clinton Posted September 6, 2010 Share Posted September 6, 2010 I made a dishing tool bottom swage with the help of my girlfriend, she held the ball swage and I struck with the sledgehammer. I think it came out pretty nice for our first attempt. The material is 4140 - 1 3/4 inch diameter 2 1/2 inches long. I used the powerhammer to draw out the shank my anvil has a 1 1/4 inch hardy. After drawing the shank I set the shoulder then I got my girlfriend to hold the ball swage to form the dish area. The ball tool was made from a structural screw on the powerhammer, the screws have a rounded head so it was already part way formed. I am not sure what type of steel the screw is but it is some pretty hard stuff, I did not do any heat treating on the tool just forged it and went to work. The ball is about 1 1/2 inch diameter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGGUNDOCTOR Posted September 6, 2010 Share Posted September 6, 2010 There are sooo many ways I would like to answer this Nice job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brutaldeluxe Posted September 6, 2010 Share Posted September 6, 2010 you are very lucky ..... you have a good girlfriend beautiful work !!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Wargo New2bs Posted September 6, 2010 Share Posted September 6, 2010 Looks good Clinton. That for making rounding hammers? My wife will hold for me some, but she draws the line at swinging a sledge heheh. Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clinton Posted September 7, 2010 Author Share Posted September 7, 2010 Yes Mark this is one of the tools for making hammers, I am sure there are other uses for it as well. It would have been easier to have my girlfriend strike for me but she did good holding the tool I just had to tell her where to move it as we forged. I do want to start making hammers so I am working on the tooling now. I was hopping to use the powerhammer to slit the eye, but my hammer does not have a long enough stroke to get a tool and the work piece in. I will need to have a modified die to get everything in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted September 7, 2010 Share Posted September 7, 2010 I use a dome headed RR bolt (not a spike!) that fits just perfectly in the tool holder of my screw press. As you said tough stuff! One of the things I use it for is to make indentations on round stock where I need to put bolt holes through it for mounting ornamental ironwork to posts with lag bolts. Looks like a great set---do you have a domed dishing hammer to use with that dish? Weygers has instructions for forging one out of a ballpein in "The Complete Modern Blacksmith". L have a couple of anvils with 1.5" hardy holes and making tooling for them is a lot of fun without access to a powerhammer; one thing I have done was to take some top swages and forge the eye section down until it will fit the large hardy holes. If I ever want to go back to using them as top swages I can wire wrap a handle or just drift out the eyes again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clinton Posted September 7, 2010 Author Share Posted September 7, 2010 TP-I have some of those bolts also, I have not forged any yet but they do have a nice round head on them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urnesBeast Posted September 7, 2010 Share Posted September 7, 2010 I just made one of these with brian Brazeal. We made ours hexagonal. When we brought it down to height, we did it such that the top was wider than the bottom. This happens because the striking anvil cools the bottom first. When flattening the sides out to parallel, this caused fishlips or a hollow to start on the face. This is desirable because the ball top tool will already have a seat and is halfway there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John B Posted September 7, 2010 Share Posted September 7, 2010 L have a couple of anvils with 1.5" hardy holes and making tooling for them is a lot of fun without access to a powerhammer; one thing I have done was to take some top swages and forge the eye section down until it will fit the large hardy holes. If I ever want to go back to using them as top swages I can wire wrap a handle or just drift out the eyes again. Hi Thomas, I too used to have anvils with varying sizes of hardie holes, to overcome this problem, We made up sleeves to step down to fit the most common size of hardie we had. Just another option for people to consider Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted September 7, 2010 Share Posted September 7, 2010 Yes I have taken a couple of pieces of nesting square tubing and sawn it about 1/2" down on the diagonals and bent the flaps over to fit in the hardy; but it sure is nice to have tools that fit the plain hardy if you are going to do some heavy hitting---and 400-500# anvils are made for heavy hitting! RR Bolts: I have made sheetmetal dishing hammers from them too; slit and dish near the threaded end and you get a nice long neck dishing hammer. Getting a bolt that's bent to your swing curve is ver nice indeed for deep dishing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick L. Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 Those look great Clinton. Nice of your girlfriend to help ! Dick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clinton Posted September 8, 2010 Author Share Posted September 8, 2010 Thanks to every one for the kind remarks, yes I am lucky to have a girlfriend that likes this stuff, I have had her running the floor jack while installing an engine in my VW bus, and the occasional pump the brakes ect, but she really does like the blacksmithing and goes with me to conferences. I made another ball swage yesterday this one is 1 inch diameter and started out as 1 inch round stock the material is 4140 and it did take some serious hammering to draw out the handle this whole thing was about four inches long when i started out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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