well i made my first set of tongs

[Feukair]

Hello all,

as you already know I'm new at this... but today i made my first set of tongs. here are some pics. I made them following the article shown here http://www.blksmth.com/tong_article.htm which i found googling for blacksmith stuff one day. Ther is some cracking at the hinge area right where the bend starts for the pinchers. I believe i made the notches to mark the stock too deep, so when i made the bends they split a little. Next set will be better. These were made from 1/4X3/4 12"long stock, just like in the article.

Let me know what you think. These took me about 5 hours total to make.



Thanks!
L

[Strix Varia]

those look great!

[clark-kentski]

I think you got an eye for this type of work,A+:)

[Sam Salvati]

A+ for sure! Could you explain a little bit how you made them?

[Mike Turner]

Very nice set of tongs especially for your first pair. Thanks for sharing.

[Feukair]

Thanks for all the comments everyone! Now I'm jonesin' to make some more but i don't think I'll get back to the forge until tuesday.

Sorry, that link in the url i posted was broke...

I basically followed the steps in this article to make them:
Tong Article

But i didn't do any work in a vise, and i didn't really read the article. I just used the anvil and looked at the pictures in the article for how to shape the piece. It took quite a while like 5-6 hours to make the set, alot of trial and error.

To assemble them my dad held the work piece over the small hole in the anvil while i drove a punch in on each piece for the hinge pin. I made a small rivet out of 3/8 stock, heated it to a bright orange, put it though the hinge holes, and mushroomed it out on each side. Man, that rivet was almost the hardest part, the first one didn't mushroom, it just bent and looked like crap so i took it out. Next one turned out ok. We also put a washer in between the two parts at the hinge. I dont think there's supposed to be a washer in there but i thought it would help keep them from binding.

This was the first time i punched a hole at the forge. How are you supposed to keep the back side of the hole you're punching from dimpleing out? Mine dimpled out quite a bit, i turned it over and drove the punch through the otherside also but i still had to cool the piece and grind of where the piece had dimpled out.

Instead of adjusting the fit in the vise i got it as close as i could by hand then I would heat the ends of the tongs orange, pickup a railroad spike with the tongs, then using a small hammer tap the pincher ends of the tongs while it was holding a spike. This helped to make it fit for that use.

I don't know if you can see in the pictures but theres alot of hardened scale on the pincher ends of the tongs, i need to keep the scale scraped off with a wire brush better, i wasn't doing that at all today and didn't notice how much had built up on them until after i cooled them.

L

[Sam Salvati]

GREAT tutorial, I needed that THANKS!

[bruce wilcock]

a while back i made a blueprint to make a piar of pincers out of old rasps the same method can be used to quickly make a pair of bolt tongs out of flat bar with a little effort.

Edit: See Blueprint BP0219

[BT]

To assemble them my dad held the work piece over the small hole in the anvil while i drove a punch in on each piece for the hinge pin.
This was the first time i punched a hole at the forge. How are you supposed to keep the back side of the hole you're punching from dimpleing out? Mine dimpled out quite a bit, i turned it over and drove the punch through the otherside also but i still had to cool the piece and grind of where the piece had dimpled out.


L

Punch the hole over the solid part of the anvil. Hit the punch until you "feel" the anvil face with the punch. Dip the punch in water after every third hit and then in coal dust. The water will cool the punch and a bit of the coal dust will stick to the wet tip. The coal dust will gas off in the hot metal and provide a lubricant. Once you feel the anvil with the punch, flip the work over and put it over the pritchel hole. You will see a
black circle where the punch has cooled the thin part remaining in the hole. Put the punch on this mark and drive out the thin slug through the pritchell hole of the anvil.

[BT]

addendum to above post:

Make sure your punch has a flat face. Should not be a sharp point.

[yesteryearforge]

I have a set of bolsters that I made
My pritchel hole is 3/4 so I took some 3/4 grade 8 bolts and sawed off the threaded part then drilled various sized holes in them ( 3/16 1/4 5/16 and so on
When im going to punch a hole I just put the approiate size bolster in the pritchel hole and have at it

[Feukair]

Punch the hole over the solid part of the anvil. Hit the punch until you "feel" the anvil face with the punch. Dip the punch in water after every third hit and then in coal dust. The water will cool the punch and a bit of the coal dust will stick to the wet tip. The coal dust will gas off in the hot metal and provide a lubricant. Once you feel the anvil with the punch, flip the work over and put it over the pritchel hole. You will see a
black circle where the punch has cooled the thin part remaining in the hole. Put the punch on this mark and drive out the thin slug through the pritchell hole of the anvil.

Awsome, thanks for the info BT! I'll try that next time.

