oops… I broke my……

[willofiam]

Hi everyone, thought I would tell you a story. I was trying to straighten an old sessions escape pallet arbor and in the waning hours of daylight as my heart pounded I raced to a despicable conclusion. I tried to cold bend the arbor straight, when, all of a sudden, oops, snap!!!! 😯 I broke my escape pallet arbor, like a dry twig near the midnight fire. As I stood carefully still by the awful sight 😳 I began to realize my predicament. now what????, I asked myself. will I be able to find another????
I was able to locate a new one from mile high clock supply, but I thought I would be better off trying to make one for practice sake and future knowledge.
I would ask you all for your input with what I did.
first, as the night grew cold and darkness as a veil covered the once light sky I light a candle and I grabbed a piece of 1/4″ steel with my stubby fingers that I had purchased from the local hardware store. lathed to the correct size, polished the pivots.
second, as thoughts of success enter the thing between my ears I tapped off everything except for the area where the pallet would be and clamped tightly into the vise with the bottom edge of the grove flush with the top of the vise and filed away to the correct depth, turning over to complete the other edge..
third, I swedge pallet into place, drilled a hole for the crutch and wallahh, It actually works, but I have questions



did I use the right kind of steel for the arbor?????? should I heat up in the future if I need to bend something like this?????do I need to harden this piece????? should I get a lobotomy????
please send your advise and I thank you all for putting up with me, William

[arutha]

Mmmm…some interesting questions that i could learn from too! What type of steel did you use William? Heat to a cherry red, and then bend but let it cool slowly, if you quench it I think it then makes it hard and brittle and you would have a much harder job polishing the pivots. I know Bob covers some of this in his video but I cant remember where. As for the lobotomy, only if the voices in your head get louder than mine

[Bob Tascione]

Hi William and Paul,
Good job!
I just did a file bite test on a Seth Thomas pallet arbor. It bit in but It does appear to be harder than average. Your arbor may have snapped due to the flat that’s milled across it for the pallet strip not having a corner radius. You can check the hardness on the old arbor by drawing a file across it. If you’re using a high carbon steel then you can harden and then temper it down to a blue color. This will leave it fairly hard (tough) and will take the “brittleness” (is that a word?) out of it. I’ll try to find the video that covers this in a few minutes and will post it up here.
Bob

[Bob Tascione]

Hi William,
Found it. It’s at the beginning of “Staffing Video 2”.
Enjoy!!
Bob

[willofiam]

I was just thinking about how I attached the crutch to the arbor, I thought it would be a cleaner job to make a small champher and smooth off afterwards. but I am thinking that I should have riveted it on with a “small cap” so to speak so that it would not be able to spin. Am I over thinking that????

[Bob Tascione]

No not over thinking at all William. I think that’s the way most are originally made. Also some add solder when loose.
Bob

[willofiam]

Thank you Bob, have done all that and it is now running good, William

[Author]

Posts