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I've never met an arbor press that had enough ooomph to do any meaningful forging on anything harder than pewter. Nickel silver gets like steel about 10 seconds after you start working it from annealed, I wouldn't be hopeful in that regard. If you up the force involved it's probably doable, but then you're talking about building or buying a hydraulic forging/screw/fly press. If you make the actual die to do the forming, I'd bet a reasonable compromise would be to move most of the metal by hand roughly and quickly and then throw it in the die to be hammered a coupla times to true it up to final form. Would only partially expedite but would probably handle most of the finicky finishing work. Ambrose Burnside fucked around with this message at 16:14 on Sep 2, 2015 |
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Sep 2, 2015 16:11
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Yeah I wouldn't even bother with an arbor press. Go dig out some ballast from under a rail line and set your dies under the rail. 
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Sep 2, 2015 17:50
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Re: brazing with propane. Technically possible, I suppose, but not advised. You'll be heating it up forever (or at least it'll feel that way). I think Ambrose has it right. I was just at Home Depot this morning and saw a complete oxy/mapp torch kit for something like $50. I'm sure it's not the best in the world, but oxy/mapp is almost twice as hot as oxy/propane. If it were me, I'd spend the money.
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Sep 3, 2015 00:37
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Protip: if you take the imgur URL, enter an "L" (lower case) after the name, and paste that new URL into the SA reply box, it will show the large image inline, and link to the full-size one. So imgur.com/i/XXXXX.jpg turn into imgur.com/i/XXXXXl.jpg and post the second one inline. Like this:  code:code:
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Sep 3, 2015 00:45
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I am beginning to really like the idea of oxy-mapp brazing. But what of mapp gas sans oxygen? If it's hot enough to braze sheet metal to iron pipe, I can buy twice as much gas because I don't need to buy oxygen. Ambrose Burnside posted:if you wanna weatherproof things properly you can pick up some galvy repair sticks- they're big metal bars of a low-melt zinc alloy that you can rub onto fluxed hot surfaces to manually re-galvanize them, if you're brazing stuff you can do it all in one step .
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Sep 3, 2015 03:53
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DreadLlama posted:I am beginning to really like the idea of oxy-mapp brazing. With torch stuff you almost invariably want to get the job done in as little time as possible, because you're always fighting against metal's very high heat conductivity. You don't need twice as much fuel but you definitely want more heat, especially in an application like brazing relatively heavy pipe that's really pushing the limits of what a plumbing torch can do. And- I mean you can use the residual heat from brazing to apply the zinc, not that there's an all-in-one thing. I've never used 'em but they seem pretty straightforward.
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Sep 3, 2015 04:33
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Do you have a link to a part number or a description? This sounds like something I ought to research.
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Sep 3, 2015 05:20
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http://www.rotometals.com/product-p/regalv.htm Rotometals sells small quantities in standard and lead-free varieties, you can pick up a stick plus the solder for about $20 plus shipping. Note that these kinds of repair metals melt at a lower temperature than the pure zinc galvanization, which means the repair site will have a lower operating temperature, which wouldn't be a concern for, say, your water tower, but definitely would for a gasifier. They're also not intended for covering up large areas, which your brazing will probably produce- there's a learning curve to doing thin 'tinning' properly. Your other galvanization repair option is a high-zinc protective paint, which will probably be cheaper and can go on cold but won't protect as well/have as long a service life. Of course, if you're stripping all the galvy off some steel, you can just go in with some high-temp Rustoleum or whatever and it'll do you fine for however long as well. Ambrose Burnside fucked around with this message at 15:05 on Sep 3, 2015 |
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Sep 3, 2015 14:58
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Following on from the copper plated experiment I posted a while back I've got it dialled in a bit more and can now Nickel plate my 3d prints. I feel okay about posting it here since it really is metal. Magnetic and everything...  They both came out just as shiny. But a rub with black boot polish gives it a bit of age. The surface finish is dependant on how much prep you do before plating. In my case none. But the effect is that it looks cast which is fine for me. My next piece is a miniature ark from the Indiana Jones film. On the offchance does anyone know a good source for conductive paint that will ship to the UK? Prices seem madly expensive but I'm convinced there's some other non hobby application that will be a reasonable price. I was looking at some of the conductive aerosols intended for EMI shielding which claim to be conductive but IDK.
