I figured with the number of guys here who are interested in heating and beating metal, that I'd do a thread on home made blacksmithing tools. I've already got quite a few made, so it's just a matter of taking picts or digging up ones from the builds.
Today I worked on 2 different ones. 2nd one is still in process, so I'll save that for later. This one is a guillotine tool designed to act like a set hammer. A set hammer allows you to make precise hits, usually up near a shoulder that you don't want to screw up with a misstrike.
When I made all the heeled tenons for my forge base, I had the power hammer at the college to help neck down the tenons, or the shop assistant to strike for me. I don't have that luxury at home though. So this takes the place of using a set hammer to start drawing things out and cleaning up some of the tenon after I notch the bar.
2"x2" 1/4" wall tube with 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" solid for the dies. I drilled out the corners, then took the jig saw to the center to remove the majority of the material, Then milled the remainder down after I filed out the weld seem on the inside. I'd had enough filing by hand for the day already... The I just had to knock off the corners some to deal with the radius on the tube, and I milled down the face of 2 sides slightly so I had a bit more play and things didn't bind at all when I moved the upper die, I'll case harden the dies a bit later. Tube is welded to some 3/8" plate cut 3" x 3" and I added a piece of 1" solid to fit the hardie hole on my 130 lb anvil ( new one hadn't shown up yet).
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