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DreadLlama posted:It's funny you mention that because that bit in the op about some dude out in the middle of nowhere welding some ugly working machine is familiar to me. Due to budgetary and space restrictions, the entirety of my work is conducted out of doors and on scrap metal. I'm trying to get as idiot-proof as possible. Any recommendations for a wire that's good for "got paint on it, I suck at welding and also it might be humid"? Then you totally want flux core. You can do MIG, but you have to turn the gas on as high as it will go to keep it from blowing away. And it still doesn't work as well as FCAW. I've been using .030 E71T-11 wire with good results on crap like that.
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Mar 21, 2016 19:01
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Motronic posted:Then you totally want flux core. You can do MIG, but you have to turn the gas on as high as it will go to keep it from blowing away. And it still doesn't work as well as FCAW. Or do both. Dual-shield is a thing for a reason.
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Mar 22, 2016 04:07
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Dual-shield is really loving awesome stuff. It's also really hot. If you want to do wire feed structural, a bad rear end welder and dual shield can lay down more metal with more heat then stick, given the operator know how to configure the machine and consumables correctly. I used that at the rail car shop. In fact, sometimes it gets so hot you have to be really really carefully about warping.
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Mar 22, 2016 04:20
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Just watched Forged In Fire's spiked shield episode, with Ilya. Does he have to be quite so cocky and melodramatic? I'm glad he toned it down a little in the latter part. I'm astonished at how BAD some of these guys are at this. Having to choose from scrap steel totally bewilders them, they seem to have no real idea about heat treating. I know, let's remove the pins halfway through glue up. Or use the vice to force the scales down even though they're crooked. What could go wrong? At least this season is showing some smarter guys, too. The episode with the car, there were two contestants who realized "this is a bad idea" in time, and switched to something that did work. Last season had several guys just get stuck on terrible ideas and not give up, even when a much simpler solution was at hand. Maybe I'll be on the show one day, and random internet jerks will share their opinions on my performance.
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Mar 22, 2016 21:10
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I'm really enjoying the series. I think it's fair to say that most knifemakers are specialists in their particular process. Many have never used coal, or have never worked with scrap, or have never done laminated metal, etc. Probably most of them have never had to work under extreme time pressure. Just the need to get your handle dried and solid within an hour or something is pretty brutal if you're used to using a 24-hour epoxy or whatever. On the other hand I totally agree that a lot of these guys just seem really unprepared or even bewildered. How do you not notice or care that your quench was way too cold, your blade is soft, and not do anything about it during the two or three hours you wasted making a handle instead? Do you just make an endless series of soft knives that you ship off to customers who never notice or complain? So I kind of have a lot of sympathy in some cases, where someone's working with unfamiilar tools, processes, and materials; and in some other cases, it's like "how did you get on this show, again?" because I did nothing more than take three blacksmithing courses and one knifemaking course, read a couple books, and make maybe four blades ever, and I feel like I couldn't have made half the mistakes they do. The car one was interesting to me because my first thought was "of course you grab a coil spring" but then I saw how tiny those coils were ... I've worked with coil spring steel but I guess my coil was out of a big truck or something. On the other hand I probably would have gone for one of the reinforcing struts in the doors, or maybe one of the roof pillars (they're typically hardened steel these days) and didn't think about the much more convenient axles, so I'm still an idiot. But not as big of an idiot as the guy carving car parts out using a torch instead of an angle grinder with a cutoff wheel. He set the loving car on fire like four times. Anyway if anyone isn't watching Forged in Fire, you're missing out.
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Mar 22, 2016 23:24
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Some people learn tasks or steps instead understanding the process.
