Got yer' attention ...?

There was a post on how you did this on another website , but for some reason I can't find it .

Anyways , I wuzza thinkin' it'd be real nice if it wuz in the archieves .

Any ideas ?

Scott

P.S. I'm Back !

I got one or two of those tuit's in the shop.

Propane torch and gentle pressure is the trick for me. Acetylene if you are careful.

Come on down brother man to my event 1 and 2 May this year! See you there.

My preferred method:

Light torch with acetelyne only and cover the part with black soot. Introduce some oxygen but only as much as you need to keep from continuing to blacken the part. A rosebud works best.

Heat the part evenly all around the bend.

When the soot flakes off, drop the part in water and quench.

The part is now annealed and soft enough to bend.

I've never tried it with acetelyne, so I don't know if it will get it hot enough.

If you try, rub the part with a bar of Ivory soap. When the soap turns black, quench in water.

Before anybody jumps on me...annealing aluminum is unlike steel, where slow-cooling, not quenching, is necessary.

Thank's Charlie , I wasn't sure about the quenching .

Alan , Careful what you wish for I've got it marked down , just might have to DoDat

Well Charlie, that is one that you and I see opposite on.

I think you will find that if you do not quench it, it will be annealed as well, the Ivory soap, or the Acetylene black is common between us.

When you are heat treating aircraft parts, they are quenched at the end of the heat cycle normally to "lock" the molecules at that point, then quite often the part is left to age harden as well.

(ref Standard Aircraft Handbook 5th edition, page 28)

There is an excellent easy to read book about metal working that anyone that works with sheet metal fabrication should read through once or twice. Written by Ron Fournier I think his name is. I think I have lent my copy out???? as it is not in its spot. He covers many great metal working techniques from a standard shop perspective.

You will also find that if you will keep the heat in a part as long as possible after welding (through the use of a sandbox or asbestos blankets) and allow the heat soak, or cooling time to be as long as possible that you will experince less stress cracking and weld problems in general. It is best to let items that you have done this with age harden or air harden as it is sometimes called prior to placing them in service.

Don't sweat it, Al. It's actually OK to disagree with me.....once.

After that, it gets my New York up.

The quenching confused me, too.

I learned the soap trick from one of those old-time machinist/mechanics who should have an honorary PhD in engineering, and he never led me astray. I never asked why, but I assumed that the temp is so hard to control with a torch, it's best to just dunk it as soon as you get it close.

When annealing other metals, such as tool steel, I put them in my blacksmith forge and let them cool very slowly overnight inside the coals.

Not being a metallurgist, all I can tell you is, the shift lever on my sons TXT 80 sticks way out, and I've had to straighten it about 6 times, and I haven't seen a stress crack yet.

S'Okay now ,