I take a piece of 1/8 x 3/4 x 5 flat put it in the jig and center it. Then I place my foot on the loose jaw and take my 3 pound mini sledge and give it 5 or 6 good hits.

At work we have alot of short pieces of chain that we have no use for, so I cut every other piece off. But its to narrow for the width of the baseplate so I grip it with a vise grip and give that a few good taps to widen it out.

Nice little jig

man thanks for this post

to the archives...Thanks.

Well I hope this helps you guys. Feel free to ask questions if needed.

Nice job. I like it.

Thank you much for the pictures and sharing your jig, a friend and I want to do this too and this helps greatly!

It weighs about 6 pounds, The measurements are

Base; 1/2" x 2 3/4" x 6"

Driver is 2 pieces weld together both are; 1/2" x 1 1/2" x 6"

Side walls are; 1/4" x 1 1/2" x 3"

Knob is; 1/2" x 1/2" x 1" When you grind this down make sure you leave it flat on the bottom. I origanally used a piece of round stock for this. I found that it made a V instead of a U. Leaveing it flat makes the plate more rounded. (If that makes sense?)

The 2 pieces that the stock will sit on are; 1/2" x 1" x 2 1/2" I had to grind 45s to each of these. They are spaced out at 1 1/8" Outside to outside.

Before I welded the knob onto the driver I placed my 1/8" stock onto the base, place the driver on top of that and drilled a hole through the side walls and the driver. That way when the driver is level across you know that it is down all the way.
I used a 1/2" x 2 1/2" bolt with center locking nut for the hinge.


Well I hope I didn't make this to confusing. Let me know if I need to clear anything up

Riley

Great set up, Thanks for sharing.

I too made myself a bp jig today after years of threatening to do it. I made mine to work with our hydraulic press so it's a bit different but I'm glad I took the hour or so to finally make it! I made some bp's with both flat stock steel and some out of 30 or 40d nails. Also made a nail swivel bender. I find the 1/8" flat stock bends very easily for making bp's and is plenty thick for most if not all uses. Thanks for inspiring me to finally get down to business! Happy trapping. ScottW

Thanks FISHER, thats a heck of an idea there! I think I might even be able to make that. lol

Its pretty simple to make as long as you know how to weld. I guess using a hydralic jack would work too. Believe me the hammer is easy and fast. I cut my stock at work using the Iron worker. I pounded 3 dozen out in less than 5 minutes, plus the cutting.