Making your own shims?

By DaveBoyer (*****)

Date 02-24-2009 04:22

I guess I am the dummy here, but shims for what?

By 63 Max

Date 02-24-2009 04:35

I make mine out of old leaf springs. They work great. I split them with a cut off wheel to give me 1"-1 1/4" wide and make some 2". They last a long time.

By bbwinc

Date 02-24-2009 04:36 Edited 02-24-2009 04:48

maby steel wedges? I made a few the other day. Kept losing the little buggers.lol

I just put a piece of flat stock in the band saw, set at a slight angel. Didn't try Harding them , they seam to hold up pretty well

By cole

Date 02-24-2009 05:07

I meant wedges sorry. I've heard of using leaf springs guess I will try that. Thanks 63 max. I was wondering about hardening them?

By DaveBoyer (*****)

Date 02-24-2009 05:45

The leaf spring will be tougher than woodpecker lips just like it is. Cut it with an abrasive wheel, or if You torch cut it, grind off the cut surface.

By darren

Date 02-24-2009 09:40

we made some in trade school out of spring steel. heated to orange yellow and pounded like a black smith to a wedge and then cut with abrasive wheel into correct size,ground them a little to sharpen them and then re tempered might take a couple of tries to get the temper correct. it will cut mild steel but not tool steel if tempered correctly. if your stuck for tempering charts you can find one on the net.

By DaveBoyer (*****)

Date 02-25-2009 03:31 Edited 02-25-2009 03:35

If You forge them out, reheat to non magnetic & air cool. This is normalizing [of a sort]. Then re heat to a little above non magnetic and quench in oil. Grind off the scale so You can see the temper colors, and temper to dark blue or a little hotter. YMMV [Your mileage may varry]

As an afterthought:

If You just forge & normalise, they will be pretty tough, it probably isn't worth the grief of hardening & tempering.