Pandrol clip straightening experiment

[JHCC]

Pandrol clips make nice chisels and punches, but they need straightening first. Here’s a little high I made to help. 

Simplicity itself: a piece of pipe (big enough to slip over the flattened end of the clip) welded to a piece of flat bar and clamped in the vise. 

A clip is heated to light cherry red/orange and slipped into the pipe. 

A length of pipe (about 36” long) is slipped over the other end:

And the clip is straightened out using the insides of the pipe and the extension of the bar for leverage:

Ta-Da!

I’ve tried to do it in one heat, but it’s hard to get good leverage to straighten the bends at both ends without bending the middle over. Two heats (one for each end) works much better. 

[Frosty]

A couple eyes and feelers and it'd make a fair worm. Hmmm, maybe an open maw and teeth would make it a sellable item? Okay, a mokume gane saddle and a forged axe wielding pixie. War worm cavalry! It's official regimental air would be Garryloamen in Glory!

Frosty The Lucky.

 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

I've done basically the same thing using the hardy hole in the anvil and a pair of large tongs, also straightened out coil springs that way too.

[JHCC]

2 hours ago, JHCC said:

it’s hard to get good leverage to straighten the bends at both ends without bending the middle over.

Thus:

2 minutes ago, Irondragon ForgeClay Works said:

I've done basically the same thing using the hardy hole in the anvil and a pair of large tongs, also straightened out coil springs that way too.

As have I. Nice thing about this rig is that the long pipe gives a lot of leverage, and you don’t have to use any effort to hold the tongs shut. 

2 hours ago, Frosty said:

A couple eyes and feelers and it'd make a fair worm.

Veni Neptune. Panem dabotibi et vermes. 

[Rojo Pedro]

Cool. I need probably 5-6 heats and lots of pounding to get those straight. I like those and the square ones too

I once threw one into the fire without realizing that it was galvanized,  it grew fuzz and burned green fire before i noticed and pulled it out. Yikes!

[JHCC]

I'm thinking that a piece of square tube and a big bending wrench might be good for the square ones. You can do it with a bending fork and a bending wrench,  but one of the nice things about the tube is that it helps keep the stock straight as you work down its length.

[BartW]

Great idea. 
I've seen you have adopted the golf-ball handle philosofy too ?

[ThomasPowers]

Bright colours on the handles help their visibility in the clutter and hang so well from a garden rake head screwed to a wall or post!

[pnut]

I've never forged anything from a pandrol clip but if they're as hard to move as a Unit V anchor you can use all the help you can get. 

Pnut

[JHCC]

One of my neighbors has a Labrador mix that he walks in the woods next to the golf course. I have all the golf balls I could ever need.

[ThomasPowers]

I have a selection of pipes I used for extra leverage---like when bending the curves in a rasptle snake: space the postvise jaws out a reasonable distance heat the body of the snake and slide into a piece of pipe.  Place the back of the head under the stationary jaw and bend down using the pipe.  Pull back on the pipe and flip the snake around so that the first bend is now under the stationary jaw and bend down, repeat reheating as necessary.  Helps that I have a range of pipes I use as rollers around the shop.

Out waking once I found where a golf course dumped their landscaping debris---it was studded with golf balls.

[JHCC]

6 minutes ago, pnut said:

I've never forged anything from a pandrol clip but if they're as hard to move as a Unit V anchor

They're pretty tough. I made my very favorite hot chisel from one.

 

7 minutes ago, pnut said:

you can use all the help you can get. 

That's true in so many ways.

16 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

Bright colours on the handles help their visibility in the clutter

This is why I spray paint my jigs in day-glow colors, to help distinguish them from all the other bits of rusty metal.

[BartW]

I played with pandrol clips a bit, and they make great tools (punches, chisels, drifts ... ). 

But I found they are really sensitive to forging too cold; and they need an extensive heat treatment with many normalizing cycles to maximize performance.

 

 

[JHCC]

I haven't had any difficulties with forging or heat treating. I guess either I got lucky, or the the alloy specifications are different in Europe.

[pnut]

With the unit v anchors I've only noticed that they're hard to move. They do make pretty nice tools. I'm thinking about making some more as soon as I get my shoulder squared away. 

Pnut

[JHCC]

Set hammers are good for creating nice square shoulders. 

[ThomasPowers]

"ouch" you butchered that one! Shoulders are nothing to monkey tool around with!

[JHCC]

Addendum: Doing some online research, I find the interesting detail that Pandrol e-clips are available in four different alloys:

1. 60Si2MnA (C:0.56-0.64, Mn:0.60-0.90, Si:1.60-2.00, Cr:≤0.35, P:≤0.03, S:≤0.03)
2. 60Si2CrA (C:0.56-0.64, Mn:0.40-0.70, Si:1.40-1.80,Cr:0.70-1.00 P:≤0.03, S:≤0.03)
3. 55Si2Mn (C:0.52-0.60, Mn:0.60-0.90, Si:1.50-2.00,Cr:≤0.35  P:≤0.03, S:≤0.03)
4. 38Si7 (C:0.35-0.42, Mn:0.50-0.80, Si:1.50-1.80, P:≤0.03, S:≤0.03)

The first two are fairly close to 5160, I believe, although a bit low on the manganese.

[Frosty]

Where are you guys headed with this one Thomas?

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

I was hoping that in this set piece John, that smithing magician,  would shoulder the blame and was heading that-a-way! But we're having a ball in that joint anyway!

(Unless the Moderator(s) ban me till the end of the Next "Mayan long Cycle".  That would be terrible as I haven't even learned to ride a Unicycle and I've attended a bunch of Uni's!)

[teenylittlemetalguy]

Daniel Tokar has a video on Youtube where he straightens a square one in a single heat using just a hammer/anvil and vice grips. worth checking out. 

[JHCC]

I shall; thanks. 

(Although I am trying to avoid heavy hammering as much as possible these days, so as to not aggravate the tennis elbow in both arms.)

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Here you go a link to his video, which is the way I have always done it.

 

[Frosty]

If you think you can upset me that easily Thomas you  need to go soak. 

Those RR clips are pretty easy to straighten about the only difference is I open the tight bend on the horn, once opened a little it's all on the face.

Pandrols are trickier, I've only done a couple though, so maybe not with practice.

Frosty The Lucky.

[pnut]

I usually cut the large end off at the little fuller mark towards the end unless I need the extra material. 

Pnut