r/metalworking • • Feb 01 '25

Monthly Advice Thread Monthly Advice/Questions Thread | 02/01/2025

4 Upvotes

Welcome to the Monthly Advice Thread


Ask your metalworking questions here! Any submissions that are question based may be directed to this thread! Please keep discussion on topic and note that comments on these threads will not be moderated as regularly as the main post feed.


Uses for this thread!

This is a great place to ask about tools, possibilities, materials, basic questions related to the trade, homework help, project advice, material science questions and more!


How to contact the moderators:

You can contact the moderators via modmail here


r/metalworking • • Dec 01 '24

Monthly Advice Thread Monthly Advice/Questions Thread | 12/01/2024

7 Upvotes

Welcome to the Monthly Advice Thread


Ask your metalworking questions here! Any submissions that are question based may be directed to this thread! Please keep discussion on topic and note that comments on these threads will not be moderated as regularly as the main post feed.


Uses for this thread!

This is a great place to ask about tools, possibilities, materials, basic questions related to the trade, homework help, project advice, material science questions and more!


How to contact the moderators:

You can contact the moderators via modmail here


r/metalworking • • 9h ago

Cutting out long travel suspension

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14 Upvotes

Just felt like sharing a fast turnaround, everything clicked together perfectly. Was actually really stoked with how it came out and was able to fit it on a single shade of three sixteents. Had to do some small adjustments to it. But everything packed in and there was no warping at all.

Manage to weld up a few of these as well. And I actually like how they turn out. Pretty easy to put together.


r/metalworking • • 1d ago

My graduation project for design school

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2.3k Upvotes

I’m a French designer recently graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven. A Room for Echoes is a collection of sculptural steel furniture inspired by the Neo-classical funerary architecture. The collection includes a bookcase, a rotating chair and a monumental desk, handmade in my Paris workshop. The project explores memory, permanence and mortality through sharp forms and a deep black, glossy finish.


r/metalworking • • 9h ago

First big welding Blunder

11 Upvotes

I had my first big blunder today, ended up with 15 scrapped parts. That couldn't be saved. It out us behind by alot and it really took the wind out of my sails. What I'm trying to ask is how do I move forward without this eating me alive. I'm disappointed in myself, and I don't want it to effect my work going forward with a bad mindset. My boss, and coworkers gave me a shot when they hired me as it's my first welding job, and it hurts that disappointed them.


r/metalworking • • 2h ago

Design review: 24-inch bolted aluminum origami crane: how would you simplify and validate this before cutting?

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1 Upvotes

r/metalworking • • 9h ago

44-inch-high game table: find taller stools or shorten the steel legs?

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3 Upvotes

We built a family game and puzzle table using 42-inch A-frame steel legs and a butcher-block top about 1½ inches thick. The finished table is about 44 inches high.

We’d like to use it for games and puzzles, so we’re trying to find comfortable stools. Would stools with a 32–33-inch seat be a reasonable fit at this table height? Or would it be worth asking a metal fabricator whether these legs could be shortened by a couple of inches?

I’m especially interested in hearing from anyone who has paired seating with a table this high or modified similar welded A-frame legs. What worked well?


r/metalworking • • 17h ago

My First layer Weld

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10 Upvotes

r/metalworking • • 1d ago

[VIDEO] I cross-stitched stainless steel

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30 Upvotes

r/metalworking • • 16h ago

First Time Welding

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5 Upvotes

So I wanted to try tig welding. I’m using spare exhaust parts to practice on. This is my first attempts. I’m looking to get any advice whatsoever on how to improve.

#8 Gas Cup, 20 CFH, 45 Amps
are the settings I used. What do I change?

I keep burning holes on the pipe.
Also I’d like to ask for large gaps, is it best to try and reduce it? Or is there a way to fill it without melting a hole? Say the gap is 4mm


r/metalworking • • 1d ago

Welding hardened to mild without it cracking?

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16 Upvotes

Boss man has me trying to attach a Bobcat cutting edge to the bottom of the bucket to keep the bucket from wearing out. but every time I try to weld it it cracks, one or two welds have held, but I’m sure once I go to weld on the opposite side of the piece those two will crack as well, something like that. Is hardened like cast where you have to cool it super slow after winding it? Do I need to stitch it with like 1 inch welds 10 minutes in between each 1 inch? Is this even possible? What the hell am I doing?


r/metalworking • • 1d ago

My first attempt at repoussé

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127 Upvotes

Had a go at something new yesterday. I do lots of welding, have a forge, make knives, exhaust pipes, do body and chassis restoration on cars, make all sorts of things, but for my birthday I was gifted a craft afternoon for pewter and copper hand working.

