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?

2 comments

2 Comments

martin.tyler17d 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.

shane_reed17d 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.