It's been an interesting week.
Practicing two-piece welds. I've been haveing a bear of a time with the lap weld. been using Mark Aspery's scarf with some success, but almost never getting it on the first try. I tried a split lap weld and it worked much better, but it's a bunch of prep, and it leaves a thin spot. at least the way I tried it. Then I tried a cleft weld. Oh man. The first one not only took on the first try, I finished it in one heat. It had a little bit of lip at the ends of the cleft piece, but that just tells me that I have to work on the scarf a little more. The next two tries worked on the first or second heat. Well within reason. The failed first heats were when the alignment failed even before the hammer came down, so there wasn't much deformation, just lost flux.
Melting aluminum on forge 3, I burned through two, count 'em two, crucibles and drooled aluminum down the tuyuere all the way to the hair-dryer. It was an expedition getting that out.
Practicing two-piece welds. I've been haveing a bear of a time with the lap weld. been using Mark Aspery's scarf with some success, but almost never getting it on the first try. I tried a split lap weld and it worked much better, but it's a bunch of prep, and it leaves a thin spot. at least the way I tried it. Then I tried a cleft weld. Oh man. The first one not only took on the first try, I finished it in one heat. It had a little bit of lip at the ends of the cleft piece, but that just tells me that I have to work on the scarf a little more. The next two tries worked on the first or second heat. Well within reason. The failed first heats were when the alignment failed even before the hammer came down, so there wasn't much deformation, just lost flux.
Melting aluminum on forge 3, I burned through two, count 'em two, crucibles and drooled aluminum down the tuyuere all the way to the hair-dryer. It was an expedition getting that out.
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