Maggie’s The Welding and Metalworking Thread

[ZiaHunter]

Nice find.. doing alittle resto maintenances my self to an monarch 10ee .adding a new flood coolant system/wash down and splash shieldView attachment 7358727View attachment 7358728View attachment 7358729

Nice job. A few years ago I was able to buy from a friend some equipment from his brother's estate that he was going to be sent to the scrapyard. One was a Clausing 20" drill press and the other Powermatic Model 86 bandsaw. The model 86 weighed 1600 lbs and had my riggers move into the shop and it took three of us to move the drill press. Rebuilt both of them and they run like new. THe Model 86 has a transmission and will cut both metal and wood. This past winter finished rebuilding a Powermatic Model 12 drill press for a friend. It was in parts and when I got it and most of the spindle system and quill needed to be reworked as will as installing an new VS sheeve and motor.

 

[BullGear]

During college I worked as a welder during the summer on the UU Bar in Cimarron then in the oil fields if NW New Mexico. Enjoyed doing fab work and made enough money to pay for my education. Been working in commercial construction most of my career and have a complete woodworking shop in the barn behind my house and have been doing it as a hobby for over 35 years. Always had a cheap mig and oxy/acetylene setup for the odd jobs around the house and farm. A couple of months ago I was bitten by metal working bug and picked up a good mig and tig machine as well as a plasma cutter. It has been a blast and made a fixture and plasma cutting table as well as numerous other appliances for the shop as well as the range. This was the project that actually planted the bug. I am little rusty but with some time under the hood I should be GTG.

View attachment 7374278

Simple but very useful.
Nice!

 

[ZiaHunter]

So I finally gave it a shot and got an optrel crystal Haven’t had to much time behind it yet but so far it’s a really nice hoodView attachment 7357175
Pic through the lense View attachment 7357176tried my best to take a shot with an arc stiked kind of hard and is way cleaner looking then the picture shows which doesn’t do it justice.View attachment 7357177

That is a very nice hood. Decided to upgrade my older one with a Miller Digital Infinity. Color rendition is so much better with the new lenses.

 

[DAMNKID]

That is a very nice hood. Decided to upgrade my older one with a Miller Digital Infinity. Color rendition is so much better with the new lenses.

Yah these new “true color” lenses are amazing

 

[Barneybdb]

 

[4065HW]

Star handrail I built at work. It's around the square in Belton and under Interstate 35 at Baylor Stadium in Waco

 

[4065HW]

 

[Ankeny]

This is for those of you who appreciate the amount of time and effort that goes into the logistics of handling steel, and the work of fabricating even the most simplistic items. Our club is expanding the range and we need some steel targets from 500-1000 yards, some .22lr steel targets for the rimfire challenge shooters, and a couple of steel benchrest table tops. As a retired welding teacher, I have a lot of contacts, so I snagged a small load of AR450 Hardox scrap for starters. When the club officers see what 4 tons of steel ranging from 5/16 thick to 12mm thick looks like, they will probably wonder what's next. I'll need to remind them that, "Those who can do, and those who can't, teach." The old saying "Be careful what you ask for you just might get it...", seems appropriate here. I suspect before this is all over, some folks will learn to appreciate people like those who participate in this forum.

 

[sirhrmechanic]

This is for those of you who appreciate the amount of time and effort that goes into the logistics of handling steel, and the work of fabricating even the most simplistic items. Our club is expanding the range and we need some steel targets from 500-1000 yards, some .22lr steel targets for the rimfire challenge shooters, and a couple of steel benchrest table tops. As a retired welding teacher, I have a lot of contacts, so I snagged a small load of AR450 Hardox scrap for starters. When the club officers see what 4 tons of steel ranging from 5/16 thick to 12mm thick looks like, they will probably wonder what's next. I'll need to remind them that, "Those who can do, and those who can't, teach." The old saying "Be careful what you ask for you just might get it...", seems appropriate here. I suspect before this is all over, some folks will learn to appreciate people like those who participate in this forum.
View attachment 7380233

Can’t wait to see the results!!!!

well done!

Sirhr

 

[Sieg]

This is for those of you who appreciate the amount of time and effort that goes into the logistics of handling steel, and the work of fabricating even the most simplistic items. Our club is expanding the range and we need some steel targets from 500-1000 yards, some .22lr steel targets for the rimfire challenge shooters, and a couple of steel benchrest table tops. As a retired welding teacher, I have a lot of contacts, so I snagged a small load of AR450 Hardox scrap for starters. When the club officers see what 4 tons of steel ranging from 5/16 thick to 12mm thick looks like, they will probably wonder what's next. I'll need to remind them that, "Those who can do, and those who can't, teach." The old saying "Be careful what you ask for you just might get it...", seems appropriate here. I suspect before this is all over, some folks will learn to appreciate people like those who participate in this forum.
View attachment 7380233

Nice contacts! Now the real work begins.

