Wow! Inspiring stuff Peter. Looking forward to seeing more pics
Wow! Inspiring stuff Peter. Looking forward to seeing more pics
Dear Santa, for Christmas I would like a pony and a power hammer.
The refiring has sorted out the delamination fine (clobbering a billet edge-on is a good potentially destructive way to test this!).
I've changed my mind on hot forging, although it would make more sense in many ways - the metal moves faster, you don't have to keep stopping and annealling and you don't need to wait for the billet to cool before carrying on - you can't really quench mokume billets safely as there's a chance the different expansion rates will delaminate the billet. Basically, I've no room to run a forge safely right at the moment.
The billet has been reduced a bit today; I'm now down to 16mm thick and about 65mm-70mm square - so not that far to go(!). Haven't lost any more material yet, but I am starting to see the copper extruding more than the brass which will contribute to the losses. Despite my hammering it fairly hard, the outer layers tend to move more than the inner ones, so there's a bit of fishmouth happening along the sides. I expected it, even forged a bevel on the edges to try to reduce it but it is still taking place. Annealing is time consuming too... Heating a pound of copper alloy up so it's even is slow going.
Anyway - here's the billet after its first reduction:
...and an incredibly uninteresting pic of it having just been annealed. You'd see it glowing if I hadn't used the flash.
Still holding off on saying what it will be, sorry...
What a brilliant project Peter, thank you for posting your work as you go along! I've not heard of the technique before so I'm learning lots... Looking forward to seeing the next stages.
Is it an ashtray or paper weight? No, don't tell me yet let me think about it - that's not my final answer!Still holding off on saying what it will be, sorry...
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Probably quite good as a paperweight at the moment.
Less so as it gets thinner though!
When it gets down to its final size, each layer will be in the order of .1mm thick. At the point where I'll start carving it they'll be .2; I'll be able to carve through a max of 7 layers before thinning it the rest of the way. I'd considered leaving one side unpatterned, but it may be too thin for that; if I'd wanted to guarantee that, I should have made the bottom layer much thicker - or I could solder it to a base sheet (not that that would be much fun).
Probably no more pics until I reach 3mm - it's just more of the same.
8.5mm, 85x85mm...
A little bit of delamination at the edge - not unusual; ground back and flooded with solder.
125x125x4.5mm...
One or two more cycles and I can start looking at patterning this. It still feels more like plate than sheet, but I'm going to have to start planishing it more as it gets worked down.
I'd still like a power hammer... There's a nice little one that runs on single phase that a guy in Manchester imports; don't think the neighbours would thank me though.
I'm so tempted to say 'stuff the neighbours'
Haven't got my head around half the stuff you have said (I'm having a senior week) but still want to see how it turns out!
Annie xXx
All things are possible - if you look at them the right way!
Ach, they don't do nearly enough to annoy me to warrant it
I'm inclined to be very technical about it, and I'm trying to detail what I'm looking for & at as I go through it. Sometimes I overthink things.Haven't got my head around half the stuff you have said (I'm having a senior week) but still want to see how it turns out!
Well, I'm over the worst of it (the initial reduction is usually the most fraught), so as soon as it gets to 3mm I'll clean it and photo before & after initial patterning.
At the very least this should give an idea of what work is involved with this stuff... I've got plans for a large rolling mill (intended for forging) that would probably be quite good for this type of reduction; there's no way my Durston can handle this work. I've already got the turned parts for it, so it may be worth dusting them off and making the rest of the thing up (once I've got the Land Rover running again).
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