TOOLS FOR WOODWORKING SEMINAR
4/26/03
GARY RUNYAN
Gary Runyon gave the first part of the seminar. Gary has a degree in Metallurgy. He now works for a product Manufacturer. He is not a ferrous metallurgist but he is interested in knife manufacturing. He does have practical knowledge of ferrous metallurgy and uses this knowledge to produce knifes.
Gary does his hardening at night so that he can see the color the metal gets more easily. He determines how hot to get it by the color. He said that they have contests to determine the sharpness of knifes and they must be able to cut a tin can, 2x4s etc without nicking the knife. When you are heating the steel look for a yellow color and look for the shadow line and just above the temperature that you see that line at is the correct temperature for hardening. You can take it up to orange and than take back down to red to get back to where you were. He uses 01 tool steel. Forge anneals or normalizes first before you work with the steel. Bring it up to medium (cherry) red and let it cool on its own. Then come back and shape the piece the way you want it. He uses dull orange for most wood working tools. He does not recommend hardening hi carbon steel. He recommends using water, oil or air hardening steels. You must harden at temperature where it is just above the shadow line and let it sit at that temperature for 3 to 4 minutes. With air hardening steel let it sit for 15 minutes, then dip in water or oil to Quench. He hardens his steel with a torch since he can control it better and he only sharpens the knife-edges that need to be sharp. You can also quench air-hardening steel in water. Different types of carbon steel have identification stamped on them. You need to use 10-60 to be able to harden. The 10 series of carbon steel means carbon is its only hardening element. It makes good tools but it rusts easily. A file is usually made of 10-85 carbon steel. He heated a file and than broke it into sections so we could see what its metal grain looked like. Bearing steel is 1.1 % carbon, 2% chrome but it is very hard to get it heat-treated. Fine grain metal is better for hardening. If you hit the metal with a new file and it just comes off and does not dig in the steel is hardened. If you use oil for quenching use it outside since it can easily catch fire.
The second operation is to temper to soften and make it more usable 57-60 Rockwell for wood working tools. You can temper in an oven using 375- 425 degrees. Keep in oven 1 hour and than let cool for 15 minute and put in oven again for 1 hour. If the metal you are using requires higher that 500 degrees use a torch and get steel to blue color. Use blue color for something like a hatchet but use straw color for wood working tools. “Tool making for Woodworkers” is a good book to have. The flat stock steel you buy will have a chart with it letting you know what temperature to temper it at. If you do not have a chart, bring it up to red and it should be 52-100. Chrome makes steel slower to get to the temperature you need, and you have to play with it to determine the correct temperature. The steel that you buy is already annealed and is all-soft. Normalizing is getting the steel back to soft but not dead soft and this is not annealing. He told how to make a kiln by using ceramic blocks and drill holes through side for a torch and gouge out place in both blocks for the part and than put together. Use KO wool for inside and cover with mud. You can use a rail road rail for an anvil or anything like it if you do not have an anvil. When you are forging, try using your whole arm instead of just your lower arm. The thinner you get the metal you are forging the quicker it gets hot when heating up. He moves the piece he is forging, not the hammer. He wanted to draw down to under 1/16 of an inch but not at the point. Cool after forging and then grind it while flat before putting any curve you may want on it. You want a smooth transition. Find something you can bend it over while making the curve and hammer at 45 degrees and advance it for the curve. Keep heating until you have what you want. When you get done get it red again and let it cool for normalizing. Then harden and grind the sharp edge and while doing this you are also removing the oxidization.
Remember the following: Cherry red to normalize, grind the edge and low cherry to harden, immediately temper in oven and get to straw color, air cool. Now you can sharpen but if you get it to hot grinding you must bring it back to a cherry color and cool slow and than temper again. Do this to get the finest grain structure. Japanese tools have the best edge. He uses water or Norton stone for sharpening. Files are Rockwell 64. Anneal to bright red set aside to cool slowly and it will be soften. Than shape it by forging and hammering. He demonstrated how to make a tool with a hook on the end. He also gave out handouts.
BOB REESE
Bob Reese gave the second part of the seminar. He started as an apprentice at Chrysler in Indiana forging division. He than worked as a machine repair man. They made suspension for cars and the steel knuckles. He repaired the machines that did the forging. They had 8000 pound steel hammer that forged I beams for truck They also had 3000 ton forge press which did the knuckles for cars 2 at a time with one stroke. He was later a supervisor for the machine division. He later got his engineering degree and worked at Batesville Casket.
