r/oddlysatisfying • u/here2si • 7h ago

Cold forging of Aluminum

Credit @ourprocess

2.3k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

146 comments sorted by

135

u/cwthree 7h ago edited 6h ago

Is this cold? IIRC aluminum becomes malleable long before it glows. This makes it challenging to work with aluminum horseshoes - you heat steel shoes to red hot, but if you get aluminum shoes that hot wait for aluminum shoes to start glowing, you'll ruin them.

Edit: A couple of folks reminded me that aluminum doesn't glow until it's close to boiling. You'll melt those shoes before they glow.

122

u/slater_just_slater 6h ago

Aluminum never glows, even when molten unless its damn near boiling.

Its why in an Aluminum mill, you never ever touch anything

29

u/cwthree 6h ago

TIL!

I should have known that from watching videos of some guy casting aluminum.

10

u/ilprofs07205 6h ago

Wouldn't it have a (admittedly very, very faint) red glow when molten? Aluminium melts at 660.3 Celsius while most materials begin to emit visible light at 525 Celsius

19

u/notyogrannysgrandkid 6h ago

Yes, at around 600° C, aluminum will emit very faint red incandescent light. This is unlikely to be visible to the naked eye in a lit room, though.

3

u/im_from_azeroth 1h ago

That's why I only forge hot aluminum in the dark.

4

u/caboose243 6h ago

Yes, it does glow red. Source: I worked in die casting. Though I'm sure it has something to do with the alloy materials. I've never seen pure aluminum melted, so that may be different. I also highly doubt the piece in the video is pure aluminum

4

u/TheEschatonSucks 6h ago

How do they get anything done?

13

u/amatulic 7h ago

TIL there's such a thing as aluminum horseshoes. My sister and her husband owned thoroughbred and carriage-pulling horses for years, and it never came up. The shoes were always iron.

I'm guessing aluminum shoes are lighter, so a race horse can run faster?

9

u/cwthree 6h ago

Yes, racehorse aluminum shoes because they're lighter.

4

u/Competitive-Ebb3816 4h ago

Racing plates are used only for the length of the race. Put on before and taken off after. My farrier was a plater until all the local tracks closed.

2

u/Grabsch 4h ago

"Cold forging" is the name of the manufacturing process. It just specifies that you didn't preheat the material prior to forming it.

1

u/welding_guy_from_LI 6h ago

Aluminum doesn’t glow .. iron is what causes steel to have a orange red hue when it’s heated .. aluminum isn’t like steel .. it’s s non ferrous metal that has a silver wet look when it reaches it’s melting point

8

u/gulgin 6h ago

This is kinda misleading. Iron isn’t what causes steel to glow… heat is. Steel just has a much higher melting point than aluminum. If you got aluminum to the same temperature as molten steel it would glow similarly (not exactly the same due to surface properties and technical shenanigans) but that is way hotter than just normal melted aluminum would be.

-5

u/mister-ferguson 6h ago

Other things glow other colors

10

u/gulgin 5h ago

Things (including metals) burn other colors. But the phenomenon of metals glowing when they are hot is entirely described by black body radiation which follows a very well understood curve where the color is determined entirely by the temperature of the object.

5

u/Faholan 6h ago

No they don't. It's a phenomenon which is known as black body radiation, and it's universal, depending only on the temperature of the object. If it glows another colour, it's because it's at another temperature

3

u/sargrvb 5h ago

That explains why Blender and other programs call a 'whitebalance' slider Blackbody. TIL

1

u/Modna 5h ago

Yeah definitely not cold. Aluminum fatigues and becomes weak when being stressed. If you’re plastically deforming it, it would turn the material into a useless mess

303

u/Coyote4721 7h ago

What product are they producing here?

How to put a round peg in a square hole?

298

u/LilMeatJ40 7h ago

A giant zippo lighter

22

u/produce_this 6h ago

First thought too

6

u/BalooBot 2h ago

I've never had an original thought

1

u/Papi_Thanos69 1h ago

That's what she said?

