More Plasma Cutting

This is just an example of

what you can do with the plasma cutter.

Welding Gear

 Loads of pictures of the welding gear,

both Manual Metal Arc and Metal Inert Gas welding.

I will get round to explaining it all but

i just wanted to get them up there to 

remind to do it.

Bar Cutter

 This is another tool we have been learning about round the

workshops, it can cut through most thickness

given the right time.

Its a simple place the metal in the vice below the blade then

click the green button and it turns on the blade

and starts lowering itself.

The vice here is adjustable so you can

place different sizes in.

A key piece of this machinery is making sure that

the coolant is coming out before using it.

Oxy Acetylene Torch Add-Ons

 This is a little car on a rail with the torch

on top, this is used for cutting straight bars.

This can be added on to the top of the torch so you can

cut a perfect circle in metal.

Oxy Acetylene Torch

 This is the Oxy Acetylene torch set up, we have been working

around the fabrication workshop and this bit of kit really is the

jack of all trades. It can be used to cut, heat parts of work for bending or

working akward pieces, gas welding and even lighting

a forge.

 These are the two tubes that go into the 

torch, blue is the oxygen line, red is the acetylene. Red is

first on first off.

This is the head of the torch,

its adjustable for what you need whether its cutting or

other processes.

Plasma Cutter

In the fabrication workshop a while ago we were

introduced to piece of kit that blew my mind, the Plasma cutter.

This nifty tool can put through some ridclous metal like

its butter, making delicate shapes out of 3mm, 5mm all the 

way up to 10mm plate.

 This is just a shot of the nib of the baby cutter, he can cut all the way up to

3mm thick plate, just place the nib on the metal and go

A full picture of plasma cutter torch

 

 This is box that makes the plasma cutter work,

its fairly easy to work out how to switch it on and how to get going.

The top dial on the left, turn that to the right till you hear a 

click then your almost ready to go.

 This is the area you will be working in, do

all cutting over the metal grates. There

is water below in the big tank for any hot work

to fall into.

 This is the ventalation system that helps get

rid of the smoke in the air.

Make sure this is on.

 This CompAir system is used in the 

Plasma cutting working, i don't know 

how it works in conjuction.

 This is the Big Daddy Cutter, this one can cut upto 

10mm thick plate.

 This is the nozzle of big Cutter, this one has to be used

with the little foot on to keep it a certain

distance from the metal.

 This is just the earth line on the Big Cutter, all the

Plasma Cutters need to be earthed before using

 

Chain Links

This is a guide to doing a Chain Link,

there will be a guide after about joining several chain links

this is just showing you how to do the first link.

1. Start off with a piece of 10mm round about 200mm long, get yourself a good pair of roun bit tongs peferably with a slot up the middle and across the tong so you can hold bar on the side, this will come in handy later.
2. Get a good heat across the entire bar, placing about half way down in the pritchel bend it round to make the initail bend, bend the rest of round with the hammer to form a U shape, it is essentail that it is level.
3. Get another good heat on the ends of the bars, now place the corners onto the egde of anvil so just the very end of bar is on the anvil, about 10 to 20mm.
4. Hammer the corner that is furthest away from you down about the metal thickness, hit it half on half off to get a good step in the metal turn it 25% degrees towards you and hammer down again then turn it a furhter 15% degrees and hammer again. This whole process should only take 3 good placed blows, turn it over and repeat again on other side. If you get to this stage and both of the steps in the metal are looking up at you then you have done this stage wrong, one needs to facing up one facing down. This process is called Scarfing the metal.
5. Bend the two scarfs into a point using the bick to keep it rounded, you want the two scarfs to meet well at the point, knock any over lapping metal back in.
6. THIS IS WHEN IT GETS HOT, crank up your fire and really get it burning in there, you want to have white hot coke surfacing on the top, have your metal on the top with the white coke so you can constantly check the temperature
7. Once the metal has a fluid surface you are about there, keep turning it over and over to stop any air getting into your metal, keep it in there for about 10 seconds constantly rotating it.
8. Bring it out of the fire and give a medium blow each side of the weld on the flat of the anvil, i know its tempting to hit it really hard but trust me you will flatten it out and ruin the weld.
9. Get a half welding heat across the weld for finishing it off, using the bick knock the point out into a curve completing the oval shape. This will show whether your weld has worked, it not then it will break at this point.

              You should have yourself a Chain Link

if you followed these steps.

Tips

• A good pair of tongs makes this job alot easier, i started out with a really bad pair and trust me it wasn't worth the hassle off constantly putting the metal back in the tongs when i could have just gone looking for a better pair.
• Wear a long sleeve shirt and get a pair of gloves for the welding, the fire kicks out some serious heat and it gets really unbearable on your bare arms, remeber your constantly rotating those tongs to keep it moving so your arm is going to be next to that fire for a long time it isn't cool to smell bacon off your own arm.
• Don't be too worried about burning the metal and bringing it out too soon, that welding heat only stays as long as you keep it in the fire soaking that heat. If you keep rotating the metal it wont burn and you will just get more and more heat into it.
• DO NOT DESTROY IT WITH A HEAVY BLOW WHEN YOU BRING IT OUT, IT DOESN'T HELP AND NO ONE THINKS ITS COOL. 

