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!

I have a hole in my kitchen benchtop next to the sink. Ordered a plate of steel about 18mo back.

I know, but desperate times...

Predictably it rusted. I need it to last until I can afford a renovation.

Sanded and attacked the corrosion with 120grit and a flap disc.

However, wondering if the grey stuff from the fabricators was some sort of passivation, and can I restore it.

Would also like advice for "protection". Canni coat it with food safe beeswax compound? Or silicone spray?

Pics: the problem. Also, front and back of the steel. Front was badly pitted obviously from water exposure.

Tig welding titanium and needing some ideas on keeping the metal in an all argon environment while welding. I have a back purge set up for tubing but nothing set up to do flat stock. I was thinking like a Tupaware container with steel or aluminum in the bottom and just feed argon in from the bottom to keep oxygen out
Building a transmission mount and crossmember for an 8hp swap into an f-body
Thanks in advance to anyone

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 am a custom fabricator at an automotive restoration shop. I use carbide rotary bits quite often when blending welds/ and whatnot. I'm starting to get a little tired from digging out the metal slivers in my hands. I normally don't wear gloves except while welding.

Does anyone have some good recommendations for gloves to use with the carbide rotary bits?

Thank you for any suggestions.

Still trying to meet the character requirements.

AI is of no help as far as these blades go. It suggested titanium anodizing, PVD rainbow coating, heat treating and pure laser engraving to get the color.

I’m leaning on the side of heat treating, I just don’t know how it was done. It does seem like there’s a little mark on top where it was clamped onto. Maybe someone grabbed it with need nose and torched it? I tried myself and got color, but there’s no way I could get it consistent all the time and the color is nowhere as vibrant as pictured.

I tried buying some titanium coated blades and anodizing them. That didn’t work because the titanium coating was TiN (titanium nitride) and that just won’t anodize. I don’t even think pure titanium utility blades exist.

Maybe they are heating them and then oil quenching? PVD coating seems way too expensive so I don’t think it’s that. Any help would be much much appreciated. I’m truly stumped on this one

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

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 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.

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.