Jump to content
I Forge Iron

Rivet material


Cannon Cocker

Recommended Posts

I am making my first pair of tongs and so far they are coming along very nicely.  I am to the point of riveting them together.  I attempted to use a 1/4" bolt as the rivet, but when I got it set together and started working the tongs open and closed the bolt sheared off right in the middle.  I am guessing that the metal the bolt just became brittle from the heat.  My question is this.  Does regular mild steel work well for rivets?  I chose not to use it because the smallest stuff I have on hand is 1/2" and I didn't want to take the time to draw it out, I know, I know Lazy right!  Anyway, any advice you guys could give me would be great!  (I'll post some pics of the tongs as soon as I get them done!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

53 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

Rivets have to be sized for the work too; I have tongs with 1/8" rivets and tongs with 1/2" rivets that work well.  What yours should use  I can't tell..... Mild steel is ok.

Thanks, I understand the different dimensions. I was curious about the material that I should use. I'll give it a shot drawing one out. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mild will work fine and you don't have to heat it to peen the head onto the pin. I use heat  and a rivet heading tool to put a nice head on one end of the rivet and then cold cut the shank to length. Make a dozen or so at a time and put up some extras in a cup, then when you need one set it in the pieces to be joined and cold peen the head with a ball peen hammer.  As a general rule I leave the length exposed to peen equal to the diameter of the rivet, ie 1/4" length for 1/4" round etc. When your tongs start getting a little sloppy, and they will with use, just set the rivet on the anvil and give the head a pop with the hammer to tighten them back up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks TC.

I just finished them. The rivet isn't very good and I'm sure it'll fall out fairly soon. I did learn a few things such as how long the rivet needs to be for the material, that the head of the rivet needs to be better, and the rivet didn't need to be hot. These are all recommendations from TC, and after doing all of them wrong I see the value in his advice!  I'm going to make a jig for a few different sizes so I can have them ready in the future. 20180720_165850.thumb.jpg.613286fd6ac955d031f2c44143cd1851.jpg20180720_164938.thumb.jpg.e59b2ca3b1c682255fca2eb9703dcd2a.jpg20180720_164923.thumb.jpg.539561951827f9115aa0a66cc6da8db5.jpg

By the way, feel free to critique my work and give me some advice that I can use on my next tongs. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That pair of tongs looks very much like my first pair! Serviceable comes first, everything else comes with repetition! If you're making mild tongs keep them beefy. If you get ready for some light weight tongs which are much more comfortable to work with, make them from 5160/aka coil springs. You can draw the reins out much thinner and they will still take lots of abuse. They wont hold up to heating and quenching so when you make a nice pair of higher carbon, tougher steel, keep them out of the quench pail! The nice thing about mild is that they wont harden so you can use them to cool nails quickly or a million other things with no worries of getting them brittle.

  If you're anxious to make another pair try a pair of bolt tongs. Very handy! If you make them to hold 5/8'' stock you can adjust the rein angle so they will grip 1/2", 5/8", and 3/4" round or square stock. Six tongs for the effort of one!

 My most used tongs are 1) fire tongs (very similar to your first pair) 2) 5/8" bolt tongs, 3) wolf jaw tongs, 4) single and double pick-up

Once you get three or four basic pair that do most of your work start refining the designs to include offset jaws for gripping the center of longer sections. You may also like using a set of punch tongs. I do all my punching/slitting using tongs that are made to hold my punches at right angles (keeps my hand from hovering above the hot work) Then you will have an excuse to make a set of punches for use with the punch tongs! You can make the punches shorter because you don't need room to wrap your hand around the punch. I have over 20 punches in a .30 call ammo can that weigh about as much as five or six of my hand punches because the tong punches only need to be about four inches long.

  All in all your first pair look good. Keep at it and you will be amazed at how much easier the second, third and so on become. If you haven't done already, bring the jaws up to forging heat and grip the stock you intend to use them with the most. While holding that stock lay one jaw on the anvil and give the top jaw light taps to form the jaws exactly to the size stock you will be using them with. When they cool you should have a very secure grip with that stock.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I set this pair for 1/2 inch as that is the most common size I have worked with so far.  (as well as the most common size that gets thrown into the scrap bucket at work!)  I want to make another set much like this set for 1/8th so that I can use them for making leaves and other small things.  From there I'll just see what I come across and end up needing.  As far as I can tell so far blacksmithing is a game of "decide what you want to make then make the tools so you can make it!"  I also need a pair of knife tongs because that is what I really want to focus on making.  I've forged a few already that have turned out pretty good (for a novice) and want to continue pursuing that path.  Thanks again for the advice.  You all will be hearing from me quite a bit as I tend to really get into my hobbies! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...