Paired parts

by Devin on May 18, 2010

A morning's work - each ready to have the spout drilled.

This is the first time I’ve gone into assembly-line mode with the kettles themselves. I’m still finding that small differences in parts mean that some chimneys fit better with some outer walls, so everything isn’t completely interchangeable. Ramping up production also means that I’ve been trying different methods of assembly to streamline the process. They don’t always work and one of these beauties was turned to scrap shortly after I took this picture.

In some good news, I’ve found that I can make the chimney sections out of slightly less aluminum than I had been. A couple of the kettles had crept up to 6.3 oz (including fire bowl) and this should bring them back to about 6 oz. The one that I ruined would have been just 5.8 oz if it had survived.


[ 2 comments… read them below or add one ]

Johnny May 19, 2010 at 4:54 pm

Still looking fantastic

devin May 19, 2010 at 5:06 pm

Thanks Johnny! Unfortunately, it looks like some of those differences between parts are causing me some trouble in getting a good seam at the bottom. I need to be more disciplined with getting tighter tolerances.

Leave a Comment

[ 1 trackback ]

Previous post:

Next post: