Best explanation and how to on drifts I have seen! Upsetting the centre makes perfect sense when you explain scale and forging loss! Thanks Nathan, I know a lot more now than I did 20 minutes ago!
Also you are drifting a hole in hot steel. If the drift is oversize, then so will the hole in the hot steel be. If you have the swell just right, then as the workpiece contracts the hole will too, hopefully being spot on the desired hole diameter when cold.
@@workingwithiron It did get missed in the video Nathan, though you did refer to it in one of the comment replies. It is easy to miss things that are second nature to you, when demonstrating and doing the talk through at the same time - I couldn't do it
As a new smith I am really digging the videos on tool making. I will be using them all to make all the tools I need! Thanks for the outstanding instruction)
I'm kind of old to start doing this type of work but my background as a welder/machinist makes it almost natural.of course tools are the first thing anyone needs so your videos/tutorials are very much appreciated,thanks so much!
Hello Nathan, great videos mate. I do hope you do loads more, you've got a nice, calm, easy going style. I've just finished doing up a small farriers type forge and adding a free-standing base to it as it was originally just a table-top type. It'll be good to get back into 'smithing and fabrication again as it's been some years since I last did this sort of work, so I'll be watching all your vids for inspiriation and perspiration as well. Kind Regards mate.
If you aren't a teacher you should be, I watch a lot of other videos and they don't explain the process the way you do, maybe it's just me but I sure do appreciate your videos
second that, your relaxed style is easy on the ear and makes the information offered much easier to take in.There are others making vids of the same genre that just leave me with a headache.
Thanks Greg, means a lot that does! They are a lot longer than most but if its instructions on how to make something then its easier to show as we go along rather than trying to get a shorter video for more views, its never about the views for me, more so to teach people that can't get to classes, or to a tutor or for people in countries where there are no smiths that will teach.
Thank you! I find the same thing, there are great entertainers out there doing this but its not about me, rather the craft itself and process. Glad you like the way they happen! Cheers!
Thank for producing this and your other videos, its great to be able to watch every step in your process. I have found a lot of your work helpful for learning. I wonder if i might suggest a topic for a future video, I have been rely struggling to find good understandable information of the steel its self and what steel to use for tools and such. I've probably been looking in the wrong place but faced with pages of designations makes my head spin. anyway I've had trouble with it and maybe others ho are just starting are in the same boat might be a good one to put out there. Thanks again for doing what you do man!
I have to agree with several of the comments. You are so patient with your teaching. I appreciate watching you because I can pick up so much more than others I have watched. I am mesmerized by the videos...lol. At the end of this video you talked about a bolster plate video for drifting holes, but I cannot find it. Can you help me out?
Always a great video. When you are making a square drift. Like on a railing, do you start with a round and then transition to a square drift? Or a hexagon shape like on a conveyor roll shaft.
Hello, Great channel!! Wondering what brand of hammer are you using? Looks a little like a farriers hammer.Long handle with an anvil and two initials mark on the side. Looking forward to the next installment. Matthew Onks USA
You stated that you harden the mild steel, can you explain how you do this or did I misunderstand? Thanks for this idea , tool steel is a lot of coin .
Nathan I made an 8mm drift and every time I went to use it it would bend, so gave it up. Do you think it might of been too long. What length would you recommend for a drift for tongs for rivet hole.??
Lenblacksmith for a rivet hole I wouldn't recommend any drift, just your punch will do unless they are huge hinges. I explain in the video how long the drift needs to be, but what I didn't say was, the work has to be hot. They do bend, out of mild steel, if not hit straight, or the hole is too small, or too cold, or like you say, drift too long it could be that you keep hitting while the hole has cooled and the drift has been heated, without seeing your technique I cannot say.. 8mm drifting is small enough that if you can use your punch then do so. Hope this helps.
Very nice, as a part time job I do welding repairs for farmers and the amount of spring steel I have acquired from broken bale carriers and silage grabs is ridiculious at this stage, I find the steel, even un hardened makes really nice drifts, mild steel is far easier to shape and redress though.
It's like a big mouth that fits on to the front loader of a tractor. Drive it into the silage pit close the jaws and it takes a "bite" out out of the silage.
..By Upsetting the Drift. Does this allow the hole you are drifting to come back to a more normal size after the piece has cooled?? Say, you drift it with a 10mm drift and when the piece has cooled it's more like 8mm...
Yes, you got it! Lets say you want an 8mm hole, you would use the 8mm drift that has been upset to around 9mm drift through then you should have a parallel hole of 8 1/2 - 9mm hole, when that cools depending on the colour of the bar when the drift is knocked out it should shrink back to just over 8mm, allowing an 8mm bar to pass through that hole. I will show it on the bolster plate video i am filming now.
Rice Creek bushcraft example.... so I want to pass a 12mm bar through a 12 mm hole. The drift material is also 12mm. If I were to put a 12mm bar in a 12mm hole it would be tight, if it passes through at all. So I upset the middle of the drift so it is wider than the 12mm, only by a fraction. This opens the hole out slightly bigger than 12mm so the bar I want to pass through the hole has enough clearance to go through but not sit in loosely. Hope this makes sense!
I remember working with one during a 3-day-course that's made of a heat resistant hardened kind of steel (retains its hardness to temperatures of up to ~600°C), but that one was more like an eye drift for hammers and axes. Nonetheless, I assumed all drifts are made of such steel.
That'll be a red hot steel such as h13. But this channel is about showing you how to think outside the box. Hence mild steel drifts for small holes. As a finishing drift. Not a punch.
Great video! inspired me to give it a go! i am a steel fabricator and am always drifting holes on steel flanges to line the holes up before bolting together. i normally buy a king dick drift spanner and cut the spanner end off and use them. you are using mild steel as the material, would i need to harden the drift after forging or would it be strong enough as it is?? great tutorial, keep up the good work.
Let's say we are putting a 10mm bar through a 10mm hole. If we drift the hole to exactly 10mm while hot, as the hole cools down it will contract and shrink being slightly less than 10mm so the swell takes it bigger than 10mm to counteract the shrinkage.
yes, you can use it whenever you need straight hole, as punches are not parallel they leave a conical hole, so you will y=use a drift to make the holes parallel, usually punch slightly smaller then drift to final size. I will show you in the next vid which will be up tomorrow or sunday. Hope this helps!