L

[Feukair]

I have a set of bolsters that I made
My pritchel hole is 3/4 so I took some 3/4 grade 8 bolts and sawed off the threaded part then drilled various sized holes in them ( 3/16 1/4 5/16 and so on
When im going to punch a hole I just put the approiate size bolster in the pritchel hole and have at it

I can do that. Thanks!

How do you punch larger holes? Do you start with a small flat tipped punch to start a hole, then a series of larger and larger tapered punches until the hole is streched how you want? Seems like that would work...

L

[Glenn]

Why not look at Blueprint BP0149 the Spinning Bolster Plate.
This would seem to solve a lot of problems with one tool.

[Strine]

Fan-bloody-tastic. A great effort for a first time. The lines got me first, you have an eye for what looks good. One thing I would watch is the nick near the hinge. this effectively reduces the dimension and therefor weakens the metal at that point.

Ditto exactly what BT said re the hole. As for the rivet have a go at this.

Select maybe 6" of rivet material say 3/8" diam. Slightly taper one end to make a drift. After punching your hole -sligtly undersize- use the drift to make the hole just the right size.

Now make the "rivet" out of the drift. (It wont look like a rivet until its in place in the tongs). You will need enough of the drift, starting at the tapered end, equal to twice the diam of the drift plus the thickness of both the tong eyes. Don't over estimate and don't make it too short. Cut the drift almost through at this length. Don't forget to allow a bit extra for the taper.

Set up the tongs on the anvil, Dad's help will be great here, as if you were inserting a "proper" rivet. Now put something under the tongs to lift the eye off the anvil by the diam of the rivet.

Get ready to rock and roll. The next step will make both ends of the rivet in one heat. But be warned you only have one chance at this. If you stuff it up you'll need to cut the rivet out and start again. Make sure everybody knows their job

Heat the rivet to a good yellow. Remove it from the fire, stick it in the hole and twist off the bit you don't want. Think fast...5 seconds have already elapsed and your running out of time. Gently tap the rivet till it hits the anvil. Give it a couple of reasonable whacks to peen over the the top end a little. That's another couple of seconds. Turn it over, be quick now We mean business here. Rivet over the other side, back to the first side, turn it over again. That should do it. Ten seconds all up, phew, we made it.

The tongs are now jambed tight. Stick the hole lot it the fire. With a good heat...no need for yellow now. you'll be able to unjamb them easily enough, While you still have heat make your adjustments for a perfect fit to the job.

But all that aside. Congrats on your first pair of tongs. I wish a lot more so called blacksmiths would have a go at them

[Frankw]

Well done your a natural

[HWooldridge]

Excellent work for your first pair - looks better than most of the ones I ever made...you will also find that this style of tongs holds better than flat jaws on most work.

I didn't see it mentioned but in general practice, the proper length to leave for a typical round rivet head is 1-1/2d, so a .250 diameter shank would need .375 sticking out to get a balanced head on a factory rivet. If you punch the hole and leave it a bit large, you will need more sticking out because the head will upset into the hole. I usually drill the holes so they are precisely located and sized.

Along the lines of what Strine said, I use factory rivets and cold fit everything to my liking, put the rivet in place with a couple taps to provide a minor upset so it won't fall out, then put it in the fire with the factory head upmost. The whole assembly gets hot but the rivet gets hottest. Remove from the fire, flip over on the anvil and firmly set the rivet head. You can then peen the head or finish it with that rivet set you made before starting on the tongs (grin). Another good thing to make with the rivet set is a backup to place on the anvil to support the head. Makes nice clean rivet heads.

I have also made some that had a countersink to the rivet hole. These are hammered close to flush and then ground or filed smooth so the box joint is clean (like a pair of Klein pliers).

[Sam Salvati]

addendum to above post:

Make sure your punch has a flat face. Should not be a sharp point.

Rounded doesn't work either.

[Ed Thomas]

I heartily agree. A VERY respectable set of tongs, and unusually well done for the first pair. Thank you for sharing your work!.

[Feukair]

Thanks for all the comments everyone.

About the cracks... I think i know why they developed, i knotched out the metall too deeply during the first steps of that article, so when i bent the pincher back to make the bend it started splitting.

I'm going to my dads again tomorrow. I think I'll make another pair of tongs. This time rather than notching the steel in that place that split i think i'm just going to taper from there to the pincher end so there will be no notch there.

Thanks again for all the comments and the hole punching tips.

L

[the_sandy_creek_forge]

Hey Feukair,
You are dead on as to why the metal "split." Even a slight line from a cold chisel will start to split when bent at an angle. A better option is to use a center punch to make the reference mark with. A good, deep (but not too deep) center punch mark is just as visible as a line at heat and it WON'T cause your steel to split or fracture. Try it.....you'll like it;)
-Aaron @ the SCF