Frosty Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 I started on this thing some years ago, like 11 or so. Well, I changed jobs, met Deb, got married, moved to the woods, built a pygmy goat farm and finished my last 10 years on the paycheck job. Somehow I didn't get to this. Okay, part of this thing was built a decade ago and some parts disappeared sometime since. The first pic is jigging the upright "C" frame to the base plate. The next pic is tapping the upper tool holder for a removeable spreader/retainer plate. The next is a good one of Frosty screwing up. :mad: How many of you see it? Next I'm getting it right by dry fitting everything first. Then I clamped and squared everything and tack welded it at the same time. No repeat mistakes. . . At least on the same darned tool! I used gloss paper from an instruction sheet as spacers between the top guides, bottom holder and the dies for clearance. The bottom holder is a bit looser than I'd like but I can correct that easily enough with a few well placed center punch dimples. The top die needs to have the mill scale, rust, etc. sanded off to move freely which is just right. This is a top view before I trimmed off about an inch. It shows how I've aligned the dies at a 45* angle with the support so I can run stock through either across or in line with the dies. The bolt on retainer plate makes it so I can change the top tool even if the die face is larger than the guides. There are welded on strike plates on top of the top die. These are lightly migged on, I'll break out the stick welder and do it properly before I put it into use. The last two shots are looking at it from both working directions. Only the one set of dies as of today. The hardy is set so the dies are centered over it. I may change it if it turns out I use it more in the anvil rather than the vise or swage block. Dies are 3/8" x 2" mild. I have some 3/8" leaf spring I'll use to make cutting dies with. They open to 2" and the throat is about 3". I don't know if this will be sturdy enough for heavy work. If not I'll build a more conventional "A" frame support. Cutting dies and paint next. Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayco Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 Frosty, that's an interesting looking machine! Third pic? Yeah, I see it. I really like that idea of turning the dies to a 45 deg. angle to the post.....let's you easily use the tool both across and length ways of the dies. Great! Be sure and post more pics as you make more dies and begin to use the machine! I haven't seen anything like your fullering tool before, You must now come up with a cool name for it! James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John B Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 Hi Frosty, don't want to put a downer on this, but I made one similar using 1/2" x 2" spring steel for blades/dies, the problem I found was they are just that bit short for making tenons etc, but ideal for cut off and veining, so I had to make another with a larger set of dies, I used 1" x 2" stock and found this much better. Good idea on the 45 degrees though, allows more versatile access. Thanks for your prolific postings, Always useful and informative as well as enjoyable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted July 11, 2008 Author Share Posted July 11, 2008 Frosty, that's an interesting looking machine! Third pic? Yeah, I see it. You must now come up with a cool name for it! James A real head slapper of a mistake huh? The worst part is I can't count the number of times I've done something like that. PLUS I'm really out of practice fabbing things, didn't do much as an operator as compared to being a driller. Cool name eh? How about "Frosty's Fullerizer Machine"? Or, "Frosty's Fully Skewed Gizmo." Uh. . . I'll consider suggestions. It does need a name before it goes into the BPs Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted July 11, 2008 Author Share Posted July 11, 2008 Hi Frosty, don't want to put a downer on this, but I made one similar using 1/2" x 2" spring steel for blades/dies, the problem I found was they are just that bit short for making tenons etc, but ideal for cut off and veining, so I had to make another with a larger set of dies, I used 1" x 2" stock and found this much better. I'm not clear about which dimension is too small. Are you saying the dies need to be thicker? If so I can weld whatever size, radius, etc. (within reason of course) to die blanks. This is why I built it so the guide/retainer plate can be removed easily. If I'm not getting the picture, a quick sketch would be good. Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Leppo Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 Pic three; the red arows point to the errors??? Just kiddin... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keykeeper Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 (edited) Is the mistake in the 3rd picture the fact that the the layout for the dies is perpendicular to angle of the cut for the "head" of the device? I didn't catch it until I studied the other pictures. Cool contraption, Frosty. How about "Frosty's Fabulous Fuller Fabricator" for a name! or "Frosty's Fully Fabricated Fullerator Fixture"?? -aaron Edited July 11, 2008 by keykeeper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ornametalsmith Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 (edited) Cool Frosty, reminds me of one that I saw when when we did a workshop to build a bunch of these blacksmith helpers. I'll have to find those pix......you might like the way it added "stops". Edited July 11, 2008 by ornametalsmith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bentiron1946 Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 Nice mochine Frosty. Nice and simple for simple folk like me. Thanks.:p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted July 11, 2008 Author Share Posted July 11, 2008 Is the mistake in the 3rd picture the fact that the the layout for the dies is perpendicular to angle of the cut for the "head" of the device? I didn't catch it until I studied the other pictures. Cool contraption, Frosty. How about "Frosty's Fabulous Fuller Fabricator" for a name! or "Frosty's Fully Fabricated Fullerator Fixture"?? -aaron Ayup. Laid out and welded solid before I noticed they were 90* out. How about "Frosty's Cool Contraption # 56"? Oh, how about "Frosty's Fuller Than Some Guys"? Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finnr Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 Full Bore Frosty Fuller and Smithin' machine? Finnr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.Willis Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 Great idea. (Frosty's fantastic fooling around fuller) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike-hr Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 I made a sliding stop for my gullotine tool similiar to ornametalsmith's getup, several months back. It's made the tool a 'league' handier, I would like to promote the idea as a good one. A lot of smithing is isolating material to a dimension, and then dealing with the material. The sliding stop makes for crisp corners without having to eyeball when rotating the stock, and also makes easier repeatable outcomes to dimension. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted July 14, 2008 Author Share Posted July 14, 2008 I made a couple more dies a, cutoff, butcher and veiner and gave it a test drive yesterday. It'll definitely get adjustable stops next. It worked very well otherwise. The cutoff parted 1/2" sq. with three whacks from a 5lb. single jack. The cut was nice and even with minimal spreading. The butcher dressed it almost saw cut square though I used a lighter hammer and more smacks to minimize the chance it'd jam. The veiner did a decent job but was hard to see which brings me to my next comment. I'm thinking I should've angled it the other way so it'd be easier to see precisely where the veiner or other die is contacting the work. As it is the frame partially obscures the contact point. Another little (very little) mod I made was to weld a hook on the back of the frame to hang a wrench for adjusting the bolts. A deflector to stop small pieces from shooting across the shop is also in order, either clip on or maybe magnetic so I can pull it for working longer stock. I'll post a couple pics of the new dies when Deb gets around to unloading the camera and sending them to me. Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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