Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Grill Screen & Hammer

 



I'm thinking that's the type of screen I need for the grill on the jitney - brass, of course. I'll have to start shopping one of these days. Maybe save that for when I'm recuperating from the eye surgery.


Frankie Flood had a few pictures of this posted at Handverker. That's a beautiful rig. Super cool frame and I like the look of the hood - both the shape and the louvers. I imagine the little bump-out on the side of the grill shell isn't really necessary but it definitely adds to the look. Professor Flood was also kind enough to post some photos of an old truck I admired on one of his previous posts along with a few others in much better states of repair. Glad to see he's posting again - always something interesting going on with him. 


Planishing hammer head after hardening and tempering - nice brown color with some purple on the underside. I quenched it in some 10W30 that I cut with a bit of kerosene. Blacksmithing skills paying off.


Welded together without burning up the handle. Since there was already brass on the hammer I decided to try welding the new head on using bronze rod with the TIG. I've never done this before but I had purchased a pound of the rod for another project, the melting point is lower than steel and I figured it would alloy with any remaining brass still on the hammer. Actually worked better than I thought. I watched a couple of YouTube videos when I was getting ready to weld the other job and it looked pretty straight forward. The machine settings are like they would be for welding steel except for lower amperage. I put a wet rag over the head by the handle and on the end of the planishing head. I took my time and kept the heat low. Worked like a champ.


Did some planishing with the new hammer and it worked just like I hoped it would. The new hammer is heavier than my little one so I have to ease up on the swing but I made quite a bit of progress. I did a bit more after taking the photo but still a long ways to go. I need to hammer down about 100 high spots and bump up about 1000 low spots and then it should be ready for the bottom piece.

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