Friday, August 17, 2012

The Scale Blowpipe


Lately, I’ve been using the hydraulic forging press and various dies I’ve made to form some small botanical and animal elements.  Usually I do these in runs of 20 to 30 so I have an inventory which will carry a while.  In the process of stamping one hot billet after another scale accumulates in the die cavity and could cause loss of detail if not removed.

I found that using a brush was awkward in the tight space and I didn’t have enough wind power to lean in and blow it out so I made a small blow pipe which works well.  It was formed from 3/8” tube and is 13” in total length.  One end is flared to form a trumpet-like mouthpiece and the other  end tapered to bring the outlet hole down to about 1/8” diameter.  Thanks to Bernoulli's principle a small puff of air into the mouthpiece pushes out a powerful jet of air removing the scale.

For many years the DuPont company used the advertising slogan, "Better Things for Better Living...Through Chemistry."  I suppose this is an example of better living through physics.





http://www.persimmonforge.com/

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