First canister underway

I would suggest putting some round stock in your dies to support the angle iron or they will buckle inward over time. They get hot and malleable so they will move.

I never try to peel the can. I just mill it or grind it off. Canister is fun and you can make some insanely cool stuff but the learning curve is steep.
 
BossDog said:
I would suggest putting some round stock in your dies to support the angle iron or they will buckle inward over time. They get hot and malleable so they will move.

I never try to peel the can. I just mill it or grind it off. Canister is fun and you can make some insanely cool stuff but the learning curve is steep.
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That is a great idea Boss. I will shove some round in there. Thanks. I have spent the last 45 minutes trying to peel the can. Do you just forge it to dimension minus the can thickness and grind it off?
 
I squeeze it to just over the size I want. Maybe 1/4" extra. I then mill off the can which has usually thinned down to around 1/8" only on the sides I need to clean up and stack up. If I am not stacking again, I just leave and work around it as needed.

If I do a Ferry flip, I don't mill anything until I have it pressed into a billet. After that I'll mill it all clean.

If you want to remove the can try lining the can with used heat treat foil. The oxidized HT foil is stainless and will not stick to the can or billet. A couple layers of liquid paper work also but make sure it is completely dry before building your can or you will waste your time.

a quick etch will tell you if you have any can left on the billet after clean up. the mild steel etches to a blotchy faded light gray.

Chris Railey said:
That is a great idea Boss. I will shove some round in there. Thanks. I have spent the last 45 minutes trying to peel the can. Do you just forge it to dimension minus the can thickness and grind it off?
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Thanks Boss. For this first one I will keep it simple. I am going to draw it out and grind it off. I pre-rusted the inside of the can but it appears that only acted as flux because the weld to the can is one of the strongest I have ever done. Imagine that.
 
Well, it sounds like you've already done the hard part.....welding it. I was gona chime in on that, but no need now. :)

Grinding the can off is a pain, but if you have a mill/face mill, it's just tedious. :) It's very rare that anyone gets a "can" to peel off cleanly. If the rust thing isn't working, and you have an oxy/acetylene torch, you can cover the can's interior with acetylene soot, but that can be hit-n-miss too. I shy away for the whiteout thing....only because it's about $40 worth of whiteout to line one of my cans....and it doesn't work any better than anything else.

Unless I intend to clean all the can off a billet and use in in a composite, I tend to build my cans in such a manner, that I can leave it a 1/4" or so larger than the finished width I want, and saw slices off the can/billet. You do have to remember how thing are oriented, and as I always say, I err on the side of leaving things too large....because I can always grind it off/down..... but if its too small, I can never put anything back. ;)

Over the years I have built my shop tools, to handle/make very large cans..... with the idea being that if I start with a 4-5" square can, by the time it's down to 1 1/4- 1 1/2", that can is really thin......and then, as long as I've been careful to keep things square, it's usually a single pass per side on the face mill.....and it's clean. The other benefit being that I get a large number off slices/billets off the bigger cans.

Make sure you post some pics!!!
 
EdCaffreyMS said:
Well, it sounds like you've already done the hard part.....welding it. I was gona chime in on that, but no need now. :)

Grinding the can off is a pain, but if you have a mill/face mill, it's just tedious. :) It's very rare that anyone gets a "can" to peel off cleanly. If the rust thing isn't working, and you have an oxy/acetylene torch, you can cover the can's interior with acetylene soot, but that can be hit-n-miss too. I shy away for the whiteout thing....only because it's about $40 worth of whiteout to line one of my cans....and it doesn't work any better than anything else.

Unless I intend to clean all the can off a billet and use in in a composite, I tend to build my cans in such a manner, that I can leave it a 1/4" or so larger than the finished width I want, and saw slices off the can/billet. You do have to remember how thing are oriented, and as I always say, I err on the side of leaving things too large....because I can always grind it off/down..... but if its too small, I can never put anything back. ;)

Over the years I have built my shop tools, to handle/make very large cans..... with the idea being that if I start with a 4-5" square can, by the time it's down to 1 1/4- 1 1/2", that can is really thin......and then, as long as I've been careful to keep things square, it's usually a single pass per side on the face mill.....and it's clean. The other benefit being that I get a large number off slices/billets off the bigger cans.

Make sure you post some pics!!!
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Thanks Ed. I intended to soot the can up but I completely forgot until after I built the can and the forge was hot. I figured if rust was good soot and rust would be great but naw, I forgot. I am about to go out and forge it down to a billet then grind the can off. I already cut the ends off with my chop saw and the ends are solid so that is a good sign. I will post pics tonight.
 
Sweated through 4 T-shirts today but got the forge welds set, the billet drawn out and the grinding started. Not too bad for being on the backside of a coronavirus illness. This is the first day I have felt decent in like 11 days. The fatigue and apathy were the worst part.
 
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