August 9, 201510 yr I have been making a lot of tongs with long reins lately 36-64" long. I have had problems in the past with the part jumping and getting pinched between the corners of the swage. This can be very frustrating when you have the tong half almost done and you then have 2 creases in a spot on the reins. Repairing this is a very time consuming job of upsetting the section of the reins and then re swaging it. This often takes a few heats and there is often still a mark where it happened. I a couple of months ago I decided to try putting a collar on the spring of the swage to keep it from opening enough for this to happen. It has been a very successful modification. I first used 1x 1/4" flatbar as my collar but the last one I modified I just used a piece of 1x 1/8" flatbar for the collar and it worked just fine. The collar is not closed just bent around the spring with 4 bends. I have found I am able to drive the hammer harder which allows me to get way more stock swaged per heat as I don't have to drive it gently to prevent the bouncing.
August 24, 201510 yr Good idea John but if we can't see it it didn't happen you know. Frosty The Lucky.
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