It was a lovely afternoon, I was surrounded by retired old ladies nattering away and as an "Oh, young maaaan!" I of course flirted outrageously and had a bit of a giggle. Not my usual sort of thing but actually really enjoyed this.

Anyway, this is what I managed in an afternoon after some playing around with the tools and techniques and making gentle innuendo and non-serious flirtation with the old nanas... One of my test pieces for learning what the different hand tools do, and then what I made. I ran out lf time though and had to rush at the end and never finished, and I dont like how the eyes turned out. But I think this is something I can get good at.


r/metalworking • • 22h ago

Enough fume extraction for MIG on what I’m pretty sure is galvanized?

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1 Upvotes

r/metalworking • • 22h ago

How to engage auto feed

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1 Upvotes

r/metalworking • • 1d ago

have you ever made a part to spec and still had it not fit?

4 Upvotes

a part can measure perfectly on its own and still cause trouble once it goes into an assembly. hole spacing, alignment, heat distortion, stack-up tolerances, or even the order of assembly can turn a seemingly correct job into a headache

it's one thing when a measurement is obviously wrong. it's much harder when every individual dimension checks out

when this happens, what's usually the culprit in your experience? i'm interested in the less obvious causes that don't show up until the parts come together.


r/metalworking • • 1d ago

Question aimed at Aussies; any of you get your engineering/tool steel through Edcon?

20 Upvotes

Never ordered from them before until now for a metre length of O1 square bar. Far as I can see, the prices look mint(or at least a lot better than anything else I've found) for either machinable or smithing stock.

The 400 character limit is fucking me a little here on making this post not sound like a 9 paragraph AI post.

Alternative question:

Where are you finding decent steel stock that doesn't cost a fortune? I'm not game enough to spend 5k on mild plate.


r/metalworking • • 23h ago

Trying to make a consistent set of brackets for a light fixture

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1 Upvotes

r/metalworking • • 1d ago

Makita chop saw blade alingment.

1 Upvotes

I just picked up a used Makita LW1401 chop saw and the blade is nowhere even close to square with the table. There are no obvious adjustments on the saw. I rooted around looking for a solution but no luck. Anyone here know if there is even a way to to do this? I have to have 400 characters for this to post so im rambling. That's close to 10 lines! To the mods of this sub think Im Thomas Wolfe (guy that writes really long and often tedious novels). There, I did it.


r/metalworking • • 1d ago

Uneven bends

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3 Upvotes

Hello everyone. I have recently been trying to bend round tubing to create a cross kart. I have been having issues with my tubing coming out very uneven. I cannot seem to trace the issue. I have already drawn a straight line all across the tubing before bending and have been placing my clamp block on that straight line, but it still seems to be coming out this way. The simplest thing to do is cut it in half and weld the two parts back together. Does anyone have any tips and tricks to avoid this issue? I am using a 1.75 die with a 6-inch centerline radius. The tubing I am using is 1.75 x 0.134.


r/metalworking • • 1d ago

0.01 mm straightness on a long shaft

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10 Upvotes

Spent some time on this shaft at the lathe. Long parts always make me pay a bit more attention, especially when it comes to keeping things straight over the full length.

We got the straightness within 0.01 mm on this one, which I'm pretty happy with. Getting the diameter right at a few points is one thing, but making sure the whole shaft stays within the required geometry is a different job.

I find these parts interesting because the finished result doesn't always show how much attention went into getting there. Sometimes you look at a shaft and it just looks like a shaft. Then you check the measurements and appreciate the work a bit more.


r/metalworking • • 2d ago

I made another elven crown. All wire wrapped, no soldering.

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278 Upvotes

r/metalworking • • 2d ago

I made this cool go-kart model

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104 Upvotes

r/metalworking • • 1d ago

Can this be repaired? Broken lampwork torch tips ;/

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0 Upvotes

The lamp work torch fell down and unfortunately two of the tips broke. The torch is for working with glass and it's a rare type so it's hard to find another or will be expensive buy.

My father has some welding experience but for cars and some metal working.

I'm wondering where or can the tips be repaired? Or is it possible to order same tips somewhere? Thanks for looking and offering help in comments in advance.


r/metalworking • • 2d ago

Cutting aluminum plate with bandsaw: Was masking tape necessary?

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29 Upvotes

I was cutting an aluminum plate earlier...I'd been planning this for a week or more, preparing...at the last moment I thought "I'll add masking tape over the areas I'm cutting".

I had no real thoughts of the why other than maybe keeping aluminum dust from flying, maybe making the cut cleaner..something......I decided at worst it did nothing.

My question is... did it help? did it hurt? did it nothing at all?


r/metalworking • • 1d ago

Anyone here have experience with fume hoods or scrubbers for small-scale gold refining?

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1 Upvotes