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Aerofourcycle

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I am trying to make spokes for a 1886 columbia 54 inch high wheeler. I think i am going to use 1/8th welding rod 316 stainless steel. I want to roll the threads with a pipe cutter. 6-36TPI. I cant figure out hwo to make a round end. I tried making a holder and die but the rod is very tuff. I just need to mushroom the end from .125 to .2. Maybe i need a better clamp idea... up for suggestions. Maybe 316 is to hard. Bicycle companies use 306 and 304 i think. Plus 2 mm wire.
 
I met a bloke at a motorbike rally once who was talking about making penny-farthing spokes. If I remember right, he made a copper 'mould' to fit round the end of the spoke needing the bulb on it, with a female detail in it for bulb shape, heated the spoke in the mould as hot as he could get it (mould retained heat so it didn't cool as soon as he took the gas torch off it) and then hit the end of the wire with a former like a rivet snap. I guess the copper thing must have gone in the vice, and he must have used something to block heat flow from mould to vice.

Now I've written it, I think he might have said he could melt the wire into the mould, not use the snap. But even with oxy-acet that doesn't sound right to me; sorry, this was a long time ago!
 
... I want to roll the threads with a pipe cutter. 6-36TPI.

How does that work? Are you making up three hardened, threaded wheels that somehow fit into a G-clamp type pipe cutter? Sounds interesting.

Stainless is tough stuff to work. Might be worth buying some 2mm 306 wire rather than the welding rods you are currently using. If all else fails, heating with the oxy-acet set might be the answer.
 
If you are trying to increase the diameter of .125 dia rod to .2 dia for a thread then you will need to upset around four times the final length to get the volume required for the larger diameter. That's no mean feat and impossible without heat and forging the end. Not sure you will succeed even then. Why do you need the threads so much bigger than the spoke diameter
 
Should be easy to do, it's called forging. I have done it many times . Sometimes I build dies , and sometimes I don't. I even make my one mm screws by forging, and you do not need Oxy-Acetylene , only a Propane Torch with a focused flame. I also use welding rod . If you can get 304, do it,as it machines easier for post forge work.
Here is one technique I use.
First-Make a pair of steel jaws to drop into your bench vice these would be inverted L shape in cross-section and maybe 6 mm in thickness (1/4") . These jaws are for holding work and are tools and will be machined,drilled or what ever so DO NOT "grind them pretty !" ( Structural steel like angle iron works , but mill out the corner radius ! )
So here is how I make a 1 mm screw.
I close the jaws tight with a piece of paper between them, and then drill and tap a 1 mm hole between the jaws.
Now I have a controlled cavity-toss the paper . I thread 1 mm rod with a die, and then place it in the "Cavity"
and tighten the jaws which gives me almost 360 degrees of clamp on the threads ( no distortion)
Now I snip off the rod about 3-4 mm above the jaws and heat it cherry red and hit it gently with a hammer and flatten it out, Then I file the head square ( Using guidelines scrobed in the jaw tops .
When you need extra material for a "Head: another technique is to ( follow the above approach) to make a pair of pliers (Like the vise jaws !) . Now snip the wire much higher than the 3-4 mm to say 10 mm and heat to cherry , but grip the pliers on the wire about 2-3 mm above the jaws and hit with hammer VERY quickly.
this will expand the steel next to the jaws only and keep stock on hand. Now repeat to add material.
The cherry red steel is soft and you control the stock with cold pliers. even though the rod is hot, it's contained within the plier jaws ans the heated steel will flow.

Hope this helps
Rich
 
I make T bolts in the same way , much easier than machining from a larger diameter bar.
Dan.
 

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