Tools for cold forging with their own hands

Features of equipment

Of course, if the budget allows, you can not complicate your life and buy a universal equipment for cold forging metal. And such a machine tool combines all the individual manual devices. But it is not a small cost of such a workbench makes it unaffordable for many home workshops.

What tools can be made for cold forging with their own hands and what to produce on them?

For the foundation of his own workshop for the processing of metal is quite enough basic six machines: bending, twister, lantern, volumizer, snail, and wave.

These self-tooling machines are capable of processing the main types of materials used in cold metalworking technology: squares, bars (cross-section up to 14 millimeters) and steel strip, 3-6 mm thick with a width in the range of 25 millimeters.Dies made by yourself perform the same operations as the factory equipment: bending, twisting or pressing without loss of quality.

Also on a home-made manual machine quite realistic to produce the basic elements of the products of cold forging: whorls, volutes, baskets, required for the further assembly of the finished product. over, the forging equipment is compact and can be easily accommodated in a garage workshop.

It’s easy to learn how to work with a cold forging tool. No special knowledge of metal properties and its further processing (annealing, tempering or hardening) is required here. The learning and production process is virtually safe, the equipment and materials do not work with high temperatures, and the working mechanisms are very simple.

The only disadvantage of cold forging metal and working with manual equipment is the possibility of rejection if mistakes are made. But the main problem is that defects are very difficult to fix. Defective elements can be corrected only by heating the metal in the furnace or on the torch.

The easiest to assemble on your own will be: snails, benthic and twisters. They do not require expensive tools. You will need only welding, cutting tools, blueprints with materials and a little understanding of mechanics.

Cold forging with a homemade machine! TOP AMAZING IDEA! DIY tool

So, how to make homemade machines for cold forging with your own hands?

Forging Metal at Home

Blacksmithing is one of the oldest methods of working metal. However, even in our age of high-tech development, it has not lost its importance and is even gaining more popularity.

Forging with their own hands is not a simple enough technological process, you need to know at least the basic techniques of working with the workpiece, as well as the rules of heating and hardening of the metal. You also need to have an understanding of how to use the equipment. What skills do you need to forge your own workmanship and how do you forge metal??

The basic techniques of cold forging

What technologies and techniques are used in cold forging, what you need to know about the production operations? About this. further in our material.

Today, small home workshops for metal processing are very widespread. It is a hobby, and additional income to the family budget. common cold forging with their own hands. This technology does not require large expenditures at the initial stage, and handmade products are valued quite highly.

What technologies and techniques are used in this way of metalworking, what you need to know about production operations? About this. further in our material.

Machine for cold forging with your own hands

With the naked eye you can see that this or that person has a beautiful fence or gates, various kinds of objects of decoration of household plots. All of this is brought to reality by means of forging, with the absence of any temperatures.

Cold forging of metal is very well developed in modern society. Over the many years of this trade, people have created tools that can be used to produce delicate elements of decoration from iron.

The differences of cold forging

There is such a thing as “stamping”, which is sometimes confused with the cold type of forging. Cold forging itself has 2 principles by which this process can take place. The table shows the differences in the processes.

The process	Description
Stamping	The forging process can be described as the extrusion of certain shapes with a punch that works at a high level of pressure. An example of the stamping process is the aluminum can. Heating of the metal is not used. It is hardly possible to apply this technique at home, because it is impossible to create the necessary conditions for it.
Cold type of forging (riveting)	This kind of cold forging, in fact, is naklep, namely, a certain number of blows of very high force is carried out in the process, which allows the structure of the metal to change and become the desired parameters in size and shape. Such manipulation is done with a hammer, which can also be constructed with their own hands.
The cold type of forging (bending)	Another type is forging. With this technology, the metal structure remains the same, without changing its characteristics. This type of forging is possible to use at home, for it only need to engage in creating a machine for cold forging with their own hands.

Cold forging, which is carried out on the principle of bending to do quite simply, especially if there is a special equipment of a stationary type, which facilitates the process significantly. The advantage of this variety is also the fact that it is possible to assemble almost any machine for cold forging with your own hands without much expense for this.

Production process is accelerated by decommissioned rails, wheel bindings and buffers of railway cars used in the manufacture of a bending tool “snail”. A simple drawing of a “snail” for cold forging will help to assemble a fixture with an economical and safe manual drive using improvised materials. The simple construction consists of the following components:

The positive features of the snail bending machine are as follows: the equipment can be installed anywhere, the vertical component has a minimal working load, and the horizontal load is transferred to a steel profile support. The coulter can be turned with one hand while the other hand grips a reinforcing bar or a strip of metal.

