Shop Time w/T.W. Friends

Morning all

 

Wow nothing all afternoon !!

I do hope Shane comes back soon and all is well

 

My mower needs a head gasket, my neighbor is gonna do it cause I suck at pretty much everything.

 

We need a new poll!

 

Dang it Bobby!

 

If he works on it there's hope.

 

Heroin needle too there.

 

Scales and spoon too...not suspicious...lol

 

Back to work after taking a couple days leave.
My thoughts about my mom being able to return home....I was optimistic that she would at first. She's still not doing very good but maybe a miraculous improvement will happen. If she's unable to recover good enough to get up and move around on her own then she'll go to a nursing home.

New guy started Monday but hasn't been onsite yet. Training

 

Prayers for your mom.

Hope the new guy turns out to be a good one.

 

Morning Friends. On a road trip, just checking in. Hope you all have a good day.

 

Good morning guys. Thought I'd get some shop content going in the thread so here's the set up I use to make these Quartz "stirrers" as well as the finished product. My understanding is they chuck it up in something to stir molten metal, possibly in the production of an alloy.



We buy the ground plates that act as the paddles and I weld them onto the 12mm Quarts rod shaft, then the whole part gets fire polished to a clear, smooth finish.

 

neat!
Quartz melt at higher temp than metal?

 

Yes, most metals. That's one of the main reasons for it's use, as well as high purity. Those two reasons are basically the reason the industry for Quartz exists, otherwise they would use borosilicate glass which is much much cheaper.

I don't have exact numbers but borosilicate "melts" around 700°F while Quartz is still solid above 1,500°F. This is why we have to use Hydrogen and oxygen to work with it, hydrogen creates a very high temp combustion.

 

Safe travels & enjoy

 

What is fire polished?

 

Old Corning Pyrex cookware was made of borosilicate glass, before the early 1980's.

 

Where glass has been ground and has a frosted opaque appearance, we will heat it directly with a torch and it "melts" the surface which makes it clear and transparent again. We call this fire polishing, as opposed to typical polishing. This strengthens it as well, because on the rough surface of ground glass there are micro cracks that can spread into cracks and break the part. The flame basically seals these tiny fractures up which prevents them from spreading.

 

Haven't popped in here in a while. Cleaned out the scraps under the lathe finally.