Three hold downs cut from the bar and machined 

First flange turned.  Used a 3/4" tool to flange curves in both directions.   

To machine the hold down tool, I am using a kit from Jimmy Hervatin (Kustoms by Jimmy) shown on the right.  The finished hold down tool, shown on the left, is made by TIG welding the curved fingers from the kit to the base of the tool that you machine from 1" square stock.  

I ran a test flange with the .500" tool that I machined and am very happy with the result.  I can't tell the difference in the flanges formed with the factory tooling I have and the fabricated tooling made with the kit.

Just as an aside; cutting the 60 degree tapers on the spotting screws is a quick and easy job on my lathe.  I use a Monarch 10 EE and there is a trick that some Monarch users may not know.  If you place both the saddle feed drive and crossfeed drive levers down with the forward/reverse lever in neutral you can hand feed the drive and the lathe will cut a perfect 60 degree taper by driving the saddle and crossfeed at the same time.

​The original plan was to drill and countersink the holes in the drill press.  However, the throat of my drill press wasn't deep enough to cut the holes, so I had to clean everything off my mill and mount the table on the mill where the holes were drill and the 82 degree countersinks were accomplished. I drilled based on the spotting punch marks on the back side first...then turned the table over and countersunk the holes.   

After the base of the hold down is machined, the next step is to cut the receiver in the hold down for the curved finger shown on the left photo.  The base and the finger is set in the welding jig provided in the kit.  After the fingers are TIG welded and the welds ground flat, the tool is ready to use.  The kit contains all the different size fingers that can be used with the flanger and can be customized to accommodate any radius bend that is required.  

A quick discussion on materials used.  The original hold down tools and some reproductions were made with very high carbon tool steel alloys such as S7. Many of the original tools have been repaired due to the brittle nature of the alloys used and the hardening level they were taken too.  I made my tools out of 1018 mild steel and had them case hardened using the carbon nitrate process to make them wear resistant but keep them from being brittle. The bolt, however, was made from a hard alloy and heat treated to the standard for fasteners of this size.   

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Installed new break head, reassembled and adjusted the flanger.

​ERCO Flanger for the shop

Installed in the shop and ready for test.

​The new table was laser cut from 3/8" steel by Jimmy Hervatin of Kustoms by Jimmy. The mounting holes to fasten the table to the flanger frame, however, need to be drilled and countersunk to match the flanger base mounts.  To accomplish this I machined some spotting screws.  I used 3/8" bolts with the heads cut off to allow mounting the bolts in the collet chuck in the lathe.  I then machined a 60 degree taper on the threaded end of the bolt that will mark the spot much like a center punch, machined flats on 2 sides of the taper and cut the screws to length.  I then placed the screws in the mounting holes and placed the table on the flanger.  A quick tap with a soft mallet and the holes were marked. 

I machined a bar of 1" square stock so that I can just salami slice the hold downs and finish machining each as I make them for the different size flanges.  

Three different size tools I made from the kit after being carbon nitrate hardened to improve their  wear resistance.   

Starting to machine some tooling for the flanger.  First break tool being formed.

A new table for the flanger

Picking up the flanger at Dan Pate's shop.

The hold down bolt that came with my flanger was bent and  stripped so I machined a new one out of 4340 steel and had it heat treated to harden it.