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I Forge Iron

What to do with springs


Dogsoldat

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A little too busy to take a pic or two at work but have some scrap springs coming my way.  They are track tensioner springs off of a D-8 Cat.  Each coil is maybe 12" in dia the stock is around 2" dia  and they are around 4' overall length.  I have dreams of hammers.  maybe if I have a moment I can grab the camera and take a few pics.  Another neat part is the caging rod that runs down the center of the spring.  The round end is threaded for a nut that takes a 2 3/16" socket.  Then stepes up to a fairly large square cross section for a foot or so then has a 1"thick 3" dia maybe end on it.  looks like a nicely shaped stake anvil.  Just needs to be cut off and a taper forged on it.  Anyways that my excitement for the day  :)

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Hammers, top and bottom tools. You'll need a power hammer or striker. Temper it to bronze or just shy for hammer faces seems to work just about right and doesn't chip. . . So far.

 

 

Jacob: Call or E-mail Cat. taking it apart isn't so tough, wrap it in cloth, say old Levis and hit it with a sledge hammer it'll come apart. when you say it won't fit your Camaro I trust you don't mean in the trunk. If so a sledge hammer isn't going to do it, use a torch.

 

That bearing looks spun so there's not much sense in trying to preserve it and I doubt you have a press large enough to open it as per the manual.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

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Hammers, top and bottom tools, stake tools, etc. You'll need a power hammer or striker. Temper it to bronze or just shy for hammer faces seems to work just about right and doesn't chip. . . So far.

 

 

Jacob: Call or E-mail Cat. taking it apart isn't so tough, wrap it in cloth, say old Levis and hit it with a sledge hammer it'll come apart. when you say it won't fit your Camaro I trust you don't mean in the trunk. If so a sledge hammer isn't going to do it, use a torch.

 

That bearing looks spun so there's not much sense in trying to preserve it and I doubt you have a press large enough to open it as per the manual.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

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If I can anneal it in a good fire I can cut the bearing cage and peel it off while saving that metal, along with all the roller bearings and the main body. Which is what your saying. And the main body would be hard to cut with anything other than a torch, even annealed it's probably gonna wear out blades on my horizontal bandsaw.

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Had to cut nearly every coil to take the pressure off the spring.  wowsers some serious power in that thing.  there was also a smaller inner spring to go with it.  Anyways heres a few pics before my thread gets to hijacked  :)

 

As well as an axe I started out of a sliver logging truck spring.  truck spring is tough stuff to move.  And a side job of the bosses at work.  An old T bar pulley from his property that needs the hub welded back in.  He has plans to turn it into a sign at the gate to his place.

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Essentially you a recovering scrap, do the least damage to the product and use an expedient method. We use the coils for set tools such as slitters and drifts. I like to make up spring pieces in batches to save time. It's better than wasting 2 hours cutting, straightening and fabricating the tool. Also, with springs avoid the oa torch if you can. The burnt ends still have to be ground back to good metal before you start forging the tool. It's about saving time.

These tools don't last forever, so we keep a pile of various dia pieces ready for whenever we switch to a new project. We make most of our shop tooling out of scrap springs and those big chipper blade sections. I'm like a beggar at auto and logging truck places looking for scrap.

Peter

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