- Joined
- Jun 27, 1999
- Messages
- 804
Ok, I stole some time and actually accomplished something over the weekend. Here is the link to my photopoint album of mokume making, in no particular order.
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=1464888&a=11916328&f=0
And here's the finished laminate.
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=1464888&a=11916328&p=42794447&Sequence=1&res=high
It was a partial success. I stacked 7 layers of 16 guage nickel silver, 9 layers of .005 brass, and 18 layers of .0003 copper. This was in the order of copper, brass, copper, nickel, repeat. The brass and copper melted together, but I didn't reach the melting point of the nickel silver. In other words, too damned hot. I should have just gotten it to the eutectic point of the copper, but my makeshift indicator didn't work for a reason I should have foreseen. I put a piece of copper foil on top of the pressplates and put a scrap from the pressplates on top of that. I figured that it would deform and/or melt at near the right temps, then I could control the atmosphere to hold it at that temp and let it soak all through the piece. I expected some melting near the ends, though. So instead of a 34 layer chunk of mokume, I have around 9 layers. Could still look nice, and the high-copper brass is a very attractive color. Things I learned:
1.Most commercial cleaning compounds for these metals suck. Go with fresh, 400 grit sandpaper.
2.Stainless heat treating foil ROCKS. It made it so I couldn't see the piece, but with a couple of wood chips thrown in, it prevented ALL OXYGEN from entering, and allowed the metals to flow freely. It was lovely.
3.Next time I'll try a solid piece of copper for watching the temps. Foil oxidizes too easily.
4.Stainless bolts work well, but have plenty of spares on hand. I sheared two while tightening. Watch to be sure your washers are stainless as well. One of mine turned out to be galvanized. In the wrong bin at Home Depot.
5.This is harder to do than damascus.
The rest of the things I learned were too embarrassing.
Please let me know what you think.
------------------
Oz
"His name is Robert Paulson."
http://www.freespeech.org/oz/
[This message has been edited by Osbourn (edited 03-05-2001).]
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=1464888&a=11916328&f=0
And here's the finished laminate.
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=1464888&a=11916328&p=42794447&Sequence=1&res=high
It was a partial success. I stacked 7 layers of 16 guage nickel silver, 9 layers of .005 brass, and 18 layers of .0003 copper. This was in the order of copper, brass, copper, nickel, repeat. The brass and copper melted together, but I didn't reach the melting point of the nickel silver. In other words, too damned hot. I should have just gotten it to the eutectic point of the copper, but my makeshift indicator didn't work for a reason I should have foreseen. I put a piece of copper foil on top of the pressplates and put a scrap from the pressplates on top of that. I figured that it would deform and/or melt at near the right temps, then I could control the atmosphere to hold it at that temp and let it soak all through the piece. I expected some melting near the ends, though. So instead of a 34 layer chunk of mokume, I have around 9 layers. Could still look nice, and the high-copper brass is a very attractive color. Things I learned:
1.Most commercial cleaning compounds for these metals suck. Go with fresh, 400 grit sandpaper.
2.Stainless heat treating foil ROCKS. It made it so I couldn't see the piece, but with a couple of wood chips thrown in, it prevented ALL OXYGEN from entering, and allowed the metals to flow freely. It was lovely.
3.Next time I'll try a solid piece of copper for watching the temps. Foil oxidizes too easily.
4.Stainless bolts work well, but have plenty of spares on hand. I sheared two while tightening. Watch to be sure your washers are stainless as well. One of mine turned out to be galvanized. In the wrong bin at Home Depot.
5.This is harder to do than damascus.
The rest of the things I learned were too embarrassing.
Please let me know what you think.
------------------
Oz
"His name is Robert Paulson."
http://www.freespeech.org/oz/
[This message has been edited by Osbourn (edited 03-05-2001).]