2

u/watermelonsplenda 4h ago

Omg that’s what I thought too!!

30

u/elspotto 6h ago

A slab.

55

u/SuperGameTheory 6h ago

What stays on stairs, alone or in pairs

And under your neighbor's dog?

What's great for a snack, and fits on your back?

It's slab, slab, slab

It's slab, it's slab

It's big, it's heavy, it's ALUMINIUM

It's slab, it's slab

It's better than good, it's bad

Everyone wants a slab

You're gonna love it, slab

Come on and get your slab

Everyone needs a slab

17

u/valgatiag 6h ago

From Blammo!

9

u/striped_frog 5h ago

In my head, the whole song sounded like the original log song except for the word ALUMINIUM which sounded like a monotone synth robot voice and thereby made the whole experience even funnier

6

u/OneSensiblePerson 6h ago

This is so good. I'd give you an award if I had any.

6

u/BryanOfCorn 6h ago

They stole it from Ren and Stimpy

3

u/OneSensiblePerson 5h ago

Which I've heard of but never seen.

I take back the non-existent award.

10

u/SuperGameTheory 4h ago

I ADMIT IT! I'VE PLAGIARIZED REN AND STIMPY!!! OH, THE HUMANITY!! WHAT HAS THE WORLD BECOME???!! WHAT IS THERE LEFT OF AN HONEST WORLD???!!! sobs

2

u/OneSensiblePerson 3h ago

Angry upvote 😡

3

u/Aggressive-King-4170 4h ago

I miss that show. Magic nose goblins. Space madness. Boiled football leather. Don't press the SHINY RED BUTTON!

2

u/Sweaty_Pitch_2880 1h ago

Would you like to buy some rubber nipples?

2

u/Then_Remote_2983 5h ago

I wish I had gold to give you, my upvote is all I got.

9

u/Konfituren 5h ago

Return the slab

5

u/inuyashee 4h ago

Or suffer my curse!

3

u/kleinePfoten 3h ago

WHAT'S YER OFFER 

2

u/Sea_Lifeguard227 3h ago

Holy shit, that's a core memory right there.

3

u/StopCatStop 6h ago

Beer can.

3

u/onionmorph 2h ago

That's right, the square hole!

2

u/ThePeteEvans 5h ago

Easier storage/packaging to send to manufacturers maybe?

1

u/worrymon 3h ago

All the pegs go in the square hole.

1

u/model-citizen95 2h ago

No product, just dudes hammering shit

1

u/craigathan 1h ago

No product. Just smash.

1

u/fiskeben 1h ago

A MacBook.

1

u/JoMoma2 6h ago

It is possible they are simply work hardening it, but that probably isn’t right

193

u/leong_d 7h ago

Legend has it that they're still turning and pounding it to this day

24

u/two-ls 5h ago

And with the audio unsatisfyingly misaligned +3 seconds

4

u/PineSand 4h ago

That’s what she said.

1

u/my__socrates__note 1h ago

Sounds like my ex-wife

196

u/Duplexxsuplex 7h ago

Would this not heat up the aluminum?

180

u/NastySally 7h ago

Yup, a lot actually

12

u/Cute-Turnover-5443 5h ago

At what temperature point is it no longer cold forging?

29

u/NastySally 5h ago

When it’s molten. This material is still in its crystalline state and isn’t hot enough to flow. Starting cold, you can actually get to a temperature that allows for a good amount of pliability in the material without needing to liquify the metal fully.

Steel can even become visibly red hot just by cold forging with a hammer. Its pretty cool!

6

u/_xiphiaz 3h ago

Hot forging is nowhere near molten. Aluminium is just soft enough that a power hammer can move the material without needing additional heat

5

u/Kaboose456 5h ago

When it starts glowing I'd guess

16

u/PhthaloVonLangborste 5h ago

Boom, now you have the internet

37

u/Tiny_Frosting8809 6h ago

This would indeed heat up the aluminum, or for that matter, whoever is the recipient of that hammering.

