When a conical refiner comes out of the furnace and cools down, we perform two simple tests to see if it was made correctly: the eye test and the ear test.
The eye test is just a visual inspection. We make sure none of the barsets have detached from the shell, that none of the blades have popped out, and that none of the welds have cracked.
The ear test is more fun for me because of my musical background. I've always loved tapping metal things to hear the tone and clarity of their resonating frequencies, and that's just what we do with the conical. We take a small hammer or wrench and tap each barset. If every tap results in a bell-like ring, everything is good. If the sound is dull, there's something wrong.
The rotor I made last week sings.
*whew*
22 October 2007
Ring My Bell
1 comment:
Oi!! I saw pics of David on the Harlot's blog but we never found you. We tried calling a bunch of times but both Deb & Melissa's phones cut out after dialing. :( I hope you had fun at Rhinebeck--CALL ME because I wanna know how you guys made out! :D
And I love how much you love your work. :D
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