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Project Information

I made a couple more shop mallets while waiting for glue and finish to dry today. I had cut off 4 extra brass plated steel bands so I decided to make two mallets like the students are making at school.
The heads are maple and the handles are red bud on the left and mahogany on the right. The red bud handle is a little smaller because it had a big chunk fly off when I just started turning it. The heads are 2" dia . and 5 1/2" long and the handles are 9" long. They are both finished with EEE and Shellawax. Thank you Dick Versluis for the red bud!!

The other project is a joint one with LJ Splinterbubba ( Bruce, who is in the last shot) . We made a couple lead hammers and needed handles. I laid up the wood ( sassafras and walnut) and milled them to fit the steel pieces and drilled them for the mounting screws and Bruce did the turning. His first time on a wood lathe and he did great. I finished mine with clear lacquer. The hammers weigh a 3 1/2#. The handles are about 1 5/8" diameter and 6 1/2" long
My new burner for melting the lead

Bruce is cleaning the slag off the top for our next pour


Cheers, Jim

Gallery

Comments

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Great looking pieces Jim
 

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Jim those mallets are pieces of art, a thing of beauty. It's always fun to share the woodworking experience with a friend, glad to see you collaborating
 

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COOL going, Jim…

Keep it up and you might end up with a small Croquet set! LOL

NICE work… as usual…
 

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The red bud handle looks interesting Jim. Never saw that one before. The lead mallets are cool and should prove to be a good asset for the shop. I think you guys are having too much fun.
With the weather changing you can always cook up some soup in the melting pot.
 

· In Loving Memory
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Two mallets that are to good to use Jim, I'd be hanging them on a wall. Well done.
 

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You can never have too many mallets, is that what you're saying, Jim? You have to make some ugly ones to use! I've seen lead mallets before. What is their designated use?
Is there a predetermined amount that the wood stands proud from the rings?
Thanks for sharing.
 

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Sweet looking mallets, Jim!

Really like the lead ones- real dead blow!!
 

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this mallets are piece of art
Like Joe Liddpon sad before,now you can be a judge,hehehe
have a nice day my friend
 

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Those are awesome, love it. Thx for sharing.
 

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Excellent work!!! Liked the new melting pot.
 

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Jim the wooden mallets are beautiful. The steel band are very effective and would have a practical function as well. Those lead mallets are very interesting. will they be used as dead blow mallets? The clear Lacquer really enhances the colour of the lead. It would be a good safe guard to prevent unnecessary direct handling of the lead. Looking at the melting pot took me back to my working days and I swear I could smell that unique smell of hot molten lead. Although our metal was an alloy and the parent metal was lead. Great Project!!!

Regards, Don't work those Elves too hard.

Cliff.
 

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Another nice looking pair of mallets Jim. It's also good to see that the lead handling is being done in a well ventilated area. Nicely done.
 

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Great Project Jim.

Bob
 

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No objections, judge Jim! Great work.
 

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Thank you all for the nice comments. These are fun to make and make nice gifts!!!.

Hi Dave. I had never seen red bud before, but Dick had this pile of it out in the field and asked if I wanted a branch. I can't say no to free and different wood. It is about 3 yrs old now. I could put my old coffee pot on the burner for a while while we are out there casting!!

Hi Bob, they might wind up at school for a sample at least or maybe hanging by one of the lathes. I made them for pounding!!

Hi Candy, it is hard to make something ugly on the lathe..it rounds up the wood so nicely. The bands on these are cut from a brass flange of an old light fixture and are just there to keep the wood from splintering. I leave about 1/8" past the end of the ring so I know the metal will not hit the surface I'm tapping/pounding on. They hopefully won't dent a piece of wood like steel would.
The lead hammers are dead blow hammers ( they don't bounce) and I use mine in the milling machine to tap the part down to parallels so I know I will be cutting the top surface parallel to the bottom.

Hi Cliff I could not smell the lead too much in the barn. That is my dad's old lead pot and scoop he used many times to fill the bells on a cast iron soil pipe back in the days! I just got that burner and it melts a pot full of lead in 20 minutes. I solicited a lot of wheel weights to use, but all the new ones are not lead and must melt at a lot higher temp. I also cast 10- 1# weights for my old Howe scale and drilled them out to calibrate them to within .005 grams on my little drug scale. The split mold for them is right next to Bruce in that last shot….......................The elves are having fun!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers, Jim
 

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Jim congrats on the daily top 3. Nice pieces and well written
 

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Thanks, Ron. I just can't leave that new lathe idle!!

cheers, Jim
 

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Takes me back to my boatbuilding days Jim. The caulking mallets we used always had metal rings, two sets actually. They were heated to expand them and then forced on hot. They never got loose. Just wondering if you did the same?

Then we get to melting the lead…... I too am glad to see the good ventilation. It is a cool process to cast your own lead parts. The pure molten liquid is just beautiful when it pours. How hard is the lead in tire weights? You can harden it with a small amount of antimony to help keep it from deforming. The trailing edge of my keel is 1/8" and really very hard to deform (I tried tapping it with a hammer just to see).

Anyway great work, beautiful mallets and thanks for the trip down memory lane.
 

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Jim, it seems that whatever you set your mind on making turns out excellent. Nice job turning the mallets.
 
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