A Ribbon Scroll

This is just a very short guide to doing a Ribbon Scroll

Its mainly the same principle as doing a Rat tail.

1. Start off with a section off 12 by 6 bar, this will make the tapering easy to do.
2. Taper down the bar on one end, taper it about 3 inches in lenght, try and keep the same materail thickness along the bar
3. Flatten it back out to the same width as the oringal bar you started with.
4. Knock off the corners to blend it back into the bar
5. A KEY POINT AT THIS STAGE IS TO REMEBER TO ROLL THE SCROLL SQUARE TO THE ANVIL SO IT ROLLS EVENLY
6. From now its the same procedure as the rat tail scroll, knock it over the end  anvil gently then on the flat roll it over bringing your arm to counter the roll

If you do all these stages correctly then you should have a Ribbon scroll

personally i found this a little bit difficult because

as with all my forging i seem to be FULL POWER

and its a little more delicate.

Dishing Machine

This is just a small video

about using the dishing machine in the

fab workshop. 

Got alot of pictures coming on soon

out of the workshop.

Small Metals

 I did a workshop recently that was all about small metals

something i havent worked in alot so i thought i would get a few

process in here.

 This is my faveriote of all of my samples, basically

i got a piece of thin almunuim bar and squished it under the

fly press again and again on all sides till it started to show the grain

structure.

 For this sample i heated up some copper and brass then cooled it quickly

to make it alot more flexible then using the fly press again

i closed it all together to make a really intresting sample.

 

 This was another test with the fly press with a piece of

alamuinum sheet and a piece of wire fencing.

 This is a simple folding exercise i tried out, constantly

folding two sheets over each other constantly.

 Another folding exercise this time with smaller sheet.

 This is a ribbon in a thin sheet, i really like

the idea of this.

 A bolted connection i did on a big piece i did involving

several connections, i really like the simple look of this bolt.

 This is a spiral i did out of almuinum bar, i really like

how it relates to some twisting i have done in the forge.

 This is more of the large connections piece,

there is a riveted piece aswell as a hinge i made myself.

It ended up looking really rough because of the limited

time i had on it.

This is a copper hammer head i had that

i needed reshaping but during the reshaping it split

because of a zinc content in the metal.

Wasnt too upset only cost a pound but find how it broke really 

cool.

Shafting a hammer

We were given a short tutorail on re shafting a hammer,

i had a few lieing around so i thought it would be awesome to learn.

1. Check your hammer head for the top and bottom, the eye of the hammer is larger on the bottom. Its easier if you find a hammer with writing on the side to determine the top.
2. Measure your shaft up agansit the hammer bottom, rasp off any side pieces stopping you from attaching the hamer smoothly.
3. Once it slots in you want to but a V shape down the middle of your shaft, only cut the wood that will be in the hammer head.
4. Made a wooden wedge to go into the V, the wedge should be bigger than the V to really push the wood out.
5. Place the hammer head tightly onto the shaft then hammer the wooden wedge into it tight
6. Now you want to make yourself a metal wedge to go in to make it extra tight.
7. The easiest way to make a metal wedge is too draw down one edge then taper it to make a long smooth flat, chisel it off then chisel grooves into the side to make it hold in the wood.
8. Hammer the metal wedge in at a 45% degree angle, really pushing the wood out and making it tight.
9. To finish saw off any wood or metal hanging over the top of the hammer head.

A tip i was told is if you have any really good glues like wood glue,

rub those all over the part of the shaft that goes in to make it extra tight.

Rat Tail Scroll

 A rat tail scroll done using the hammer.

 

1. First get yourself a long piece of 12 by 6 flat bar.
2. You want to set it down on a transiction point about 60mm from the end, hammer onto the bick, make sure your blows are half on half off so it really puts a deep point in.
3. Draw the lump down into a taper, use the bick as ive explained before
4. Knock the corner o the taper making it into a round section, light blows so you dont break up the taper.
5. When you have a long pointed taper you are ready to start bending, watch your first heat on the end as such a thin peice will easily burn.
6. Tap it over the edge of anvil then turn it around and with light glancing blows bring it back on itself.
7. Constantly keep bringing the handle of the metal up and down to change where you strike to keep in a circle.
8. Continue you on with these steps setting it over the anvil then bringing it back.

 Tips 

• Safety point, when you have it as a long tapered point try to avoid waving it around, this is very dangerous and no one wants abit of metal sticking out of them.
• After you have the first curve in, when reheating put the curve facing up to protect the thin metal from burning, no one likes burns.
• Everyone makes mistakes, if you make a mistake use a pair of scrolling plyers and correct it, we are only human.
• A must have is a calm attuide, ive lost my temper several times and flattened scrolls, so try to keep it together.

 Starting bar

Transition point

Knocking the corners off

Round Taper

First Curve

Finished product