Guillotine forging tool

NickWheeler

NickWheeler

Joined
Dec 3, 1999
Messages
9,437
Another piece of gadgetry that I put together (mostly) at school.

These are not a new idea, and I blatantly copied this fellow from British Blades.

http://www.britishblades.com/forums/showthread.php?78415-Guillotine-tool-quot-how-to-quot

I printed off a picture and built it from that. My dimensions are probably totally different.

One thing I added is a piece of UHMW that helps the die slide smoothly, and I used a 3/8-16 pin that goes into the upper die for the return assembly.


Another thing I changed is the front guide pieces bolt on. This allows you to use shims so that you can use thicker die pieces, as well as take it apart for maintenance (if needed).

I also added a set screw on the back side of the bottom die.

The whole assembly bolts to a piece of 1" plate which has a stem to fit into my hardie hole in the anvil... a very robust set-up. :)

This was fun and it works pretty darn slick. I need to make a video of it I suppose.


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Nicely done Nick :thumbup:

I'm diggin that return spring set-up ! It can be frustrating trying to index a workpiece with wiggle and waggle while the ram is dragging and hangin on :grumpy: Getting it out of the way via the spring will make things much easier ;)






:cool: :cool:
 
Looks good ,Nick.
I made one similar, but not as fancy ( I just welded mine up) for fullering tangs. I works, but I do just as well with a hammer, so I rarely use it. It comes out when I am teaching a novice how to draw out a tang.
 
Nicky, the handle jammie was cool, but this thing kicks huge ass. UHMW is probably exactly what this needs to work smoothly... good thinking!
 
Great timing. I have used a smithin magician from the blacksmiths journal for awhile and it never did really work like I wanted it. No return spring and is just not big enough. I may copy these plans as well as this is one of the simpler guillotine designs I have seen.
 
Another great one from Nick at Wheeler Toolworks. :thumbup:

You are right, please post a link to the video when you get time.

Mike
 
Thanks guys! :)

The return spring really makes all the difference. I got lucky and found one that returns the top die easily, but doesn't shoot it out of the top of the guillotine. The only thing that was critical there was figuring where to place the bolt/pin and how low to cut the spring.

If I had my 100# Little Giant put back together and dialed in, then I probably wouldn't have been as eager to make this... but tools and gizmo's are cool. So that's enough reason for me. :D

The thing I wanted this for most is cleaning up plunge cuts and tang shoulders. I can do it fine with a hand hammer... but then there's no thing-a-ma-bobber. ;) :D
 
NickWheeler said:
The thing I wanted this for most is cleaning up plunge cuts and tang shoulders.
Click to expand...

Sweet looking build Nick. I like that you can screw off the face plates for the dies. I picked up a no-bells-and-whistles lightweight welded version of one of these a while back. In no time at all the top die swelled at the working end. The small bulge had to be ground flat a bit before the die could lift back up through the guide slot.

I get using the device for tang shoulders, but how do you do plunges with it and leave the spine portion of your blade uneffected?
 
Nick, this is known in the blacksmithing world as a "smithin magician".

the best mod I have seen was to orient the dies at 45 degrees similar to a powerhammer.

very nice fab job.
 
Thanks Sam. I always thought Smith'n Magician was a specific design (an H frame)...whereas "guillotine tool" was a generic term. Akin to how we call facial tissues.... Kleenex. ???

I actually think the first one like this that I saw was Mike Tanner's. He sells (or used to anyway) one much like this on ebay.

Oh, I forgot to mention that the dies are heat-treated 5160.

Phil... I think the simple answer is you do tangs with the blade perpendicular to the dies and plunge cuts with the blade in line with them. I could try to explain it better but I'd probably just muddy up the water even more :o
 
Nice work Nick. Question about how it works - I see on a couple of your pics it is attached to a thick plate. Do you have a square piece on the bottom of the plate that drops into your anvil hardy hole?
 
Yep buddy, there's a 1" hardie stem that runs through the 1" thick plate (and is welded in place of course).

The base plate is long, so it places the guillotine pretty close to the sweet spot on my anvil.

I've got a few days off school... we need to get together for a visit!!! :)
 
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