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I Forge Iron

Powered up my hand twister


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I modified my hand twister to accept a old pipe threader to do a quick job of twisting some 1/2" square. The twister was originally fabricated to twist 1 1/4" picket hot for a large rail job. I had also made it adjustable for up to a 30" twist, material size 3/8" to 1 1/4" with a bottom stop. The twister usually is clamped in the vise vertically and the part that is now in the threader had four handles that was turned by hand. Worked great for many years but this seems to be more my speed today. What I like most about this setup is the minimal size and the versatility, this same threader was used to twist the 3 pc. of 5/8" round hot to create the rope in "Iron swinging".

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So you just have inerts to change for different size stock? I like the slide action, I used a piece of wide flange beam and built a saddle that rides down the flange. I had a friend cut plates with his water jet to change size on the tail stock, on the turning head there is a four jaw chuck that will go to 1 1/4 inch.
You can reverse the pipe threader also, right? and those things have lots of torque!

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Brings to mind the time Duke Dulac got his coveralls caught up on a fitting on the end of a pipe he was threading.
We wondered what was causing the machine to slow down and make that whap/moan sound and then speed up again.
Duke had set a weight on the pedal so it would run on it`s own while he threaded the fitting on the other end.
He didn`t shout cause he didn`t want us to see him spinning.
After everybody got a good look at the "Flying Frenchman" we pulled the plug.
Life in the shipyards. :rolleyes:

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