Mark Ling Posted May 7, 2016 Share Posted May 7, 2016 So, today I spent my day forging some tools. The first picture is of everything. The second picture is of a rivet header/tenoning tool. The third picture is of the drifts I used to enlarge the holes and a few rivets that I made. The fourth picture is of a slot punch that I made from 3/4 inch coil spring. The fifth picture is of the edge geometry. I ground it about 90 degrees--please correct if this is not the proper angle. The sixth picture is of a slot drift made from 1/2 inch coil spring. The seventh picture is just of the taper of the drift. The eighth picture is of a drift made from 3/4 inch coil spring. The ninth picture is of a smaller drift. The tenth picture is of a hammer eye/top tool drift made from 1 1/4 axle (4140). The eleventh picture is of the taper of the drift. The twelfth picture is of a round punch made from 1/2 inch coil spring. Please correct me if my terminology (or anything else) is incorrect. Littleblacksmith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Ling Posted May 11, 2016 Author Share Posted May 11, 2016 I used the slot punch this last weekend on a bottle opener. I think that I punched to far with it, because when I back punched I ended up cutting my plug in half, spending about 5 minutes trying to take out the pieces, and ending up with a "raggy" hole. Oh well, we live and we learn. Littleblacksmith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted May 12, 2016 Share Posted May 12, 2016 When you get it right, put a depth mark on the punch. (grin) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rashelle Posted May 12, 2016 Share Posted May 12, 2016 Most of the time if I end up with a rag while punching it is because I was a bit off on my aim when back punching. That is just my experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Evans Posted May 12, 2016 Share Posted May 12, 2016 (edited) 18 hours ago, littleblacksmith said: I used the slot punch this last weekend on a bottle opener. I think that I punched to far with it, because when I back punched I ended up cutting my plug in half, spending about 5 minutes trying to take out the pieces, and ending up with a "raggy" hole. Oh well, we live and we learn. Littleblacksmith Timing is important of course. When you turn the piece over you see the dark chilled bit that was trapped between punch and anvil. You must get the punch in place and (in this instance) strike while the iron is cold! It will shear cleanly. It will even shear clean if you are slightly off...line of least resistance and all that. On larger scale punching when the bars were too heavy to handle and flip quickly, the slug section reheated itself from the surrounding thermal mass. I found that a splash of water across the surface chilled the slug section and not the rest of the bar and it would then shear cleanly. If the slug gets back up to forging temperature...that is what it will do...forge and deform rather than shear. Same process can be used when hot cutting. Cut most of the way through and dunk the workpiece in the water long enough to just chill the isthmus and it will break rather than bend. Alan Edited May 12, 2016 by Alan Evans Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rashelle Posted May 12, 2016 Share Posted May 12, 2016 Alan covered what I forgot to add in. That is the slug being chilled to shear rather then hot which pulls the metal in from the sides. On bigger pieces such as my hammers I keep the punch tip chilled repeatedly as needed. (Note my punches and such are usually 4140 or similar) I did some S-7 ones once upon a time and made divots in my hammer faces, grrrrrrrrrr. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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