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Sep 4, 2015 11:54
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Rapulum_Dei posted:Following on from the copper plated experiment I posted a while back I've got it dialled in a bit more and can now Nickel plate my 3d prints. Do you have an email I could use to get in touch with you? Have an idea about your plating I want to discuss more. or contact me at themummra AT gmail DOT com goodness fucked around with this message at 20:06 on Sep 4, 2015 |
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Sep 4, 2015 17:21
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DreadLlama, have you considered just connecting your pipes with fittings? You might save yourself a lot of effort - and also have a system you can take apart when you need to move it, clean it, or modify it - by going with threaded or compression fittings at the joins instead of welds/brazing.
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Sep 4, 2015 17:29
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I'm thinking about copper flasks again and leaning hard towards doing a limited production run with Masonite dies. Two puzzlers: 1) People like threaded caps, but I can't seem to find copper pipe fittings (particularly threaded plugs/caps, they're all solder-on) in the sizes I need, and I'm deffo not equipped to make em myself. Anybody got any ideas beyond having em turned on a lathe? I plan on doing 'em primarily with cork stoppers, but threaded caps would make em a lot more usable. Brass fittings definitely exist, but I'm hesitant to go throwing brass into what's otherwise an all-copper product. 2) Because they'd use a clamshell design and must be soft-soldered (cause I'd wipe-tin the flask interior/joint edges first, a hard solder later on would screw that up), there will be a small flange left running around the edges. Which is fine, except that it'll prevent a flat-bottomed flask from actually standing upright. Any ideas for a workaround? I can grind the flange and any raised solder off the bottom edge, but then there's an edge that's just butt-soldered sheet with no meat to it, it'll be incredibly weak. I just don't know if that'll matter if the other 3 edges are all properly-soldered. I can also grind the flange off and then solder a base plate trimmed to the flask's final footprint on, but that's a lot of additional work for something non-essential. I could even hammer four 'feet' into the side of the flask body as i'm forming it that'll give it enough standoff that I can keep the flange as is, but I've never seen a flask with feet before.
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Sep 4, 2015 20:22
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I have a good bit of spring steel in my shop, in both 3/4" round rod, and in leaf springs from an F150. I was wondering if the spring steel would be good for making timber framing chisels and gouges for my wood lathe. If not, what steels would you recommend for making these tools?
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Sep 4, 2015 20:26
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Ambrose Burnside posted:I'm thinking about copper flasks again and leaning hard towards doing a limited production run with Masonite dies. Two puzzlers: I like the idea of feet. I was going to say maybe a folded edge that runs along the base and is deeper than the joined seam, if that makes any sense. You are making custom copper flasks, don't worry about whether or not you have seen similar flasks before!
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Sep 4, 2015 21:08
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blunt for century posted:I have a good bit of spring steel in my shop, in both 3/4" round rod, and in leaf springs from an F150. I was wondering if the spring steel would be good for making timber framing chisels and gouges for my wood lathe. If not, what steels would you recommend for making these tools? Good? Eh, it would be good enough. It's not really optimal though, you want a good hard steel for wood turning tools, like O1 (1095, or 1090 or something iirc) or drill rod, old files too. Spring is typically a 5160 derivative, so you can't get it as hard as the O1 during heat treatment. It will absolutely work for you, but you'll be sharpening them slightly more often. I don't even know what those tools cost, it very well could be economical in the long or short term if you have all the equipment you need. You can make kick rear end impact type tools with it though. Axes, adzes, etc. It's well suited to that, tools with a less refined edge than what you'd get on a chisel or turning tool. Where did you get 3/4 round spring steel? Really thick coils from a truck? My guild has some 1" coil spring but that came out of a drat rail car. Slung Blade fucked around with this message at 22:15 on Sep 4, 2015 |
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Sep 4, 2015 22:12
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A lot of automotive leaf and coil springs are ~1080 (1075 to 1095) steel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_steel
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Sep 4, 2015 22:22
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Slung Blade posted:Good? Eh, it would be good enough. It's not really optimal though, you want a good hard steel for wood turning tools, like O1 (1095, or 1090 or something iirc) or drill rod, old files too. Spring is typically a 5160 derivative, so you can't get it as hard as the O1 during heat treatment. Thanks for the info! Many years ago, before I knew how illegal it was, I collected a few old pandrol e clips from the piles next to some unused train tracks while I was out hiking around.
