Swage creation

[natenaaron]

I have a 3 inch thick by 12 inch diameter piece of mild steel round stock.  I want to start using it as a swage block and grind out the shapes as I need to.  I guess you could call it a Swage Shapped Object (SSO).  will this work? I have one I am using as an ASO right now and it seems to be taking a beating well but I have not gone after it with a hammer bigger than my 2 pounder or harder steel.  Since I want to make a hammer other tools I will be going at the swage one with a MUCH bigger hammer and harder steels.

 

[turbo7]

May not be so handy if its a cylinder mate, not saying it cant be done but there would be a bit more involved holding it down say for twisting, base wont be straight forward to use it on its edge.

[natenaaron]

Not worrying about the sides yet.  Lord willing I will have a real one before I need the dedicated side shapes.  I was more thinking about the dimples, and holes on the face.  As I need a shape or specific dimple size I would just make it.  I was concerned about it not holding shape as I was pounding harder steel with a bigger hammer.

[VaughnT]

What exactly are you trying to accomplish?  If you need a bottom swage for a particular thing, just cut off a 1" slice of the round stock and hammer the indentation in just like conventional swages are done.  

There's no need to have all your swages in one place since the whole thing would be small enough to fit on an anvil anyway.  So, make individual swages to fit your hardy hole.  This allows you to save the majority of that chunk of steel for something else, if it ever comes to that, while also getting into easy to make swages.

[natenaaron]

My anvil is a railroad track.  That is why I have been using the round as an ASO when I feel I need some more real estate.  The 3 inch thick round is the only wide enough item I have with some mass for this.

The round is mounted flat on a stand next to an anvil.  I suppose a hardy hole could be cut in the round but I have never cut a hole in something that thick.  I can't imagine how long it would take to drill a hole that deep.  I have a drill press but it will not support the weight, so I would have to do it by hand. I have to go to the welding shop today, I'll see if they have a big enough cutting tip.

[Charles R. Stevens]

Make a portable hole, take a scrap of heavy wall tubing and weld a thick top plate with a square hole in it on, viola hardy hole now make swages, fillers and all manner of bottom tools.

not saying a square hole in your 3" plate would ent work even better, it's just a PITA to get a square hole in something that thick

[VaughnT]

Okay, I'm lost.

You have a cylinder of steel that you want to cut grooves and depressions in to act as a swage block.  The cylinder is 3" in diameter and a foot long, and currently mounted horizontally.

Did I get that right?  

Do you have a welder?  Do you have a drill press?  Tap and die?

To make a dimple or groove in the side of the cylinder would actually eat up a lot of the metal pretty quickly because you need to get down below the crown (Top Dead Center) a good bit before you'd have anything workable.

If you slice off a 2" chunk of the cylinder, like a slice of bread off the loaf, you can heat it up in your forge and pound in whatever depression you need.  That still leaves you with a 10" cylinder for doing anvil duty.  Depending on what type of depression you're needing, you can probably fit two on a 3" face.  Some types of depressions can pull double-duty for various functions -- a long groove can be used to shape a leaf or support a piece of round stock so it doesn't deform.

Since you've said that you're not in a pinch for a lot of different shapes, one slice would get you by until you find another chunk of iron better suited to the task of making bottom swages.

To hold the swage in place, you can bolt it down to the stump.  You're pounding hot iron on it so you don't need too much mass.  If you've ever seen smiths forming leaves and bowls on wooden stumps, smoke billowing like crazy, you can understand how even a wood "anvil" will get the job done.

If the slice is thick enough, you could drill and tap the underside to accept a hanger bolt (aka: dowel screw) that would hold it down real nice and not get in the way.

[turbo7]

Vaughn, its 3" thick and 12" diameter.

[Frosty]

5 hours ago, turbo7 said:

Vaughn, its 3" thick and 12" diameter.

Ooooooh, GIANT woodruf keys! A person could saw it into a couple pieces clamp them together with a spacer, card stock is good and drill a series of holes. this would make a pair of swage blocks with 1/2 rd. swages. A little creativity with clamps and you can match the curved sides and repeat drilling holes. These you could then shape for hex or octagonal swages. V swages are a matter of grinding or sawing to suit.

You don't Need a machine shop but it wouldn't hurt. A decent drill pres will do.

Frosty The Lucky.

[natenaaron]

Thanks folks.  Yes 3" thick.  Charles, you are correct  a PIA but a friend is going to help.  He has more welding and fabricating experience than I will ever have and he said the same thing but doable since it is mild steel.  If nothing else I will have gained experience.  I have two of them.

That is interesting.  I honestly did not think about cutting it in two but what you said sounded totally doable. 

This is going to be interesting.

[VaughnT]

My bad.  Don't know how I missed that, but I'm good at missing things.

 

If you drill a center hole for an axle, she'd make a dandy of a rotating swage block.  It might even pay to send it to a place to have the shapes cut out with a water jet or the like.  Then all you'd have to do is clean the cuts up with a file and spin her to whatever position you needed for the job.

[JHCC]

10 hours ago, VaughnT said:

If you drill a center hole for an axle, she'd make a dandy of a rotating swage block.  It might even pay to send it to a place to have the shapes cut out with a water jet or the like.  Then all you'd have to do is clean the cuts up with a file and spin her to whatever position you needed for the job.

Let's take that a step further. Weld the plate onto a large-diameter, heavy-duty axle and mount it on a stand that is strong enough to withstand pounding, but that allows it to rotate freely. (Think cannon trunnions.) Now fashion a spring-loaded bullet-type catch that engages one or more of the unused notches, to keep the one in use uppermost. The stronger the spring, the better; you might even want one so strong that you need a foot pedal to disengage it.