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I Forge Iron

Question about floor cone mandrels


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At the local ag museum we have a fairly large one that came out of the local iron works shop.  I have a question about a modification that was done.  Sorry, no photos right now of the actual one.

The one we have started out as a complete cone but at some point in time, someone had torched a "slot" down the length that is about 1 inch wide extending top to bottom.  Looking at some web photos of similar, I see that some have this kind of slot and some don't.  I've attached a photo of a new one that has the equivalent of a slot---a deep groove from top to bottom with a shorter open slot section.

So...being an ignorant cuss, I was wondering what purpose a slot serves on one of these and why it would have been worth cutting one in a perfectly good cast iron cone at some time in the past.  Clearance for rivets if it's a non welded ring being "sized" over the cone?  A place to jam the end of a bar so that you can use the cone as a hot forming mandrel for rings?  Something else?

 

cone.jpg

 

 

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Suggest folks don't make value judgements before they learn more.  A cone is much improved with a tong slot allowing you to make perfect rings on it. Instead of having the bump put where the tongs hold it.

Also are you sure it's torched?  Cast iron, what most of the cones are made from is not known for it's cutting with a torch.

I'd love a full sized cone  I currently have a smaller one that is the nose cone for a missile---fellow sold a flatbed of them at Quad-State one year.

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19 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Suggest folks don't make value judgements before they learn more.  A cone is much improved with a tong slot allowing you to make perfect rings on it. Instead of having the bump put where the tongs hold it.

Also are you sure it's torched?  Cast iron, what most of the cones are made from is not known for it's cutting with a torch.

I'd love a full sized cone  I currently have a smaller one that is the nose cone for a missile---fellow sold a flatbed of them at Quad-State one year.

Yes, it's definitely torched--and from floor to tip.  I would have expected whomever did it to leave a little of the base intact for structure but I guess they wanted that slot all the way to the floor.  

Thanks everyone for the help.  The answer was so obvious that I got myself tied in knots looking for a more complicated one.  That's a habit I need to work on breaking:  I try and find some magical secret trick answer when it's a KISS situation that's right in front of me.

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We'll give you the magical secret trick answer, but 1st you have to give us the secret handshake and get out your decoder ring... Oh and then we have to kill you. Sorry, you know how it goes...  Rules.  :lol:

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