A good friend works for a local fabricator who builds a lot of excavator buckets. He took me for a shop tour five years ago when I saw this stack of 1-1/8"x8'x20' plate I had new respect for material handling and the safety issues involved.

At the time I had no idea how accurate flame cutting could be.

This tour really changed my scope and scale perspective of metal fabrication considering this is a small shop that few in the area know of.

 

[hermosabeach]

I was watching a video by a fabricator / contractor... he said he and his crew get hurt more often working with wood on projects than steel.


He explained that macho men move wood that is too heavy by hand.. and get hurt... with steel- it is expected that you will use machines to move the steel. no one thinks you are weak if you use a forklift to move a steel beam.


When I read Ankeny's post showing the flatbed of steel... I thought of my hilly covered private range and then the logistics of setting things up once built....

 

[ZiaHunter]

Just finished cutting table.

 

[ggmanning]

Nice. I like the small scrap chute. Need to modify mine. I made it too big and it shoots stuff out around my catch bucket.

 

[Claybuster715]

My bench i made to shoot off of here at my home range out to 400.

 

[Claybuster715]

I also built the stands for my range to hold the plates. They're set up to be moved easily if I go to someone else's range or want to move yardages easy.

 

[kindabitey]

Custom headboards getting prepped for paint (yes, they're upside down). My guys are starting to get the hang of it

 

[Maxwell]

I received permission to post this here.

i really wanted to be a TIG welder. Dreamed of retiring and becoming an apprentice even if it was working for free. Took the 2 years of classes and then at 70+ my eyes said to me with a laugh, ain’t happening Maxwell. I have my Viking 1840 helmet, magnifying lens, TIG cups, cotlets, 2% rods, and bag. It can be yours for free.

No one man gets do do everything they want.

i would prefer to hand deliver if you are anywhere near central Jersey. If no one is close by I would ship.

Maxwell

 

[Sean the Nailer]

I received permission to post this here.

i really wanted to be a TIG welder. Dreamed of retiring and becoming an apprentice even if it was working for free. Took the 2 years of classes and then at 70+ my eyes said to me with a laugh, ain’t happening Maxwell. I have my Viking 1840 helmet, magnifying lens, TIG cups, cotlets, 2% rods, and bag. It can be yours for free.

No one man gets do do everything they want.

i would prefer to hand deliver if you are anywhere near central Jersey. If no one is close by I would ship.

Maxwell

I'm not sure who you're offering this to, but if the deal falls through and it's still available, I'd pay the shipping as I live in Canada.

 

[Maxwell]

@Sean the Nailer , making the offer for anyone that wants the welding mask. I posted it here in the welding thread so everyone can see it.

if you shoot me a PM with your address I will get it out to you via UPS next week.

Maxwell

 

[Minarix]

some buddy welding on tubes

10000000 3651518004868504 1814518268507218401 N GIF | Gfycat

Watch and share 10000000 3651518004868504 1814518268507218401 N GIFs on Gfycat

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some tig work on tomalloy, like stainless and alu mixed, welds like shit

102373176 2357277971246261 7807406707608387584 N GIF | Gfycat

Watch and share 102373176 2357277971246261 7807406707608387584 N GIFs on Gfycat

gfycat.com

 

[BullGear]

Some of you TIG welders make me very jealous. I've never tried TIG welding but some of you are true artists.

 

[ZiaHunter]

Learned to weld with stick as a teenager and became proficient while working as a welder/fabricator in college. Was away from it for awhile but had a MIG and oxy/acetylene setup in my shop for odd jobs. Recently decided to upgrade my cheap mig with a Miller 211 and picked up a Diversion 180 as well. MIG and stick are childs play compared to TIG. Very frustrating at first but with lots practice can now run consistent beads. Didn't have time to take classes but there are excellent videos on YouTube which I watched. Hands at 65 are not as steady as when I was younger and try to use props when able to. The new lenses which have excellent color rendition make a huge difference when TIG welding by allowing you to differentiate colors between the arc and puddle.

 

[BullGear]

I can't agree more about the age and eyes.

 

[Minarix]

I can't agree more about the age and eyes.

I'm only 28, but my eyes are shot, have to legally have glasses on to drive, finding a welding hood that lets you see makes a huge difference it gets rough at times and gets hard to see but thats what they make grinders for

 

[IowaPlinker]

Nice contacts! Now the real work begins.

A good friend works for a local fabricator who builds a lot of excavator buckets. He took me for a shop tour five years ago when I saw this stack of 1-1/8"x8'x20' plate I had new respect for material handling and the safety issues involved.

At the time I had no idea how accurate flame cutting could be.

This tour really changed my scope and scale perspective of metal fabrication considering this is a small shop that few in the area know of.