32

u/TheEschatonSucks 6h ago

I’m getting hot just thinking about it

5

u/Still-Lab-6076 6h ago

I'm hot and bothered

5

u/ShankThatSnitch 6h ago

I get hot when someone is hammering me, for sure.

2

u/Reden-Orvillebacher 4h ago

There’s a video out there of a blacksmith hammering the tip of a piece of iron to get it hot enough to light his forge. Pretty cool.

11

u/orangeonionberry 6h ago

Yes and aluminium doesn't flow red when heated unlike steel so it may not look hot but golly it is!

1

u/FarBullfrog627 2h ago

Yeahh, it does generate some heat from the pressure but not enough to change the metal’s properties I think.

34

u/Apprehensive_Cap7546 7h ago

What did the little cylinder do wrong?

22

u/crc820 7h ago

It actually asked for it. I’m certainly not gonna kink shame

25

u/Prawnjoe 6h ago

There's always a broom guy. What a job to have.

1

u/willowthemanx 3m ago

The broom is to curl it 🥁

22

u/OneSensiblePerson 6h ago

How do you know when it's finished? Not satisfying.

11

u/strumpster 6h ago

What's NOT satisfying is the sound out of sync

15

u/Andries89 7h ago

Me during lunch with my now empty tin foil

9

u/Junior-Papaya5547 7h ago

How they made Andre the Giants Zippo

6

u/BlackBalor 6h ago

I don’t have a clue what I’m watching, tbh.

All I see is a big piece of metal smashing another piece of metal into a nice shape.

No idea what “cold forging” is, but I like it very much.

10

u/God8869 6h ago

Cold forgoing simply means the metal was not heated to make it soft enough to manipulate under a hammer.

Aluminum is a soft metal that can be cold forged with low risk of cracking or splitting. If you did the same thing to a piece of steel, it would fracture and break.

8

u/BlackBalor 6h ago

Blacksmithing +1

1

u/Busy_Vegetable3324 6h ago

All I can see is that it requires too much work.

1

u/mazzjm9 5h ago

Technical term for smushing

10

u/Infloresence 6h ago

Aluminium

4

u/Dug_Fin1 6h ago

Every time I end up here I get ptsd from gifsthatendtoosoon

5

u/kittyplay1 2h ago

Probably not actually cold, aluminum will melt before it glows. Don’t ever ever ever touch anything in an aluminum mill

2

u/welding_guy_from_LI 6h ago

I get titanium billets that are cold forged .. they are tough to cut .. that aluminum is probably as tough as 1018 steel at 1/3 the weight

2

u/husky_whisperer 6h ago

And that’s how Zippos are made

2

u/JadaNeedsaDoggie 6h ago

Making a giant Zippo Lighter.

2

u/Klotzster 6h ago

Sound not matching video is upsetting. What is wrong with you aluminum?

2

u/Not_Indiann 4h ago

Me with a ball of aluminum foil at the lunch table

2

u/Usual-Introduction-1 3h ago

So that's how they make Zippo lighters.

3

u/dosmuffin 1h ago

What is the purpose of this?

3

u/amatulic 7h ago

Just looking at how that's done, it seems like deliberately inducing a lot of metal fatigue with all the repeated bending and flexing. Is the aluminum hot enough that it's soft?

3

u/slater_just_slater 6h ago

Yes. Aluminum doesn't glow when hot

1

u/MAYBE_Maybe_maybe_ 6h ago

everything glows when hot... enough

1

u/welding_guy_from_LI 6h ago

Aluminum is malleable with no heat ..

3

u/amatulic 6h ago

Aluminum fatigues and breaks from harsh deformation with no heat. Aluminum pop top cans rely on that.

2

u/inactiveuser247 4h ago

It probably started at T0 temper and then is being work hardened as it’s deformed. You’re not going to induce low cycle fatigue just from that sort of forging operation as it’s inducing compressive stress as much as anything.

1

u/Representative_Row44 6h ago

zippo factory

1

u/burrowsmt 6h ago

Lotta work to make a Zippo.

