bowl shaped swage piece idea.

[ramsies11]

now, i dont know if this is in the right section, if so, could a mod please move it?

but heres my idea, get a 3"x3"x3" block of steel, drill a hole down the center so the little nub on the end of my router bit will fit, and take a metal router and bring it down like a drill bit to cut it down into a bowl shape. then ill weld a 3/4"piece of sqare stock to the bottom (size of my hardy) and use it as a bowl tool for making spoons and ladels and such, any ideas on wether or not this is a good or bad idea? i really dont want to mess up my router bit. lol

[Big-D]

I have a simpler method. Before I had a swage block, I needed a bowl shaped depression. I cut a piece of 1/4" plate big enough to make an individual bowl swage. I took the piece of steel to a friends house, heated it up in his forge, and forged it down into the bowl depression in his swage block. Took 2-3 heats to get it right. We had a cast iron cannon ball we used as a hammer. I then welded a hardy shank on it. I may still have it.

[Steve Sells]

most likely you will ruin the router as well as its bits. Either use a chunk of wood for a limited use bowl, or buy a swege block its cheaper.

[ThomasPowers]

I would get one of the RR bolts, (you could use a spike but it's not nearly as tough). Heat a piece of say 1/2" thick steel to nearly welding temp and drive the round head of the bolt down into it making a swage---probably take a couple of goes and holding the bolt in tongs and having someone strike with a 9#+ sledge would help.

If you don't want the round shape of the bolt---grind it to the shape you do!

[DanBrassaw]

I used the top of a stump for quite a few spoons before I got my swage block. Oddly, I haven't made any spoons since then. :P But wood works fine, just make sure the smoke has a place to go!

[stevehewer]

I was also thinking about this sort of thing, I could do with (a) a round hardy tool and (B) a cup/bowl hardy tool. I found my supplier of steel bar also sells all the scrolls and other pre made iron work, So I intend to buy a 2" and 4" solid ball and weld it to some 1" square bar for the hardy hole and also get a hollow ball of a similar size and cut it on to 2 halves, with it being cut off centre to give me a small and large bowl, I will then bend in to a curcle and weld some square bar around the outside of the bowl for strength and the 1" bar on the bottom to fit my hardy hole.
does that idea help anyone else ???
Steve.

[Mainely,Bob]

Best and easiest bowl swage block I`ve ever found was the bottom of an oxygen tank. Find someone who makes bells from tanks and trade some tool steel for a couple of the scrap bottoms they aren`t using. That`s how I got mine.

[Old N Rusty]

As Bob says the best bowl shape and the cheapest mobile tool that I have in my shop is the bottom of an oxegen tank carefully cut at the proper hammer height when welded to a tire rim. For those smiths that work on dirt simply dig a hole like a post hole so an Ox bottle bottom is the height you want and tamp the dirt around it I doubt you will hammer it into the ground. Laurel Machine and Foundry , Laurel Miss. casts anvils and swage blocks with rounds on one side and spoons on the other .

[Old N Rusty]

Forgot to mention the INSIDE of an ox bottle bottom is a dandy raising stake shape , and fine thick steel . If the oxygen bottle you get free from the welders supply has the valve busted off and holds NO pressure it is perfectly safe to torch cut. Only Oxygen bottles !!!!

[ramsies11]

ONR- i made one out of a wood round, i cut the main portion with a butterfly bit i welded up, and then i made it into the spoon shape with some dremel work.

heres my question, why only oxygen bottles? what if an acetelyne bottle has the same valve breakage? or a tall propane/argon bottle?


If you would take a little time to read in the forum, you would see many posts about not cutting into fuel tanks, and why.

[Ten Hammers]

Any NOS gas bottle works from medical size to " K " tanks (steel to aluminium on the little ones). There will be a variance in tank bottoms. I haved at least 3 different shapes. Obvoiusly no fuel tanks.

[ThomasPowers]

Acetylene tanks are filled with a porous material that is saturated with acetone, Acetylene is then dissolved into the acetone---acetylene is really really suicidal and you have to jump through hoops to keep it from going boom---even without the presence of an oxidizer! (or to put it nicely it wants to exothermically disassociate).

Some of the oldest acetylene tanks were stuffed with asbestos. The newer ones have a sort of diatomaceous earth cement.

Either type will still have lots of acetone buried in it as ER trips seriously eat into forging time and the cost of even a simple one would probably pay for buying less hazardous tanks *new*; please just avoid scraped Acetylene tanks. (actually the local scrapyard throws a fit if they find out you snuck an acetylene tank in with a load, even they of the caviler safety standards considers them an active hazard!)

[ramsies11]

i was walking around my local farm supply store and i think i found somthing that just might work. they are steel caps that are made to go ontop of steel fence posts. its pretty deep so i heated it up and i gave it a couple taps so itd be a bit more shallow. and i think it worked, now i just need to weld it to a hardy shank and im good!