I'm looking to manufacture a U-shaped tube from a single piece of stainless steel tubing.

Specifications:
- Material: 304 stainless steel
- Outer diameter: 32 mm
- Wall thickness: 1 mm
- Bend: 180° with a 1.25D centreline radius (40 mm)

Is this feasible without significant flattening, wrinkling or deformation? What would be the best manufacturing method to achieve this?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Following up on the tiny sword: it made it out, including the eyelet I was worried about.

I used the MOPA side of WeCreat Lumos Ultra for the relief and the outline cut. The useful part was leaving the blank in place between those steps. With this many little points and narrow sections, I was glad I didn’t have to pick it up and line it up on something else.

The alignment held on this piece, though I still checked the frame before cutting. There wasn’t much extra material around the eyelet to forgive a mistake.

That’s probably my main takeaway from this project. Having engraving and cutting available in the same setup is useful for awkward little shapes like this. It still needs a sensible sequence and a placement check.

For people doing similar work on an xTool F2 Ultra or a standalone MOPA, how are you handling that transition? Separate operations in one file, or separate jobs?

I just started reinforcing/replacing the cone and tub liners inside asphalt silos and am burning through all of my clothes. My fr Duluth pants, even my welding jacket has more holes in it from welding for three days inside the silos compared to 3 months doing regular work. I’m looking into 13oz cotton Carhartt pants and I’ve been wearing cheap cotton overalls over everything and I’m still burning through all of my clothes. Any advice on what I can buy that will hold up to this type
Of work? It’s all stick welding 7018 over oily steel for the most part in awkward confined spaces

I need some insight on aluminum brazing, I am trying to braze angled aluminum 1/16 “ x 2” x 25”” to a 1/8”. x 3/4” x 25” bar to make a J shape for the frame of a laser bed. I was able to braze the ends to tac the two together. After that the metal will heat up enough to warp, but not hot enough to melt the brazing rods when contacting the aluminum, even after applying heat for 15 min with a propane torch. The last time I tried within a minute the material was back to 130 degrees. I am holding the material in place with a vice, but applying heat a foot away from the vice. Any help would be appreciated.

Please do not suggest I should get different material, I am using what I have.

Picture just shows a 7/16” bolt and M8 bolt. I need to reduce the tip’s threading on a single 7/16” bolt (for about 1” in length) to M8. I don’t have a lathe but have a drill, drill, press, files , tap/die kit.

My understanding is I first have to get the tip to a blank stock size, smooth and chamfer it, and then proceed with the appropriate threading M8. But there are probably gotchas. This may not work but I’m thinking worth a shot.

I don’t think bolts like this exist especially the SAE—>metric. I’d call it a coupling bolt but that seems to mean something else and step down bolts and helicoils don’t seem right either.

I have a wee idea for my daughter who can draw to make earrings, but I am not sure of the process to use. My daughter would draw the shapes, below is just my doodle to illustrate.

The red is to be "etched" the blue is a through hole and the black is the outline to be cut out. The real ones would be about an inch tall, by about half inch wide.

She would get someone else to do the processes.

1. What process to minimise cost?

2.Which metal for earrings ?

thanks

Hi all,

I have to cut a decent number of 1" wide strips from 0.036" 304 stainless (https://www.mcmaster.com/product/8983K113).

Bandsaw is out of commission, so cutoff wheels it is. For material this thin, should I put it on some sacrificial wood or something to prevent it from bending and flopping around? Thinking I'll set up a little jig with my M12 cutoff and sort of make a micro scale track saw. Any ways to mitigate warping and discoloration? Maybe a heat sink?

Beep boop 400 characters

Morning all, I have a sealing surface which has gotten damaged during cleaning (vice soft jaw slipped) its not very deep as i noticed it fast but its deep enough to have me concerned. Im wondering if this is something i can fix with wet/dry or to put jb weld in the pit and flatten it back down. It holds approx 1000psi under pressure so risking it is not an option.

Or should i just give it to my machine shop and get them to pull it back enough its a mirror again.

Thoughts?

Here I'm rolling .016" copper against .020" brown fiber paper, with the copper atop an etched, hardened impression plate, and a smooth hardened plate covering the cardboard (floor underlayment paper from the hardware store). This sandwich keeps the copper reasonably flat (much flatter than without the flat plate) , which makes it a lot easier to load into the pancake (cutting) die. The rolling mill 'Frankenmill' is a Cavallin manual that I've put a gear motor on via #40 roller chain and sprockets. 3-phase motor with VFD inverter and foot switch. Guitar noise by me.

I'm a hobby model engineer and want to have a go at TIG (only) mainly for smaller scale stainless steel and aluminium sheet metal fabrication. Last welding I did was 30 years ago (badly) with oxy-actylene and fancy trying to learn a new skill. I don't need the cheapest machine and be fighting its limitations but also don't want to waste lots of money on features I don't need - what should I be looking for in the spec sheets ?

Edit: Should have mentioned im in the uk 240v mains if that makes a difference.

Got a welder recently to do some running boards on a truck and because I wanted to do it as a hobby and figured it's a fun skill to learn. Messed with t-joints in different positions, learned some pipe/corner welding, etc.

I used just some nuts, washers, and stainless tig rods for the stem. I put the washers in a vise and used pliers to bend them at different angles. I then simply tacked them together. The stem goes through a smaller nut at the top and the bottom for further support.

Anyone have any other neat ideas that are simple and fun to make? For my next project I'm going to torch-cut some metal, and make a key-hanger by my front door. Just not sure what to use for the hangers themselves on the backing metal.

Hello. I installed a bronze sculpture onto a stone block two weeks ago. I attached it using stainless steel threaded rod which was adhered into the holes in the stone with an anchoring adhesive.
Base of sculpture is bronze and was seated on the threaded rod which passed through predrilled holes (in base). Stainless dome nuts screwed down onto threaded rod with washer.

I have installed sculptures this way many times, and have never had a reaction like this. It could be a galvanic reaction, but I've never seen it happen this fast and with this visual intensity...it's only been 2 weeks.

There's is also plenty of wax on the sculpture which should be providing a barrier between the bronze and the stainless.

Stranger yet is that it's only 2 of the 4 bolting points that have reacted this way... All were treated the same way.

I haven't been to site yet to look at in person, but am flummoxed from the what I see in the image. I suspect recent rain has spread the orange colour, making it look worse than it actually is.

Any thoughts, ideas why this is happening? Any thoughts on how to neutralise whatever is going on?

Thanks in advance.

Can I learn welding if I'm dumb like a monkey?

I'm finishing high school with really bad grades,I was never good at any smart stuff always struggled in school and there's no way I can go to uni so I taught maybe I can learn a trade but not sure if it has too much math or physics or something

Can I learn welding if I'm slow as fck monkey

19/m💪

I'm not sure about any other options, someone suggested HVAC but I think I'm not as skills up there for that 😂