Clock frame progress

Good progress this weekend.  I demoed at an SCA event and despite storms and letting others work on the forge, I made some good progress on the frame.  I managed to mostly finish the crossbars.  I still have to forge some tabs but that will come later.  The frame is pretty much perfectly square.  It holds together without rope so everything is nice and tight.  I will do a bit of file cleanup but I am very happy with how things went.  Here is a pic of the new frame.

Within the next few days, I will try to post a picture of the original clock frame that I got from the British Museum.

Also, almost forgot to mention this, I finally made an anvil dog.  This is an "L" shaped piece of metal that is bent in such a way that it is inserted into the pritchel hole of the anvil and hammered down onto a work piece.  It has the effect of holding the piece firmly in place while the smith works on it.  After my experience with it, I would recommend it as one of the first projects after someone purchases an anvil.

More progress

  Today I finished up the mortises on the cross bars.  I had only made one yesterday to make sure it would work.  I managed to do the other seven mortises fairly quickly.  After I completed the mortises, I pulled out the other parts of the frame to begin some assembly.  The long bars of the clock that I worked on a few weeks back had excessively long tenons.  So I began to trim those to length.  The tenons were anywhere from 2" to 3" long.  I need them at about 1 1/4".  The tenons are going through 2 pieces of metal that are both 3/8".  The extra 1/2" is for peining.  The long side bars of the clock are highlighted below.  If you look carefully, you can see how the tenon of the long bar has been peined over on the end.

  I would have been able to do more but rain drove me in.

Clock End Bars

Worked on the end bars today,

  The end bars are horizontal bars on the end of the clock.  This picture shows the location on the original clock.



  While it may not be clear from this photo, they are short bars with a rectangular mortise.  The only challenging aspect with the mortise is that the mortise about 3/4" high by 3/8" and arranged so that the 3/4" part of the mortise sits along the 1" part of the bar.  In other words, if I punched or cut the mortise, there would only be about 1/8" inch of metal left.  However, this method yields a mortise with more than enough metal left.

  I start with 4 16" bars.  I've hammered down the corners to make them easier to forge to shape later.  Not worried about having them perfectly circular.



  I then start by chiseling a slit on both ends of the bar and from both sides.  The slit is 3/4" long, 1/2" from the end and centered in the bar.



  This is after the first chiseling



  After the chisel cut all the way through, I follow up with a round drift to open the hole up.



Then, I hammer on the end some to make the mortise more oblong in shape.



  Notice that it is not circular anymore.  I then heat the metal and put it on the bolster plate which is shown below.  This has a hole the size of the mortise.  I use the drift, (with a PD for corner Post Drift) to hammer through the hole to make it the right size.  The bolster plate is on the back size of the piece to keep it from deforming as I hammer the drift through.



Finally, this a picture of the complete mortise.  The one of the left is a new one, the one on the right is from a few months back.  The picture doesn't show it too well but the new ones are much better shaped.



  The little bit of deformity is fine and will actually be useful as it will provide some extra gripping power when I attach the frame.  The one on the right was just too poorly formed to use.

  Finally, here is another example of the "bad" end bars I made a few months back.

Clock progress

  Because of too many factors to mention, my clock has been on the back burner for too long.  Yesterday I was doing an SCA demo at a smaller event so I decided it would be nothing but clock work.

  I decided to work more on the frame.  For those faithful readers, I had mostly completed the basic frame about 6 months ago but decided I was unhappy with some of the work.  So a few months ago I restarted but have not been able to do much work.

  So yesterday I worked on some of the side bars.  The work I have to do is form tenons that go into the corner posts.  While the work is fairly simple in concept, it is a multi step process and time consuming.  This is how I form the tenons.  I apologize for the lack of photos due to forgetting the camera.  (BTW: for those that do not know the terms.  Mortise and tenons are like holes and pegs.  The mortise is the hole, the tenon is the peg).

1) The metal is nicked to show where the shoulder of the tenon will be.

2) The metal is heated and I use a chisel that is flat on one side to begin forming the shoulder.

3) A set hammer (a square hammer that is struck by another hammer not swung) is placed at the start of the shoulder and the shoulder is further defined.

4) The tenon is drawn out to thin it to the correct size.

5) A bolster plate is used the further define the correct size for the tenon and its shoulders.  A bolster plate is nothing more than a thick metal with a hole the size of the tenon.  The hot tenon is placed into the hole to thin the metal of the tenon to the final correct size.  This also helps to form the shoulders to final size.  An alternative tool that can be used is called a monkey tool.  Same principle except that the tool is driven into the piece instead of the piece into the metal.

6) The hot piece is then hammered into the post to make sure it is a perfect match to the post.

7) Finally, all pieces are double checked for sqaureness.

All of this work has paid off.  The new frame is very snug and stable.  The previous frame needed ropes to hold it together while working.  This frame is staying together on its own.  In fact, I have to lightly tap it with a hammer to separate it.  Eventually, I will pein the tenons on the frame to permanently hold it together.  Very happy with the new frame.  I promise some pictures soon.

Its hot... too hot...

Dang,

  The heat has really kept me from working too much.  However, I did manage to get some work in today.  I am working on some last minute items for gifts for Pennsic.  This is a picture of the prototype that I am finally happy with.  I haven't done the final touch up or hammering, but it gives an idea of what a portion of the candle sconce will look like.  I will take some photos to show how to make the fluer on a latter post.

Got some work in...

Fired up the forge today just to say I did.  I really didn't have anything specific in mind, just wanted to swing the hammer.  I played around with making some candle cups.  If you ever need to make those, make absolutely certain that you don't work below an orange heat.  The metal is so easy to crack that its easy to mess up a piece.  They aren't difficult as long as you have patience.

Also, just to work on some endurance, I put in a few heats on making my bick.  A bick is used for those smaller pieces that are just too small for the anvil.  (BTW: bick is short for bickern or bicorn meaning bi-horns. Many bicks will be T-shaped with two horns.)  An example of their use is either the tines of fork or the shaft of an arrow head.  Think of it as a miny anvil.  This is an example of one on sale at www.blacksmithdepot.com.



I plan on making mine with a a skinnier taper.  I can do that because of the quality of steel I am using.  I am forming the bick out of a solid trailer hitch.  I did get the hardie shank formed and started the taper.  The heat finally drove me inside.

Spring fuller

For Jim...

  I looked through my old photos and found a spring fuller I used for the finials.  This spring fuller is 1" rod.  The one I made this past weekend was 1/2" rod.  Spring fullers are used to put a waist on metal.  These 2 photos show what the spring fuller does for you.