Stainless steel potato chip
Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2019 11:56 pm
So I'm making a jig, the base of which is a 12" x 12" 16ga piece of stainless steel. Don't know what alloy. I cut it out of an old sink counter.
I cut the SS piece on a bandsaw and so it had rough edges. Simple enough, I thought, set the TIG machine for DC-, about 40 amps with a slow pulse and just run the tungsten down each edge to melt those ragged edges away. That much worked, meaning, the edges are baby smooth now. But the piece is like a potato chip.
I understand that thin metal like this is sensitive and that obviously the heat pulled it around in all directions and that this has now caused it to turn into a shallow bird bath. But what should my procedure have been?
Like I said, I kept the amperage fairly low. I pulsed my machine and moved as fast as I could.
And finally, any ideas on how to UN-do this? I thought about putting it in the oven at 450 degrees and just heating the whole piece slowly and letting it cool. Figured I'd post here first.
Thanks in advance.
Jon
I cut the SS piece on a bandsaw and so it had rough edges. Simple enough, I thought, set the TIG machine for DC-, about 40 amps with a slow pulse and just run the tungsten down each edge to melt those ragged edges away. That much worked, meaning, the edges are baby smooth now. But the piece is like a potato chip.
I understand that thin metal like this is sensitive and that obviously the heat pulled it around in all directions and that this has now caused it to turn into a shallow bird bath. But what should my procedure have been?
Like I said, I kept the amperage fairly low. I pulsed my machine and moved as fast as I could.
And finally, any ideas on how to UN-do this? I thought about putting it in the oven at 450 degrees and just heating the whole piece slowly and letting it cool. Figured I'd post here first.
Thanks in advance.
Jon
