Anyone around here work with alloy? I have some kit designs I would like to try and make.
Sandsnakes
Sandsnakes
aluminum working?
- Thread starter sandsnakes
- Start date
I used to work with it too,
Nothing is overly difficult though you'll get black hands from working it. Edges polish up nicely with Scotchbrite pads.
What sort of kit are you thinking of Sandsnakes?
Ogri the trog
Nothing is overly difficult though you'll get black hands from working it. Edges polish up nicely with Scotchbrite pads.
What sort of kit are you thinking of Sandsnakes?
Ogri the trog
it tends to work harden fairly easily. this can cause cracking.
if you're hammering/bending it enough to harden it, you can normalise it by heating it with a blowtorch. rub some carbolic soap before you heat it and when the soap turns black, it's hot enough.
if you're hammering/bending it enough to harden it, you can normalise it by heating it with a blowtorch. rub some carbolic soap before you heat it and when the soap turns black, it's hot enough.
I have some designs similar to a volcano kettle besed on a Thai tom yum cooking pot. So I need someone who can do 'blown' (?) alloy. This is wildly of my area of experiance so I am looking to colaborate with or work alongside someone who has the manufacturing ability.
Sandsnakes
Sandsnakes
Wow, mine too,
I'm OK with rivets and nuts and bolts, even some welding (provided I have several weeks of practice first) but not blowing or spinning.
S0rry Sandy
Ogri the trog
Is it the kind of spinning where you turn a form and use a "big spinny thing" to spin/roll a disc of aluminium over the form?
I used one at a college years ago, we made up cup and vase shaped containers, funky shapes with integral bases. Can't remember the name of the machine though.
Was a big contraption though quite simple. Haven't seen one in any of the other colleges since or at uni.
Does the design really call for it? Could one off's maybe be made by hand?
There are folk with pole lathes who could make hardwood forms. You'd have to wait for them to dry but then you could beat sheet round them then cut & weld a seam.
I've got access to a tig set but have never worked with aluminium as light as you're thinking of(in fact I've hardly worked with aluminium at all, only practice pieces about 7mm wall thickness).
I used one at a college years ago, we made up cup and vase shaped containers, funky shapes with integral bases. Can't remember the name of the machine though.
Was a big contraption though quite simple. Haven't seen one in any of the other colleges since or at uni.
Does the design really call for it? Could one off's maybe be made by hand?
There are folk with pole lathes who could make hardwood forms. You'd have to wait for them to dry but then you could beat sheet round them then cut & weld a seam.
I've got access to a tig set but have never worked with aluminium as light as you're thinking of(in fact I've hardly worked with aluminium at all, only practice pieces about 7mm wall thickness).
I worked at ISC, not HB, though very similar work.
I agree with grooveski that hand forming over a hardwood former and then tig welding is the way to go, at least for a prototype or limited production run.
good luck with it!
Dom.
I agree with grooveski that hand forming over a hardwood former and then tig welding is the way to go, at least for a prototype or limited production run.
good luck with it!
Dom.
Could be wrong here but are you talking about rotary swaging or metal spinning?
Can't say I have had anything to do with metal spinning and the only time I have even worked somewhere that did rotary swaging it was on the furnaces of pressurised steam boilers so on a pretty industrial scale and I had nothing to do with the process either.
Can't say I have had anything to do with metal spinning and the only time I have even worked somewhere that did rotary swaging it was on the furnaces of pressurised steam boilers so on a pretty industrial scale and I had nothing to do with the process either.
Fly press it is, cheers .
It was similar to the grey lump here but with a bed and tool block.
http://www.flypress.com/
.It was similar to the grey lump here but with a bed and tool block.
http://www.flypress.com/
