Simple S Hook Jig

There a lot of ways to make S hooks and jigs to aid making them.  Last week I was working alone and needed to make some S hooks which were smaller that ones for which I had previously made jigs.  The hooks also needed to be essentially identical.  My older jigs were made so that an assistant could place a clamp while I pulled the curve.

What I needed was a different type jig so it would be easy for me to do both the clamping and the curve pulling processes.  This is the little spring jig I came up with.  

I tested this simple version to make sure it was working  properly to produce  the arc I wanted.  After approving it I added the lifter bar to kick off the hook and make the work go faster.

A pivoting lifter lever was added.

Lifting ejects the hook from the mandrel.

Almost all my vise tools use angle as the tang stock and I add a short piece of flat bar on the bottom edge to catch the underside of the vise jaw so the tool won’t accidentally lift up and dislodge.

In this case I was working with torch heat on 1/4” round rod pieces 4.5” in length.  I used a swage block and forged a “standard” round taper 1.5 “ in length on each end and checked to see all the pieces finished at the same length.  

To form the hooks I held each piece with a pair of vise grips, heated 2” at the end, inserted the taper in the jig and tightened the vise.  My hands were free to pull the curve, loosen the vise and kick out the workpiece.  I pulled one end of each hook and then repeated the process on the other ends.  By moving from one workpiece to the next I didn’t have to handle hot pieces.  The argument against that is I was losing heat which could have been used if I went immediately to forming the bend on the opposite end. It’s always decisions, decisions, decisions.