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Mar 23, 2016 00:15
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Leperflesh posted:I'm really enjoying the series.... I don't think I've seen anyone use round 2 to go back and fix a real problem. No-one has ever tried re-heat treating or trying to finish their forge welds. It doesn't seem to be against the rules, and for some folks it would make a HUGE difference. I can't imagine learning something just as a process, without wanting to know more than the bare minimum. Even some simple tricks, like heat until your piece is non-magnetic before quenching, or knowing the colors for tempering, would give consistent results. I'm rebuilding all my forges right now (goal is to have one for welding, one for general) but once that's done, I'll be making some knives and chopping through nails and coconuts to see for myself how hard this is. Still, a great show and I'm looking forward to tonight's episode with the Kukri.
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Mar 23, 2016 01:00
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I really like the show, I think a lot of the drama ends up being like a lot of other reality/competition shows, especially the more technical ones; it's fabricated by the producers and the editors mostly. I need to catch up on the show, I think I've only seen the first 5 or 6 episodes. A guy I follow on YouTube, a Polish Knifemaker called Trollsky is supposedly on an episode, which should be pretty interesting. also, I got this last week!  it's one of the biggest and heaviest things in my shop but looks like a tiny toy compared to that Lagun
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Mar 23, 2016 04:50
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Hello G0704 buddy. How long before you convert it to CNC?
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Mar 23, 2016 05:15
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Pagan posted:I don't think I've seen anyone use round 2 to go back and fix a real problem. No-one has ever tried re-heat treating or trying to finish their forge welds. It doesn't seem to be against the rules, and for some folks it would make a HUGE difference. I've definitely seen one guy re-do his heat treat in round 2, I've seen some guys fixing bends and twists, and I've seen guys who obviously still had a lot of shaping work to do magically have a shaped blade by the end of round 2. They cut a hell of a lot out in order to fit the time, so there's that as well. In season two they're more explicit about telling the guys they're allowed to use the time in round 2 to correct problems with their blades.
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Mar 23, 2016 05:16
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CrazyLittle posted:Hello G0704 buddy. How long before you convert it to CNC? I'm already looking at parts lists and sources but it'll be slow going, IDEALLY in about a year I'll be able to go all in with the conversion. I did get Fusion 360 already and have started learning how bad I am at it
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Mar 23, 2016 05:28
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wormil posted:Some people learn tasks or steps instead understanding the process. I'm getting a lot of vibes like that when I'm asking about OA welding and torches and wanting to get an understanding. Seems a lot of people don't understand and just follow steps or regulations, or they want me to do that instead of understanding the underlying process.
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Mar 23, 2016 08:22
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Action Jesus, are you planning on adding DRO for manual machining, or just going straight to CNC?
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Mar 23, 2016 12:09
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AbsentMindedWelder posted:Action Jesus, are you planning on adding DRO for manual machining, or just going straight to CNC? It would be really handy, but the ones I've seen are $800-$1000 at places like Grizzly and Little Machine Shop, so adding one is a bit steep imo unless i could find one for about half that (or less!) I like the ability to manually machine and I've seen some kits for the CNC conversion that allow you to retain manual functionality, which is really cool, and probably something that has way higher value in my head than it does in the real world
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Mar 23, 2016 14:17
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Action Jesus posted:I really like the show, I think a lot of the drama ends up being like a lot of other reality/competition shows, especially the more technical ones; it's fabricated by the producers and the editors mostly. I need to catch up on the show, I think I've only seen the first 5 or 6 episodes. A guy I follow on YouTube, a Polish Knifemaker called Trollsky is supposedly on an episode, which should be pretty interesting. Man that's a sweet looking little mill. What kind of capacity does it have? Amw: nice work as always with your restoration work, can't wait to see it finished.
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Mar 23, 2016 15:28
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Slung Blade posted:Man that's a sweet looking little mill. What kind of capacity does it have? Thanks! The table size is 7-1/16" by 26-5/8", and the travel is 6-7/8" by 18-7/8", and the max table to spindle height is 13".
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Mar 23, 2016 18:12
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Action Jesus posted:Thanks! The table size is 7-1/16" by 26-5/8", and the travel is 6-7/8" by 18-7/8", and the max table to spindle height is 13". 120v?
