| Phew, I finished flattening all of the pipe ends! It went easier than I thought and the anvil/hammer combination worked very well. After a while I developed a nice rhythm: eight hammer blows on one side, turn the pipe over, four more blows on the other side. Less wouldn't flatten the pipe properly, more would have made it too flat. I'm glad I chose aluminium pipes and not steel ones; those would have taken a lot more hammering. The result is 262 pipes with both ends flattened. It took me about 6 hours in total. I worked in 20 minute intervals (squashing 30 pipe ends), taking short breaks in between.
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| It is important that both pipe ends are flattened in the same horizontal plane. To make this easier, I made a little block with a slit in it, to hold the already flattened end. I clamped the block onto the pipe squashing rig and fitted a pipe. I could then pound away at the other end without fear of the pipe rolling.
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| The anvil took a fair amount of beating (over 6000 hammer blows), as you can see. A big thank-you to my neighbours is in order, the noise was terrible! Glad I got some earplugs...
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