Monday, May 26, 2014

Second post!

We get some fun workshop stuff today! Unfortunately not everything I'd hoped, as I have not yet gotten the chance to replace and restring the broken spring on the door of my back workshop :( and it is way way way too hot to work on metal banging stuff out there without the ventilation (not to mention carbon monoxide, lack of light...) but got a little bit to show today.

Today's fun involves a couple of old friends...


Mr. Stand Vise and Mr. Beater Anvil (note I actually have a better anvil than this but when I'm letting scouts learn about pounding metal, experimenting with things that don't need a better anvil and other things that I'm afraid could hurt a big hunk of steel (that should frighten someone!) I prefer to use this one (remind me to introduce you to my little tiny anvil too...)) Note: I made the stands myself from scrap! Note 2: this is before the door decided to close it's self, I really need to replace that spring!

We have a couple of new players as well...


Um... Patrick that guy on the right has been hanging around for a while... yes he has, that would be the experimental #10 can forge! who  so far actually has never been used. Why? It took me a while to convince myself that I had a way to run him without blowing it up! (Note: as a favor to your wife, husband, parents, children, pets, significant others, what ever else... Don't blow yourself up! It kind of ruins your day.). The new torch on the left is part of that solution, it gets the propane tank several feet away from the heat (it also has a flame well in excess of some of those plumbers torches out there, but not as fine as I can get with my Orca)

The second part of the solution was the addition of a gas port


This humble little pipe fits nicely around the end of the torch and keeps it from slipping out unintentionally. The original design I read about didn't have that and it worried me.

Been meaning to do this one for a while, but life happened. (OH well we did it now!)


Here we have a cheery little fire going (the wheelbarrow really is farther back than it looks). One new, as in I hadn't thought of it yet, problem: I really would like something to hold up the piece of metal that I'll be sticking in. I did find a possible solution for that but on the second burn I noticed some air flow issues that worried me so I'm backing off for a rethink. I think it may have to do with how the air/gas are passing through the insulation on the inside. I also had a new idea for a charcoal burner that I can do outside...

In the mean time on another project...


 Some copper wire in the vice; it has been annealed, bent in half and has a handle in the end. Why? Any guesses?



That would be the manual set up to get a nice tight piece of twisted wire! Now this needs to be annealed again so we can get more done with it...


Remember, annealing nonferrous metals like copper usually means heating them up to a critical temp (generally for copper or silver we're in a dull to cherry red range, you're pushing your luck if you go past that). For safety reasons you should let it air cool completely before immersing in pickle. (that said I'm not that patient, once it's no longer glowing I quench it (remember to wear gloves and safety glasses or goggles (I've got some military issue tinted lens safety glasses for metal work that look like sunglasses with side protectors.)))

While we're at it remember this one?


We are not doing this to experience brand awareness! Use gloves and  tongs or pliers, seriously!

Coming soon... what I twisted that wire for, mini anvils! and...


Please tell me that this isn't my lunch!



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