Part 15 (1/2)

_Bending Pipes and Tubes._--It is difficult to make bends or curves in pipes and tubing without leaving a noticeable bulge at some point of the work. Seamless steel tubing may be handled without very great danger of this trouble if care is used, but iron pipe, having a seam running lengthwise, must be given special attention to avoid opening the seam.

Bends may be made without kinking if the tube or pipe is brought to a full red heat all the way around its circ.u.mference and at the place where the bend is desired. Hold the cool portion solidly in a vise and, by taking hold of the free end, bend very slowly and with a steady pull. The pipe must be kept at full red heat with the flames from one or more torches and must not be hammered to produce the bend. If a sufficient purchase cannot be secured on the free end by the hand, insert a piece of rod or a smaller pipe into the opening.

While making the bend, should small bulges appear, they may be hammered back into shape before proceeding with the work.

Tubing or pipes may be bent while being held between two flat metal surfaces while at a bright red heat. The metal plates at each side of the work prevent bulging.

Another method by which tubing may be bent consists of filling completely with tightly packed sand and fitting a solid cap or plug at each end.

Thin bra.s.s tubing may be filled with melted resin and may be bent after the resin cools. To remove the resin it is necessary to heat the tube, allowing it to run out.

Large jobs of bending should be handled in special pipe bending machines in which the work is forced through formed rolls which prevent its bulging.

WELDING

Welding with the heat of a blacksmith forge fire, or a coal or illuminating gas fire, can only be performed with iron and steel because of the low heat which is not localized as with the oxy-acetylene and electric processes.

Iron to be welded in this manner is heated until it reaches the temperature indicated by an orange color, not white, as is often stated, this orange color being slightly above 3600 degrees Fahrenheit. Steel is usually welded at a bright red heat because of the danger of oxidizing or burning the metal if the temperature is carried above this point.

_The Fire._--If made in a forge, the fire should be built from good smithing coal or, better still, from c.o.ke. Gas fires are, of course, produced by suitable burners and require no special preparation except adjustment of the heat to the proper degree for the size and thickness of the metal being welded so that it will not be burned.

A coal fire used for ordinary forging operations should not be used for welding because of the impurities it contains. A fresh fire should be built with a rather deep bed of coal, four to eight inches being about right for work ordinarily met with. The fire should be kept burning until the coal around the edges has been thoroughly c.o.ked and a sufficient quant.i.ty of fuel should be on and around the fire so that no fresh coal will have to be added while working.

After the c.o.king process has progressed sufficiently, the edges should be packed down and the fire made as small as possible while still surrounding the ends to be joined. The fire should not be altered by poking it while the metal is being heated. The best form of fire to use is one having rather high banks of c.o.ked coal on each side of the ma.s.s, leaving an opening or channel from end to end. This will allow the added fuel to be brought down on top of the fire with a small amount of disturbance.

_Preparing to Weld._--If the operator is not familiar with the metal to be handled, it is best to secure a test piece if at all possible and try heating it and joining the ends. Various grades of iron and steel call for different methods of handling and for different degrees of heat, the proper method and temperature being determined best by actual test under the hammer.

The form of the pieces also has a great deal to do with their handling, especially in the case of a more or less inexperienced workman. If the pieces are at all irregular in shape, the motions should be gone through with before the metal is heated and the best positions on the anvil as well as in the fire determined with regard to the convenience of the workman and speed of handling the work after being brought to a welding temperature.

Unnatural positions at the anvil should be avoided as good work is most difficult of performance under these conditions.

_Scarfing._--While there are many forms of welds, depending on the relative shape of the pieces to be joined, the portions that are to meet and form one piece are always shaped in the same general way, this shape being called a ”scarf.” The end of a piece of work, when scarfed, is tapered off on one side so that the extremity comes to a rather sharp edge.

The other side of the piece is left flat and a continuation in the same straight plane with its side of the whole piece of work. The end is then in the form of a bevel or mitre joint (Figure 50).

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 50.--Scarfing Ends of Work Ready for Welding]

Scarfing may be produced in any one of several ways. The usual method is to bring the ends to a forging heat, at which time they are upset to give a larger body of metal at the ends to be joined. This body of metal is then hammered down to the taper on one side, the length of the tapered portion being about one and a half times the thickness of the whole piece being handled. Each piece should be given this shape before proceeding farther.

The scarf may be produced by filing, sawing or chiseling the ends, although this is not good practice because it is then impossible to give the desired upset and additional metal for the weld. This added thickness is called for by the fact that the metal burns away to a certain extent or turns to scale, which is removed before welding.

When the two ends have been given this shape they should not fit as closely together as might be expected, but should touch only at the center of the area to be joined (Figure 51). That is to say, the surface of the beveled portion should bulge in the middle or should be convex in shape so that the edges are separated by a little distance when the pieces are laid together with the bevels toward each other. This is done so that the scale which is formed on the metal by the heat of the fire can have a chance to escape from the interior of the weld as the two parts are forced together.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 51.--Proper Shape of Scarfed Ends]

If the scarf were to be formed with one or more of the edges touching each other at the same time or before the centers did so, the scale would be imprisoned within the body of the weld and would cause the finished work to be weak, while possibly giving a satisfactory appearance from the outside.

_Fluxes._--In order to a.s.sist in removing the scale and other impurities and to make the welding surfaces as clean as possible while being joined, various fluxing materials are used as in other methods of welding.

For welding iron, a flux of white sand is usually used, this material being placed on the metal after it has been brought to a red heat in the fire.