Jspool Posted May 10, 2018 Posted May 10, 2018 All this posting and discussion has got me fired up to finall do something with my 18" swage block. Its just too heavy for me to man handle around. Frosty's and Tonys's posts about tilting the block and a trunnion block morphed in my brain, and I came up with this: A hinged strap (not drawn) will retain the block in the tray when its rotated to vertical. To rotate the block for choosing the top edge you want to be exposed when in vertical, I will place a bottle jack on the lower shelf, jack the block up, rotate, and lower back down. The strap will need to be released to do this. .75" holes on the sides are for a .75" retention rod to hold the block in the chosen position. Shelf off of the back is for a low post vise. Shelf is 22.5" high. Constructed from .5" mild steel. Going together tomorrow! Quote
Frosty Posted May 10, 2018 Posted May 10, 2018 That's pretty similar to what I came up with. I'd rotate it be sliding it back on the table, rotate it with a bar, something like a bending fork with a long handle and slide it back in the vertical retainer. I'd use the same wrench to raise and lower it. I think the bottle jack idea is kind of scary, at least how I'm envisioning it. I'm sure looking forward to pics and your evaluation as a working tool. It looks good to me. Frosty The Lucky. Quote
Jspool Posted May 14, 2018 Author Posted May 14, 2018 Taking shape, and longer than I expected (as always). Quote
Jspool Posted May 19, 2018 Author Posted May 19, 2018 Waiting for the paint to dry on some touch up areas. Final assembly this afternoon. Quote
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted May 19, 2018 Posted May 19, 2018 I love your belt grinder stand. A salon pump up chair base to adjust the height to suit the job. Quote
Frosty Posted May 19, 2018 Posted May 19, 2018 Painting it MY shop colors? You are a really NICE guy I'll get my address to you immediately! Thank you. I love your grinder stand too. It's going to look great in Green and gold. These things always takes time to get right, rushing only makes it take longer to correct the mistakes. Looking good. Frosty The Lucky. Quote
Jspool Posted May 20, 2018 Author Posted May 20, 2018 Thanks guys. I painted it Frosty Green so I’ll always remember where the base of the idea came from! No gold however. The grinder base is from an old barber chair. Heres a few more photos. No videos yet until I figure out how to hold the iphone. Here it is all set up in horizontal position. The securing strap should be down out of the way until its used when tilting the block to vertical. Like this. 3/4” holding bar gets moved to make sure the block doesn’t shift. When the block is in the horizontal, center the jack and pad (which is secured) and jack it up. Turn the block so the desired edge will be in the up position when tilted to vertical. Like this. Curved swages are now on the bottom. All put away in its garage. The low vise will be used a lot. This project was a long time coming and a lot of fun to do. Total weight is right around 700 lbs Stand 280 Block 210 Vise 210 Quote
Frosty Posted May 20, 2018 Posted May 20, 2018 Pretty slick. It's well enough balanced to turn that way. When you described doing that it gave me the heeby geebies thinking about what could go wrong. Seeing it, there's no place for the block to go if it did tip or slip. Certainly a LOT easier than turning mine. I like it . Frosty The Lucky. Quote
tkunkel Posted May 20, 2018 Posted May 20, 2018 Nice project. Well thought out and put together. Need to copy this and put in project file! Quote
jeremy k Posted May 24, 2018 Posted May 24, 2018 Nice - looks very similar to a European stand I've seen before - I'll have to make a stand similar to that for my 15" x 15" x 4" Quote
Jspool Posted May 24, 2018 Author Posted May 24, 2018 Jeremy, I saw that picture what must have been years ago! I remember that I couldn’t figure out how it worked. Evidently it stuck in my mind, right down to the wheels and the retention rod! Now I know why I painted mine green! Quote
jeremy k Posted May 24, 2018 Posted May 24, 2018 Somewhere I believe I have printed out pics of a few different views of the factory made ( saw it originally on a European blacksmithing supply site I believe) adjustable stand in my pile of blacksmithing related pictures (cant seem to find any other views on the net lately) - as I wanted to build on like that for a long time for a large swage block I have - like yours is a bear to man handle. It does essentially all that your stand does. Quote
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