December 27, 201015 yr Spent today finishing these off. Had to drag my forge and anvil outside after the carbon monoxide poisoning. Photos! 1. Safety first. 2. Broke the jaw off when I was aligning them... ugh. 3. Heating! 4. Finished product. Tomorrow I'll be straightening and drawing out the handles some.
December 28, 201015 yr Those look like they will work. Did you make a replacement when the jaw broke?. Darn site better than the first pair I kept. It's easy to form cold shuts around the jaw. If you get any kind of fold, forge or file it out. Safest to stay with orange heat for bending.
December 28, 201015 yr Author Those look like they will work. Did you make a replacement when the jaw broke?. Darn site better than the first pair I kept. It's easy to form cold shuts around the jaw. If you get any kind of fold, forge or file it out. Safest to stay with orange heat for bending. When the jaw broke I cut it off and started anew. Couldn't think of a way to do it other than that, with my skills.
December 28, 201015 yr When the jaw broke I cut it off and started anew. Couldn't think of a way to do it other than that, with my skills. That was the only reasonable solution. It's good that you had the determination to push past a disappointment. In the process of making tongs there is a lot of bending and fiddling to get things aligned. It's very easy to develop cracks in this process. In my experience the two villains are cold shuts which tend to form when forging the setdowns for the jaws and boss and the other is a sharp hard corner on the outside of a bend. Sharp corners tend to tear when stretched. Sometimes the reins will develop this kind of crack near the boss from trying to bend them while cold. Eliminating cold shuts and only bending when red or hotter is a safe way to go.
December 30, 201015 yr Good job. I've had similar issues around the boss / jaw transition. What I've found that seems to help a lot is to not tap around when setting those shoulders for the tong and boss. Usually only takes one or two hits. And making sure after the first hit, that you've got the shoulder repositioned well. Anyway, after about 20 or 30 more pairs you'll get the hang of it.
January 7, 201115 yr Spent today finishing these off. Had to drag my forge and anvil outside after the carbon monoxide poisoning. Photos! 1. Safety first. 2. Broke the jaw off when I was aligning them... ugh. 3. Heating! 4. Finished product. Tomorrow I'll be straightening and drawing out the handles some. check out this video i think u might like it, not the best quality but better that nothing http://cokepot.com/vbtube_show.php?tubeid=12&sti=Tong-Making
January 8, 201115 yr CO poisoning - not good. Solid fuel forges will make lots of CO. They must be well vented, or located outside. Nice effort on the tongs.
January 8, 201115 yr Nice job Jacob! My first (2nd, 3rd, etc..) were near disasters but functioned. Your first tongs look like they will work fine. Keep it up. Mark<><
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