This fuller uses 5/8" spring stock forging a full spring fuller from it would be possible but a lot more time.

One "grace note" to it is that instead of having the swing arm just bolted to the upright it has a die spring mounted on the bolt and also the piece of stock for the swing arm extends past the mounting point leaving a place so that I can bump it with the hammer to leave the swing arm up making it easy to place the workpiece in and then the arm travels down easily under the first hammer blow.

It also extends slightly beyond the bottom piece too so I can just lift it up with the stock from that end as well.

Guillotine fullers work well too but most I have seen you have to lift the die to get the work in and it gets hot fast. There is also the trouble of getting oddly shaped pieces in---say you want to fuller a spot on a ring. Easy on a swing arm Hard on a guillotine.

Of course in the best of all possible worlds you would have both and use the one that's best for the job on hand!

I mainly use mine for blade/tang junctions and chili peppers...

This fuller uses 5/8" spring stock forging a full spring fuller from it would be possible but a lot more time.

One "grace note" to it is that instead of having the swing arm just bolted to the upright it has a die spring mounted on the bolt and also the piece of stock for the swing arm extends past the mounting point leaving a place so that I can bump it with the hammer to leave the swing arm up making it easy to place the workpiece in and then the arm travels down easily under the first hammer blow.

It also extends slightly beyond the bottom piece too so I can just lift it up with the stock from that end as well.

Guillotine fullers work well too but most I have seen you have to lift the die to get the work in and it gets hot fast. There is also the trouble of getting oddly shaped pieces in---say you want to fuller a spot on a ring. Easy on a swing arm Hard on a guillotine.

Of course in the best of all possible worlds you would have both and use the one that's best for the job on hand!

I mainly use mine for blade/tang junctions and chili peppers...

You can also whip up a basic spring fuller in about 10 minutes if you have the stock on hand.

Phil

Hey thomas, I had considered making a spring fuller out of a spring. Have you tried this? Of course I would have to get a bigger spring from somewhere. I am working on that one.

I've made a few spring fullers entirely out of one piece of "tool steel", coil spring or U bolts. It is more work but not that much. You have to forge out the spring part, the steel is stiffer and you cant get it as hot as mild steel. One thing I discovered is that the edges of the spring must be rounded, otherwise cracks tend to start there.

They look a lot nicer made that way but I don't think they work any better than spring steel jaws welded onto a piece of flat stock.

I have a swing guillotine fuller for necking down pipe. The jaws are made from mild steel. The working surfaces show hardly any wear but the top surface where the hammer strikes mushrooms fast. I plan to weld a slice of axle onto it for a striking pad.

They still have both single and double jack drilling contests where I used to ranch in Nevada. Most double jack teams are a dad(swinging) and son(holding). Lots of faith on both parts. They do miss sometimes.

I was in the same situation when I made the hot cut hardy I am using now...so I used a thinner leaf spring and it sits in the hole corner-to-corner...it may not look like the traditional square-shanked ones...but it works well and was easy to make with the materials I had on hand.

I have had a lot of luck with coil and leave springs for my tools too. If you are looking for some thicker stuff, try your nearest heavy truck repair shop or even better, suspension/spring/shocks shop. A rail spike letter opener got me a trunk full - some 1 1/2" diameter coil springs and some leaf springs with the shortest ones in the stack being about 1/2"T x 4"W x 18"L - used the hydraulic press to upset a chunk via the diameter to about a 1 1/2" square which then forged down to a nice hardy.

As for annealing/normalizing - everything other than mild steel that I work on gets one final heat then goes straight into a 30 gallon drum of vermiculite at least over night.