. When I need a tool in a hurry, sometimes this saves me some time.

This may seem like a lot of work, but bear in mind that I did the punching and cutting in an ironworker.

Edited June 26, 2009 by arftist
spelling

[arftist]

When I took a job at a big shop this winter, one of the first tools I made was a simple but very handy bending tool. First I fit a peice of solid square steel to the hardy hole, lightly driving it in hot to ensure a good fit. Always leave the tang sticking out the bottom for hammer asisted removal if needed. Next I placed a peice of thick plate next to the square stock and above the waist of the anvil and welded them together. Finaly I welded a peice of round bar at each end of the plate. Gentle bending is done between the round bars and sharper bending can be done from the second round bar and the top plate.

[Junksmith]

Depending on the size of the hardy hole, I find that the shank of a railroad spike can be a handy hardy shank. It's often cheap (or free), strong, and you can cut it to whatever size you need.

[Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver]

Wow, lotta cool ideas coming in, glad I stirred up the pot. Keep 'em coming guys!

Arftist: Great ideas, thanks. Not everyone has an ironworker, but if they have a welder they could make them with four pieces of flat bar, I guess. Come to that, an 1-3/8 plate washer might work too, just a little gap to fill.

Junksmith: Cheap is good!

[tyro]

Thank you for these great projects. Good practice and very useful tools.More more, more. Just an observation .........The bending tool looks like a good project to practice forge welding. When I screw it up ,no real harm done .

[Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver]

Hope this one is not too dumb to post. very simple, but surprisingly useful. I just split (with a hand hack-saw) a 1" square bar down about 2-1/2 inches, bent the sides open, stick a piece of flat bar in between and close them on it. I like it for tweakin' and twisting. In fact if you make up a bunch of them (different sizes) they work real nice for twisting bars. You should file the edges a little rounded and you can use it for bending. Simple as dirt!

Edited June 26, 2009 by nakedanvil

[Frosty]

That's a good one, especially for twisting. If a fellow were into a little more complicated twisting fork they could be stepped for common sizes though most of what I do is in 3/8" - 3/4", rarely larger.

Arftist: Can you post a sketch of what you describe please? A picture = a thousand words and all.

This is an outstanding thread, thanks.

Frosty

[Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver]

Gerald: You're too modest. I don't measure things as much the way they came out as how close they are to what I intended. I think you came out pretty close to what you were striving for, right? Understanding and control, refinement comes with repetition (experience). It's always amazing, when you're doing the tenth one to look back and try to figure out why did that first one take so long and go so hard? At first we try to bend the iron to our will, soon we learn to cajole it along and work with it as we understand what it wants to do.

Edited June 27, 2009 by nakedanvil

[Frosty]

Thanks for the complements. Yep Grant, I'm pretty much a one-trick pony.

My gosh that's one COMPLICATED trick Gerald!

Maybe someday I'll learn a whole trick.

Frosty

[Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver]

Looking at the "Too Simple Fork" above, I realize that it can be done even simpler. It can be made from a bar of 1/2 X 1 and just bent around as show it the illustration, weld or not. Could even be made from two short pieces, if they fit tight they would not even need to be welded. That opens up the possibility of making up a few different sizes and

[Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver]

Everyone know how to put a joggle in a piece, right? The way I've shown is the easiest way to get the dimension you want. I've shown it being done in a vise, but the same technique can be used in a hammer or press. The flat bars must be the same thickness. They behave themselves in a hammer or press, but are hard to keep all three pieces in place in a vise. In that case, just make the spacers a little long and bend the ends over so they hang on the vise jaws. Just put all three in the vise and squeeze it down to refusal. Done hot of course.

Edited June 28, 2009 by nakedanvil

[arftist]

Grant, I use a similar setup to put an offset in strap hinges. The difference is that I remove the bolt in factory vice jaws, and made my own jaws. No slippage or dificulty clamping the work in that way. I also ground a serious radius into the facing edges and one side has a shelf welded on to hold the work square. Both false jaws extend well past the edges of the vice, and the one without the shelf can have a stop clamped to it so all the offset are exact. Additionaly, I use shims to acheive different offsets. This works slick.

[Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver]

You followin' me, boy? Sure run into you a lot.;)

[Hofi]

Some of my tools for the'' hardey hole'' .
Most of my hardey hole tools are forged from one piece of steel.some times I make the tools into the prichel hole as the ''nailer'' in pic 10. if I need to rotate the tool while forging . most of them are forged from rear exel steel
Hofi

[Mark Aspery]

Hope this one is not too dumb to post. very simple, but surprisingly useful. I just split (with a hand hack-saw) a 1" square bar down about 2-1/2 inches, bent the sides open, stick a piece of flat bar in between and close them on it. I like it for tweakin' and twisting. In fact if you make up a bunch of them (different sizes) they work real nice for twisting bars. You should file the edges a little rounded and you can use it for bending. Simple as dirt!

Grant,
I see what you mean about the late nights and early mornings.

Does this stuff keep you awake at nights?

You should have gone high speed years ago... we'd all be further along with our smithing if you had!

[Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver]

Gee, thanks Mark. Yeah, the broadband has changed my life. Had it for more than ten years, went dial-up 5 years ago. Everything requires it now. I'm all over the net now!

[russell_smith93]

Here's a nice quick project for you guys. A quick and dirty bending fork. Start with about 12 - 14 inches of 1/2 inch round bar (whatever you use should be 1/2 of your hardy hole dimension). Great use for that spring you spent so much time straightening out.

Put a little joggle in both ends like the picture, and then bend it in the middle. If one end comes out a little longer, hammer it down even, while you still got a lazy bend in it. Now hammer the bend tight on itself like the first illustration. At this point, with the heat just in that bend, lay it on the anvil and align the two joggles. If you want, you can clamp it tight and put some tack welds right where the joggles come together and a few places on down. Now you make the next bend in the other direction (about 2+ inches) and hammer everything tight. You can weld some of the joints if you want or leave it naked. Test it in your hardy hole and hammer down if needed. Now go show it to the wife/husband/mother/father, they