# Alrighty,.... I love workin' with metal,....



## beenthere (Oct 11, 2008)

Maybe you can post a few welding pointers, to help get the forum started.

And to help me. LOL


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## DexterII (Jul 14, 2010)

Yup, a great addition to the site! I'm old school, so no mig yet, although I have used them and think about one every once in a while, but do arc weld and oxygen/acetylene cut, weld, and braze. My favorite tool in this arena though is my old but reliable South Bend lathe. A great companion some evenings when I want to think a little but not too much. Chuck up the piece, tool it up, engage the clutch, and watch it do it's thing while I sit on a stool and relax. Can't do that with a table saw.


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## Bondo (Dec 8, 2007)

DexterII said:


> Yup, a great addition to the site! I'm old school, so no mig yet, although I have used them and think about one every once in a while, but do arc weld and oxygen/acetylene cut, weld, and braze. My favorite tool in this arena though is my old but reliable South Bend lathe. A great companion some evenings when I want to think a little but not too much. Chuck up the piece, tool it up, engage the clutch, and watch it do it's thing while I sit on a stool and relax. Can't do that with a table saw.


Ayuh,.... I _*W i s h*_ I had an engine lathe, like the ole South Bends in high school shop,...

But I do have a stick welder, 'n several migs,...
The "Blue-tip Wrenches" ride on my pickup,...

I ain't found much I can't weld,.... results do vary,...

Just a few shots of things done,...
The pumphouse at the Chemo Pond Maine Lodge,.....








It's made outa the end caps of 1000 gal. propane tanks I built a Barge outa,...
The rollin' dock in the background was built here in sections, loaded onto my truck, 'n assembled there too,...
Great project, but wrong materials,... used Free black iron pipe, shoulda held out for steel conduit,..

Probably oughta show the Barge,...
I wasn't the only Welder, but did weld alot, 'n was the "Navel Architect" on the design, 'n build,...









Probably the project that's "Paid Off" the Best is my home made outdoor wood boiler,...
I ain't bought a drop of heatin' oil in Years now,....
From a propane tank inside an industrial water softener tank,...








To the finished, workin' unit,...









Every bit of it dumpster finds, except some of the controls, 'n pumps,...


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## Bondo (Dec 8, 2007)

A few years ago, I needed new stairs down to the waterfront at the rental house,...
Scrounged 'round a few dumpsters, 'n found these drops, 'bout 7" wide,...
Perfect,...
Them, 'n some salvaged rebar, I welded up the formin'/ framin', built a sluice, 'n mixed the concrete I needed,.....
Backfilled my steel work with concrete, 'n I think I've got a 100 year stairway,...


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## Fix'n it (Mar 12, 2012)

i do metal fab. i have a MILLER DYNASTY 200DX, a small mig, torches, a small metal lathe/mill, and the other tools needed for metal fab. but, my rehabing this house, i don't have much time for it.


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## 1985gt (Jan 8, 2011)

I was wondering how new this was!

I love working with steel heavy and light. We have a couple of mig welders and one dinosaur of a arc I'll be the first to admit I can not arch weld to save my life. 

No mills or lathes. I took a lot of machine tool in high school. It was about the time CNC started getting popular. 

My son likes it too!


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## tbeck3579 (Dec 9, 2014)

*Cool Stuff*

Love the stuff posted. Was hoping to have some fun looking at all the creations that people make but I see this is a new forum -- cool addition to the DIY btw. I'm not the welder, but just about all the guys around the farm do and always have worked with metal/iron in some form or another. I sure wish I had a pic of the mailbox we created. In the country one of the hazards of having a mailbox is a young kid in a combine will take it out during harvest -- it is a given. You either put in a movable mailbox or, put in something they know will cause major damage to those 1/2 million dollar machines. They respect that :notworthy:

The first one was created by welding an old tire rim with a metal mailbox atop. You could tilt it slightly and roll it back into place after they hit it. The metal mailbox started looking rough after years of combine encounters so it was time for a new one. The second one was an obvious "don't hit it because your combine will not win this match :boxing:" mailbox. We took two big old steel rims we had from the horse farming days, a steel tractor seat and steel steering wheel and created a cool, funky looking tractor mail box. That mailbox was huge -- had to put a new culvert in when we set it in place. We decided to sell it 10 or 15 years ago, and sorry we did.

