While reading the posts on the Rigid Planner and the Sorby Chisels a problem in my shop came to mind. I purchased a branding iron a while back, called the company and told them I needed a custom made iron to brand approx 100 items at a time. I wanted to use a gas fired iron (because of cost) and needed a iron that would hold up to this kind of abuse. I was told that they could make the iron I needed to do the job, No Problem. Got the iron, heated it up and started branding. during one of the heating cycles I hear a thunk sound and look over to see the head of the branding iron on the floor, the head had melted off the shaft (silver solder used to attach the head to the shaft). Called the company and was told "you are not supposed to get the iron hot". Now how am I supposed to use a branding iron if I don't get it hot? For one or two items this iron would have done well, but I ordered it specifically for large numbers of burnings in one setting, and stated that to the maker. Has anyone else every come up with tools that do not perform as listed by the maker, even when used "properly"? Not a bad tool or the odd lemon but a tool not designed to do the job it is meant to do.
Wed, Sep 3, 2003, 8:26am (EDT-1) snipped-for-privacy@peoplepc.com (Sweet=A0Sawdust) claims: I purchased a branding iron I read that, and didn't see a thing about you asking about either repairing it, replacing it, or refunding your money.
Being silver soldered, I would think it would be easily repairable, I would say either braze or weld it yourself, or get the company to do it.
Easy enough to make your own next time, copper sheet, etching cream, no prob. Instructions somewhere in the archives, if you aren't sure about it.
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Silver solder melts at 1300F to 1800F depending on the type. Bronze melts at about 1900F. If you melted the sliver solder your getting close to melting the bronze.
I've got the old Rockwell 1/4 sheet. Gave away a B&D (gifted) and dad's old Makita. Recommend the PC equivalent, and it does hold the paper, though it's a bit tough routing it under the clips for a tight fit.
The sander itself works fine, but to make the standard quarter-sheet fit I have to trim about 3/16" off the clamp end, then tear a little U-shaped piece out of each corner to get it to fit tightly enough under the clamps. A royal pain. My next purchase of sandpaper for it will be self-adhesive or something that bypasses the clamps.
Thanks for the warning. I have a DW 411 which works very well but is as noisy as hell. A few minutes at a time with muffs is enough. DW and Makita are the only 1/4 sheet sanders available here in SA. Maybe have to keep the DW for some jobs and get a 1/2 sheet for the major work. PSA and hook and loop paper is also not readily available except for speciality machines like Festool (cost an arm and leg though) so have to have something that takes off the shelf papers. (Importing is not an option due to the exchange rate and shipping)
Does this mean that you wanted to heat it once and be able to brand 100 items? That is a LOT of heat for one run. I would expect that you would have better results to brand two or three of them, then, re-heat.
Hum...it is a little unclear to me how hot you were getting the iron. If it was getting up over 1100 degrees, that is PRETTY hot. What kind of metal WAS it made of anyway? Actual Iron/Steel?
I suspect the problem was a bit of misunderstanding here. You were asking for an externally heated, hand-held branding iron, with the specification that you would be doing VERY small production runs (100 pieces or less). More than likely the manufacturer assumed you would be doing a few (as mentioned above) and re-heating...and did not understand that you were wanting to do 100 items at a shot. Frankly, for that sort of use, I would recommend a somewhat more elaborate setup, with either a hefty electrical heater, or, a propane flame heater built into it. Otherwise I suspect that there would not be enough thermal inertia in the iron to allow you to do an adequate job for all 100 items. A few years ago, I did site tokens for an SCA event. I looked at a custom branding iron, as I had to make several hundred of them. They were an octagon, with a branded pattern of Thor's Hammer in the center, and, a frame around the outside edge of the token. A fairly simple pattern, actually. Afte some experimentation, I ended up using a wood-burning tool to free hand them. It took a couple of days, but, went fairly well. The MAIN problem I ran into was that the branding iron cooled so quickly that I had to reheat too often, and, that was sucking up a lot of time. I thought about reworking it to mount on a propane torch, but, as this was a last-minute project (aren't they all) it was quicker for me to do them by hand.
Hum...Well, I have had a number of chisels (or, more accurately, chisel-shaped objects) through the years that were of such soft steel that they would not hold an edge long enough to cut any useful amount of wood. I also picked up some "snap ring" pliers at Harbor Freight the other day for an emergency repair. The blasted things bent from the force necessary to open the ring! They only cost $5.00 or so, and, were worth about that much. I made do, but, I had to take the next larger size wrench and carefully grind down the tips to fit the snap ring holes, so as to get enough arm strength to open the ring without bending. Regards dave mundt
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