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| vtsteam:
And found a video, there isn't much out there on cold chisels. Older books and MEs have more information. I have quite a few cold chisels. Some of the narrower ones are the handiest. It's kinda like hammers. Hard to resist them on a garage sale table, for me at least. |
| S. Heslop:
Yeah it surprised me that there's next to nothing on cold chisels on the internet. I feel like any time you see old film footage of a factory you're gonna see more than a few guys using them. Then with the woodworking hand tool scene you'd think there'd be an equivalent for metalwork. |
| DavidA:
Re the Poor Man's Milling Machine. As part of my army training I had to do a plant operator/Mechanic course. This was back in 1969. As part of that training we did metal work. and during this we had to cut a channel in a steel block to quite close limits using only a hammer, cold chisel, hack saw and files. I was swinging mightily with the hammer when someone distracted me and I missed the chisel; But not my hand. The pain was so intense I nearly fainted (Note, nearly. Royal Engineers don't faint) . To this day the knuckles on my left index finger are slightly deformed and, particularly in winter, it hurts like hell. An experience to be avoided where possible. Dave. |
| vtsteam:
It's pretty common to hit your hand, probably because we all tend to use too small a hammer. All too often people grab a household claw hammer to hit a cold chisel with (me included). After enough whacks I've come to instinctively pick a bigger hammer -- the larger the face the less chance you'll miss, and the additional weight is more effective. You can slow down the hit as well with a heavier hammer, hit less frequenty, which makes it also a lot more accurate in cut. Fast pounding with too light a hammer gets you nowhere, except bleeding. Tapping with a heavier one gives time to adjust hammer aim and tool angle, yet takes off a good chunk of metal with every blow. Of course the hammer size has to be guaged to the size of the chisel. I don't think a long handle on a hammer helps, and I notice others tend to choke up on the handle where it is framer length. If you think about wood chisel practice, there's usually a round mallet or maul with very short handle and good weight, and large hitting area, and you seldom miss, while maintaining good accuracy. I think that also applies to cold chisels, and improvements could be made in what we hit them with. Some of the usual problems crop up this well meaning video: |
| S. Heslop:
I hit my own left index finger knuckle with a big hammer a couple of weeks ago. Right where i'd also hit it with a wood chisel. It's still somewhat sore if I prod it. Seems like that area is the most likely to get hit by stuff! In fact I kept hitting it with that chisel and reopened the cut a few more times till I got the hint. I wonder if those plastic rings you can get for cold chisels to help protect from missed blows are worth it... I could perhaps make something similar from plywood. Worked on that canister today. It doesn't look like much but I put a good amount of work into this end cap. I got it fitting just right. Played with the cold chisel a bit more, and i'm not sure if it's just my technique but I felt I could remove material much faster with the half round part of a coarse crosscut file. Welded. I miss my welding cap and helmet. I lent it to my brother a long time ago and never saw them again, he left them at his old workplace. This handheld visor is pretty rubbish and plenty of spatter landed on top of my head. Earlier I welded the long seams without the jacket on, just a T-shirt with my arms exposed. I kind of realised what i'd done afterwards but so far i've got no symptoms of arc burn. The ugliest weld. I went over the lousy first pass at about 120 amps (according to the buzz box) hoping to get some better penetration, but there's still nothing visible on the entire inside of the canister. The end was equally ugly. I went a bit fast in a few parts (the handheld visor has a very dark shade in it, it's hard to see what's going on even with the arc light) and touched them up. Time really flied doing all of this. Started at about 10am and it's now almost 4pm. Hopefully i'll have the lid finished by the end of the day. I'm still thinking about what to do, but I think i'll just make two squares and do some plug welds to hold them together, with the inner square (fairly loosely) fitting the inside and the larger square overhanging a bit so I have a corner to shove fireclay into to seal it. I had a dream last night I was trying to weld in the back of a car. I had nowhere to set the hot metal down so I flung it out the window and started a wildfire. Hopefully it wasn't a premonition! |
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