Loading…
17
Why does nobody talk about quenching tongs before you grab hot stock
I watched a guy at the Ohio forge in Newark pull a 1,900 degree billet with dry tongs and lose his grip on the second heat, so now I dunk my jaws in the slack tub for 3 seconds every time and I haven't dropped a piece since, but I'm curious if anyone else was taught this or if it's just how my teacher did it.
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
nathanwest3d ago
Learned this the hard way at my own shop when I grabbed a piece of 1 inch square bar with cold tongs and felt that bite slip about halfway to the anvil. Nothing like watching a glowing hot bar bounce across the floor while you stand there in your apron like a total idiot. Now I keep a little dunk routine too, just a few seconds in the slack tub and the jaws grab way better. It's not rocket science, hot metal pulls heat out of the tongs and then the tongs get hot enough to lose their grip. My old teacher called it lazy man's forge sense, meaning if you skip it you're gonna pay for it.
5