[TheForge] Re: Aluminum bicycle fenders

[Rich Maynard]

Aluminium (and many of it's alloys) responds really well to annealing. Rub
some soap on it and heat gently until the soap turns black then leave to
cool. The alloys we had in the school I used to work in (our supplier just
called it half-hard) would go like putty when annealed. You could work it
with your fingers...

Also quite sweet to forge for a change. Lay on top of the fire, and as it
vanishes into the flames before it goes red you will have to test for
forging temp the old-fashioned way - using the end of a freshly broken sappy
twig. When the sap goes black on contact with the aluminium it is ready to
forge.

PS Aluminium not Aluminum ;-)

Richard Maynard - Artist Blacksmith
The Forge, Much Hadham, Hertfordshire SG10 6BS
 
rich at muchhadhamforge.co.uk
www.muchhadhamforge.co.uk


-----Original Message-----
From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Mike Spencer
Sent: 22 November 2007 07:39
To: theforge at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [TheForge] Re: Aluminum bicycle fenders



Thanks, Mike Graf & Dave Smucker.  Your comments forwarded to the guy who
wants to make bicycle fenders. 

> Dave,  (32 years as an engineer with Alcoa, Inc. (Aluminum Co. of 
> America)

Yow! So maybe I can ask some questions of my own.

> Aluminum is much tougher to form than either steel or copper 
> because...

So: I have a piece around here somewhere -- maybe 2" x 3" x 1/16" -- that I
made from a scrap of aluminum, probably formerly a name plate from a 50 year
old fridge or the like.  It was really easy to work with raising and chasing
tools.  I made a nice little seed pod kind of thing in deep relief.  I
assumed that this was (more or less) pure aluminum.  All the other Al bits I
have around are very tough and very hard to work, hopelessly refractory to
hand tools.

So I looked in the book from the metals supplier and guessed that my really
nice, malleable, soft piece was a 1xxx alloy.  The book listed 1100.0 and
1100-H14.  Tried to buy either of those.  Nobody had any, not even the
company whose book I was looking at.  They all tried to sell me stuff
suitable for truck bodies, boat hulls and bulk tanks. Even after I explained
at length that I wanted an alloy that was highly malleable for hand-working,
they said, "Well, availability has to be worth something, doesn't it?"
ARRRGGHHH!  So, like, you're having angina and cerebro-vascular dizzy spells
and the doc says, "Well, I don't know how to do by-pass surgery but I'm real
good at appendices. I'll take out your appendix, okay?  Availability has to
be worth something."  Gaaahhhh...

> If you want to work with uncoated aluminum buy 3003 alloy - O temper.

Okay, why 3003 and not 1100?  

This bicycle fender project isn't mine.  But I *would* like to be able to do
repousse in aluminum and that single little bit of scrap told me it was
possible.  But I got stuck.

What do "they" make out of really malleable aluminum that I could look for
specimens of in the scrap yard?


- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^
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