TRIVET

As you can see from the pictures the good old tapers make yet another appearance. We began with the steel ring. Material was heated then shaped around the bick of the anvil ,until something resembling a circle was formed. Once happy with the form, a small weld was made, then taken back to the anvil to try and hide the weld best possible. Gentle hammering around the join cleaned up most of the weld. To the right of the tapered leg in the secong photo you can see some evidence of the weld.

Newly formed ring was placed back into the forge for a heat then placed on a cone mandrel, sometimes known as a Witches hat, due to the resemblance. The ring is placed over the cone so it can be trued and shaped to form  

With our ring made and set aside, it was time to move on to the tapered legs. Some opted for more elaborate legs with different designs for the centre. I decided on this design purely to keep things simple. On a personal level more elaborate designs can come later, you cannot run before you can walk! A total of 5 tapers were made with the best three being selected. Material was heated then tapered, a quick measure then bent to a 90 degree angle.

Group discussion followed once we all at the same stage. Time for the very rusty Mathematics to be used, not my strongest point, seeing how i only ever calculate how much money i have left halfway through the month. As a group it was decided to use PI to calculate circumference and all that malarkey, you know 314............... with the calculations complete( i done mine by eye), chalk marks ready, it was time for some hot punching, which went a lot better than expected. Tapered legs were drilled with a cordless, however most of us suffered problems at this stage due to too much quenching. Quenching hardens the material, not a problem at play until you start drilling bloody holes.

This was to be the second attempt at riveting with the help of a vice. Oxy- acetylene was used to heat the rivets, then hammered once at orange heat. Job done!

Due to the shortness of the legs, i hve used this trivet on a number of occaisons for placing hot pans at the table. With longer legs it could be used for a kettle or pan on an open fire.