macbruce Posted April 17, 2011 Share Posted April 17, 2011 Found these at a Goodwill store for $5 !.........Never seen anything like em anywhere. Looks as if they were buried for a time which has made them loose and fragile but still ok for light use..................mb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfootnampa Posted April 17, 2011 Share Posted April 17, 2011 I'd put a little WD-40 on them and then tighten up the rivets (cold). See how they do. Then, if need be, I'd take the trouble to weld on a new set of reins. Those compound your leverage and looks like you ought to get about double the leverage that you might normally expect from a set of reins that length. An interesting design! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marksnagel Posted April 17, 2011 Share Posted April 17, 2011 That is a great find. Very cool. Mark<>< Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K. Bryan Morgan Posted April 18, 2011 Share Posted April 18, 2011 What a fasinating design. I havn't made a successfull forge weld yet. This would solve alot of those issues. Besides, rivets look cool. I will definatly have to try to make a set of these as a self teaching project. I bet it would be fun to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted April 19, 2011 Share Posted April 19, 2011 I like em, gotta make one Just because thanks for posting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archiphile Posted April 20, 2011 Share Posted April 20, 2011 Those are awesome tongs. They look heavy though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macbruce Posted April 20, 2011 Author Share Posted April 20, 2011 Those are awesome tongs. They look heavy though. Not that heavy.......I think of them as an anomaly, a prototype.......The extra labor involved making them is considerable. Making a pair of tongs that were a little heavier with longer reins would likely achieve the added crunch without the labor intensity.Like I said I've never seen the like, and nobody here has either as far as I can tell. I don't use em much, and I don't want to restore them, they have a nook on the wall were I can look at em..................mb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanBrassaw Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 My geometry is only slightly less rusty than those tongs. Have you estimated (or measured! ) the mechanical advantage you get? I don't think I need a pair, but I might try making some none the less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macbruce Posted April 21, 2011 Author Share Posted April 21, 2011 My curiosity was peaked so I did the only test I could think of. Using 5/8'' plate in the vise, I found another pair of tongs with a similar closed opening.........When I gripped the plate I could pull neither pair straight off, side to side the common pair won........... The common pair are heavier, but not that much. That being the case personally I would opt to making common tongs.......Making a pair of the nut tongs looks like a good exersize in skill, If you got to much time on your hands.........;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramsberg Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 I am curious about the leverage relationship also, so I took some measurements off of the computer screen and deduced some ratios. For the nut cracker tongs from the tip of the handle end to the fulcrum of the long lever is 8 1/2" and from the fulcrum to the joint input for the second lever it is 1 1/4" which gives a ratio of 6.8 to 1. For the second lever from the input point to the fulcrum it is 2 1/4" and from the fulcrum to the middle of the jaws it is 1 1/4" which is a ratio of 1.5 to 1. Just like gears one multiplies the ratios so that is 6.8 times 1.5 which gives an overall ratio of 10.2 to 1. The standard tongs are just about 10" from the tip of the handles to the fulcrum and 1" from the fulcrum to the center of the jaws which is a ratio of 10 to 1. So from that rather rough analysis and with the input at the handles tip, the leverage of the two tongs are just about dead equal, then of course there is the added friction of the second joint of the nut cracker tongs. Which goes very much along with your more practical grip experiment. I can see shiny spots where it appears the tongs are held when in use but don't know exactly where the center of the hand is when each of the pairs are in use. MacBruce, if you used where the center of your hand is in lue of the tip of the handle such as I did and then measured the various lengths to the fulcrums(joints) then we would know very precisely what the leverage relationships are. Very neat tongs, I have never seen anything like them before! One other experiment that you could try is to crush a bit of wood that fits nicely in the jaws of the tongs and see with the same grip which one digs deeper into the wood. Caleb Ramsby Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 Well, if the "standard" tongs were bow tongs with a distance of 1.5" their ratio would drop to 6.66 : 1 VS 10.2 : 1 for the nutcrackers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramsberg Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 Bow tongs. . . the most diabolical tongs in the universe! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macbruce Posted April 22, 2011 Author Share Posted April 22, 2011 Well I squeezed the nut crackers on my right toe and the standards on my left and they both hurt like the DEVIL.......:o Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 You tested it on YOUR OWN toes???? That's what children are for! Reminds me, many years ago, my neighbor's 5 yr old daughter came running in screaming from the garage yelling "take it off, take it off"! She had a pair of pliers clamped on her finger and a death-grip on the handles! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macbruce Posted April 22, 2011 Author Share Posted April 22, 2011 You tested it on YOUR OWN toes???? That's what children are for! Reminds me, many years ago, my neighbor's 5 yr old daughter came running in screaming from the garage yelling "take it off, take it off"! She had a pair of pliers clamped on her finger and a death-grip on the handles! Reminds me of how they catch monkeys somewhere in se Asia. They put a coconut shell on a rope....make a hole large enough to pop a nut inside.......... the monkey puts his paw in, grabs the nut and tries to pull it out, which he can't cause the nut has enlarged his paw by holding the nut.........They won't let go of the nut, so the trapper calmly walks up and.........;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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