Cross Bars Part Deux

 A while back I started work on the cross bars.  The cross bars sit in the middle of the clock and are used to hold vertical supports for the axles.  When I made them, they have a bulge in the middle but the bulge really wasn't wide enough.  Here is a pic of the original cross bars.  This is an old pic of the frame from many months ago.  The cross bars are in the middle of the frame just resting on the frame to give an idea where they sit.



I started to make the replacements for these parts.  I am using a piece of 4" x 3/8" flat stock.  Here is a picture of the piece prior to any work.  You can see markings that am using to make the piece.  To make these pieces I am chiseling rather than drawing out (thinning) the thin part of the bars because it is easier.  Anyway, this is the pic.



There is a bulge in the middle with thinner arms to either side.  This is a picture after some of the chisel work.



Unfortunately, some storms were threatening and I needed to take care of some stuff for work so had to stop for the day.  Here are some other pictures.  This is the bending fork (or scroll fork) that I quickly made yesterday.



I also picked up some steel today to make a cutting saddle.  The cutting saddle is so that you can safely chisel through your metal.  If you did not have one of these and you accidentally cut all the way through the metal, then you would dull your chisel on the anvil face (or scar your anvil if its from India or China).  I made a saddle a while back but the metal was too thin and it distorted whenever it got hot.  The new one is much thicker.



After I formed the saddle, I made sure to make the saddle dead soft.  That means I heat it to a nice red head then cool it very slowly.  This makes the metal very soft and less likely to ruin any chisels.