May 17, 201412 yr I obtained a large 1/4" door to an old boiler. It sat around for a while with the intent on making it the base of a charcoal grill. Then I got the itch to make a smithin magician once I saw the thread here. Well, a few days of cutting and grinding and viola' here you have it. What a fun time it was. I learned a bunch of things about layout and cutting with a torch. My welding skills have improved to the point that I could piece this project together without the fear or ruining it so I'm ecstatic about that. I still suck but I got the job done. I have an old tombstone arc welder that could melt a hole faster that the Fukoshima reactor but she works great for my skill level. I do believe I over built the size. The top fuller is 7.5" and is 3/4" thick. My original thought was to be able to put two profiles on a set of dies but the energy transfer might get eaten up by the mass of the dies. "When in doubt, use a bigger hammer." I liked the concept of the 45* offset so there is more ways to place the work through. I used angle on the bottom of the main plate and a 1" rod to fit into the hardy hole. The next step is to cut a relief hole in the bottom bracket to assist in removal of the lower die and a spring system to help raise the upper die off the piece of work. Will I still need to clamp it to the anvil?
May 17, 201412 yr Very nice bit of work. I've been planning on making one of those myself, but haven't found a source of metal for the dies. How'd you keep the slots tight so the dies stay aligned with each other?
May 19, 201412 yr Looks like a good build and a neat job. I have just made one of these albeit with a different design. No spring in mine, apparently many folks don't like using a spring as it is harder to feel where the steel is fullered. At least if you add a spring you can allways remove it. Not sure how I could add a spring to mine... I planned to post some pics of my build but sadly I can't post a new thread :( BW, Chris.
May 19, 201412 yr leaf spring is a quite good die material for this sort of thing and found most places in the world these days.
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