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Mar 23, 2016 20:18
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Slung Blade posted:120v? Yeah! 1HP motor, 2 speed gearbox with a variable speed drive, here are the rest of the specs
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Mar 23, 2016 20:42
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oh yeah I've had my CNCed taig mill in boxes for like two weeks now, basement shop construction is behind schedule
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Mar 23, 2016 22:30
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The Previous Owner gave me some T-nuts when I got the mill, so I picked up some eye-bolts to make moving the table easy. The huge pair of channel locks removed the pipe nipple with ease. I was expecting it to put up more of a fight. A hose goes from this to the pipe nipple poking out the pedestal as a coolant return line.  The other side has a plug which came out easy too.  I then made a wooden box with the lumber I had laying about. There is about 1/2" clearance on all sides. I couldn't find a single ding mark on this table, it's in great condition, minus the rust of course.  Put down two layers of thick plastic, then filled a 5 gallon bucket just shy 7/8 full with water and dumped it in. I did this as a test to make sure I would have enough Evapo-Rust.  Here is the table submersed in Evapo-Rust. The table is not actually resting on the bottom, I raised it up about 3/8" with the chain hoist after I took this pic.  Then I taped it up as best I could to try and curb evaporation. 
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Mar 24, 2016 02:01
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Quick fabrication question if anyone can help. So I want to get my PC off my desk without putting it on the floor. I came up a rough idea for a stand made of 1" x 1" x ⅛" steel angle and flat stock:  Unfortunately I'm currently stuck in an apartment, and I don't think a cordless drill, a hacksaw, and J-B Weld are quite equal to the task. I am, however, living in Alberta, which is currently full of out-of-work welders looking to do any job they can find, including small fab jobs out of their garages. Having only done metalwork as a hobby I'm not sure what a job like this would cost. Can anyone give me a ballpark figure? Not so I can tell people "Well the internet said it should cost this much!", but just so I can have a rough idea going in and make sure I'm not getting ripped off. Any thoughts on the design with regards to ease of fabrication, function, etc. are welcome too.
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Mar 24, 2016 07:53
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If you leave off one of the lower side braces you can easily put stuff under there if needed.
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Mar 24, 2016 08:45
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TerminalSaint posted:Quick fabrication question if anyone can help. So I want to get my PC off my desk without putting it on the floor. I came up a rough idea for a stand made of 1" x 1" x ⅛" steel angle and flat stock: A cordless drill, a hacksaw, and a big handful of nuts & bolts are up to it. Also, consider the realities of moving that in and out of your apt. when it's a single piece of steel that can't be taken apart.
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Mar 24, 2016 11:41
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Why not wood? Does it need to be horrifically heavy?
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Mar 24, 2016 12:59
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Random Number posted:Why not wood? Does it need to be horrifically heavy? Metal is heavy. I know it's easy to say "duh" but if you're not used to it, it's almost a shock. I do a lot of wood working. Even a thick sheet of 4x8' plywood I can handle by myself with ease. A 4x8 sheet of 1/4" mild steel? You need three guys and some moving equipment. I think making the table in a way you can disassemble it is a good idea.
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Mar 24, 2016 13:36
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I've made small tables from PVC tubes and connecting joints before. Worked well and was sturdy enough. Made the table top from plywood and cut holes in it to go over the PVC joints with s hole saw. Light, and easy to disassemble. Metal work is cooler though.
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Mar 24, 2016 14:08
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It's just for his PC tower, not the whole desk if I'm reading this right (please correct me if I am wrong). It'll be tiny, about the size of a small shoe rack. Won't be much more than 8kg or so, I bet. Material won't be much more than twenty bucks. Though if you buy it in the short lengths from home depot or Lowe's or something that will go up. I would expect that to take an afternoon of measuring, cutting, and welding. If you want the guy to sand and paint, add another 2, 3 hours. Pay what you think that time is worth to you.
