[TheForge] relearning ... or ... I knew that

[Dave Brown]

It's lunch time and I've just come in from the shop.  I relearned something 
just now...  Sometimes we forget what we know and just plow on ahead 
without thinking first.  I just did this.  It wasn't a big deal, but it was 
certainly a reminder.

I was making some shelf brackets for the shop and was making some right 
angle bends cold.  No big deal, right?  Right, except for one small 
detail.  I had gotten some cold rolled 3/16"x3/4" from the "specials" bin 
at the steel yard.  So, I cut some to the lengths I needed and proceeded to 
bend them in my HF Compact Bender.  It was going smooth until just before I 
got to that 90 degree mark.  Then .... #@*k, the bar broke.  Did I remember 
what I should have remembered all along?  Nope.  I put another piece in the 
bender and ... #@*k it broke too.  Then I remembered.  "COLD ROLLED"  It's 
been work hardened in the rolling process, that's why it was brittle and 
broke.  So, into the propane forge for a while to anneal/normalize 
them.  After they cooled they bent just fine.

I should have known this would happen even before I tried bending the first 
piece.  Well, actually I did know it would break, it just took to failed 
attempts to bend the cr stock to remind me of what I already knew.

Dave Brown
Heritage Smithing
Green Bay, WI
ABANA, UMBA, GoM, MODA, ARG