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Sep 4, 2015 22:39
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armorer posted:I like the idea of feet. I was going to say maybe a folded edge that runs along the base and is deeper than the joined seam, if that makes any sense. You mean like a V-fold up into the body of the flask, yeah. It's a really tidy solution... I'd either have to push the flange up, which won't work because the doublethick-soldered on-edge flange won't compress for poo poo, or drop the body down, which will probably work but might be a nightmare because I'd have to hammer in on a stake or sth outside the die and it'd gently caress up the crispness. The really nice thing about masonite silhouette dies for this purpose is that it keeps the metal clamped between bolted-together sheets of hardboard for the entire forming process, which guarantees you a perfectly level and even flange and lets you produce duplicate pieces with the exact same dimensions so you can fit 'em together properly to produce holloware. I'd have to try it and see if some careful stakework distorts the edges of the piece to the point of ruining fit-up for soldering, p much. Ambrose Burnside fucked around with this message at 00:46 on Sep 5, 2015 |
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Sep 5, 2015 00:43
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Hey, any welders in the Seattle area with aluminum experience? Send me a message I got some work maybe.
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Sep 5, 2015 00:59
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Leperflesh posted:DreadLlama, have you considered just connecting your pipes with fittings? You might save yourself a lot of effort - and also have a system you can take apart when you need to move it, clean it, or modify it - by going with threaded or compression fittings at the joins instead of welds/brazing. There are a lot of joins to be made in this project. Anything pipe to pipe will consist of an elbow. It's the pipe : sheet joins that keep me up at night, but not as bad as the sheet : sheet joins. I absolutely agree that the system needs to by disassembleable. However I can't yet anticipate the most efficient break points. Catalyst beds will need to be accessible. The reflux column should probably be a discrete component. The bottom-most surface of the lowest barrel ought to come off, too. I'm going to spend a week gathering scrap and roughing it into the correct shape. Maybe once I've got it all into one spot I can better solicit advice for how to join it together.
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Sep 5, 2015 03:57
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blunt for century posted:I have a good bit of spring steel in my shop, in both 3/4" round rod, and in leaf springs from an F150. I was wondering if the spring steel would be good for making timber framing chisels and gouges for my wood lathe. If not, what steels would you recommend for making these tools? Odd, I replied to this a couple hours ago but my post isn't here. Spring steel is probably fine for timber framing chisels but it would be a terrible choice for wood lathe chisels which tend to get very hot and require frequent regrinding. Many times I've blued the ends of carbon steel chisels just cutting wood. That's why most lathe tools are now made of HSS.
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Sep 5, 2015 05:08
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DreadLlama posted:There are a lot of joins to be made in this project. Anything pipe to pipe will consist of an elbow. It's the pipe : sheet joins that keep me up at night, but not as bad as the sheet : sheet joins. Sheet-sheet for basic mild steel joints is actually pretty dang easy with an acetylene torch (or, again, presumably TIG) if you use flange welds-  Doing heat plus filler rod on sheet is extremely tricky and skill-dependent, but with flange welds you just fold over a little bit of the sheet (use a benchtop sheet metal brake for consistency for larger projects, although I've done all of my flanges over the edge of the anvil) and use that as your 'filler'. Effectively, you just do your fit-up and clamping and then run the torch up the seam to melt the flange and "zip up" the seam. Alternately, sheet is pretty easy to braze with any ol torch, and presents much less risk of burnthrough in exchange for a weaker joint. Don't quote me on this, but you could prooooobably also do flange welds in reasonably thin steel sheet with an oxy-MAPP plumbing torch and an appropriate flux like borax. It'll bring enough heat, but it'll also probably bring hydrogen embrittlement (weak, crack-prone welds) and borax is a big pain to clean up if you can't pickle the whole object all at once. And for pipe-barrel connections, consider what was recommended to me upthread for connecting a forge burner tube to a forge- cut a hole in the barrel big enough to barely accept the threaded portion of a pipe nipple but not the whole pipe's full diameter, get an appropriate pipe cap and slice the cap top off so you have a threaded collar, and use the collar like a nut on the inside of the barrel lid to lock it in place. You might need to get creative with gasketing and it wouldn't be a particularly strong connection ('cause all the stress would be on the pipe nipple "shoulder"/barrel lid intersection, which has very little surface area) but it'd be fast and easy to break down when necessary. Ambrose Burnside fucked around with this message at 16:11 on Sep 8, 2015 |
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Sep 8, 2015 16:06
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Clickbait that has over a thousand notes on tumbr: Welder Scott Raabe Places Interlocking Patterns of Molten Metal Between Pipes Dude can lay a nice bead, I'll give him that, but it's not exactly the high art they're making it out to be. Pretty sure any person who welds for a living can do that or better, right?
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Sep 11, 2015 10:03
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Bad Angus! Bad!
