![]() After cutting the bolt, turn the bolt several times forward through the nut, before backinig it out. Brad FordĬhopping a bolt to length with a cold chisel is fast and effective, but not particularly gentle. Keep your hand in position and deliver a series of sharp blows to the chisel, peeling off the rest of the fastener from the nut. Your grip should be such that the chisel is held firmly and will not bounce, yet the chisel will slide through your hand once struck. Grip the chisel firmly while supporting your hand on the vise jaw. With the notch established, reposition your hand for the follow through. If the going gets tough, re-oil the chisel tip. A ¼-inch bolt will take no more that two shots from the hammer while large material may take two to three times as many. With a series of deft blows from the ball peen hammer, peel off the rest of the fastener. Once the cutting notch is established, reposition your hand to allow a firm grip while giving the chisel more ability to slide through as it makes the cut. This establishes the notch between the threads. Get the tip of the cold chisel between the threads and give the chisel a sharp blow using a ball peen hammer. Next, run the nut over the bolt up to the position that you want to cut it and clamp it very firmly in the vise jaws. Give the chisel a sharp rap with a ball peen hammer. with your knuckles resting on the vise jaw and your thumb folded out of the way and resting against the body of the vise. Get a firm grip on the chisel, and brace your hand on the vise. Bolt cutterĪ sharp cold chisel makes a handy cutter for bolts, brackets and mounting hardware, and for splitting off nuts that are frozen in place by rust.Ĭlamp the nut and bolt firmly in the vise. There are several good reasons to know how to use cold chisels, which we illustrate below. We prize mechanical literacy at Popular Mechanics. You may be asking, “why should I care?” We’re glad you asked. A cutting tool formed out of tool steel with a hardness and edge profile designed to cut soft to medium-hard steel, aluminum, brass, and copper. Remove the handle from a cold cut, and you've got a cold chisel. To cut cold metal, it’s called a cold cut. Such a hammer developed to cut hot metal is called, appropriately, a hot cut. Instead of having a hammer face on both sides, the head had a cutting bit on one side and a hammer face on the other. The first tools developed to cut metal were adapted from sledge hammers. Hot metal is easier to cut, since it’s softer than cold metal. ![]() ![]() When the metal is hot (as in, “strike while the iron is hot”) and when it’s cold. Looked at in the simplest terms, there are two ways to cut metal. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to playĪnd on that topic, as its name implies, the cold chisel is used to cut cold metal. For more on this, see the care section at the end of this article. Both are US made, and the parabolic shape of the striking end of the chisel does create better force transfer from the hammer blow and helps resist forming a mushroom on the end of the chisel. I haven't used Proto's tools, but I've looked at the specs for them and they have a particularly impressive (though expensive) set made from shock-resisting S-series tool and individual chisels made from other (unspecified) forms of tool steel. The cold hard fact of a cold chisel is this: if you keep it sharp and add a drop of oil to its edge before you cut, you’ll be amazed at how well it chops metal.Īs for brands you can trust, I've used Dasco, and Mayhew chisels. “Doesn’t work anyway,” someone will say about the cast off. Eventually, the cold chisel becomes so worn from misuse and neglect that it’s discarded. They also use them as pry bars and paint scrapers, two other jobs for which they are poorly suited. People use these chisels to chip concrete and break bricks, jobs they should be doing with a masonry chisel. Left to rattle around, alone, in the bottom of a tool box. ![]()
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