Blighted by a distinct lack of intelligence, fellow Westerners, compounded by the concentration span of a gnat, means that one is easily confused.
After yesterday’s toils and tribulations, I began to lose to lose track of where I was up to: which method was which, what diameter worked best with which particular method, should I fold the flare or body, where do I place the piece in relation to the former......etc. Sure, the benefits of chronicling a build in this manner mean I can go back and refresh my memory. However, I prefer to take stock in my own mind, which rather brings me back to where I started this post: confused. And thus back to the beginning of the thread, Method 1, when I wasn’t so confused. So start again. Which is what I did today.
What I liked about Method 1 was that little dexterity was required. No fiddling about with bits before clamping the vice. It also produced an even flare along its length, another issue with the extended jaws and vice of the later method. The only problem I now recall on the first occasion, was that the larger diameter of the former used produced an overscale flare which started too far down the side of the tender, and didn’t attain a ninety degree angle of the top to the side. One benefit of all this testing and trial and error, was that it produced a former that seemed to combat the first of these two, the third being addressed by bringing the ‘bend’ up to a ninety degree angle. Bingo!
But this is me - and my luck - and nothing seems straightforward in my world.
The problem with using a narrower former (remember the brass door hinge-pin?) was that I couldn’t find anything thin enough (the carpenters’ pencil was far too broad for the task here) to provide the clamping force required, so had to resort to using the broadest screwdriver I could muster. On the smooth, curved surface of the former, it was difficult to make purchase, and even so, whether due to the reduced surface of the former itself, or perhaps the hardness of the brass testpiece being tested providing too much resistance - or a bit of both - I couldn’t stop the brass from popping out from under the former. I persevered, but apart from anything else, the former now produced an ‘over scale’ flare AND in the wrong position....
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Another brass test piece but same method (Method 1, Jonte!) and go again with a narrower former, which might also make it easier - why?
Ditto- and add to the list of unsuitability: unevenness of flare along length
Right. Back out with the vice and sticky tape (not a clue what Method that was -2B?), but no way was I going to entertain those extended jaws........
Keeping it simple, because quite honestly I was getting a little browned off, I decided to bend the flare at the top to save inverting the test piece in the vice, so lining up the scribed line with the top of the vice (guesstimate as the jaws are rounded with the serrations below the head of the vice) and then lining up the former so it’s bottom edge was above the scribed line - a thin line of double sided tape stuck above the scribed line of the test piece helped here - I gingerly tightened the jaws and hoped for the best.
Then I just went for it.
And voila! A flare. A flare which appeared to be to scale and more or less in the right place. It was also even along its length.
(I’ve omitted the set up but photographed the outcomes which are shown in the following post due to quota issues).
Okay, the centre needed a tad of adjustment which was conducted out of the vice on the bench on the bench, using the capenters’ Pencil against the former which I just held in place.
But, do you want to know what I THINK made a difference? Just before this last attempt, I annealed the test piece as usual BUT, on this occasion, I held it in the flame CONTINUOUSLY.......and kept it there. You see, the brass sheet I’ve been using is a K&S offering from some time ago. I’ve noticed before with this stuff that it doesn’t seem amenable to the annealing process as I believe it should; it certainly, in my experience, doesn’t go through the usual colour change associated with brass. It just creates a yellow flame which extinguishes before then returning and extinguishing again. I don’t know why this happens, but previously, not wishing to end up with a molten blob, I’ve usually finished the process after three minutes or so. On this occasion, however, probably because I was past caring whether it perished or not, I just held it there in the flame...as day passed to night, night to.....okay, now Im just exaggerating, but you get the idea.
Funnily enough, it didn’t melt - perhaps it’s Kryptonite - but I could certainly feel the difference when bending: much more malleable. Conclusion: remove some fret from kit with piercing saw and test to destruction to familiarise myself with annealing qualities of the kit-brass. When will I ever be able to make a start on the kit
What I’ve learnt from all this, fellow Westerners, is that a clamp of some sort is vital here due to the forces involved - especially with the metal Ive been using - like it or not, and as the former gets narrower and therefore the surface area smaller, the greater the resistive forces appear to be. Why that’s the case is beyond me, but that’s what I’ve found.
No way am I going to use that baby-vice of mine for the main event - the inaccuracies are just too great - and the metal HAS to be almost as malleable as plasticine.
I’m hoping that the metal of the kit is a little more malleable and testing as mentioned will help to determine this, so that’s one factor addressed, and because of its length and precision, the Metalsmith bending bars - aided by my double sided sticky friend - should help to ease the lining up process and thereby reduce the risk of unevenness of flare.
Thanks for reading.
Jonte