TIL skipping the pre-heat on thin stock worked for me

Honestly, all the old hands say to always pre-heat to avoid cracks. But I forged a set of hooks without it and they came out perfect. Ngl, it cut my setup time in half.

3 comments

3 Comments

skyler6961mo ago

Tried that on some sheet metal once, worked just fine.

grace_butler1mo ago

Hold up, that sounds like asking for trouble to me. You might dodge cracks but you're gonna warp the piece nine times out of ten, it just isn't worth the risk.

luna8911mo ago

Totally agree with Grace on this one. Tried a similar shortcut on some acrylic last year and it bent the whole sheet like a potato chip. Ended up wasting way more time trying to fix it than if I'd just done it right from the start. Honestly, some methods just beg for things to go sideways. That piece is probably still sitting in my scrap pile as a reminder.