Spring Fuller (Or so I hope it will be)

[Donal Harris]

I am working on a coat/hat rack. I have had a heck of a time with the hooks. I couldn’t get the shoulders by the leaf and the hook symmetrical. 

My first thought was a guillotine tool, but while researching that here on IFI I saw a much easier answer, a spring fuller. 

Mine of the hooks that I need to fix is below, as is the start on the fuller. I have no ‘known’ steel for it. I assume it is sucker rod, because it was a home-built socket wrench of some sort, and folk around here use the stuff almost as much as they do baling wire, duct tape, and JB Weld. 

The rod is maybe 8 feet long and has proven to be very educational.  While straightening it I forgot I had heated a section a few feet from where I was holding it. I can attest that grabbing a piece of black hot steel is for all practical purposes just as painful as grabbing red hot steel.  

As I progress further I will post pics.  (Of the fuller.  My hand hurts like heck, but the burn left no marks.)

Edited to add: It was Michael’s post in the Guillotine Tool thread that gave me the idea, or more accurately, the design to follow.

Edited May 21, 2019 by DHarris
Give credit to Michael.

[anvil]

14 hours ago, DHarris said:

I couldn’t get the shoulders by the leaf and the hook symmetrical

This is a basic process, and needed for many types of forgings.

 Id suggest using your hammer and the edge of the anvil 'til you are proficient at it.

[Michael]

Glad to inspire someone, leaf looks good, love the texture you got on it. Couple of tips on the spring fuller from the person who showed it to me,  the top bar should overhang the bottom bar about an inch, so that you can lift the top bar with the hot material to get it under there, and it should look like a duck when its done. 

 

 

[Donal Harris]

Now that the small burn to my hand is healed and I can swing a hammer again, I finished it today after work.  Or I should say finished it somewhat.  It would have been easier to see if I had taken it out of the Hardy, but the shank is too small for the hole.  It isn’t noticeable when you drop it in, but it pops around when you strike it.  I think the geometry is off a bit as well.

I gave it a go with one of the leaves.  Snapped it clean off.  I think I will leave the remaining hooks alone and call them good as they are.

Next time I will just pay more attention to what I am doing if I try another coat/hat rack.

 

 

[Glenn]

On 5/20/2019 at 10:24 PM, DHarris said:

I couldn’t get the shoulders by the leaf and the hook symmetrical. 

If you check real close Mother Nature does not get them exact either.

[Donal Harris]

Very true. Plus now longer than I have been doing this I guess perfect is not to be expected. 

Tomorrow, if the weather allows, I will finish forming the hook ends on the others and finish prep on the steel plate these will all be riveted to. 

The ‘plate’ is actually a scrap piece of angle iron I flattened and drew out to the correct width. 

Edited to add a picture of the spring swage. 

Edited May 24, 2019 by DHarris
Add picture

[Donal Harris]

Any suggestions on what to correct on the swage to make it more functional will be appreciated. 

[jeremy k]

You have the basic form needed, now it's just some practice with it to get a feel for using it with hot steel.

The shoulders on the leaf are also controlled during the spreading of the leaf - that is were more practice come into play, so you can get the metal to move where you want it.

[ThomasPowers]

I'd "shoe shine" the contact surfaces and straighten them as well.

[Donal Harris]

Shoeshine the contact surfaces?

[Glenn]

This looks useful.  A couple of cuts and some support material and you could have fuller dies for a round shape, or a butcher die.

[Donal Harris]

It is half of a fish plate. I had thought I would make a guillotine tool from it. One of my FIL’s cronies owns a shop that makes box blades and such. He split it down the center with one of their very large plasma torches. 
 

After I had the plate split, I couldn’t quite figure out how to put both halves together as a functional tool. Thus the spring fuller in this thread and sort of a copy of a Smithing Magician which is on another thread here.

Neither were quite as “magical” as I had hoped. 
 

All this began with the fish plate and a need to neck down drill pipe to make a few bells. I still haven’t finished the bells. (Or any of the other things truth be told.)

[ThomasPowers]

How heavy wall is the drill pipe you need to work?  When I was in the oil patch the stuff we were using was DEFINITELY stuff needing power tools to work, even hot!

[Donal Harris]

I will try to get a photo of what it looks like when it starts. It isn’t from an oil drilling rig, or at least I don’t think it is. The only two times I have been on a rig the pipe was very large. This stuff isn’t nearly so big.  I picked up a few other things at the same time. I will post picks of those. You likely will know what they are. 

[ThomasPowers]

At least it's not drill collar!

[Donal Harris]

I believe I have one or two of those as well. Each must weigh at least 8-10 lbs. 

[ThomasPowers]

Ahh not the same thing, a drill collar for oilfield drilling is a VERY heavy walled piece of drill stem used right above the drill bit to put weight right on the drill bit and help keep the drill string in tension. So a section of "pipe" with outer walls several inches thick and weighing in the tons... (a 6.5" drill collar may weigh 90 pounds per foot...)

[Donal Harris]

I am thinking that what I have forever thought was drill pipe is actually some other pipe used in the oil and gas industry. Everyone has always referred to it as “oilfield pipe”. There are pipe yards all over the state that sell it used in various sizes, as well as sucker rod, storage tanks, and even entire rigs. 
 

People buy the pipe and sucker rod to build fences and gates.