April 12, 20233 yr Make a wrench out of gallium and hit it with a hair dryer. He can watch them deform and drip in real time
April 12, 20233 yr Author Mayby Fields metal would be a good compromise. It can be melted in hot water.
April 13, 20233 yr I'll take Field's Metal over Woods, it has a lower liquidus and doesn't contain cadmium like Woods metal. I just looked both up. A friend lent me, "Soldering And Brazing" by Tubal Cain. I'm pretty sure that's a pen name. It's #9 in a series called, "Workshop Practice Series." A British publication. I took my last metal shop class bout 18 years before it was written and it goes into serious detail about, soft and hard soldering. A LOT more than when I went to school for sure but when it gets to how to perform various types I'm up to speed. Anyway, This book is well worth picking up if you want reasonably current knowledge about soldering, brazing, the alloys and techniques for using them. For example, I was shocked to discover how many of the high performance alloys contain cadmium hard and soft solders both. Double check your brazing rod and do NOT overheat it! Soft solder doesn't usually get hot enough to boil cadmium off but hard solder for sure. Frosty The Lucky.
April 13, 20233 yr Author Thanks, good to know. I looked over that whole series of books and found a few I am going to order. Of course, I'd like a complete set, but you know..... Thar's cadmium and lead in that there dark chocolate...
April 13, 20233 yr I think Sean is getting them used from Amazon. I think I'd like to see what he has to say about casting. Frosty The Lucky.
April 14, 20233 yr Author The tiny wrench didn't work out too well. I will just forge/fabricate out the big ones and bend a bunch various size small ones like this, I don't have all day..... I don't know if it looks melted over, tired or just bent out of shape..... I'll try some bent sideways too. Thanks for all the help and advise.
April 14, 20233 yr Author Such as it is. A bunch of bricks without a frame even to hold it together but it works for my needs for the time being. My old one fell apart before I moved. I am winging it right now..... Not very economical, the heat loss is astronomical. I used a cutting torch to try on that wrench.
April 14, 20233 yr My forge is dead too and I haven't built another yet. What if you put the wrench in the forge on some round stock near the heads and let it droop under its own weight?
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