Re bar taper punch

[Frank S]

What good is a piece of 3/8 re bar that is only 9 inches long ?
Well if you drive a length of rubber hose over 1 end then grind a taper on the other it makes a good alignment drift punch

[Crusty]

I'm a rebar fan too. One of our members here (Xynadu) even has a video about making stout ass screwdrivers from rebar that're useful when you need to apply some real force.

[Frank S]

I'm a rebar fan too. One of our members here (Xynadu) even has a video about making stout ass screwdrivers from rebar that're useful when you need to apply some real force.

I've used rebar for lots of things as well. What seems like a 100 years ago now I used to forge crowbars, tire irons, digging bars, and even had a pair of tongs that I made out of rebar. The problem with using rebar sometimes though is you cannot ever be sure of the quality of steel in it, since most of it is made out of recycled steel the mills sometimes don't always monitor the grades of materials that go into the cauldron to be melted down as closely as they would for other steel shapes.
I've encountered some that would snap into when trying to bend like a peppermint stick and some that would bend like saltwater Taffy

[Crusty]

I usually heat them to a dull red and then water quench and that seems to provide some hardening without becoming too brittle but yeh I've seen steel quality in them to be variable too.

[Altair]

Thanks Frank S! We've added your Taper Punch to our Scribes, Awls, and Marking Knives category,
as well as to your builder page: Frank S's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Taper Punch by Frank S

tags: punch