Mark Aspery Spring Fuller

[Iron Clad]

My project today was to make spring fullers the design of which came from Mark Aspery's book "Mastering The Fundamentals of Leaf-Work". I made these to use in my other shop. In my home shop I usually us a guillotine but I decided to go simple in my other shop.

http://ironclad.shutterfly.com/43

http://ironclad.shutterfly.com/44

What do you think?

[ironstein]

Nice job! Those come in handy. I made one similar to that but i didn't flatten out the circular spring. Works pretty good for fullering.

[Tom Lumpkins]

Looks good.. thats a fine looking anvil to...

[dablacksmith]

i think i want ta steal your anvil.... nice spring fuller also.. :D

[Iron Clad]

Thanks guys. Ya, I love that anvil. Nothing like hammering on a big anvil. The wide face is the best part! :D

[monstermetal]

Yep, I think Mark would be proud...

Nice looking tool....

[chyancarrek]

Nicely done Jeff!
Is that the foot to your new treadle hammer I see in the back ground? Have you had a chance to work with it at all?

[Iron Clad]

Yep, sure is. Ya, I used it a little yesterday. Sure hits hard! Can't wait to use it more, however at this time I'm making tools and such for the Shaniko shop. I made a round tenon on the end of a 1/2" square bar with the treadle hammer and never touched it with my hand hammer. Just used a monkey tool to finish things up. It worked qreat!

[K. Bryan Morgan]

Wow, that sure is nice. I made one like it...ok well similar to it...lol... same basic configuration your just looks way nicer. I didn't even know it was something he taught. Just seemed the best way to use the piece of 1/2 inch round I made it out of.

[Bill Roy]

Very nice looking spring fuller! I want to make one of these real soon.
What material did you use (size and type)?
And what does Mark explain about the flattened out portion?

[Iron Clad]

Thanks, Bill. Since my hardy hole is 1" square, I used 1/2" round bar as per Mark's book describes. This was just plain hot rolled steel.

[Blacksmith Jim]

Very nice looking spring fuller! I want to make one of these real soon.
What material did you use (size and type)?
And what does Mark explain about the flattened out portion?

My understanding is that the flattened out portion is what acts as a spring.

[John B]

If you leave the top bar longer than the bottom bar (or cant/bend it upwards slightly) it is easier to place your workpiece between the arms, as you can then easily access the top bar to lift it enabling you to slide your workpiece into it prior to fullering it

[Iron Clad]

Well, I don't know about that. I made it the way Mark described in his book and after trying it out, the bar I fullered went in easy. Perhaps it's a personal choice thing.

[fat pete]

My project today was to make spring fullers the design of which came from Mark Aspery's book "Mastering The Fundamentals of Leaf-Work". I made these to use in my other shop. In my home shop I usually us a guillotine but I decided to go simple in my other shop.

http://ironclad.shutterfly.com/43

http://ironclad.shutterfly.com/44

What do you think?

I got the same anvil....looks like you did a good job...I am at the same place in his book...lol

[John B]

Well, I don't know about that. I made it the way Mark described in his book and after trying it out, the bar I fullered went in easy. Perhaps it's a personal choice thing.

That's probably because I made them before Marks book came out, and the end bent (or unequal lengths) works for me.

Another mod is to weld a flat bar (or T bar) onto the bottom bar to hold in a vice,(T bar prevents it slippimg through the vice jaws) and another flat piece on the top bar to help distribute the force of the blow and to prevent the tendency for the bar to curve as it gets used.

There are many variations that can be done on this theme, fullering, texturing, butchering, grooving etc.

All the "spring" part does is to replace the need for a striker to assist in holding tooling when working.

[Iron Clad]

Good ideas John!

I'm thinking of making another one for my home shop. It seem's faster and easier to use than setting up my guillotine for fullering, especially if I have different dies already in the guillotine.

[Mark Aspery]

If you leave the top bar longer than the bottom bar (or cant/bend it upwards slightly) it is easier to place your workpiece between the arms, as you can then easily access the top bar to lift it enabling you to slide your workpiece into it prior to fullering it

I did the same sort of thing as you describe, but I was frustrated when trying to fuller flat stock. I cannot remember what I was making, but I had to twist the stock to get into the jaws at the end of the spring fuller and I kept catching an edge on the bottom bar of the fuller. I know that I could have slipped the hot bar in further - but for some reason (again the job escapes me) that was precluded. I ended up going this way and it stuck. I didn't cant the end of the upper bar on my earlier models and that makes a lot of sense to me. I'll have to give it a go and report back. Thanks John.

[eric sprado]

Tip Here from a VERY UNTALENTED blacksmith.. I buy all the old tire irons at Goodwill that I can. The ones that are about 18" long and have a short bend and a single tire wrench at the end. Stick the wrench end in forge and square it up to fit your hardy hole.
Make fullering irons really fast. The chisel end of the iron solves the hard to place problem-it is already shaped to allow easy placement of stock in tool.Chisels and other cutting tools can be made in pretty short order. They act like 5160. Make good tools cheap... Eric Sprado

Mark-Enjoying both your books. I'm the ancient horseshoer you met up in Mt Vernon last year. Getting back into forging after a twenty year hiatus and trying to make my brain know how to do something besides make a xxxxxx horseshoe. I just never had the word "art" in my brain and it's hard to allow it in.... I'm trying.. Anybody else have the "art block"? Eric

[Mark Aspery]

I did the same sort of thing as you describe, but I was frustrated when trying to fuller flat stock. I cannot remember what I was making, but I had to twist the stock to get into the jaws at the end of the spring fuller and I kept catching an edge on the bottom bar of the fuller. I know that I could have slipped the hot bar in further - but for some reason (again the job escapes me) that was precluded. I ended up going this way and it stuck. I didn't cant the end of the upper bar on my earlier models and that makes a lot of sense to me. I'll have to give it a go and report back. Thanks John.

OK I remember what happened. I had made a set of spring fullers with too small a gap between the arms and while prying open the arms i kept catching the end of the bottom arm. I cut about an inch away from the top bar and was able to go to work. The tool was sloppy in my hardy and if I didn't hold down the bottom arm while lifting the top arm, I would lift the whole tool out.

[Iron Clad]

Mark, another thing I like about this design is that it can be slightly adjusted to fit snug in the hardy hole, or for that matter, hammered down to fit a slightly smaller hardy hole. The hardy hole in my large anvil is right at 1". Apparently I didn't fold over the material quite tight enough and it didn't fit at first, easy thing to fix by just hammering down the fold slightly, taking in account for heat expansion. No problem with a snug fit. :)

[John B]

OK I remember what happened. I had made a set of spring fullers with too small a gap between the arms and while prying open the arms i kept catching the end of the bottom arm. I cut about an inch away from the top bar and was able to go to work. The tool was sloppy in my hardy and if I didn't hold down the bottom arm while lifting the top arm, I would lift the whole tool out.

That makes sense Mark, like all these tips, its what works for you and your set up, there is usually a reason why we do what we do, and in the way we do it, thats what makes it a challenge and interesting.

[Dave Leppo]

I have a similar setup, and it works great. The only possible problem is that the bottom bar lies directly on the anvil face. If you want to fuller next to an element that's wider than the bottom bar, it can hit the anvil face, preventing full rotation. Possible solution?: bend an offset into the bars so that they lie on the far edge of the anvil, the protruding element can now hang in space off the side of the anvil.

I haven"t tried this. I try to order my operations to avoid this situation, or use a traditional fuller and hammer pein, but this isn't always as neet.

Hope to see you at BGCM blacksmith days, Mr. Aspery