Gave a try at Annealing

[Classic Finn]

Well after a long quest of trying to find the proper moulding here I gave a try at annealing my own. And a little tutoring behind the scenes.

I tried a few scrap pieces 1st and then I decided Id give it a whirl on the towbox instead of trying it on the hatch area..immediately to be safe. I,ll build a jig for the moulding to be installed under the hatch wall area.

I,ll get a photo in a bit for you. I have never tried this and Im most definitely not a metal man

But when things are scarce and not proper material to be found it just drives me to experiment sooooo

Stay tuned for a pic or 2.

Perserverence is the key Ive found out..

Classic Finn

[planovet]

Perserverence is the key Ive found out..

Perseverance AND patience my friend. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

[Dean_A]

I've played around a little with annealing too, and the best trick I've found is to coat the aluminum with soot from a regular candle flame. Then burn the soot off with a torch. That brings it to the right temperature for annealing.

Good luck!

[Classic Finn]

I've played around a little with annealing too, and the best trick I've found is to coat the aluminum with soot from a regular candle flame. Then burn the soot off with a torch. That brings it to the right temperature for annealing.

Good luck!

Bingoooo Dean Yup thats what I did..candle power on it 1st for the soot. I,ll show you the torch I used. It helps when the wife is a goldsmith and designer so she has a few good tools and such for the purpose.. However she wont let me use them for this purpose all the time.

Classic Finn

[Classic Finn]

Ok here is the wifes torch for her profession but I borrowed it for a bit and with permission of course

[Classic Finn]

Perserverence is the key Ive found out..

Perseverance AND patience my friend. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

I,ll surely get some pics..


Ohh and yes patience is a helper..

[ssrjim]

I made a video for my Blog, never did add the audio narration. Hate the sound of my own voice.

http://web.mac.com/ramjim/TearDrop_3/Mo ... metal.html

[Classic Finn]

I have a question for you folks that have the experience in this.

The aluminum u angle I have is 20mm in width and the wall is 21mm due to the mahogany veneer on the inside.

Will this bend profile bend outwards so I can get it to fit?

I went to the shop I got it from and there is no aluminum wider in stock. I found just right angle however it was much thicker and I dont have the experience yet to see if it will bend nicely even by annealing.

Or is it so that now I have to shave 1 mm off the edges of the inside wall in order to fit ?

Also the angle is 20mm wide and 10mm deep.

Classic Finn

[UK-Corlett]

Hi Heikki

I annealed mine on a charcoal BBQ.

The alloy you have is soft Aluminium with Copper locking the grains making it stiff. You need to get the copper back into solution. (salt in water, heat it up and it disappears) Cool it down and in time the copper precipitates back out again, in industry they help it along the way with a little more heat, but we don't have to do this.

The difficulty is finding just what alloy you have and for us not equipped with a furnace its all academic anyway. As 2014 needs 380C for 2 hours.

So I got mine to 400C ish for 10 mins or so.

I got a BBQ going with a foil roof and very slowly feed in the ally and it came out soft. Proof of pudding.

I got a thermocouple (K type CrAl) and a volt meter.
There are charts on the web to do the conversion, 400C to Volts
Your cold junction is already at 25C so raise the hot end another 370C for 400C total; is roughly 15 mV, easily measurable.

Clive

I lost controll of the temperature at one point and nearly melted one length

[Classic Finn]

Hi Heikki

I annealed mine on a charcoal BBQ.

The alloy you have is soft Aluminium with Copper locking the grains making it stiff. You need to get the copper back into solution. (salt in water, heat it up and it disappears) Cool it down and in time the copper precipitates back out again, in industry they help it along the way with a little more heat, but we don't have to do this.

The difficulty is finding just what alloy you have and for us not equipped with a furnace its all academic anyway. As 2014 needs 380C for 2 hours.

So I got mine to 400C ish for 10 mins or so.

I got a BBQ going with a foil roof and very slowly feed in the ally and it came out soft. Proof of pudding.

I got a thermocouple (K type CrAl) and a volt meter.
There are charts on the web to do the conversion, 400C to Volts
Your cold junction is already at 25C so raise the hot end another 370C for 400C total; is roughly 15 mV, easily measurable.

Clive

I lost controll of the temperature at one point and nearly melted one length

Hi Clive

Your up late

So I guess if nothing else I,ll have to find an excuse to BBQ

Well at least to anneal this stuff..

Clive what does that edge moulding look like on your tear? I cant find anything real suitable... I,ll look again somewhere else..

What I did find was about 1.5mm in thickness however. Is this ok?

I looked in your gallery and found this pic but cant really tell what it looks like so I could search for possible equivalent..



I have all the edge moulding that is normally used on caravans its just the wall portion under the hatch I want to cover..

Good info. Thank You.

[SkipperSue]

I skipped the sooting on mine. I just turned the lights off and did it in the dark. I heated about 6-8 inches at a time and when it got a dark cherry red I moved down another 6-8 inches. In the dark it was real easy to see the red color. It softened up very nice.

[eamarquardt]

I tried the "soot" approach and didn't seem to get consistent results. Sooooooooo......I thought outside the box, got a propane torch, and closed up the garage at night so it was pretty dark (and scary) in there. Then I heated the al in the dark until I could begin to see it glow red (slighly) in the dark. Moving the torch and working my way down the piece I was trying this technique on.

Seemed to do a fine job, never melted the aluminum, and I could tell when it was ready to move on down the piece with the torch by observing the red glow.

Just a thought.

Cheers,

Gus