Large stainless D-rings manufacturing

[Mulesaw]

For the stallion halter project I needed some large D-rings.

The D-ring on the old halter that I copied looked like it was homemade. 
At first I tried to search the net, but I couldn't find anything in that sort of size, so instead I made a small production run.

I made a bending jig out of some old angle bar and a few bits of flatbar that was welded onto it. A piece of a pipe made sure that the rounding of the D-ring would be somewhat neat.
The stainless steel is 8 mm (5/16") in diameter, and first I heated it to red-hot and bent it in a right angle. That part was inserted in the bending jig and the rest of the bending was done in the jig. I tried to heat up the steel for making the rounding, but after a test I discovered that the bending looked better if I didn't heat up that part.

When the D-ring was shaped, I used a hack saw and a file to make sure that the corner mated nicely and then I silver soldered the corner together. When cold I cleaned up the corner with a file and sanded everything with some emery cloth-
Silver solder is incredibly strong when the mating surfaces are well fitted, and I'd say that on a D-ring like this where the corner is filed round afterwards it is as strong as the welding I could have made using welding electrodes. Perhaps TIG welding would have been marginally stronger, but I kind of doubt it. The advantage of the silver solder is that it fills the entire opening between the two parts, so there is also bonding in the middle of the steel, that is harder to achieve with welding unless you are willing to risk melting it all. 

I ended up making 12 D-rings as far as I remember, so I've still got enough for a couple of halters.

It is definitely easier to buy the hardware, but once in while it is also satisfying to make it yourself, especially if it is something that can't readily be bought.
Out here on the ship I have sometimes made some belt buckles, mostly that has been to show some of the trainees and apprentices that it is possible to make something from scratch. And they have been incredibly proud of their belt when it was done since they made it all from the buckle to the sewing.

Jig for bending large D-rings

Jig seen from the other side.

 

A D-ring after silver soldering

D-ring after filing the corner round and cleaned up using emery cloth.

The D-ring mounted on the stallion halter

 

[DieselTech]

Nice work. Looks great. Nice jig you fabricated.

[TomE]

That's some nice craftsmanship, Jonas.  Not sure if this long dee ring would be large enough. https://www.weaverleathersupply.com/products/571-long-dee

[Mulesaw]

@DieselTech Thanks, I normally just make one of a kind of hardware, so it was a bit new to me that I had to make a jig, but it worked better than I had hoped for :-) 

Brgds Jonas

[Mulesaw]

@TomE Thanks Tom, I think that even that 1" D-ring isn't long enough. I tried to see if I could find some D-rings for harnesses, but I wasn't able to find any of the same size and thickness.  The D-ring needs to be extra long to accommodate the leather from the double wrapping around the lower part of the D and still leave enough room for the 30 mm straps that come from the noseband.

I am not sure if it really needs to be that beefy, but I wanted to make a 1:1 copy of that old stallion halter.

Technically I think that the buckle for that original stallion halter was also homemade, but I "cheated" and bought a stout 30 mm buckle instead of making one myself :-)

Brgds Jonas

[jcuk]

Again great workmanship. Here are a couple links maybe give them a shout they may have something you could use. Abbey may do bespoke work but won't be cheap, but check both links they both have large D rings

https://www.fmartinandson.co.uk/our-range/hardware-for-pets/

https://www.abbeyengland.com

Hope this helps 

JCUK

[Mulesaw]

17 minutes ago, jcuk said:

Again great workmanship. Here are a couple links maybe give them a shout they may have something you could use. Abbey may do bespoke work but won't be cheap, but check both links they both have large D rings

https://www.fmartinandson.co.uk/our-range/hardware-for-pets/

https://www.abbeyengland.com

Hope this helps 

JCUK

Thanks, I have to say that Abbey and F Martinson has got some superb stuff!

But I couldn't find a D-ring large enough to meet my 1:1 criteria.

Technically I think it might be overbuilt, and the closest I found was something for pulling straps on harnesses, but they were still not quite the correct size.