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It's sort of your standard case of people unfamiliar with a craft seeing it up close and well presented for the first time. Like that youtube video of a mason laying a concrete block wall. Show it to a layman and they're blown away, show it to someone who does it for a living and they say "so?"
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Sep 11, 2015 13:51
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Delivery McGee posted:right? I welded pressure equipment for over a decade and never was able to make them look like that. Close maybe on my best days but never that nice. After moving into inspection for 3 years I'm still not sure I've seen any nicer than that. That said he's got an arc strike on the edge of the fitting I'd make him fix! Also maybe some concern as to gas/weld quality due to the brown smoke off the edges.
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Sep 11, 2015 19:25
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I know a lot of professional welders who make beautiful welds, but haven't seen any quite like that. A couple questions for some projects I have been working on. First, I have been experimenting with etching. I found that a DC transformer, 12 volts at 5amps makes a great etcher. I connect an alligator clip to the positive, which gets attached to my metal. The negative has a wooden block with a small plate bolted to it. The negative attaches to the bolt which makes a connection to the plate. I use a piece of felt to transfer the current to my metal. For an etching solution I have used salt water, citric acid and rice vinegar. Citric acid works well but leaves a lot of film that needs cleaning. Vinegar is better but the etching is slightly fuzzier because it eats away at my resist. For my resist I have tried nail polish (dissolves), Pentetrol (dissolves), Polyeurathane (not good for etching and doesn't remove well) and various tapes. Packing tape worked the best, it's nice and thin and creates a good edge, but it's hard to get good line quality with an exacto knife. I have been mostly using pitch, because it's good for drawing in detail. I bought pitch from a jewelry supplier, so it's actually better used in chasing and repoussee. I know there is pitch that is usually used when etching, but don't know where to find it. So if you know of any good etching resist or the right kind of pitch I should be using, let me know. Has anyone here tried passivating stainless steel at home? I am particularly interested in processes using citric acid or other household chemicals. My bathroom hardware, though sand blasted, sanded to a shine and coated with ProtectaClear rusts after a few months. BTW, I am trying to get this class to run. http://www.mendocinoartcenter.org/Fall15/Coe.html. I know some of you are in California. The class is in Mendocino and being taught by Jerry Coe, who makes really incredible bronze furniture and architectural work. estudios.com/custom/html/furniture1.html He doesn't teach classes often, so I am really hoping it doesn't get cancelled.
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Sep 11, 2015 23:02
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ArtistCeleste- you want asphaltum. I bought mine from http://www.lacytools.ca/Asphaltum-Varnish-p/26600.htm but I've never actually tried etching with it, I ended up using it as a historically-accurate enamel alternative. I suppose most chaser's pitch would work for etching but it's definitely not optimal.
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Sep 11, 2015 23:49
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Is that stuff easily washed out with some sort of solvent? I have a friend who does glass etching and it might be useful for her. As for metal etching I haven't bothered with acids, I just stick to salt + water + electrickery. I find a big truck battery charger works well. Far easier to mask.
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Sep 12, 2015 10:21
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Yeah, a range of common solvents are effective. The stuff in the can is just raw bitumen dissolved in xylene, so any similar hydrocarbon solvent should work.
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Sep 12, 2015 16:46
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Ambrose Burnside posted:ArtistCeleste- you want asphaltum. I bought mine from http://www.lacytools.ca/Asphaltum-Varnish-p/26600.htm but I've never actually tried etching with it, I ended up using it as a historically-accurate enamel alternative. I suppose most chaser's pitch would work for etching but it's definitely not optimal. Thank you so much. We used Kerosene in etching class as the solvent. Although with this pitch I melt most of it off and clean the rest with paint thinner.
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Sep 13, 2015 19:57
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In my experience working with it, you'll probably have more luck painting it on 'to spec' instead of trying to draw in it- because it's dissolved in solvent it takes many hours to set up properly and is very runny until then, so if you put a thick enough layer on it'll definitely 'flow' a little bit back into the scraped-away areas after application. Plus, there'll definitely be some residue you can't remove, and that might make for uneven bite. And it should be easier to clean up with solvent than chaser's pitch is- chaser's pitch is comprised of all sorts of stuff, including insoluble fillers and stuff like beeswax or sometimes tallow, so ime it responds "only so-so" to most household solvents without soaking. Asphaltum is just bitumen and responds very quickly and thoroughly to your turpentines and so on.