Holy cow these pictures remind me of our old fab shop at Cedarapids, Inc. before we were sold off. We used to receive three 40,000# truckloads of steel each week to make asphalt pavers and rock crushing plants.

 

[Sieg]

Since this will be used for metal working......

Found a US made Craftsman 3.5" vise for sale on Craigslist last Sunday and just finished the restoration yesterday.

Total investment..... $41.

 

[frankxtc]

Here is a recent project. Not fancy or elaborate, but fun.
Did not like the pins that were supplied to connect the tow vehicle to the RV.
Made new ones w/ pulling handles out of 6AL-4V Titanium.

 

[DAMNKID]

Put together some buckets out of a588 like adult LEGO’s some assembly required. Little MIG monday

 

[ZiaHunter]

Put together some buckets out of a588 like adult LEGO’s some assembly required. Little MIG mondayView attachment 7412914View attachment 7412915View attachment 7412917View attachment 7412938

Very nice work and great looking beads. What MIG are you running?

 

[ggmanning]

Beautiful welds for MiG. Looks like a TiG run with a big ass electrode.

 

[DAMNKID]

Very nice work and great looking beads. What MIG are you running?

Thank you. Using a Miller access 450 with .045 er70s-6 wire and cd25 shielding gas

 

[DAMNKID]

Beautiful welds for MiG. Looks like a TiG run with a big ass electrode.

Thank you.. using shielding gas and anti spatter spray when running a mig helps a lot too

 

[sirhrmechanic]

Not my work, but learned a couple of tricks here!

the boring bar hack was very cool!!

sirhr

 

[Barneybdb]

 

[sea2summit]

View attachment 7422737

Got the rest of the story?

 

[671RTO9513]

Not my work, but learned a couple of tricks here!

the boring bar hack was very cool!!

sirhr

I have never thought of turning a ball like that!

But, an arbor press all by itself on a clean workbench. WTF??? All that wasted flat space......

 

[sirhrmechanic]

Got the rest of the story?

I think I saw that at the Peterson Automotive museum in January. Design study exhibit right by the exit. They were doing a special exhibit on movie cars and IIRC this was on the way out. Bizarre, but beautifully executed!

Here is some more info on the sculpture from a 2016 WW I exhibit in Belfast. I think it has been displayed at the Tank Museum at Bovington as well.

Battle of the Somme Centenary: Poignant exhibits and stories from UK museums and galleries | Culture24

Explore the objects and stories marking 100 years since the Somme - from metal limbs and diaries to poetry and Christmas cards written on trench biscuits.

www.culture24.org.uk

Sirhr

 

[Barneybdb]

Thanks Sirhr, just got home from work and was about to reply, too hard to link to things from my phone at work. I was going to add something like it was just something you knocked up down in your workshop for the grandkids.....

 

[Halfnutz]

My grandfather and uncle were rebuilding a 327 back in the day. Once it was all finished my uncle found a hairline crack in the block. He was beside himself for not seeing it before and upset about all the work that they had put into it. Grandpa told him to relax, they could fix it. Uncle-"huh?", "How?"

Grandpa- "Lacing"

Keep in mind, Grandpa bought his first car at age 12 for $2. Became a Tech Sergeant in WWII as a mechanic in an Armoured Cav Recon Bn.
Turned a wrench all his life as a Mill Wright and "hobbyist", made things out of nothing. More mechanical aptitude in his little finger than I'd ever hope to have. People he worked with told stories of stuff they had seen him do, make, move, fix, improve. We had a V6 Buick powered air compressor in the "old garage". He estimated it could be a back up for the plant at Case Co. I was to young to fathom that.

Anyway, Lacing-

1. Drill at the end of the crack.
2. tap for nptf.
3. screw in brass pipe plug.
4. grind flush.
5. Move over half or so of the plug diameter.
6. Drill and repeat.

Uncle still has/runs the engine, you'd never know it was cracked.

Grandpa's quote, that I hear in my head- "Don't force it."

 

[sea2summit]

Started passing on my lack of knowledge and bad habits to 2.2 since it cooled down some ahead of the hurricane.

Attempting to take a picture while wearing a welding hood is an interesting experience.

 

[...]

machined up a custom dive light today...

designed the model in Solidworks

the light is designed to hold 3x 1000 lumen dive lights.

now even though i teach machining for a living.....i really dont like doing it for myself.....honestly its just the time it takes......so i decided to shop around and find what it would cost to have a job shop do it.

most of the quotes were on the $400-600 range......and then one shop gave me a "we dont want to do it" quote of $1500......i could have had it made in china for $100.....but fuck that.

so i sucked it up and made it myself.

machining this out of a nice big block of 6061......but first, a 3d printed prototype.

printed this on our Stratasys J750......now this is actually a fully usable part......its solid, its waterproof, and its actually pretty damn strong.

but im a gorilla and i would inevitably end up breaking it.....so on to the milling.

step 1, generate the tool paths.

step 2, cut!


and off the machine

after facing the back off, and media blasting the part, we are left with this.

and all finished.

finish isnt the greatest.....i removed all the finish passes and had it rough cut to final size.....plus i was using the janky student tooling, and not the good stuff, i hadnt run the program before and i didnt want to break our good tooling if the program was fubar.

