| I have a range of pneumatic hand held
hammers or "zip guns" as they're sometimes called. I use these
tools primarily for incising work on steel and they can do a pretty
good job for incised work and for carving as well. I use them
more for heavy incising work than carving though.
Well, I've never tried to do any chasing with these
tools so I'll give it a whack now and see what happens. Most of the
bits are ground for incising work but I do have one blunt tool that's useful.
I'll have to now make up a couple of new bits for
the job at hand.
The bit inserted in the tool was just formed
for what I need to do right now. I simply cut off the end
of a useless bit that I had then heated the extreme end. After
setting aside the torch I then triggered the tool, driving the heated
bit into the steel table plate. This upset the end to broaden the face
of the tool. Next I ground the tool to give it a slightly rounded face
and radiused the rim. This will be used for flattening and forming
areas on the sheet metal.
I then made another bit with a straight across flat
face but didn't upset the end so the face is the same size as
the shank. This tool will be used for running up against areas
to be angled and also for some flattening work as well.
A couple of points of interest. After
heating the first bit I find that I don't need to retemper
because the steel was hard enough as is, maybe because of the
relatively quick air cooling that simply happened. The second
point is that these bits can be purchased very cheaply in sets and even
though the end shapes are standard tools, you can cut them off and reshape
the rest of the steel. The steel in the cheap imports that I found
is excellent and is a source of inexpensive starter material for further
reshaping.
By the way, if you're wondering how I cut the unwanted
portion of a chisel away, I use an abrasive cutoff wheel on a
die grinder. You can't run these things through your bandsaw and
expect to have any sharp teeth left on the blade afterward. |