DSEL74
19th August 2015, 06:42 PM
One of the forum members is restoring and old ford army truck and he was showing it to me when I stopped in to see his lathe. Whilst discussing rivets we went around to the rear of the truck to see the chassis better and I saw one of two rams horn hitches. It turns out it took him ages just to find one of the pair. I offered to forge up a mate to it.
I was originally thinking to knick it up out of mild steel, but later decided that would probably fail if it was every put to use. The current owner could be made aware it was decorative but future owners could be unwitting test subjects.
So went and bought want something more suitable to the task.
Unfortunately I could only get a piece twice as thick, three times as wide and about a third as long as needed. So I had to weld a rod on the end and forge it down to a flat bar of suitable size and then draw out the taper and curl the horn.
So it took a lot longer than expected (full days work hand forged) but I think I got a pretty good match.
Having a closer look at the sample I was given I think the taper was just welded to a flat. Again not confident that will hold either but at least my one will.
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/19/d9e82eda3bf3e5c59dedf2e6b625ece9.jpg
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/19/0b5ab586ce5808eaeb9832c7a8259715.jpg
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/19/0160236e01ab657680d5dbda69b52db0.jpg
I was originally thinking to knick it up out of mild steel, but later decided that would probably fail if it was every put to use. The current owner could be made aware it was decorative but future owners could be unwitting test subjects.
So went and bought want something more suitable to the task.
Unfortunately I could only get a piece twice as thick, three times as wide and about a third as long as needed. So I had to weld a rod on the end and forge it down to a flat bar of suitable size and then draw out the taper and curl the horn.
So it took a lot longer than expected (full days work hand forged) but I think I got a pretty good match.
Having a closer look at the sample I was given I think the taper was just welded to a flat. Again not confident that will hold either but at least my one will.
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/19/d9e82eda3bf3e5c59dedf2e6b625ece9.jpg
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/19/0b5ab586ce5808eaeb9832c7a8259715.jpg
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/19/0160236e01ab657680d5dbda69b52db0.jpg