 

[...]

Found a nice stash of brass round stock....so I put it to work and made so e nice tools

Scribe, precision oiler, deburr tool, screw driver

 

[sirhrmechanic]

Some big fabbing... some tiny model work.... All the same weekend!

Fabbed up this spare tire rack for an M998 HMMWV. It was the special forces pattern rack for gun trucks....

This was using the mill to make a tiny inside sphere... Using a rotary table and a 45 degree angle on the mill...not to mention an adjustable boring head... you can make a perfect inside (or outside) sphere if your setup is good! Sorry about the 45 degree picture!

Here is the finished model parts... for a model of a car chassis. The sphere is about 1" across.

Fun with machine tools! Old timey style. You don't need a cnc machine to cut spheres. You just need to know how they did it back in the 1900's... before anyone even heard of computers!

Sirhr

 

[...]

Having a lot of fun with this brass.....wanted a new pistol cleaning rod to accompany my Ivory handled 1911.....

turned up this beauty, fit for presidents and noblemen....all hand filed, no CNC here.

 

[mcfred]

Found a US made Craftsman 3.5" vise for sale on Craigslist last Sunday and just finished the restoration yesterday.

That looks great!

Did you just blast the existing vice jaws or did you find another set? I think I've got the same vice but it's NOT in the same condition. It's a hand-me-down of the third order, and prior family members loved hammering, grinding and welding on things. It's in need of some heavy clean-up and I've looked for a new set of jaws, but have come up short. I am not too keen on remanufacturing my own either...

This is the only pic I have handy showing some the the (ab)use.

 

[oneshot86]

Some big fabbing... some tiny model work.... All the same weekend!

Fabbed up this spare tire rack for an M998 HMMWV. It was the special forces pattern rack for gun trucks....

View attachment 7454091

This was using the mill to make a tiny inside sphere... Using a rotary table and a 45 degree angle on the mill...not to mention an adjustable boring head... you can make a perfect inside (or outside) sphere if your setup is good! Sorry about the 45 degree picture!

View attachment 7454092

Here is the finished model parts... for a model of a car chassis. The sphere is about 1" across.

View attachment 7454095

Fun with machine tools! Old timey style. You don't need a cnc machine to cut spheres. You just need to know how they did it back in the 1900's... before anyone even heard of computers!

Sirhr

excellent work

 

[sirhrmechanic]

That looks great!

Did you just blast the existing vice jaws or did you find another set? I think I've got the same vice but it's NOT in the same condition. It's a hand-me-down of the third order, and prior family members loved hammering, grinding and welding on things. It's in need of some heavy clean-up and I've looked for a new set of jaws, but have come up short. I am not too keen on remanufacturing my own either...

This is the only pic I have handy showing some the the (ab)use.

That's not abuse.... that's use.

If your vice looks like new... you aren't using it.

Though one of my friends has collected 6 Bugatti vices. Yes... Bugatti vices. Made by the factory for use in the factory. He restores Bugatti's. Those vices are not abused. They were not abused in the factory. And these days... cost as much as a Volkswagen. But those are the exceptions.

I really want a Charles Parker vice in my gun room. Restored. Draw filed smooth. Painted like a new BMW. But that would be for show... not using.

Cheers,

Sirhr

 

[sirhrmechanic]

If you happen to find one of these at a garage sale for less than $10,000.... it's a steal!

Cheers,

Sirhr

 

[Sieg]

That looks great!

Did you just blast the existing vice jaws or did you find another set? I think I've got the same vice but it's NOT in the same condition. It's a hand-me-down of the third order, and prior family members loved hammering, grinding and welding on things. It's in need of some heavy clean-up and I've looked for a new set of jaws, but have come up short. I am not too keen on remanufacturing my own either...

This is the only pic I have handy showing some the the (ab)use.

Those are the original vice jaws. I used an 80 grit glass bead media at about 80 psi on the vice body and jaw teeth.

 

[sea2summit]

Six needs a cow milking stanchion. So off to work we go with the welder since the price of wood is currently ridiculous.

Didn’t get pulled over on the way home from the scrap yard, that was nice.

Made a highly detailed design and cut sheet based off acquired materials.

Leveraged some child labor.

Got about 70% of our material after cutting. Should keep us busy until this weekend then we can go pick out the rest.