Simple mechanical metal forging machines can bend spirals with up to 5 coils. To properly assemble the machine “snail”, it is necessary to study the principle of operation of the equipment and how to assemble the main assemblies, among which the main ones are:

• framework made of metal angle and channel or a pipe with thick walls;
• table top made of two circular steel plates with a thickness of more than 4 mm;
• the main shaft, fixed in the central part of the machine between the circles of the table top with right-angled triangles. Thick-walled tube can be used for the shaft;
• a lever for bending a bar, secured to the shaft with a ring.

The lever “snail” has a unique feature, which produces curls with a limited-sized core of a strip of metal laid flat. Installation of a vertical roller with a flange helps avoid vertical waves on the workpiece. The working process is time-consuming, the lever must be fed in short motions.

Cold forging machines: advantages of using them

The main advantage is that the machine for cold forging with their own hands to make it is not difficult enough. And also, if necessary, you can do without electric drives.

In addition, the work on such machines has the following advantages:

Machines for cold forging

Below we will give you instructions on assembling machines for cold forging.

The “snail” machine

Making a machine “snail”, this is one example of self-construction, it makes no sense to give advice with the exact dimensions of all parts. You need to be guided by your idea of how the machine will work, how and what will bend, how many turns of the spiral will be sufficient for quality work, what size will be the lever with a table top. If you understand the essence of the manufacturing process of the machine, then the assembly itself will not cause much difficulty.

The process of bending an iron bar, exposes the machine to strong loads, so in the manufacture of the frame for the “snail”, only metal angle, channel or thick-walled tube is used. Do not make a frame out of wooden planks, such a table cannot withstand long loads and breaks down.

the top for the “snail” is made of metal plate cut in the form of a circle, with a thickness of at least 4 mm. The second table top is cut out of the same plate and follows the shape of the first one. The second tabletop accommodates the snail segments and bends the products. In the process of cold forging the table top takes the brunt of the load, so do not skimp and make it from a thinner sheet of iron.

The main shaft is positioned centrally between the table tops and secured to the base with four rectangular triangles. The shaft can be made from a thick-walled pipe of the required diameter. The lever is secured to the shaft with a ring and rotates around it, additionally a roller is mounted on the lever to bend the bars on the upper tabletop.

Depending on whether you only want to produce the same type of samples or if you require more artistic products, there are three options for the “snail” device. This is the simplest of the three options, its essence is that on the tabletop is drawn the contour of the spiral.

In essence it is a drawing of the future products which you will produce on the machine. After drawing the scheme, it is enough to cut out of thick strips of iron of different widths, a few segments, repeating the fishing line of the figure and weld them to the table top according to the markings. On such a static “snail” you will be able to make the simplest bends. The second option is the most popular among self-made machines, it involves making a collapsible snail of removable parts. Along the contours of the marking holes are drilled, in which the threads are cut. Then templates are made of cardboard or plywood for the segments, and the overlays are made of metal according to them. In conclusion, holes are drilled in the overlays, which should coincide with the landing sockets on the tabletop. To fix the segments, mostly bolts are used, but you can make and cylindrical stops. This design “snail”, will allow on one machine to produce spiral-shaped workpieces with different radii.

With the third version, instead of replacing the removable segment supports, several removable modules are made with different snail designs that can be changed as needed. The module is made of a piece of iron on which segments repeating parts of a spiral are welded.

• Install the frame in a place where you will have free access to the machine from all sides.
• Concrete the legs of the frame into the floor or secure the frame in another accessible way.
• Weld the main tabletop to the frame.
• Install the main shaft by welding it to the table top and fixing the triangles.
• Slide the rotating arm onto the shaft.
• Install the top tabletop by welding it to the main shaft.
• Install the snail segments to the table top.

After assembling perform a test bending of the rod. To learn more about the assembly of the machine for cold forging “snail”, watch the video:

Torsion machine

This machine is designed for single-axis longitudinal twisting of a cross- or square-shaped bar.

For the base of the torsion machine a channel or an I-beam is used. A thick iron strip is attached to it by welding, on which a vise is placed to clamp the fixed part of the rod. The vise is secured with four M16 or larger bolts. Ribbed sheet steel plates are welded to the vise for increased bar clamping strength. On the opposite side of the base are installed rollers, which is connected to the clamping unit for the movable part of the workpiece. It is made from a steel sleeve, which should have holes for the clamping bolts located at an angle of 120 degrees. Bolts must have a flat face and be made of quality steel. Both clamping devices must be positioned coaxially, for this they must be checked with a level, locksmith’s angle and a caliper.