He showed us how to extend a drill bit having the same size shank. He said there is no limit to the length you can add to a drill bit. He showed how you took the drill and put it in a lathe and drilled a hole into the shank for a dowel, put the alignment dowel in, then drilled a hole in the extension rod for the other end of the dowel pin. Your lathe must be perfectly aligned to do this. He used a piece of nail for his dowel. He used two drill blanks for handles to tighten his lathe chuck. You need to chamfer with a file while the part is in chuck at slow speed . Chamfer both the drill and it’s extension so you have a place for the silver solder to build up. Chamfer the end of the nail with a file while in chuck at slow speed. Use a center drill to start hole in extension and drill. You need to drill about 1/32 under the finish hole size. Then ream the hole to the desired size. It will follow first hole and ream it out to a press fit dimension for the dowel pin. The shank end of the drill bit is soft. If you are drilling more than 2 diameters deep use cutting oil while you are doing it. Start with the tail stock fully in so you can tell how deep you are drilling. When you are done tap in the nail. He made a drill that was not a positive rake angle, but a neutral rake for the reaming operation. Take extension rod out of head and put it in tailstock and use tailstock to push in the pin for the 2-piece alignment. Now silver solder the two parts together. He uses solder that melts at 1150 degrees. He uses acetylene and air mix for his torch. You need a quick heat for doing this. Put flux on parts to be soldered. Get parts hot and than add the silver solder, heating it until it flows around the parts. Flux starts out white and when it turns clear when metal is hot enough to solder. Once the extended drill is soldered, put it back in lathe and hammer (always down) to straighten, until it runs true. Then file solder joint smooth and chamfer back end of extension.
You can make a cut off tool from a salvaged band saw blade. He gave out band saw blades for those who wanted any. They also gave out tools that had been made and drill blanks. Grind teeth of band saw blade first. He also ground off corners to make handle end a little safer. He uses hand filing to take off burrs. Grind to 45-degree angle. He likes to have the point a little sharper by hollow grinding. As he approaches sharp edge, he removes burrs and than touches on grinder again, he than grinds opposing edges a little bit. Tool will be used with straight edge down and does super job of cutting off spindle work or chucked lathe projects. He wraps the handle end with tape so he doesn’t need to hold with bare hands on the steel. He used a disc grinder to cut up the band saw blade.
He has made scrapers out of salvaged materials and passed around samples of different types that he had made. He made scraper out of a band saw blade. He put in a vise at convenient angle and ground a basic shape with a hand grinder and than on bench grinder he ground a curve on each side. He put bevel on it at about 45 degrees. He uses one end for a push scraper and the other end for a pull scraper. He used a burnisher and rolled the burr the wrong way, created the cutting burr on the beveled edge with a hardened rod square to the cutting face. A couple of times across the edge is adequate. He can move a lot of wood, glue, or paint with one of these. Make sure that if you are using old hand saws or band saws for tools that rust had not pitted them. He used 2 pieces of angle iron on his vise to protect the vice top from grinding. He uses electric palm sander to remove surface rust.
You can make lathe tools from steel or heat treated bolts or even old Allen wrenches. A steel bolts have a grade marks on their heads. The number of lines pointing toward the points of the hexagon head indicates the grade of steel and its heat treatment. If the head is smooth, or has only trade-marks it is a grade 2 (soft and low tensile strength). If it has 3 marks it is grade 5, while grade 8 bolts have 6 marks. Grade 8 bolts have the greatest tensile strength made. If you are making a tool for a lot of heavy cutting do not use bolts but use drill blanks. Make a handle for your shop-made tools by drilling a hole in handle 1/64th inch under size for tool and drive the handle onto the tool. Finish grind the tool after the handle is installed.
DOYLE McCONNELL
Doyle McConnell gave the last part of the seminar. Doyle started out in 1956 as an apprentice in a machine shop. He went to AEDC in 1964 where he worked in machine shop for 7 years and than he went into shop management for 24 years.
Doyle gave out handouts on sources for all types of things. Doyle made 248 rosettes for a house and he made the tool to make them with. He made another tool to make a groove. He also made a tool so that he could put screws in knobs without them busting. He used a screw to make a tap and than taped holes. You can easily thread the piece of wood and put regular screw in it. A gun plug tap is a threaded piece of steel with a nick in it. He has made molding cutters. You can make molding cutters any shape you might need. He used 01 tools steel and made drawing and lay out on computer program. He then transferred layout on the steel and used a hand grinder to grind the shape. He put the angle on with a bench grinder. You should heat treat if you will be making a lot of cuts with the tool. Old screwdrivers can also be used to make tools. His favorite tool is a spindle gouge that he made. He bought a commercial tool and found he liked his home made one better. He uses a die grinder to grind the rake in the top of the tool. He ground angle on bench grinder using a home made fixture of Bob Reese’s to get the correct angles. He made with high speed steel which will last a long time. When he makes small things such as Christmas tree ornaments, he uses cut concrete nails to make small tools. They are carbon steel but will do the job for you. You can do aluminum and brass on your wood lathe and on the band saw with a fine tooth blade. You should have a caliper for woodworking for your measurements. For a quickie to hold tool for steel while grinding use a pair of vise grips. He used a scraper, in the negative position, to make a brass nut ferrule for some of his tool handles. He also uses a dial indicator from ENCO, which he got for $17.95, and it has 22 different points that came with it. He uses it to set up his planer/joiner blades, for setting his fence, and checking blade for run out on a table saw. You can make a flat bottom drill out of and old drill. You can make a bead scraper from an old saw blade. You can also put your broken band saw blades together using silver solder. There are 3 types of taps - bottom, starting and plug.