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Mar 24, 2016 15:21
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If I was fabricating and welding that desk, I'd probably want something around $200-$250 for labor not including the materials.
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Mar 24, 2016 16:23
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Let's say I wanted to stick some twisted brass wire to titanium round bar. Hot-joining isn't gonna work- what's a good adhesive to do this with, and what's a good and fast way to give the titanium bar enough tooth that the wire won't pop off?
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Mar 24, 2016 16:42
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Cakefool posted:If you leave off one of the lower side braces you can easily put stuff under there if needed. I'd considered that, but I know angle can be a bit fiddly to keep square thanks to the inside radius. I also want to allow for airflow (my PSU draws from the bottom of the case) so I probably wouldn't keep anything under it anyway. shame on an IGA posted:A cordless drill, a hacksaw, and a big handful of nuts & bolts are up to it. Also, consider the realities of moving that in and out of your apt. when it's a single piece of steel that can't be taken apart. I had also considered the nuts and bolts, but the joints on the top rails would need to be flush on the inside which starts to get a bit more fiddly than I'd like with hand tools. I may still end up going that route, but I figured I'd explore having someone with the right tools do it first. As for size, it's smaller than a PC case, so it shouldn't be an issue. Random Number posted:Why not wood? Does it need to be horrifically heavy? Pagan posted:Metal is heavy. I know it's easy to say "duh" but if you're not used to it, it's almost a shock. I do a lot of wood working. Even a thick sheet of 4x8' plywood I can handle by myself with ease. A 4x8 sheet of 1/4" mild steel? You need three guys and some moving equipment. Wood is another option I'm considering, but with hand tools and limited space it's not considerably easier to work with than angle. That said, mocking it up in 3D has given me some better ideas about how I could assemble it in wood, so I haven't ruled it out. As for weight, my calculations are that it's 81.5 linear inches of 1" x 1" x ⅛" angle, and 39.5" of 1" x ⅛" flat bar. At .8 lbs/ft and .43 lbs/ft respectively, it comes in at just under 7 pounds. If anything, I wouldn't mind if it was heavier than that for stability. Brekelefuw posted:I've made small tables from PVC tubes and connecting joints before. Worked well and was sturdy enough. I hadn't considered PVC construction, and now that you mention pipe, black iron pipe/fittings and wood could look pretty nice without being too much of a pain. I'm gonna' stew on that some more. Slung Blade posted:It's just for his PC tower, not the whole desk if I'm reading this right (please correct me if I am wrong). Yeah, perhaps I should have been more clear. It would be a hair wider and longer, and just over half the height of my PC case. Pretty small. Slung Blade posted:Material won't be much more than twenty bucks. Though if you buy it in the short lengths from home depot or Lowe's or something that will go up. AbsentMindedWelder posted:If I was fabricating and welding that desk, I'd probably want something around $200-$250 for labor not including the materials. Thanks for these, I appreciate the help.
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Mar 24, 2016 17:10
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Fluxcore is great for the "tired of my shielding gas blowing away and all I want to do is wire wheel the paint and rust off of the surfaces" factor... the only reason I use MIG sometimes is that the welds look more pleasing and I don't have to try and clean flux and spatter out of the inside of box corners. Oh, and my MIG goes to 230A while the fluxcore is just a little 120V machine, so if I want to weld 1/4" with any kind of real speed, out it comes. I can and have done passable welds of 1/4 to 1/4 with a 100A fluxcore, and even 1/4 to the edges of 1" plate with the same 100A fluxcore, but I had to bevel the poo poo out of it, work slow, and run a few passes. The big MIG machine just does it and doesn't complain.Leperflesh posted:I'm really enjoying the series. TBH I'd go for the leafsprings in some old truck rather than coil springs, way more material and in a flat bar stock shape already. Otherwise, I agree. Subarus sometimes have UHSS (high boron, as I recall) steel rod in the B pillars to improve their crash safety. It'd be an absolute bastard to get it out of there since it's welded inside a bunch of stamped sheetmetal pieces layered over each other, thus my leafpspring preference.
