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I used to forge every leaf spring by hand for a full day, now I cut them cold with a bandsaw in 20 minutes
For years, I thought the only proper way to work a leaf spring was to get it orange hot and beat it into shape. That meant a whole day of heating, hammering, and reheating just to get a basic blank. About six months ago, I saw a guy at a meet in Toledo just slice one up with a metal-cutting bandsaw while it was cold. I tried it on my old DoAll bandsaw, and it works perfectly. The steel doesn't lose its temper, and I save hours of fuel and labor. Has anyone else made a switch like this that felt like cheating but just makes sense?
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martin.tyler7mo ago
Yeah, I had that moment with sharpening drill bits. I used to do it all by hand on a grinder, trying to match the angles by eye. It was slow and the bits never cut right after. Got a basic sharpening jig for like thirty bucks, and now every bit is perfect in two minutes. Felt like I was giving up a real skill, but the jig just works better every single time.
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shane_reed7mo ago
Happened with cutting threads. Spent ages with a die by hand, wrecking my wrists. Bought a cheap little thread cutting lathe attachment. Does perfect threads in a minute flat. Felt like I was breaking some sacred rule, but the old way was just stupid hard for no good reason.
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