I had to make a larger jewelry display for the local food co-op. The hooks the earring cards hang on are somewhat expensive and not really available in the length we want at a smaller wire diameter. Besides I wanted less of an “L” hook and more of a gentle bend at the end. So I made some to suit.
Drilling some steel rod.
Milling a 45 degree angle on one end…
One short piece of rod drilled only 1/2” deep.
Other piece slips over the end of the rod.
Bend down to 45 degrees.
Look at that…
That’s the type of bend I want to make it easy to slip the earring cards on and off the hooks.
Here’s my high tech setup for whacking up a bunch of bronze welding rod (which I had laying around) to length. That’s a rivet trimmer (scroll down to "Rotary Rivet Cutters") held in the vise.
The stop allows me to cut them all to the same length.
A pile of blanks.
.
Used a cup bur to round the hook end of the blanks.
I set up my Geometric die head with #6-32 chasers.
Done…I love my die head. I could have theoretically set the turret up on the lathe to part the rods to the same length, round the ends and cut the threads but that seemed like more work than the method I chose.
Here’s a short video of the operation.
This is what happens when you don’t lock the tailstock…
A pile of threaded blanks.
All the blanks bent.
I ran them in a tumbler with some walnut shell, wood pegs and rouge for a day. Didn’t completely remove several decades of oxidation but made them acceptable.
And all the hooks screwed into the display.
4 comments:
Nice one,Nick.
I like that die head,what kind of price do they run,would love to get my hands on one?
Cheers
Black
They are exteremely expensive new (Wholesale tool has an import version for $400+, with no chasers)...but used on Ebay they are less damaging to the budget. I see some up right now for between $100-$200.
Make sure you get the "Geometric" type that take "D" style chasers. There are obsolete types out there that are hard to find chaser sets for.
Chaser sets (one for each thread size) aren't cheap either although you can sometimes buy a lot (that is, several sets) of them for $10-$15 a set of 4.
The type I use in this post is a 5/16" size, but there are larger ones that will still cut small threads. All are usually 5/8" shank although I have seen smaller sizes.
I should add that chaser sets only fit the particular size of head - that is you need 5/16 chasers for a 5/16 head (the 5/16 is the type of head, theoretically the maximum thread size they will cut, not the particular thread size of the chasers).
Thanks,I've just had a look on the 'bay & they seem to be roughly 100-200 quid,as you said.Definitely one for the wish list though...
B
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