Also I have to admit that the Brexit (no matter how fine an idea it is) has made it incredibly difficult for the rest of us slaves of the EU to buy something from England..
 bought some elastic girth strap from H Seal elastics, and it was an uphill struggle..
H Seal elastics were efficient and friendly, but I had to register my company in Denmark as an import/export company, and that extra trouble on behalf of the inefficient Danish Customs and Excise is pretty much enough to scare anyone away from trying to buy stuff from great Britain 

So far I have tried to order from Laederiet in Denmark and Pethardware in Chechia, I found a couple of German suppliers as well for saddlery hardware, but I haven't tried those yet.

Brgds Jonas

[jcuk]

On 3/17/2024 at 7:13 PM, Mulesaw said:

Thanks, I have to say that Abbey and F Martinson has got some superb stuff!

But I couldn't find a D-ring large enough to meet my 1:1 criteria.

Technically I think it might be overbuilt, and the closest I found was something for pulling straps on harnesses, but they were still not quite the correct size.

Also I have to admit that the Brexit (no matter how fine an idea it is) has made it incredibly difficult for the rest of us slaves of the EU to buy something from England..
 bought some elastic girth strap from H Seal elastics, and it was an uphill struggle..
H Seal elastics were efficient and friendly, but I had to register my company in Denmark as an import/export company, and that extra trouble on behalf of the inefficient Danish Customs and Excise is pretty much enough to scare anyone away from trying to buy stuff from great Britain 

So far I have tried to order from Laederiet in Denmark and Pethardware in Chechia, I found a couple of German suppliers as well for saddlery hardware, but I haven't tried those yet.

Brgds Jonas

Yes i know, i don't think Brexit was handled very at all well by both sides of the divide. I Could go on but won't what's done is done, that said if i could not find what i needed in the UK i would still look within the EU which is what i did when i found some smaller sized needles for my DVSG / BUSMC #6 HM in Germany did not have to much trouble all, but i think it was because the cost of the item was so low so i got lucky. The thing with Abbeys British made hardware compared to their standard range is like night and day, yes it is much more expensive but it is different strawberries. And thanks for the heads up on these H Seal elastics i did not know of this company.

 Hope this helps

JCUK

 

 

[Mulesaw]

@jcuk Brexit could definitely have been handled better from both sides, but like you say, enough has been written about that.

The H Seal elastics were the only company I could find that produces girth elastic, and it is one of those companies that were established 150 years ago and still manage to do the customer service in the same way.
That coupled to a unique and high quality product is getting scarce as hens teeth those days :-)

I have to admit that I like to support European made products if they are genuinely made in Europe, and England happen to have a fantastic palette of companies that produces the same stuff that was used 100 years ago.
I bought some green baize from Hainsworth some years ago for lining gun cases, it took me a while to track down the correct wool baize. And again it was a company that had been in business for well over a century. 

Brgds

Jonas

 

 

[jcuk]

7 minutes ago, Mulesaw said:

@jcuk Brexit could definitely have been handled better from both sides, but like you say, enough has been written about that.

The H Seal elastics were the only company I could find that produces girth elastic, and it is one of those companies that were established 150 years ago and still manage to do the customer service in the same way.
That coupled to a unique and high quality product is getting scarce as hens teeth those days :-)

I have to admit that I like to support European made products if they are genuinely made in Europe, and England happen to have a fantastic palette of companies that produces the same stuff that was used 100 years ago.
I bought some green baize from Hainsworth some years ago for lining gun cases, it took me a while to track down the correct wool baize. And again it was a company that had been in business for well over a century. 

Brgds

Jonas

 

 

Its why i try to get things as close to home as i can, i get annoyed that everyday things we did are no longer manufactured closer to home so we have to get them from the far east seems silly to me. But there are some signs that somethings are be made again here. 

 JCUK

 

[Mulesaw]

2 hours ago, jcuk said:

Its why i try to get things as close to home as i can, i get annoyed that everyday things we did are no longer manufactured closer to home so we have to get them from the far east seems silly to me. But there are some signs that somethings are be made again here. 

 JCUK

 

That is a very noble approach, I couldn't agree more. It is nice to see that some companies try to get production back to Europe instead of having it all made in the far east.