[TheForge] Stempeling info needed

[Bob Ehrenberger]

While doing some repair work on my power hammer yesterday I was concerned 
about the loose fit of a couple parts that I needed to weld.  Being that the 
positioning of these parts is critical to the opperation of the hammer I 
didn't want to leave the alignment to chance.  So I stempeled the inner part 
to tighten up the fit. It worked very well and the parts had to be driven 
together which removed any doubt about the positioning.

I was talking to friend about the project later and was surprised to find 
out that he had never heard of stempeling. So last night I spent quite a bit 
of time searching the web for more information on stempeling.  To my 
surprise I didn't find anything on it.  The closest I came was a site in the 
Neatherlands where they were doing decorative stamping. It thurns out that 
stempel is the Duch word for stamp and almost every link took me to a sites 
in the Netherlands.

So do any of you know of a site that talks about using a series of punch 
marks to tighten up the fit on parts?  I was under the impression that it 
was a common practice in gunsmithing.  Do I have the right word for the 
process?  Maybe it is known by something else.

My project is done, but I would like more information on the process for 
future use.

Robert Ehrenberger
Shelbyville, Mo.
eforge at centurytel.net