Had my best week at the anvil in 3 years

Last week I finished 6 fire pokers in 5 days which is way faster than my usual pace. I switched to using a jig I made out of some scrap angle iron from the old barn on my property in rural Oregon. It cut my bending time almost in half and I didn't mess up a single twist. Has anyone else tried building simple jigs for repetitive work like this?

3 comments

3 Comments

betty_palmer2mo ago

That angle iron jig sounds like a real time saver. I had a similar experience a couple years back when I was making a bunch of those old-timey fireplace tool sets for a local historical society. I threw together a simple bending jig from a piece of 2x4 and a couple bolts I had lying around after a rusty old tractor project. It let me crank out ten sets in a week instead of my usual three. Those little homemade helpers really do cut the frustration down to almost nothing.

price.tara17d agoMost Upvoted

Used to think that kind of rigging was just redneck engineering for the sake of it, but you proved me wrong. That 2x4 and bolt setup sounds dead simple and effective. The coat hanger and anger comment made me laugh too, but honestly your method changed my mind about how much time a janky jig can actually save. Might finally stop overcomplicating things and just use what's in the scrap pile.

the_charles2mo ago

Made my first jig out of a coat hanger and some anger. Worked about as well as you'd expect.