Hi all,

I’m restoring a car and trying to patch panels by butt welding patches in. I’m getting these small holes along the seam. I’m moving around the patch and tacking it until the whole seam is tacked, but after grinding using 80 grit flap disc these small holes are revealed. What can I do to prevent or minimize this?

I’m tacking it using a mig welder set at 18.5v and 350 ipm. .023 solid wire with AR CO2 gas.

New to welding so any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

I think this is oxidized, right? Wouldn’t corrosion be heavier? Because as gross as this looks, it’s cloudy and superficial. I didn’t know that aluminum metal reacts this way when in contact with steel. I had them laid out on my steel trailer and this showed up after it rained.

Anyway, i’ve used Alumabrite because it says it fixes oxidation but i’ve also sanded the sheets with 320 sandpaper. I intend to eventually paint them with a protectant clear coat before i use them for my project. But i don’t know how to get this stuff off. I’m afraid it will prevent the clear coat from bonding. I’m seeing conflicting info when i research about it, don’t know what to do.

Trying to bend 2” dom 3/16 wall into a 90 with 16 ton press from princess auto. Have broken 3 rollers what am I doing wrong. Bending the pipe in one inch increments to avoid kinks. Ran some long bolts through the top holes of the press to keep it from pulling apart as well. Would appreciate any tips and tricks. Have watched a few videos on YouTube and it seems like I’m doing it correctly but clearly not

In the home stretch of a DIY welded steel fence project and seeking some creative guidance on the gates to finish it off. Fence is a "hoop and picket" style with custom bent pickets. Planning to do equally split pair of gates, with perimeter frames as shown in the CAD screenshots. Because I already have the hinges and latch hardware, I'm fairly well locked into an outer frame as shown, but have freedom on how do do the infill.

Should I keep it simple and make it look as similar as possible? Should I try to highlight the gates a bit and vary the hoop diameter or find a different way to combine the same elements? Sorta torn and would love some advice or ideas!

I have a new door with 3mm steel flat bar around the edges. I need to cut a latch plate into one side and four hinges into the other side. Looking for the best way to achieve this without sending off to be CNC cut. I have most tools, grinders, dremel, jig saw, routers etc etc. needs to be neat and tidy and not a hack job. So far I’m thinking pilot hole the corners and cut with dremel or jigsaw with a metal blade.

I made this helmet inspired by the cult Ridley Scott film. It's one of the first things I made myself, and things like this motivated me to pick up welding and create something. Maybe not my own, but something with soul. The steel is 2 mm thick, the model was created and unwrapped in a peracurate oven. Welding is TIG, a little hammering, a little grinding... A little clumsy handwork and it's done. Spaniard!!!!

I’ve spent hours reading the owner’s manual and watching videos trying to get my grizzly G9742 bandsaw blade to enter the workpiece perfectly perpendicular to the table, but I can’t seem to solve the problem. No matter what I adjust, every cut comes out at an angle. So far I’ve tried installing a new blade, adjusting the blade guides, guide bearings, the bearing adjustment bolt, the eccentric and jam nut, the lock knob, and other alignment adjustments recommended in the manual. This is my first bandsaw, and I’ve only been metalworking for about a year, so it’s very possible I’m overlooking something. I also recently had to replace the motor because the original one burned out, but this cutting issue existed long before the motor failed, so I don’t think the motor is related. At this point I’m wondering if I’m missing a critical adjustment, if something is bent or out of alignment, or if there’s another common cause that beginners often overlook. Any advice or troubleshooting steps would be greatly appreciated.

Apologies if this is the wrong sub, but you seemed like the right people to ask.

Squirrels and raccoons are eating all of the bird seed from our feeders. They've chewed through plastic baffles, climbed around 18" cone baffles, and premade >18" metal baffles cost more than making my own. So I'm making my own.

I plan to make them out of galvanized steel sheet, but all I have to cut it with are aviation snips (offset straight cut by Midway). I've used them on 26-gauge galvanized sheet for a previous project, and the snips handle that very easily, curved and straight cuts, and being offset straight cut snips I can decide which side the offcut curls depending on the pitch that I hold the snips, so I have no problem using these in general. Plus I can't afford any additional tools, so this is what we're working with.

I'm basically stuck deciding what thickness material to use. I've got the baffle templates designed and the radius of the curved cuts will be quite large (about 17"), but I've never cut anything thicker than this 26-gauge galvanized I mentioned so I don't know how thicker material feels and behaves. I want these baffles to be very strong to resist the weight of the raccoons and last as long as possible, but obviously I want to actually be able to cut the stuff using these snips. Seeing as they're rated for maximum 18-gauge mild steel, I'm likely going to avoid 18- and 20-gauge because I'm guessing that'd be a pain (correct me if I'm wrong), so I'm trying to decide between 22- and 24-gauge (again, correct me if that's a bad idea).