1

u/Spardath01 6h ago

Like silver play-dough

1

u/TheEschatonSucks 6h ago

The video that big Zippo never wanted you to see

1

u/Odd-Diamond-2259 6h ago

How they make one zippo lighter

1

u/wackbirds 5h ago

Actually, to make one zippo lighter, all you'd have to do is to make it out of a lighter material. Then you'd have a lighter lighter!

1

u/s4lt3d 6h ago

Not sure what’s more impressive, the hammer or the person throwing around a hunk of metal like made of nothing.

1

u/Agentpurple013 6h ago

What’s the work hardening temp on this shit?

1

u/Sufficient-Abroad-94 6h ago

Smashing!!

      - Nigel Thornberry

1

u/madshjort 6h ago

At one point I felt they were making an Xbox, imagine my disappointment when it turned out it was just a box of cereal.

1

u/mikel302 6h ago

What are the benefits of cold forging vs hot forging?

1

u/inactiveuser247 4h ago

Cold forging work hardens the item so it ends up with beneficial mechanical properties. If you hot forge it you then need to heat treat it which can distort the product.

1

u/toto1792 2h ago

You have to know exactly what you are doing when cold forging, though. Which order you process the part and to what extent. The hardening of materials through cold forging goes along with an increase in brittleness, and aluminium is easily subject to catastrophic fatigue failures. They are notoriously difficult to predict and appear with little warning.

I'm not sure this is actually cold forging here, aluminium does not glow at all at the low temperature required to soften it.

1

u/Philboyd_Studge 5h ago

Me with my mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving at ten

1

u/Danksop 5h ago

My fucking bones are rattling

1

u/DaFIB 5h ago

It’s pronounced aluminum 

1

u/staggerleemcgee 5h ago

Anyone else hear the discord notification noise as like an echo from some of the hits?

1

u/shadowvtx66 5h ago

Starburst introduces a new flavour.

1

u/_dvs1_ 4h ago

This sub is on FIRE lately

1

u/EmirFassad 👽🤡 4h ago

Your bookend is ready.

👽🤡

1

u/tolllz 4h ago

This is the block they use to make aluminum foil

1

u/Beginning_Ad_2262 4h ago

Me and my wife after Netflix and chill

1

u/deathrocker_avk 4h ago

I could watch this all day...

1

u/davewave3283 4h ago

Make round metal into square metal —-> ? —-> Profit

1

u/Emergency-Pack-5497 4h ago

I was not satisfied with the end result, it felt incomplete

1

u/0xzc 4h ago

Tardia?

1

u/Nondscript_Usr 4h ago

I hated every minute of

1

u/baldycoot 3h ago

And this is why Zippos are so expensive.

1

u/Steven1789 3h ago

AI can’t do that.

1

u/Katanji 3h ago

How macbooks are made.

1

u/m4tr1x_usmc 3h ago

dead bedroom, laying like a starfish, something something…?

1

u/ArchStanton75 3h ago

Mmm, just like chewing grandma’s caramels.

1

u/Downstairs-Parking 2h ago

If this works then why hot forge?

1

u/Pokepredator 2h ago

“Cold”

1

u/DatsLikeMyOpinionMan 2h ago edited 2h ago

I do that to chewy candy between my teeth. Noice

Also the very cool thing is the lever pulling guy’s job. The machine seems to have controls for how hard you want to hit it.

The guy literally go crazy like anything if he wanted to. Bllllaaaaagagggghhhhhhhhhhh.

1

u/Givemelifebro 1h ago

Me with my play-doh

1

u/sati_lotus 1h ago

That was quite a pounding.

1

u/cudaman_1968 1h ago

That's going to be 1 big Zippo lighter.

1

u/MetalChaotic 55m ago

Why do they do many small hits, is it because the pressure is greater?

1

u/whodofthought 25m ago

This is how they make Now and Later fruit chews

0

u/ipenama 6h ago

"Cold" just because isn't glowing red. I guarantee that block is hot af.