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Sep 13, 2015 22:21
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Some dude near me is selling what appears to be an oxy-acetylene torch, both regulators (but no hose), and a stick welder with some rods (which are still in their plastic package). $75. I know stick welders are pretty binary as to whether they work or not. But I know from Scuba diving that regs can be pretty finicky. What would you look out for if you were buying secondhand (presumably with no gas available)?
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Sep 14, 2015 01:43
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Normally I'd want to find out if it's single-stage or double stage, get everything hooked up, and then start opening the reg at different pressures to see how it does. For example, my monstrously cheap oxygen reg performs just fine at the higher cutting pressures it was designed to operate at, but if I open it to just 2 or 3 PSI for my jeweller's torch, it goes crazy and starts sending the gas in "pulses" that make it impossible to do good work. That's what you get with a cheap single-stage reg. If you know how much gas is in a tank- if it's freshly filled and you get them to make a note of the pressure, say- you can look at what the gauge reads to see if it measures roughly true, an indicator of if the reg has been left pressurized for long spans of time, which can damage the regulator diaphragm and the gauge spring but mostly just indicates sloppy/careless treatment of tools. With no gas? It's a total crapshoot, then. You can inspect all the fittings for visible damage and see if the brass nuts have been mangled too badly by negligent vicegrip usage, maybe see if some idiot tried applying grease or oil to the threads (it happens) just to get a general sense of how well the equipment was cared for, but you can't actually know how it'll work until, you know, it's working. Torches are worth inspecting, too- see if the torch tips are damaged or deformed from being dropped, see if the knobs all turn easily like they should, basic stuff. $75 for both of those, if even only one set of gear works properly, is a goddamn steal though. You'd want new hoses anyways, they can rot out over time/if the wrong fuel gases are put through em and aren't super expensive. If the buzzbox came with a single set of unopened rods, my gut says someone took it out of the box, played with mayyyyyybe the cheapie trial rods that might have come with the welder, and then left it in their garage for years. I'd wager it works just fine. Ambrose Burnside fucked around with this message at 03:45 on Sep 14, 2015 |
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Sep 14, 2015 03:39
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In that case I'll send that guy a message and we'll see about me beginning construction of the yet to be named monstrosity.
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Sep 14, 2015 04:43
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ganbare. one day you're like "so how do i put these bits of metal together" and then before you know it you're cooking up cut-to-poo poo borax in an artisanally-crafted sterling silver cooker and turning tricks for fluxcore wire. be careful
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Sep 14, 2015 05:13
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Trying to make a thing out of cut-up beer cans (trying to make a ~5/8" cylinder, and decided I'd be fancy and do a lock seam to close the side). This poo poo is tiny and fiddly and I don't like it. I can do anything I want with 16ga steel*, but steel stays when you bend it.  (*I spent a lot of time after school/over summers hanging out at the HVAC shop Dad worked at, kind of a halfassed apprenticeship, making little pencil boxes from scraps on the 12-foot bending brake to pass the time.) Edit: Ha, the apprenticeship worked out in more ways than one -- turns out I have a foot of of 1/2"ID copper tubing in my box of scraps that is the perfect diameter for the task at hand. It's a bit thicker-walled than I'd've liked, but the tradeoff is worth it in increased strength and not having to roll a beer can into a tiny cylinder the opposite direction of its natural curve (the application is longer than the beer can is top-to-bottom; I'd have to ... well, just look at it.)  Edit again: What I I think I still prefer the idea of welding a blade to a C-clamp. Continuing the trend of "gently caress it, use readymades," a .45-70 case head with a couple wraps of gaffer tape works perfectly as a removable plug for one end. The other end's got me stumped, though -- it ideally should take a 1/4" extra-coarse-thread screw and be fixed in the pipe. I'm thinking a wooden plug of some sort, but that only leaves 1/8" of wood all 'round. Fixed with very tiny nails. Or I could braze on another .45-70 case, but a) I don't have a decent torch handy b) nor taps to thread the hole. Chillbro Baggins fucked around with this message at 22:08 on Sep 15, 2015 |
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Sep 15, 2015 21:12
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I got some used welding kit the other day for $75. Got an acetylene regulator, a full face mask, and a stick welder. I don't know about welding without oxygen, but maybe I'll find a cheap reg. But with the stick welder, I can at least get started on stuff. Let's take a look: oh
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Sep 16, 2015 22:17
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what
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Sep 16, 2015 22:32
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what on earth
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Sep 16, 2015 23:01
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2.5% duty cycle? What in god's name
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Sep 16, 2015 23:18
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