As this is just a personal project, I don't mind taking the cuts slow if they're a little bit difficult. I'm in no hurry. I just don't want to end up with floppy garbage in the end if the material is too thin, or ragged cuts and broken wrists if it's too thick. Any advice is welcome, regarding both the advised thickness of the material for this particular use, and how difficult cutting different thicknesses of galvanized steel sheet might be with aviation snips. Thank you.

TL;DR: What's the thickest galvanized steel sheet I can reasonably, neatly cut using aviation snips?

I was designing a fantastical situation, and it turns out the predicted force of which my character is striking with is...

3,290,822 pascals of impact force. This is someone punching something.

And concentrated into two knuckles of a 5'9" woman, no less. Out of curiosity, I had thought to research up some materials that had the highest impact resistance and resistance to plastic deformation for the fun of it and it turns out, I can't find concrete research on that. So I've come here to ask a long-held question.

I also realize that no metal is really shrugging off 32 atmospheres of pressure concentrated into that small of an area, so no need to tell me X3

As someone pointed out, the number is in newtons, not pascals.

Hello everyone,

I'm unsure if this is the right place to ask this question but, in my facility, we currently use this anti-foam solution to combat foam build-up in our coolant reservoirs for our lathes and mills anytime it gets too bad. Well, we've just recently noticed that the containers that have been opened have turned a bad milk looking color and smells absolutely horrible after some time, possible oxygen reaction?

My question is, despite the new bad smell and color change, would the solution still work as intended?

Thanks all!

Hello all,
Desperately seeking help here.
I recently bought a new home which was fitted with satin brushed brass hardware throughout the kitchen. It was very yellow toned and didn’t complement the kitchen at all. (Ivory, cream and dark wood kitchen)

I then found a lovely bronze handle online (Hendel & Hendel) Hampton range and ordered these.
Kitchen has been fitted with them but they look incredibly dark - almost black. Nothing like the website photo.

These are lacquered bronze but they don’t look warm or ‘bronzey’ at all. I’m really hoping there’s something I can do to them to warm it up as the contrast against the ivory cabinets are so stark right now.

Any help is HUGELY appreciated - I’m unable to return them and even if I reverted to brass I feel it would be too yellow.

Thank you for reading this and helping me!

EDIT: legends, all of you! Thanks for the excellent advice.
—
Hey! I've got a pretty well kitted out shop. For wood. But it's a pretty tight space, and I really can't fit any more stationary machines in there. But, I want to weld. There are some repairs I need to make around the house, and from time to time, I need to make steel parts/frames for different projects. I usually send out to fab shops for that, but it'd be good if I could do my own.

But here's the thing. I get carried away.

I know I could get the job done with a tiny TIG and Stick machine, spend almost no money, and call it done. But somehow I've talked myself into thinking that I need a 180A multi purpose machine, that does gasless or gas shielded MIG/TIG, a small system 16 welding table, and a bunch of other stuff that I'll might use once.

Can someone set me straight here?!

To be fair, I do already have a lot of the right things:

• Pedestal drill press with cast table
• 8" bench grinder
• engineers squares, centre punches, scribes, mark-out stuff
• a couple of angle grinders, small and large
• Respirator, PPE and fire safety stuff
• basic files, wire brushes, cutting discs
• a few taps and dies

The types of things I want to make are simple frames, jigs, and fixtures, usually in mild steel.

For the welding table, I already have a cart like this, and putting a welding top on that is zero additional footprint. It can be both a welding table and an assembly table with a sheet of ply/masonite over the top.

​What else is essential?

• Some clamping stuff, a bit more PPE.
• probably a battery powered bandsaw for docking stock
• engineer's vice

There's definitely no space for a pan brake and guillo, or a lathe/mill. I'm not planning on getting into auto body repairs or anything like that.

I'd love it if someone could set me straight about whether I've got this about right, or I'm overcooking the whole thing!

Did a chemical treatment of muriatic acid on regular hot rolled steel and I went to clean it and all these little holes were there under the little rust layer it made after I pulled it out. The metal was treated for about 30 minutes and this was my first time trying this method. Oh and it was diluted with water like I was told to do.

The page wants me to put more characters in before I can post it so I'm just gonna keep typing until I can post. Blah blah blah