Making parts on homemade "draw" dies

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Excellent tech! thank you

 

These would also work for the Slant Winshield cars like the 30/31 vicks and the later 31 Deluxe Town Sedan.

 

Can't believe it's been almost a year since I started this project. Thought I'd post up an update.
After the first run I wasn't real excited about doing a 2nd run but the requests for rails just kept coming. I did do another run but I made my life much easier! A buddy gave me a 10' piece of 4x4x3/8 angle iron. I welded some stands on it to hold it. Made a bracket to hold my trailer winch on one end and the dies on the other. I also fabbed up a little dolly to ride the angle, the strip (rail) hooks to the dolly and the winch pulls the dolly. The idea behind that is to help keep the distortion (twist) out. Had the metal shop shear up another 4x8 sheet of cold roll, this time the long way, into 1 7/8 x 8' strips.
Gave it a try and cool, 8' rails with no sweat involved! The only problem was I can no longer feel when the metal starts binding so I pull the ends off a little more often, no big deal, I just weld it back on. Usally the binding is from little metal shavings getting caught in the dies, just got to stop and clean them out.
I also noticed the dies wearing much faster and actually getting hot from the speed of the winch. I did end up oil quenching the dies and it seems to of made a difference, I haven't had any wear issues since.
If anyone interested I do have a few sets of rails still availible from this run.

 

I didn't see this first time around, damn that is way cool.

 

Great idea! Nice of you to share it, too.

 

I was working making bolts we draw the wire for the bolts through
dies to get it exact in diameter. The die was mounted in a box
filled with soap grains for lubrication. The heat from the friction
melted the soap.Maby a litle difficult to do in your aplication.
But i was very god lubrication

And a very lowbuck way to carb up the surface of mild steel
an old blacksmith told me(and smelly)heat the steel cherry red
and rub it with....(dont know the name for it but the feet from
a cow) and qench in wather. The surface gets real hard

And its realy traditional

 

Hey DRuss, I think Henry beat me to the patent by about 70 years!
Seriously, my wife does patent work for a living. No way would this be worth the expense.
Hey, your Vic is looking great!

My God Heo, I thought quencing in oil stunk up the shop, think I'll pass on the cow's feet! Beside, oil I have, cow's feet I don't!
Do like the idea of soap for a lubercant though.

 

An excellent post and an excellent product, and your technique is being further refined, my hats off to you sir.

If you'll permit me to add 0.02c worth, instead of using WD40 as a lubricant try diesel, it's sometimes used in the forming industry and it has better friction characteristics than WD40. If you can rig up a small tub or bucket under your dies and by using a small pump (like an aquarium pump) you will be able to pump diesel over the dies to aid in cooling and lubrication.

Even though you have oil quenched the dies it won't be enough, if you continue to use them they will quickly wear. You have a lot of time invested in them so they are worth treating with respect. My suggestion is to send them away to a Heat Treater for Case Hardening. This is not expensive and will extend the life of your dies many many times, also you won't believe how slippery they'll be when you use them. The suggestions made here by others concerning adding carbon to steel just aren't good enough for your requirements. You need a deeper and harder case than the 'old time remedy's' can provide. I've done case hardenening and believe me to achieve any worthwhile 'case' takes between 12-24 hours in a temperature controlled furnace.

 

Hey fe 26 have you tried the cow feet trick? it works
yes in a controled furnace you have more control what you do
but old time blacksmits dident have that but they could make
knives and axes that big companys today cant.

Know the right anealtemperature for springsteel?when you rub it with
a piece of birschwood and it feels slippery.
thats one trick they used
And i have guns thats from the 16-17 century and the springs still work
and a horse buggy thats 150 years old and still good springs
so they must have done something right

Wery ot but i must rant a little a guy from the city department that
take care of the roads showed up the otherday with (dont know the name
in english)Loong iron bar you use to take up stones and so on
And wanted me to reforge the tip thats gone flat.
since it looked all new with almost all paint left
i asked him what the hell he had done.
Nothing just a hole in the ground fore a pole
when i inspected it i found out it was made of goddamed cast iron??????????
so much for modern fabrication metods

 

Ah yes my friend, I do know the temps for spring steel and many others.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but didn't my moniker alert you to something? You see Fe26 is the Atomic Number for Iron in the Periodic Table.

I started my five year apprenticeship in Industrial Blacksmithing in 1969, and apart from a few short stints in other jobs have spent most of the intervening 40 years working in the trade as; apprentice, journeyman, tradesman, master-tradesman, forge owner and now consultant. I have forged and Heat Treated forgings up to eight tons in weight.

Now I'm not saying I know everything about blacksmithing and steels, and I still lean new things all the time, so I am pleased to tell you I didn't know about birchwood. I know that hickory is most commonly used and when little sparks appear on the surface of your spring steel it's ready for the quench tub, another wood sometimes used is sugar pine but I havn't used it.

Yes, I too know a lot of the old time techniques, I can tell you from experiance the newer ways are far faster and have better quality control. After all what is the point of progress if you are not improving the way things are done. The past is a place for nostalgia and fond memory, to be profitable in business and produce a quality product most find it better to move with the times.

 

Thanks for the thread, great motivation for us guys.
Proves us hot rodders wont be beat.

 

This was done a while back.. great thread.
I have a Studebaker PU. From in front of the door to the back it has a curve.
My problem is how di I get the proper contour so I can attach it to the truck.
Seems like after I get the proper drip rail shape,.. it'll be almost impossible to make it curve
and of course it has to turn down on the front and back edges also. SO basically after molded, the metal has to turn two different directions
Any suggestions. I want to put drip rails back on it, but can't figure out a way. (other than heating it, and I'm afraid I'd burn it up..

 

I have a lockformer Pittsburgh machine.
Its amazing how that thing works ! Too bad it just makes HVAC flanges.