Heating too long and too close to the pin,use two torches to heat quicker and doesnt get the pin area as hot also make sure to use a solid king pin 37 up.
I'm a metal worker with a interest in doing this my self in Australia. Do you know of any good reference material to get started learning whats involved?
Lots of info in the Tech archives. Click on the "HAMB" logo above and scroll down to "Tech Archives" and look around. El Polacko (or was it Titus? F'n memory's going fast ) did a great article with lots of pics a few years ago and it's posted there.
Try these; http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5783 http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6676&showall=1 The biggest challenge is keeping the kingpin hole round, follwed by keeping the camber correct. Tim D.
Heat the axle in the jig with a rosebud tip torch and keep the heat away from the pin. And use a solid pin.
Here ya go: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=198214&highlight=axle http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=157006&highlight=axle They seem to be duplicate posts, but there are different responses down towards the bottom.
Rosebud,really? In the old days the whole end of the axle would be red hot straight out of a furnance(forge).(So bright it was hard to look at.) With the metal that hot the axle was reshaped rather easily.
It takes a lot of acetylene to get it hot. These two tanks and 2 big rosebuds are needed to get 2" square steel hot enough to form it properly.
i have a gas forge, i was thinking i would place the end of an axle in the forge, then remove it and install it into the jig and finish with two acetylene torches. for sure i would use a solid pin.
I found that it is impossible to keep the heat away from the inside part of the king pin bore. I have only done one, a 33-36, and I was shocked at how much force it takes to get the red hot axle to start to bend. Once it starts though, it really bends easy. Yes I had some bore stretch which I was able to fix, but partway through the job I realized that the bore stretch was going to mess up my camber checking...and it did. I have 1/2 degree too much on one side. I can fix it. I did mine without a jig for a jack. I'd remembered a old rod magazine showed 3 strong guys doing the bends in a big vise with huge pipe wrenches fighting the small end of the axle. So I made brackets to hold a king pin welded to my sons old heavy military trailer. I welded the brackets so the perch pin bosses were dead level. Then I bent the top bend first by eye, then heated and bent the lower bend back up so the bosses were dead level again. Let that cool, the do the other side of the axle. In theory, it should have been perfect, but the bore stretch messed up the way I was using the level on the bosses. On the second side, I was too confident about how it was going, and I got a slight twist going. I spotted it in time and corrected it. Doing the bending this way, I had to sit on the far end of the axle to make it bend...and actually bounce on it pretty hard to get it to start. Hey, it's just metal....and I wanted to try it. Mine looks WAY nicer that the ancient used ones at the swapmeets here.
I have a forge and I would never use it to heat up the axle for a drop .Mine will put to much heat across the axle I would not get a bend in the right place .I have used the forge to take out bends in the center of the axle due to hitting something or getting pulled by a chain.My last 2 cents
Yeah, really. Pretty much everyone I know that has dropped or is dropping axles today uses torches. And I have talked to LOT of old guys about it. Have you dropped an axle, or witnessed it done? ....as heating the entire end of the axle would destroy the kingpin bore, perch bore, and the drop would occur randomly....
FWIW, I remember an old R&C article from the late 60's I think, about how Mor-Drop dropped axles, and they used a forge. I'm fuzzy on whether they had a fixture that held the end by the kingpin, I do remember that they put long rods through the kingpin bores and perch holes after bending the axle in order to visually check alignment and correct it if necessary. If I can dig it up (don't hold your breath) I'll verify all this.
Seems to me, when I watched them while ed stewart was doing them, oh Ed didn't do them, the shop did them, while we watch they would heat the ends, hammer it with a power drop hammer to stretch them, then while hot bend them by hand on the table. We went all over SoCal trying to buy the heavy axles for $7 but it was a long time ago when I was there! Take nothing that this old man remembers as 100% accurate! Blacksmith shop in San Diego! traderjack
Just wondered if it would do any good to drill like a 3/8" hole thru the kingpin and flow water through it during the process to try and keep the heat down in that area? Seems like you could add a couple of fittings, and some good line and hook it up to a garden hose. I know you would want to run a drain hose also to keep the water away from the heated area your trying to bend, but thought maybe this would help?
use a solid kingpin, they are alot stronger, we try and stay away from the lock bolt/kinpin area as far as posible, like 1/4 away from where the axle reveal has its radius. titus
exactly what i was thinking. i heard mordrops bosses were "eggshaped" and this sounds like it would be the cause.
The Jalopy Journal
