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Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ

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How to soften steel after welding

hi I need some information on how to make regular steel more malleable I repair musical instruments and after I weld them they get so hard that the sound changes and produces a ugly metallic sound especially cowbells and steel drums. Is there any procedure to bring the metal back to the original soft sound. Thanks

Jesus Delro
hobbyist - Hialeah, Florida
January 17, 2009

Hi, Jesus. I am not sure that I agree with your premise that the ugly metallic sound is caused by the steel being too hard, but I have no musical instrument experience. But you soften steel by annealing it, that is, raising it to red hot temperature of about 900 °C, and then cooling it very slowly.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
January 20, 2009

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