Project Information
OK, I'm bad,not made of wood. ... but, a woodworking tool nonetheless.
I just bought some very nice Japanese dovetail chisels to do some fine work with and my big mallet seemed overkill for the job. At home in Canada I have a lovely brass joiner's mallet from Lee Valley but I'm not at home so I decided to make my own "Arizona model".
The two pipe fittings cost ~ $5 and the lead was free from a local tire shop. The "casting" was way easier than a 10,000 lb. keel and only took a few minutes. The best part is I have a nice small, heavy, decently balanced mallet that works really well with the chisels.
The photos show the setup I used to melt the lead. As the weights were quite clean, and I wasn't that concerned with absolute purity, I didn't melt in a separate container and pour. I just broke the weights up and dropped them down the handle a few at a time. For the last bit I held the pieces with the clips in them in pliers and just let the lead drip off them into the handle.
The last photo is of the non-lead weights that I weeded out before starting. A good trick for that is dropping them on a concrete floor. Zinc and steel will ring while lead just goes "thud".
Thanks for looking.
Paul
I just bought some very nice Japanese dovetail chisels to do some fine work with and my big mallet seemed overkill for the job. At home in Canada I have a lovely brass joiner's mallet from Lee Valley but I'm not at home so I decided to make my own "Arizona model".
The two pipe fittings cost ~ $5 and the lead was free from a local tire shop. The "casting" was way easier than a 10,000 lb. keel and only took a few minutes. The best part is I have a nice small, heavy, decently balanced mallet that works really well with the chisels.
The photos show the setup I used to melt the lead. As the weights were quite clean, and I wasn't that concerned with absolute purity, I didn't melt in a separate container and pour. I just broke the weights up and dropped them down the handle a few at a time. For the last bit I held the pieces with the clips in them in pliers and just let the lead drip off them into the handle.
The last photo is of the non-lead weights that I weeded out before starting. A good trick for that is dropping them on a concrete floor. Zinc and steel will ring while lead just goes "thud".
Thanks for looking.
Paul
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