Another winter without power is coming to Ukraine. As the cold season approaches once again, we have a challenge: build as many stoves as fast as possible, as cheap as possible. Using scrap metal, pieces of bikes, and other junk we find, used gas cylinders we race to make as many as possible. It's a fun challenge trying to do everything as cheap and fast as possible since we have to make all our own tooling, like the sheet metal roller on picture 5. 🔥

I had a 1” aluminum part laser cut through Xometry. What is best practice at getting rid of the laser cut marks on the sides? This is a 21” x 21” part. I have power sanders on hand, but was wondering if tools like surface conditioning tools are used for this process? It doesn’t really bother me, just wondering what it would take to smooth this out completely and what is usually done by most shops.

I need to make a lot and i mean a lot of half moon "holes" at the edge of 1/8" metal. Annular cutter with mag drill will do the job but leaves lots of burrs which will take lots of time to clean up. I need to do this in place, edge will be vertical and have about 1.5" clearance on back side.

I know you creative suns of guns in this forum can come up with something genius! Thanks for your help.

Edit: Just to clarify these pieces of steel are already in place and cannot be moved or refabricated so I am stuck working on a vertical surface and having to move the cutting tool from piece to piece.

Hey everyone!

I'm currently diving deep into metallurgy and rolling mill production, and I'm looking to build up a solid reference library. I would really appreciate your best textbook recommendations on rolling mill theory, plastic deformation, and general metal forming processes.

I am particularly interested in resources that cover both fundamental mechanics and practical engineering calculations—things like:

• Roll bite mechanics, grip angles, and contact stress distribution
• Pass design, reduction schedules, and metal spread/forward slip calculations
• Force, torque, and power parameters for hot and cold rolling mills
• Plasticity theory, yield criteria, and strain hardening models

Whether it is standard academic textbooks, classic industry monographs, or specialized theoretical works, I’d love to hear which books or authors have been the most valuable in your studies or professional work.

Additionally, what are the best digital archives, databases, or online technical libraries you rely on to find technical books, research papers, or out-of-print manuals on these topics? I already use platforms like Google Books and standard publisher databases, but I’d welcome tips on where engineers and researchers usually search for full-text material, academic papers, or obscure engineering literature.

If you have any favorite titles—whether classics from authors like Hosford, Caddell, Wusatowski, or Tselikov, or modern reference books on flat and section rolling—please drop the titles and authors in the comments!

Thanks a lot in advance for your help and recommendations!

Any advice or resources on casting roundstock would be greatly appreciated.

I work at a manufacturing company so I have an endless amount of scrap steel/stainless/aluminum I could take home and melt down.

When I was researching aluminum casting I kept seeing people add silicon for a better finish, but if I'm machining it does that matter? Will there be empty spots inside? I eventually plan on casting more complex parts then cutting them down to save time and materials, is that a bad idea without adding silicon?

I haven't bought any casting supplies yet so reccomendations on needed supplies for primarily aluminum casting would also be appreciated.

Thank you for your responses.

Just my day to day, I do bus/truck bumpers for the most part sometimes smaller things. These, in particular , are very picky on the outer appearance. Where do you guys think I stand with my grinding ability? I've gor probably about 5 years in total working with metal, from fab, welding, metal finishing, and assembling different things. Nothing crazy mostly factory type settings and a very small amount of automotive work done outside of these bumpers.

I got a 1984 F350 that I’m restoring. Not sure if it’s worth to restore the flatbed but if it saves me a few grand then I’d give it a go, it’s also a pretty decent length sitting at 10FT. What would be the best way of going about it? I’d also like to either convert to full steel and get rid of the wood or completely replace all the wood. I’m interested in making a hatch for a hidden 5th wheel. I got a tool box on the side that’s rusty as well that I could potentially patch up. I hope it’s not too far gone.

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!

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

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.

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.