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I Forge Iron

Rotating Kiss and Die


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I made this the other day to switch back and forth between an 1/8" kiss and a bending die, which looks sorta like a swage but's more rounded.  We're making a sculpture with a tree, so my wife is forging lots of little twigs with the 25 pounder.  This tool makes it go a lot faster. 

It has a 1" round shank which fits into the regular 1" square holder on the saddle. The set screw is tight enough, locked with the jamb nut, that it holds it in each position.  The 1" round shank is ground slightly oval so that the set comes tight in each position but is loose between to allow it to rotate.  There are two tabs sticking downwards which stop the rotation on the edge of the die.  Since the Little Giant's ram is so well guided, having a single kiss is not a problem.  

She forges a short taper down to 1/8", rotates the die and holds a round tool over the taper to bend it randomly, then goes over to the universal grinder and cuts it off.  

Joel

 

WholeHammer.jpeg

KissBlock.jpeg

Rotated.jpeg

Swage2.jpeg

VandeWeerd.jpeg

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We have a professional smith out this way, Leroy Simmons, (Mountainair, NM),  that had a LG with a broken sow block so he made a rotating die system for it: used a truck differential for the "axle" and had a round table about 4? feet in diameter with differing die set ups along the circumference that he can rotate under the hammer so he can do multi process ops without having to retool very often.

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