[TheForge] Re: Acme Hold down

[Mike Spencer]

pf wrote:

> Steve's idea is old and pretty nifty, but awful slow to deploy.
> 
> The forging window on a medium to small ,hot piece of steel is quite
> short. An extra 15 seconds is way too long.
> 
> Might help a little if you replace the cross bar handle with a weighty
> round plate that you could spin down tight with a flick of the wrist,
> mubbe.

I've used an old C-shaped valve spring compressor tool as a
fast-close, fast-release holdfast.  Has a plunger operated by a cam
so a quick whap locks it in place.  The barrel of the plunger/cam
affair is threaded so it can be adjusted to the right position ahead
of time.  Never mounted it on the anvil like the OP's C clamp, though,
just attached it to special-purpose jigs.  Works slick.

I'm just assuming that they still make similar ones. Mine was rescued
from a junkheap of discarded tools in 1967 and was old then.

- Mike

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