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Mar 24, 2016 18:39
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They didn't say, but I'm pretty sure the car they were chopping up was a MkIV Jetta. Maybe MkV. I actually have an old truck leaf spring in the garage that is waiting to become a bunch of knives, so yeah, leaf is by far the preference. But it's not all that hard to straighten out a big coil spring, especially if you cut it into semicircle segments, and if you do that, each segment is around the right amount of metal for a nice big knife. We actually did this in one of the blacksmithing classes I took: the instructor brought in a big coil, we hacked it up, and each of the students got a piece to work with.
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Mar 24, 2016 18:52
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Enjoying the mill rebuild, keep it up with the pictures. Oh and myfordboy YouTube channel to add to your lists.
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Mar 24, 2016 19:09
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Any time I think of leaf springs I think of how I want to make a big-rear end arbelast/crossbow and fire rebar out into the wild blue yonder, probably towards an empty field.
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Mar 24, 2016 20:53
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They're generally designed to compress by flattening the arch, which is the opposite way you'd probably think of arranging them for a ballista. But generally I bet you could still fabricobble up something suitably lethal and stupid regardless. The big danger is that you build something that flips your projectile up and even back rather than sending it smoothly downrange. Well, also the other big danger is that the thing comes apart while under maximum tension and sends big hunks of bone-crushing metal whipping around. Those are the big two dangers. The next biggest danger is probably your legal liabilities. I'd be up for it if I had a big field. 
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Mar 24, 2016 23:18
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Last night and today I was a little bit nervous and praying that when I went back to the shop I wouldn't find 5 gallons of Evapo-Rust on the floor. Success! No liquid on the floor and it looks like all the rust is missing. It did certainly try to evaporate all right.  The liquid got a bit dark. I still expect there is a good bit of life left in it tho.  Two rounds of barkeeper's friend and a wash down with purple solvent cleaned it up nicely and removed all the black stuff that was hanging around. After I dry it off, I take a scotchbrite pad and lots of Marvel's Mystery Oil to give it a rub down which remove any flash rust and prevents any from coming back for a while.  Now that the table wasn't going to rust back up on me it was time to start emptying the box. I had planned to stop on the way and get some vinyl tubing to use a siphon, but I forgot, so I just bailed out with a 1 qt plastic cup. I'm glad I had two layers of plastic! Looks like a little bit leaked through the first layer.  It turns out the second layer of plastic had a pinhole leak.. some Evapo-Rust soaked into the wood.  I then wiped the table down with a rag to get rid of all the excess MMO, and gave it a good rub down with lanolin for protection. I'm very happy how this turned out. The Evapo-Rust without a doubt made cleaning the table a lot easier. This now marks the end of all de-rusting and cleaning of castings! Woo Hoo! 
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Mar 25, 2016 01:19
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Well at least that box won't rust away now. Did the washers/t nuts/eye bolts cause any trouble with rusting or galvanic action where they were in contact with the table?
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Mar 25, 2016 18:55
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Slung Blade posted:Did the washers/t nuts/eye bolts cause any trouble with rusting or galvanic action where they were in contact with the table? Negative. No issues whatsoever. The Evapo-Rust even worked underneath the washers. I had been expecting to have to clean up that little area, but came out clean like everything else.
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Mar 25, 2016 19:09
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Would y'all be interested in seeing a solar panel deployment and pointing device for cubesats in this thread? It's in the spirit of the thread, but not the letter (there's not much metal). If there's a general tinkering thread I'll throw it in there and link to it.
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Mar 25, 2016 23:44
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Random Number posted:Would y'all be interested in seeing a solar panel deployment and pointing device for cubesats in this thread? It's in the spirit of the thread, but not the letter (there's not much metal). I am a turbo nerd who loves seeing the cool stuff the enthusiasts of their trade or hobby get up to.
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Mar 25, 2016 23:52
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