Long Twist. Short Forge.

[Rantalin]

Good Afternoon, I was thinking of some designs for standing plants hangers today out of about 7' of 1/2" square bar. My gas forge is able to heat sections of a long bar, but it would be very difficult to heat long (3 foot) sections. I have to rebuild my coal forge before I can work with it, but I could probably heat a 1' section of bar with it. One design for the hanger included twisting about three feet of the bar pretty much right in the midle. Obviously, the easiest thing to do is twist before working the rest of the hanger. So after the twist, the bar will look something like this

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Without the aid of a power twisting tool, what is the best way to make this twist? I don't plan on doing any special twists, just grab it in a vice and a twisting wrench and make the twist.

[Mark Parkinson]

to keep a long twist straight I use a section of black pipe as long as the twist is to be that slips over the piece to be twisted....heat....clamp in vice....slip the pipe on....grab other end close to end of pipe(tongs/ajustable wench/purpose made twisting bar)....count the number of turns you want...twist stays straight in the pipe ...to get a three foot section I would heat it three sections onefoot at a time and reverse the center section for more impact

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[Glenn]

I could probably heat a 1' section of bar

Work with the fire. Heat 1 foot at a time, twist, move a bit heat another foot, twist, etc

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Reference:
BP0021
BP0248
BP0250

[Ten Hammers]

I have a stock stand for this purpose. The base is a top off of an old 100 lb cyl. The upright is 1" black pipe with a collar at the top and bored with a nut welded for holding bolt. The insert ( part that extends ) is 3/4 " pipe with a piece of 1" angle welded ( tee ). The angle is I guess 12-14 " long. the angle has a fullered part on one end for setting stock against the grain so to speak. Set the piece (cold) you wish to twist in the valley of the angle ( and vise grip if you wish for now ) . Adjust the stand to the height of the leg vise and clamp the stock in the vise, leaving space for your twist. Close the holder on the stock stand and leave the stand at this location. Remove stock, heat, place on the angle ( cold part ), clamp the other end and twist with a crescent, holding the other end in the valley of the angle ( twisting right by the edge of the angle. This works for a foot-18 " of 1/2 square really nicely. Keep the other hand ( loosely ) on the stock in the valley of the angle. Pipe works very well indeed too.

[johnny99]

Have you tried twisting it cold? You should be able to put atleast 2 full twists in 3' of 1/2" sq. solid by hand without to much problem.
clamp it horizontally in the vise on one end, and use a Long handle on the twisting wrench.

[Frosty]

Two thoughts:

First if you have a back door on your forge just move it back and forth till you have an even heat in the section you want to heat. If no back door, make one.

Secondly, make a long handled twisting wrench and twist it cold. It's easier than you think.

Frosty

[HWooldridge]

To follow on to Frosty's comments, you might normalize the whole bar by passing it back and forth until a dull red, then allowing it to cool naturally to room temp, followed by twisting inside a pipe. So-called mild steel is often fairly hard from the rolling mill but a simple stress relief will make it dead soft.

[Rantalin]

Thanks to everyone who posted!

After reviewing both the problem, and the prospective solutions, I have decided that it might be easier, and a bit more astheticly pleasing, to put in a series of pineapple twists, with maybe some sort of decoration in between them. It's gonna be another month until finals end and I'm able to get to the forge again, but we'll see how it turns out.

[Frosty]

Dan:

I wouldn't give up on the full 30" twist till I gave it a try, it really isn't that hard to twist 1/2" sq. especially if you normalize it first as suggested.

There are other alternatives as well, including building a trench forge and heating with charcoal briquettes. You don't need orange heat for this so you don't even need an air blast.

My "try this first" suggestion is to just slip a piece of pipe over the wrench handle, put a piece of stock in your vise and give it a try. THEN make your decision.

I don't know how much time I've wasted designing and redesigning a piece because some untried aspect had me worried. There will be times you can't try it first but this isn't one of them.

Frosty