[TheForge] Last two events...long

[Bruce Freeman]

Phlip,

I feel I only "mastered" forge welding a couple years ago.  Since then =
most of my welds have been decent.  However, at the fair this past weekend =
I could not for the life of me make a weld.  The problem was sunlight - =
indirect sunlight - sunlight my eyes see, even if it's not on the piece.  =
Sunlight is about 6000K, whereas welding is done around 2500F =3D ~1650K.  =
Curiously, the problem is not that things look too hot, but that they look =
too cold.  I think part of it is that in sunlight, you see the scale on =
the piece illuminated by sunlight, and not the radiation from the piece.  =
I may be way off base on my reasoning, but I know there's a difference =
between working in sunlight and working indoors.

Indoors, I find the welding heat easy to judge.  I can't use the trick =
that the piece looks wet (it does) because the "wet" look is obscured by =
the flux I use, which IS "wet."  Rather, I use the trick that the iron, at =
welding heat, "disappears" in the fire.  You can see it only when you move =
it.  This, of course, presupposes that the FIRE is at the appropriate =
heat, but I don't find that any particular problem to achieve.  Throughout =
heating to a welding heat, I'm staring at the piece in the fire, so that's =
not the issue.

One beginner's error is failure to "soak" the piece.  If not enough of the =
iron is hot - or if only the outside of the piece is hot - there isn't =
enough time to complete the weld before the piece cools.  My "rhythm" is =
to take the piece to red, remove it from the fire and apply flux (borax), =
return it to the fire and heat to a near-welding heat =AF then keep it =
there long enough for that heat to penetrate the piece.  (It's worthwhile =
to point out to beginners that they are holding the other end of the piece =
in their bare hand.  Iron does not conduct heat very quickly, and that is =
as true from outside to inside as it is from one end to the other.)  =
Finally I crank the fire a little more, the piece disappears in the fire, =
and I pull it out and weld.  (Then I reflux and repeat at least once, =
often more.  I'm not proud.)

Bruce
NJ

>>> phlip@99main.com 07/30/03 12:09PM >>>
<large snip>
 As the day went
on, though, I had trouble getting him to "see" the difference between
welding heat and cooler heats- any suggestions? For some reason, every =
heat,
he wanted to pull it out cooler and cooler. Ekk suggested that he not look
at/into the fire quite so much, and that helped some, but any advice you
guys have would help.