March 4, 20188 yr The other day I got home from work and fired up the forge. I was able to hamer out a pritty good tong half out of 3/4 round hot rolled steel. I jumped up this morning excited to finally pin a set of tongs together I was proud of. I made my first set down ( sorry if my Termanolagly is off I'm new to this ) made my turn to the right got a few hits in before runing out of heat. Stuck it back in the fire and started cleaning on the other half. Went back to the fire pulled out the steel, yep it's burned not bad but burned. Things just kept geting worse. Finally got them pined and the burned steel came back to haunt me. Finally I gave in,cut the rains off and started a new set out of 5/8 square stock. The first half looks pritty good. The secound half started walking I just shut every thing down and came inside. All in all it was a great day. I was able to hammer steel all day. Now my beautiful wife is frying frog legs and I'm reading this forum Thank you guys for all the hard work y'all do,puting out information so guys like me can improve our skills
March 4, 20188 yr R169: If you don't come up with an uncumbersome web-handle I'm going to make one up for you! Sounds like a good day to me, I NEVER got that far along when I was getting started, I still make crummy tongs, functional but crummy. Where's the rant? You promised us a rant, where the heck is it? I opened the post expecting a good rant-like something but all I get is a report on a beginner's good days work. You DO realize this kind of broken promise will flavor any web-handle I have to make one up for you don't you? Hmmmm? At least ease the disappointment with some pics. . . eh? Frosty The Lucky.
March 4, 20188 yr Texas tongs? Or Texas Frog Legs? Throwing out some suggestions. I agree with Frosty, I want to see pics. I haven’t attempted a set of tongs yet and I am looking at others’ work for inspiration. Welcome aboard!
March 4, 20188 yr You want a rant? Easy! find a video of an anvil "restoration" possibly one where a surface grinder is used all the way down to the cast base
March 4, 20188 yr Author Sorry for the misleading title I guess thers not much point in ranting when you are the one to blame. Just one bad decision after another. thaks for the replies and the warm welcome.
March 4, 20188 yr Don't feel bad. I have my third set almost done, but there are two ruined sets in between the second and the third. I've decided I need yet another tool, so I'll make it tomorrow. If all goes well tomorrow, I will have a Monkey Tool in my arsenal. I love that name. HA.
March 4, 20188 yr 7 of 9 of the voices in my head voted that you are allowed to rant against yourself! (Unless you are living in a Low Rant district...)
March 4, 20188 yr 14 hours ago, ThomasPowers said: (Unless you are living in a Low Rant district...) Thomas, please use the correct terminology its known as a rant controlled district but of course its limited to persons that are pre 1969,
March 4, 20188 yr 17 hours ago, ThomasPowers said: 7 of 9 of the voices in my head voted that you are allowed to rant against yourself! (Unless you are living in a Low Rant district...) Roses are red. Violets are blue. I'm schizophrenic, and so am I.
March 4, 20188 yr Talking about voices ... no I don't hear voices, but I work alone most of the time and I talk to myself (and my dog) a lot. Who does that?
March 4, 20188 yr Author A buddy at church was telling me how him and his dog have loooong conversation. I asked if he gives good advice he said every now and then
March 4, 20188 yr DW there were a lot of abstentions... As for talking to things; my family is known for talking to all mammals and some lizards, snakes etc. Shoot I even talk to my tools and my neighbors from time to time. Remember what Gandalf said?
March 4, 20188 yr Author I got in from church and fired up the forge started working on the transition where I welded the rains. Yup it snapped. I set it aside and started working on other stuff. One of the bad choses I made yesterday was using 1/2 inch round for my rivet not that 1/2 makes a bad rivet I just don't have the tools to puch a 1/2 inch hole. So I took and forge down ( did I say that right?) the 1/2 inch to 3/8'ish and worked a little on a hammer-puch I have a piece of 1-1/4 grade 8 bolt and thanks to this site I now know grade 8 bolts don't have the carbon I hoped it did you asked for picks so here you go! don't hold back I would feather cry in my pillow and learn somthing the walk around puffed up without understanding
March 5, 20188 yr Thomas, I talk to all things but for the life of me cannot think of what Gandalf said that you mention.
March 5, 20188 yr 'No! For I was talking aloud to myself. A habit of the old: they choose the wisest person present to speak to; the long explanations needed by the young are wearying.' J.R.R.Tolkien, The Two Towers
March 5, 20188 yr Great pics! Sorry you had the work snap on you. I need to try my hand at a set of tongs. We just got blanketed by 18” of snow today. Hoping by the end of this week all the white stuff is gone and the weather is warm enough to roll the forge out back. I am probably being a baby as I see people fro Alaska, MN, etc on here and it seems like they are always working. Maybe they have heated shops or something. I just can’t take the cold. But give it two months and I will be complaining about the heat! Lol
May 8, 20188 yr I didn’t notice anyone else say it so I will. If you work on both halves at the same time, doing the same step to each side every time and comparing them to make sure they’re the same, you’ll end up with tongs that are easier to assemble and require less adjustment. You’re headed in the right direction. What size steel are you making them out of?
May 8, 20188 yr It's been said Ben. It's a long standing production technique and a good way to produce matching things say coat hooks in sets. I think the technique is repeated regarding tong makig the most often though. We do need to repeat it for folk learning to make tongs and sets though. Frosty The Lucky.
May 8, 20188 yr Building on the last two posts, there was a video on youtube about this subject. The main takeaway was that making several tong-halves greatly increases the odds that you'll have better pairs. Don't just make two, make a dozen or so. After they are done, try one half against all the others until you find the closest one. Set that pair aside and repeat with the remaining 10. Apparently the best matching halves are rarely forged sequentially. Also it's easier to improve when you're repeating a task.
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