After a short slit is cut at one end of a small bar or rod, for the purpose of forming a T-piece, the workman puts one of the two branches thus produced into a hole in a block, or into some convenient slot, and while the branch is thus fixed, he pulls down the other end of the work until the branch in the hole is at about right angles to the bar; after one branch is thus bent, the work is again heated and the other branch is put into the hole, and bent by the same sort of pulling by the workman. T-pieces of small bars or rods are easily commenced by such means, and the further shaping required is effected with welding heats and upsetting while the T-piece is still attached to the bar, if the work is very small; but if two or three inches thick, it is better to cut the T-piece from the bar after being slit and the branches roughly separated. The T-piece thus partly made is next attached to a porter of some kind and heated to welding, and put into a T-head or T-piece shaper, shown by Fig. 231. This implement has a hole in the middle for containing the rod part of the T-piece, and the upper edges at the entrance of the hole are curved, to shape the required curved junction of the head with its rod part. This short rod portion of the T-piece may be of any convenient length for handling while forming the work, and also of sufficient length for welding to the other component piece which is to be the intermediate portion of the connecting-rod, eccentric-rod, or whatever rod is being made.

The T-end shaping tool may be fixed across any convenient opening when in use, the opening being deep enough to allow the rod part of the T-end to project below, while the T-head is being hammered into the shaping gap with sledge hammers.

When a T-end shaper is fitted across a gap in a steam-hammer anvil, the lump which is intended for the T-end requires no slit to be made with cutting, but merely a sufficient reducing to allow the rod part to pass easily through the hole in the shaping tool, and a tapering of the head. After the rod part is thus prepared, and the intended head spread out with hammering, it is heated to nearly welding and put into the shaper. The thin part, which was previously spread out with hammering, will then stand up considerably above the shaper, and this part is immediately battered into the shaper, by which the head and also the curved junction is formed, almost at one heating and hammering. To complete the T-piece, it is only necessary to cut off all the superfluous metal, which will be in only two places; these are at the two ends of the head that was lying in the shaping gap. Short T-ends may thus be conveniently made with such an implement, and afterwards welded to rods of any length, by which the handling of long pieces is avoided.

T-pieces may be made also without shaping-moulds, by drawing down. This mode is indicated by Fig. 200. By this method, a lump is employed which is thick enough to spread out to the length of the head required, or the piece may be thick enough to form the head without spreading out; consequently, the rod part of the T-piece is produced by drawing down the thick mass of metal, which is large enough for the T-head. Although this mode involves a large quantity of reducing to make the rod portion, the plan is applicable to the forging of T-ends of various dimensions, when only one T-piece is to be of one size; therefore gap-gauges or callipers must be carefully used, as indicated in the Figure, to adjust each T-end to the length, width, and thickness.