I need a couple of custom pieces for a trike project I'm working on (details to come later). What I need are a couple of tubes that are flattened on the ends--like the truss rods on a Schwinn style springer. (come to think of it, I need a couple of those, too) What is that called & how is it done? I am wondering if it's an affordable tool & an easy process or something best left to a pro metal shop or maybe one of you guys. It doesn't have to be pretty, but better & more precise than if I just beat it w/a hammer & dolly.
Tube fabrication question
- Thread starter emanon
- Start date
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Heat it cherry red with a torch or shove it in the coals of a fire or charcoal pit and then squeeze it in a vise. It will leave the vice's criss cross pattern on it unless you line the vice with a couple smooth pieces of angle iron. Wear heavy leather welders gloves and hold it by the cold end. Let it cool slowly don't dip it in water..makes it brittle. Then sand it and paint. If you want the flat part curved on the end you can cut it with shears while hot and the file it smooth. I could tell you how to forge weld the end closed using a hammer and borax as a flux but that's advanced blacksmithing bowstaff skills.
Thanks for the tips-for some reason you look like a guy who would know about blacksmithing. I don't mind some tooling marks-hey, it's a rat rod-they wont really show anyhow. Sounds like a good excuse to drag my 100 yr old woodburning stove out of the basement & fire it up. Would the same technique apply to alluminum, at a lower temp?
DO NOT PUT ALIMINUM IN A FIRE! You can heat it with a torch and do it but it doesn't react like steel. Use steel if you can. Steel retains it's strength after cooling. I'd be nervous about flattening aluminum tubing and whether or not it was weakened or made brittle.
