Posts: 141 Location: Jeffersonville USA
Mon 22 Sep, 2014 9:46 am
I thought I would but money where my mouth is this morning, so I spent some time experimenting with mail.
Here is the punch I made from a masonry nail. It differs from the tool I sketched the other day in having a gradual lead in to the point. This will make it easier to resharpen. I also re-did the heat treating because these nails are really a bit too soft as they come.
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Here are two views of the point.
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For the rivets I used the same wire as the rings, flattened under the hammer and cut to a point with a nipper.
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I jammed the rivet into the slot and broke it off at the pre-nipped line. I never tried this before, but it seems to work pretty nicely.
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After pressing the rivet home, it looks like this.
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The final closing was a bit disappointing, but I knew it would be.
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I used this old tool I got from Steve Sheldon many years ago. The faces are too flat to give a sexy final shape to the overlap, and the central depression is sized for a much larger ring.
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So, it seems like the next thing I must do is make new tooling for closing the rings. That's a lot more trouble than just making a slitting punch. I will have to think on this for a while and see if I come up with something simple.
Mac