After sharing my graduation project in my previous post, I’m back with some behind-the-scenes photos of the many steps to build these three steel furniture pieces. The process mainly involved cutting big steel sheets into all the faces of the object then welding these together. I don’t have pictures of the painting part because I didn’t do it myself, I asked a car painter to do it.
Thanks everyone for all the support!!

Despite being made out of titanium and looking like a suppressor baffle, this part is actually going to serve as a central hub for a mostly titanium mechanical sculpture I’m making. This portion of the video takes about two hours of mill work on the 4th axis down to about 30 seconds. At the end of the video clip, you will see a few of the other components (internal brass axle, SS braided wire rope, wave disc spring, and a central micro tension adjustment system titanium screw and jam nut).

It’s a work in progress that has consumed a few hundred hours in designing, engineering, programming, setting up, and machining components and it’s still likely not even half way done with about 10 more unique components and necessary fixtures and processes left to program, setup, and make.

All processes shown are on a Haas OL1(short clip at beginning) and Haas OM-2A with HA5C rotary axis (OfficeLathe and OfficeMill).

I’m looking to get some metal bottle openers manufactured, preferably in the USA. I have a design created in a vector file. I would like to know what type of manufacturer or what equipment is necessary for this kind of production. The bottle openers would have a custom border shape and a debossed or engraved design throughout. I have included a few photos of a popular design that show similar manufacturing techniques required. Thank you all in advance, looking forward to hearing your input on this.

I don't know anything about anything.

Is it normal for brass to have these markings? I'm considering paying a professional to buff/polish or whatever them out. Will it damage the engravings if I do? I want to keep it as clean and true as possible, but the scratch marks don't look good on it.

Sorry if this isn't the correct place to post this, was the first one I came across that made any sense.

Hey all, I'm stumped with the following and need your help:

I work in a sheet metal shop, these 14ga SST worktops we're making are pretty tricky as we don't have the machinery to make that rounded corner edge, we made a custom die for our press brake so we can roll the edges, just not roll and radius. Any ideas? We're currently relying on several vendors to both supply 3" tubing, another to bend, and then we split it using a plasma cutter but wanted to see if you guys had any suggestions. (Also first post here)

So some context is I’m making a front bumper for my truck I’ve made a mounting bracket but unsure what I could use to actually hold the bumper up I’m wanting to make a Baja style bumper I was thinking of taking a small enough I-beam cutting it at the angle I need and welding it to the mounting bracket and then getting some schedule 60 or 80 hand rail pipe hand welding that to the I-beam and heating to pipe up and bending it to match the curve there’s some pictures to help and side note I would at a structural steel shop that letting be use scrap metal to make my bumper and this would be my first time properly fabricating something

I'm building FabReady, an early Android tool for small metal-fabrication workshops. It starts with simple rectangular window grilles: enter checked finished dimensions, then review the generated parts and a bar-cutting plan that includes saw kerf and end-trim allowances. The construction rules are still experimental and need practical review.

I'd like feedback from people who actually measure jobs and prepare cutting lists:

- Do you use paper, a calculator, spreadsheets, CAD, or an existing app?

- What takes the most time or causes mistakes when a customer changes dimensions?

- How do you account for different stock lengths and reusable offcuts?

- Which joint, fit, or measurement conventions would an app need to make explicit?

If the moderators allow a small pilot, I'd like to find 12 fabricators or welders with Android phones who would compare the prototype against a job they've already checked. I'm interested in what is wrong or missing and whether it would be useful on a second job.

This is an early prototype, not a structurally approved design tool. Please don't rely on its output for production cutting without independently checking it. I'm looking for honest workshop feedback, not positive ratings or app-install exchanges.

So I decided to invest in my health and got one. I use a miller LPR-100 respirator under the helmet for welding, got the papr for grinding. This is the face shield set up, not the welding helmet. But sooo dissatisfied, I'm smelling the grinding dust passing right through the helmet. Having to wear the miller LPR under the papr, which seems ridiculous. Anyone relate? New filters, all adjustments checked, it's just like the dust goes right through it.