More Hydraulic Forming - Making a simple T fold -

Went back up and played till it was time for lunch with the kids 

I am playing with 36g dead soft copper - comes on a roll and is easy to work with - scissors !

It does become work hardened and is light 

Making a T fold 

I dont always  anneal since its so soft to begin with 

I cut a piece that would be fit in my 3" ring for pressing -  extra on the sides as I will be folding in a bit of material to make it smaller 

I annealed  the piece - U use a bernzomatic (from home depot) with the quick ignite switch (makes grabbing and firing fast - then cooled  ( didnt do any scale removal etc..) 

then matched the ends - I did not squish it in half - leave it round 

then I placed in the vice and left about 1/4" above the lip 

tighted vice 

take your chasing hamer  and tap lightly the end which will cause it to start to collapse

I tap all the way to the ends first 

then wach some more 

till its flat

nice an smooth 

it does not take long 

I open the vice and take out 

You can see it looks like a T-rail 

slide open the two largest pieces that are folded together

open like a book -  I dont pull too much 

I place my restraining ring over top to draw the circle to cut 

just used a marker -  I positioned what portion I wanted to be within the design 

because its so thin I used a plain pair of scissors 

my circle ready to be pressed

I put the heart die (from Potters USA) on a base 

then I put my 3" restraining ring ( I had it cut from a piece of steel pipe - was not sure the height so I wanted to  test - I am going to have it adjusted to be the full 1.25" and put a solid base welded to the bottom - but this works 

then I place the piece with the fold face down - the T-is on top 

Placed the polyureplug that will push the metal down into the die 

this is a 95 durometer 

then I placed a pusher cap  over the plug 

Placed it in the 12 ton press 

bring the pusher down to touch the top 

gave it 5 pumps 

what it looks like after  in the die 

from other side of the die 

5 pumps too much it is tearing away - although not a bad thing since \i am going to cut it out anyway 

I switched dies 

I did a flame patina - which turned out beautifully - more purple that ended up in the center of the fold 

So positioning can really be helpful when deciding on placement of where you want your fold