Greetings and salutations...

[scythe]

Yeah that is essentially what i found to happen this time woodduck, i think i probably worked that out last time but as it was so long ago i simply forgot...
Heating the ends of the RC transfers enough heat to the side walls for the solder to wick across the join.
Had it down pat by the time i got to the tubes.
I reckon i only spent about 1hr maybe 1.5hrs actually re-soldering it up.

If i had enough 2" pipe i would have made another new end plate as the new one was a much better fit in all aspects.

Also for as cleanly as oxy appears to burn, when set up properly, it doesn't, or maybe its just too hot and burning away the patina making it go black much faster (copper oxide is black).

Anywho i will give the easy flanges a good cleaning at the solder join and get them to stick properly this time.

Texta:
My workmate made some L-shaped hinges for his grandma's cupboard similarly to your method.
Milled the shape into the face of a bit of bar and then parted them off in the lathe to width (1.5mm IIRC).

[Redux]

let me know if you want some 2 inch... ive got some here i might as well pass on ... i think 1 inch plus some other sizes too... :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Sam.]

let me know if you want some 2 inch...

I know its immature but I just spat uj and Coke out of my nose when I read this part :laughing-rolling:

[scythe]

Cheers for the offer redux, i might take you up on it, some day lol.

Probably the most annoying thing that happened in all of this was tinypic, the image host i was using, decided to screw me over while i was uploading the latest batch of photos, so I've moved to imgur from now on.
I still have all the originals but its still irritating.

[Zak Griffin]

Just upload your pics straight to the forum mate :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[scythe]

I've been tinkering again...

Seeing as i have redone my RC i need to put some ferrules on it.
I've given up on making stainless ones as they are just too messy to solder on.
So i'm going copper which you already know, but me being me i have to make things different, not always better definitely never easier but usually different.
You may be thinking that you already know this as you have seen my profiled "easy" flanges, but I'm going one step further and impressing a seat into them now so that it takes a slightly modified seal.

The workshop has been very busy this week so i had to get my foreigners in before paying work took all the good machines.
So after setting the machine up and creating the program i made this for my 4" ferrules:

And seeing as i had the machine setup i went ahead and made some more for 3" and 2"

The 2" tool has a larger flat because i haven't made the rest of the press tool yet.

And here is my old setup to create that flat faced flanges:

And with my new insert in position:

And they look like this:

See the little red arrow?, that is pointing to the rolled edge i just made using the tool.
For some reason it burred the corner in making it really tricky to get the freshly pressed flange out of the tool (although this might be because i'm using the 200 ton press), but i managed without damaging it too terribly, buffed the burr off and it works well now.

And this is how they will work:





My only concern is that the clamp does up too much:

There is only 1.5mm between the ends of the clamp when it makes contact with the ferrules.
And when i put in a standard ferrule with one of mine the gap between ends is about 5mm, i'll have to take my other ferrule to work to see how much gap its meant to have.
I maybe able to solve this by using another seal or by not making them so thin, i will have to play around a little more once work quietens down next fortnight.

[bluc]

Nice work :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[woodduck]

Bloody beautiful mate, I like :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I think your right on them being a touch thin though. That clamp looks a bit close, I find once everything warms up you'll need an extra turn or so to get them to seal properly, although with your new groove they may seal better and not need to be so tight.

[scythe]

So when people make flat easy flanges do you guys just use a standard seal?
Or do you trim off the ridges?

I could adjust the press tool again so the ring does not get as thin but then the seal groove wont go as deep and it will only seal on the bead rather than all surfaces of the seal.

I need to work out what the standard thickness at the OD is and go from there.
...
Ferrule lip thickness is 2.8mm
Seal is an average of 1.9mm
So at the OD of the ferrule it should be: 7.5mm
...
Wow that seems overly large, I'll have another measure of mine but i think mine should be around 6mm.
So really ive only got to change my press tool by 0.75mm to make it close to standard.

Hopefully i can make time today for foreigners.

[EziTasting]

Sometimes I wonder if I should envy or despise talented people!?!?

Whatever you come up with, that is super impressive!

I have 2 left hands and 6 thumbs on each ... I don't think I could even dream-up what you are making ...

Keep it up, I love it!

:text-coolphotos:

[woodduck]

I just measured some of my easy flanges and they measure out at 3mm on the very outside including the pipe that's been beveled around 90deg to form the easy flange, tapering up to 4.5mm where it sits against the pipe. This was measured on 2" but my flanges are the same size on all pipes. In the attached photo you will see the gap in the triclamp and that's without a seal (note these flanges haven't been used yet so they will pull in more once they've been beded in a couple of times). I cut the ribs off my seals but this sizing may suit you as your ribs will sit in your recess.

Hope this was helpful :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[scythe]

Ok so after i finished all the work that had to be done it was time to mess around with this further.

I decided to try out a version of woodducks idea, by making a new female die so that it produced a flat but 3mm thick flange with a seal groove.
This sort of worked...
This gave me about a 3mm gap between the ends of the clamp, but it also did not clamp evenly so it was time for another re-think.

The issue with my first version was that there is not enough copper to fill the all the corners of the press tool when trying to make a 100% standard shape.
In my second version i thinned the face of the flange to get better fill in the profile which worked but then they would notcerate enough pressure to seal.

So i have come up with a 4th version now.
It is still tapered but instead of shortening the face I have shortened the top as you can see below.
First try didnt go so well.

Here is the new die.

The completed assembly.

The gap now.

This style clamps evenly, time will tell if this is enough pressure to seal with only 1 seal, should be tho.

But if its not i will just need to either use another seal OR a strip of shim on one side of the flange, easy.

[woodduck]

Because you can compress it better than we can with a hammer, could you use 3/8" pipe for the flange? :think:

[scythe]

Maybe.

OD of pipe is 101.6mm,
3/8" = 9.53mm

OD of flange has to be 119mm.
Pipe plus 3/8 tube each side is: 120.65mm

So it could work in theory but there maybe a few wrinkles.
I think i will also need to make a new die, possibly in 3 pieces, or maybe a few different stages.

I've got some 3/8" tube i can play with.

[A&O]

I love your work, it’s like watching an artist.

What benefit is there by using 3/8 pipe over 1/4 pipe? Is there a strength advantage? I’d have thought the 3/8 will give too much material to fit into the clamp.

[scythe]

It is too much for a standard easy flange.
But because I'm not making them flat it could work.

The benefit will be better filling on my press tool.
And i can bump out the dimensions a bit to allow for better clamping.

[bluc]

Might give it a bigger taper more like a standard ferrule as well :-B :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[scythe]

The taper on mine is the same as a standard ferrule.

Using 3/8" tube would just allow me to make the OD thickness greater.
I could make the lip 3-4mm thick easily.

Going steeper on the taper would mean its harder the generate the same clamping force, by how much I'm not sure.

[bluc]

Sounds like your all over it :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[scythe]

Yeah its all swirling around in the noggin.

All my angles and diameters are correct in the die but its just not pushing the copper into all the corners it needs to, due to lack of copper.

So once i can give it more copper with the 3/8" tube it should work as its meant to.

But with all the extra metal i may need to make some pre-forming dies.