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I Forge Iron

Upsetting Vise


setlab

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That would be the rack from a rack and pinion gear set, what it came out of i have no idea but simulare parts cam me found in rack and pinion automobile front stearing units. Ot the can be fabricated a stedy hand could forge them with a small fuller i supose but a drill press, hacksaw and file would proobably be the way I would go. I would also think drilling a searies of 1/2" holes and bolting the ubseting block would work as well. The basic mechanics could be adopted to several uses

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That adjustable block is for the end of the bar or whatever your upsetting to set on. So it has nowhere to move when hammering it. I suppose with a lot of time you could make a pretty nice substitute for that gear rack, I like the idea of stumbling across one at a scarpyard a little better though lol. Enco sells 1.5" square gear rack for about $150 for 4' in comparison.

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Ah! Now it makes complete sense. I was thinking more the cam action of the vise was clamping the rivet body like what happens when you use 2 pieces of drilled angle iron in a standard vise vs an upsetting block.

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Looks to me like the really important part of that vise is the adjustable rest for the workpiece to sit on.  Other than that, it's not really doing anything that a set of jaw covers for any vise wouldn't also accomplish.

Making the adjustable rest wouldn't be too hard because all you need is a series of holes that you can pin the rest in place by.  The gear teeth are neat, but certainly not the only way to accomplish the adjustability.  

Not saying that I wouldn't love to have a dedicated upsetting device, though.  :D  We all need more tools!

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Jacob, that's a neat idea I might steal. I have a swivel head vise that got partially damaged when someone over tightened it that I haven't had the chance to play with yet. That would work really well for that purpose.

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Just seeing if I understood how it was set up.  

Somewhat off topic, but I always thought it would be cool to see a setup that would clamp either side of a section and upset toward the middle.  I imagine it would function somewhat like a wagontyre upsetter that I read about in an old book/catalog that I can't remember the name of.

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They're hydraulic upsetters. Grant Sarver was operating the one he used to make his tongs in the pic on his web site. I just spent some time searching for a "hydraulic center upsetting machine" without finding one but there are some really cool videos from folk selling the things.

Surf in good health.

Frosty The Lucky.

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Upsetting doesn't have to be done via impact; simply pushing the metal when hot enough works. The issue is gripping the metal firmly enough to cause it to build up rather than slide.

I built a device which bolted onto the jaws of an 8" Wilton vise. The vise jaws held one end of the bar and a set of tapered "grippers" held the other end, then a simple screw press advanced the ends towards each other. The use of a torch enabled easy duty in swelling the center of bars. It worked well for the job it was built for (a single window grate) but the mini single screw press didn't survive. I built it in vertical orientation out of habit; Jock Dempsey suggested that it should have been designed for horizontal use for added versatility. 

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