It's pretty simple. Just use a lot of heat. You can do it well enough
with a cutting torch, provided you keep your hand away from the cutting
lever. It takes a lot of gas though. You want to use as large a torch
tip as possible. A rosebud is great because it provides a very large
diameter flame, as well higher btu.
The two biggest mistakes I tend to make are to not heating hot enough,
and not heating a large enough area. If you don't get it good and hot,
as in nearly jelly like, you'll tend to get cracks when bending thick
metals. As well as having to work too darn hard to make the bend. If
you don't heat an area large enough you get kinks and very tight radius
bends, as well as cracks.
You can use forms to then bend the piece around. Though often times
with some practice you can work the bend simply with the torch. With
practice, you can learn to heat progressively and create complex curve
bends freehanded.
I personally find it works best to pick an area to start heating, and
then work the heat out from there. Trying to get everything hot all at
the same time just doesn't work well for me.
When you get things really and truly hot, the pieces just bend by hand.
That's kinda my clue that I've got it hot enough, when things go floppy
and wiggly. Of course, it tends to take three hands at this point to
control the pieces and the torch, which is why having an assistant man
the torch is helpful. You can also stretch and squish the piece when
it's jelly like.
Take some scrap metal, chuck it in your vice and play with it.
>>> Steven Trovato <strovato@optonline.net> 09/17/03 11:52AM >>>
That sounds like the sort of technique I'd like to learn more about.
I'm
definitely not talking about compound curves. Just the simple stuff to
start.
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