[TheForge] Re: 36" diameter ring

[Mike Spencer]

Bob> I need to make a ring 36" in diameter from 2" x 1/4".

Charles> I usually do this on the step of the anvil, I also have a jig
Charles> for fussier stuff.  Use a heavy straight peen hammer, lay the
Charles> iron in line with the horn on the step, and smack the iron
Charles> where it is unsupported.....I do 1" by 1/4" this way cold all
Charles> the time.

That was my answer, too: Dink, dink, dink cold.  If that sounds kinda
unfamiliar and un-doable, it might help to bend up a practice piece
ca. 3' long to the desired curvature, just to get a feel for the right
blows and jig spacing first.  That might help avoid unsightly, hard to
remove kinks in the finished piece.

But for a 36" ring, you're going to starting with a ca. 10' bar so the
hardest part will probably be figuring out how to dink over here:

----------------------------------------------------->*------------
while keeping the end from flopping around over there:
----<----------------------------------------------------------------,

especially when you're half done.  A helper woulkd be nice.  Some hack
that involves clamps, ropes, blocks, posts, a tree and duct tape?  

Or if you have the space, lay your (biggest) swage block flat on the
floor, put the 2"x1/4" on edge and do the cold dinking sideways over
whichever swage cutaway in the block seems to work best.  Lacking a
swage block, a Generic Heavy Object with a bit of a swale in just the
right place would work that way too.

- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                 						   /V\ 
mspencer@tallships.ca            						  /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/						  ^^-^^

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