[TheForge] Aluminum annealing temp?

[Larry Brown]

Loose rule of thumb;
Get a paint stick (Wooden), wipe it occasionally as you are heating it and 
it will leave a blackish line at forging temp. If you have color I find it 
is too hot to forge
LBrown

At 09:11 PM 12/19/2006 -0500, you wrote:
>I've been playing around with forging some trashpile aluminum rods about 
>3/8 ".  I forge it cold until I think it may break then stop and heat it 
>with my little mapp gas torch until I think it might be annealed and then 
>let it cool and start again.  Having fun punched and drifted a nice little 
>hole.  I started out to make a wedge of aluminum to put in a collection of 
>wedges of different size, shape, and material that I plan to give my 
>daughter's boyfriend as a gift.  Then I was having fun and kept on playing 
>for awhile. My question is how hot do I have to get the aluminum (a guess 
>since I don't really know what the alloy is) before letting it cool?  I've 
>been heating the piece until it is just barely red in the dark.  Is there 
>a better way?
>
>Thanks,  Jeff in Tallahassee
>
>
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