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Heat treating a hammer drift


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Welcome to IFI, @MilwaukeeJon. Please head over to the Introduce Yourself page and let us know who you are -- but please Read This First!

In answer to your question, most folks here seem to favor leaving drifts as-forged. You can see what others have said previously (on this and other questions) by searching the previous threads. The forum's native search function isn't great -- you'll get better results from using the search engine of your choice and including "iforgeiron.com" as one of your search terms.

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To further expand on this, think about how you use a hammer drift. What happens to the the drift wile it is in the eye and you forge the sides of the eye down. It gets hot, even exceeding 500f. There by losing its temper. Use somthing tough like spring or shafting side steps this issue, as it's plenty tough in its as forged state.   

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I've used a 4140 drift to make a good handful of hammers so far.  It tends to be a little prone to bending when it gets hot, but with care and regular cooling it works pretty well.

Unfortunately the smaller the hammer head, the smaller the eye and the more prone the drift is to distorting in use.  I would take some care with the slitting/punching operation and try to minimize the drifting required.

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Don't you usually want a little nickel and chromium in the drift steel to make it a little tougher opposed to just a carbon steel? 

If using 4140 to drift, is it ok to dunk in water or is it going to make it brittle and explode?

I made a mini axe and made a small drift from s7. It worked perfect and no distortion while drifting

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Welcome aboard Jon, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the gang live within visiting distance.

Yeah, 1045 will be fine, just don't let it get more than dull red before cooling it. As Thomas says develop the rhythm two maybe three strikes remove, dip in water, wipe with punch lube and repeat. The chill and lube cycle is a good time to rotate the hammer head 180 so you're striking from the other direction. NOT flip it over, just turn it around so the face is going the other direction. It's hard to strike even close to perfectly vertical, we're all a little canted. So, turning the head every time you chill the punch or drift lets the error cancel out. 

Does that make sense?

Frosty The Lucky.

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Good Morning Jon,

I was shown by Tom Clark to lay out where you would like your Handle Hole, Drill 3(three) - 1/4" holes, about 3/8" to 1/2" between them. This keeps your punch on center and doesn't move to one side, like could happen free-hand.

You can Heat Treat your punch if you would like the exercise, the Temper will be all gone by the time you are halfway through your first hole. I make mine from pieces of axle or Truck Tie-Rod. Talk to your local Auto Wrecker, down payment starts with a box of Do-nuts. A Thank You would be a Hammer they can and will use, not a forging hammer, but a Hammer hammer

Please enter your locale in your Avatar. I thought Milwaukee was a Beer, shows how much I know, never mind the bottle, a pitcher will do!!

Enjoy your journey getting Hammered

Neil

 

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