This is the stock we started with. It was a piece off of an old tractor.
This is a piece the instructor showed us. He did a demo on how to form each side and then let us go. He made flat jaw tongs, but I opted to go with a round jaw that would fit a large portion of the round stock I have at home.
Here is my first formed piece
Here is the matching side I made. The second half was a bit of a rush. I had to wrap things up as the class day was ending. I reworked it a bit the following week before punching the hole. The idea is that both pieces should look the same. You can also see a flat jaw tong which I started as an extra project made from some flat stock. I used a pattern I spotted on a YouTube video.
Here are the pieces a little more cleaned up and shaped to match before punching.
Here are the matching sides after they were cleaned up and punched. I got to use the round punch to make the holes. The round punch was a project from earlier in the day.
Here are the finished round and flat jaw tongs. I made a small elbow shaped piece to fit into the pritchet hole. When my round tongs were almost done, I heated them up and hammered the jaws closed around the piece so that the jaws would fit well on that sized stock when completed. My camera ran out of space and so I was unable to take all the photos of the flat stock and riveting. I used a standard 3/8 inch mild steel rivet for both tongs and just peened the rivet closed while cold. The flat jaw tongs hold 1/4 inch stock. The round jaw will hold 3/8-1/2 stock very well.
