Frosty Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 Oh yes, you're on my meet someday list. That pic of the railing makes it look like you're making a drunkard's stair case. I like your outboard stock support, keeping stock in the dies was one of my problems and you had to be careful who you asked to hold for you. Some jokers would lift or depress as you pulled the handle. <sigh> Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted April 4 Author Share Posted April 4 Made a simple-yet-significant change to how the Hossfeld is mounted. Because it shares a stand with my bigger post vise, switching back and forth from one to the other can be a bit of a pain, and I’ve tended to leave one or the other set up longer than I should. I realized that by hinging the bender’s mounting bracket at the back, all I need to do is undo the front mounting bolts, and the whole thing tips up and out the way. A minimum of cutting and welding, and here we are. Closeup of the hinge: And here’s the stand with the vise in place. I’m probably going to make or buy some big wingnuts to facilitate bolting and unbolting the bender in its lowered position, but that’s for another day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted April 4 Share Posted April 4 That should work well. I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s. Semper Paratus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted April 4 Author Share Posted April 4 Addendum: here it is with the swing arm in place. Reverse angle: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 4 Share Posted April 4 Pretty slick John, I wish it were easier to see but it blends in with the shop. How steady is it, can you really pull on it? Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted April 4 Author Share Posted April 4 This is the combination vise stand/scrap steel storage that probably weighs somewhere between a quarter and half a ton. So, yeah. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 4 Share Posted April 4 Works for me too, lots of my stuff is VERY stable. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted April 4 Author Share Posted April 4 9 hours ago, JHCC said: combination vise stand/scrap steel storage As documented in THIS COMMENT on the "What did you do in the shop today?" thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 4 Share Posted April 4 That really helped, I can track what I'm looking at now. I even remember how badly I sidetracked things with the how Mother taught me to read thing. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted April 4 Author Share Posted April 4 Allow me to remind you how much you sidetracked this very thread with a discussion of black holes. Looking back, I realize that I forgot to mention here that in early January, I modified the handle extension with a bend to match Hossfeld's original: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 4 Share Posted April 4 At least I wasn't the one who brought up black holes, I just filled in the blanks. Sooooo many blanks in a black hole. . . . Nope, NOT AGAIN! I liked this handle before you angled it like the Hossfeld original. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted April 4 Author Share Posted April 4 I did too, but then I realized why the angle exists in the first place: it gives you a LOT more flexibility in the range of motion and where you stand relative to the bender. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 4 Share Posted April 4 Takes up less floor space but does it put you closer to the pivot point and reduce leverage? The effective leverage length is the distance from the puller to the axis of rotation. I haven't pulled a Hossfeld since high school and wasn't so good with it then. I do recall making it work well was a whole different skill set than casting, machining, welding, fab, etc. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted April 4 Author Share Posted April 4 16 minutes ago, Frosty said: does it put you closer to the pivot point and reduce leverage? Maybe theoretically, but not enough to make any real difference. The number of times that I've had to go all the way out to the end for maximum leverage is basically zero. Now, I have an idea for a setup to increase leverage without having to invest in the hydraulic conversion kit. More to come.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 4 Share Posted April 4 The one in high school shop class had a Hossfeld cheater that about doubled the standard handle length. Even then it was pretty common to see more than one person pull/pushing it. The one project I remember using it for was two pair of hay hooks. It took Dad maybe half a second to point out none of the 4 hooks matched very well. I should've used it more and maybe gotten good bending. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted April 6 Author Share Posted April 6 Returning to the mounting system, I added a final detail: a pair of shopmade 1/2” x 5” T-anchors with forged wingnuts. These are permanently mounted on the front feet of the bender (with the help of capture nuts at the bottoms of the threaded sections) and drop down into the bolt holes in the mounting bracket when the bender is lowered into place. The toggles are moved into perpendicular, and the wingnuts screw down to hold the bender in place. No hunting for missing parts or the right size wrench. I love it when a plan comes together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted April 6 Share Posted April 6 Absolutely brilliant, I love it. I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s. Semper Paratus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 6 Share Posted April 6 Very nicely done John, I like it. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted April 12 Author Share Posted April 12 As noted in the "What did you do in the shop today?" thread, I made a bulldozer die and its pins: The 60B1 Center Pin (the one with the right-angled facets and the arm that keeps it from rotating) and the 60B2 Bulldozer Die are both made from mild steel from my scrap bin. The 53B Wrist Pin (not visible in the above photo; it's a straight pin that allows the die to pivot within the swing arm and is trapped in place by the arms of the outer frame) is made from a piece of mystery metal that I suspect is 4140*. None of these are heat-treated, although I'm toying with the idea of case-hardening the 60B1 to give it a little extra toughness. If I do, I'll probably do the same with the work faces of the 60B2 as well, to give them a little abrasion resistance. The Hossfeld manual says that the bulldozer die's maximum capacity is 3/16" flat. Here's a photo of a piece of 3/16" x 1" flat bar that I bent just with muscle power and without the handle extension. I haven't yet tried anything wider, but I'll keep you posted. I'm probably going to leave this semi-permanently set up in the bender, as I can imagine needing it fairly regularly for making mounting brackets or the like for various bits of shop furniture and equipment. I think this will be a good combination with the recently completed hinged mounting described above. * This is from the same piece from which I made my 19B4 U-pin with lug and the ring-end pin for my nonstandard roller block. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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