Next, you need to make a handle to rotate the movable part of the clamp. Its lever should hit as long as possible, to reduce the force applied. The handle itself is better to make with a rubber sleeve, to avoid slipping of the hand during work. After the complete assembly of the machine, it is checked for the reliability of the movable elements and the accuracy of the production of the deformation of the rod. After checking, the machine is attached to the support frame.

How to make a torsion machine with your own hands see in the video:

The “bendy” machine

To qualitatively form the angle of the product produced by cold forging, you need a machine tool called “bending”. It consists of a steel plate with a movable stop on which there are two supporting shafts and a lever.

The workpiece is placed between the wedge and the support shafts. Then, with the help of a lever the wedge is shifted in the direction of the shafts, which leads to the bending of the workpiece.

To make such a machine is fairly simple, the main thing is to follow the drawing given and use tool steel, because during operation of the device parts are under a heavy load. You can also see how to make a bending machine in the video:

Wave” machine

This machine is more correctly called a controlled wave. The machine is equipped with a pair of steel discs with a diameter of 140 mm., which are bolted to the worktop. The rotating axis of the universal screwdriver is fixed on the guiding disc.

Controlling the wave occurs as a consequence of changing the distance between the disks. When the bar is rolled by the collar around the master disc, the pattern is formed, then the bar is removed from the mandrel and the pattern is formed on the other side. You can see how the machine works in the video:

Pressing machine

To form the ends of the bars a press is needed. This machine works on the flywheel principle, first rotating the bar with weights backwards until the stop. After that, a replaceable die is inserted into the socket and the workpiece is placed. Next, quickly unwind the rod in the opposite direction and leave it free to rotate. In the end the bit hits the die shank hard, thus developing the force sufficient for stamping.

As for the manual rolling mill, you can make it yourself, but you still have to order. rolls of special steel, bearing sleeves and shafts, and gears to buy at the store. Only tips “goose-foot” and “sheet” can be made on this machine.

Joining and painting parts

Cold forged parts are joined in two ways:

• Welding. the parts are welded together and the dross is filed off with an “angle grinder” or other grinder.
• Clamps. this kind of connection looks much more beautiful. For clamps, punched strips of metal with a thickness of 1.5 mm or more are used.

Painting the finished product is made with blacksmith enamels or acrylic-based paints for metal.

Homemade Snails

In fact, it is an upgraded bending machine (pipe bender), but these improvements allow you to easily make curls from fairly thick rods (cross section up to 10-12 mm) and repeat them with a high degree of accuracy.

One of the home-made machines for cold forging

These machines for cold forging have several designs, but the easiest to implement a version with a round table that has a central leg. To the leg movably mounted lever with rollers on bearings on the end. They facilitate the process of bending.

The surface of the table can be made of a steel sheet with thickness of 10 mm or more. For the leg you can use any thick-walled round tube. It is important to make the construction stable, because lateral forces will be applied, so you need lateral stands, struts, as well as a stable base.

Drawing of a machine tool for cold forging Snail

It is easier to make the lever from a square tube with a thick wall not less than 2-3 mm. The cross section of the pipe is 2540 mm or so. Lever to the leg can be made on the bearing, or you can just take a small piece of thick-walled tube of larger diameter, put it on the leg and at the bottom welded strip-support so the lever did not fall down. The option with the bearing gives easier movement, but in the presence of grease and the second option works.

Lever mounting option

The shape of the lever is also important. The lever is double, the upper part is working, the lower one is supporting. It is desirable to make reinforcements wherever there are joints, because the forces are considerable.

The lever must be solid and reinforced

On the table is fixed mandrel or mandrel form in which the curls are bent. They are made in different diameters so that it is possible to make different diameter of curls. Such mandrels can be assembled to form more bends. Each such specimen must have mandrels, which are installed in holes in the table. This is how this template is fixed. Also its shape should be designed so that the end of the rod is well fixed in it.

A variant of conductor for the snail

Often the mandrels are made from a metal circle of suitable diameter with an angle grinder, but there are variants made of metal with steel plates welded on it, bent accordingly.

How to make a similar machine tool for cold forging in the following video. There is also a good description of how to bring the ends of the workpiece to a decent state ordinary untreated edges look very rough. There is special equipment for processing them, but, as it turned out, you can do without it.