I look forward to seeing all the creative cool things people make.


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## flhtcu (Oct 12, 2014)

Looks like not a lot of welders here! Bondo,I love the bobber!! Being in autobody,I've welded all my adult life,but mostly sheet metal. 
I've had mig welders for so long,I don't know if I could handle a stick any more! Maybe I'm simple minded,but it just always amazes me that I can actually melt steel and stick 2 pieces of it together! 
Right now,I'm doing a rural paper route to supplement my social security.A few weeks ago I luckily made it home with a cracked[from rust] rear axle on my route car-a '93 Grand Am.[right rear tire laying in against the shock absorber] A come-along,a porta -power,and my mig put the car back together.Most people probably would have junked the car.


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## Toller (Jan 2, 2013)

flhtcu said:


> Looks like not a lot of welders here! Bondo,I love the bobber!! Being in autobody,I've welded all my adult life,but mostly sheet metal.
> I've had mig welders for so long,I don't know if I could handle a stick any more! Maybe I'm simple minded,but it just always amazes me that I can actually melt steel and stick 2 pieces of it together!
> Right now,I'm doing a rural paper route to supplement my social security.A few weeks ago I luckily made it home with a cracked[from rust] rear axle on my route car-a '93 Grand Am.[right rear tire laying in against the shock absorber] A come-along,a porta -power,and my mig put the car back together.Most people probably would have junked the car.


Seems to me you could make more in retirement by welding then by delivering newspapers.
I have a couple things every year that I throw away because taking them to a welding shop is just too expensive. If someone local were doing it at a reasonable price.
A couple years ago I put a broken snow blower on CL. A guy offered to fix it for $15. Incredible bargain, a repair shop would have been $75, yet it probably took him 15 minutes. That sort of thing.


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## SPS-1 (Oct 21, 2008)

This is not exactly fabrication, but I think its cool just the same. Check it out -- its an aluminum sphere, trapped in an aluminum cube. You will have to think long and hard to figure out how I made it. Cube is 2"x2"x2".


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## SeniorSitizen (Sep 10, 2012)

With the expansion / contraction of Al being what it is, the ball was frozen while the cube was expanded and the ball dropped in never to return.


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## TheEplumber (Jul 20, 2010)

SeniorSitizen said:


> With the expansion / contraction of Al being what it is, the ball was frozen while the cube was expanded and the ball dropped in never to return.


I've seen backhoe suspension parts assembled this way using dry ice- to far from a garage or mobile mech.


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## BigJim (Sep 2, 2008)

The way some wrist pins are installed in the rods and pistons of an engine, is to heat the rod, cool the wrist pin and it will slide right in and lock, but you got to be quick.


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## SPS-1 (Oct 21, 2008)

SeniorSitizen said:


> With the expansion / contraction of Al being what it is, the ball was frozen while the cube was expanded and the ball dropped in never to return.


 
No. A 200 degree F temperature difference will change the size of the sphere/hole about .003-004". The sphere is about a quarter inch bigger than the hole.


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## techie1961 (Dec 16, 2014)

SPS-1 said:


> This is not exactly fabrication, but I think its cool just the same. Check it out -- its an aluminum sphere, trapped in an aluminum cube. You will have to think long and hard to figure out how I made it. Cube is 2"x2"x2".


I think you can make it with a four jaw chuck and a lathe with a little fixturing towards the end. I would have to lay it out to see if it is entirely possible on a lathe but it appears to be.

Nice job however it is done.


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## SPS-1 (Oct 21, 2008)

*Bingo. We have a winner.*

Cut a radius on a tool bit, turn the cross-slide to an angle, and feed the bit in through the hole that was roughed into the cube. 

A machinist showed me about 25 years ago the one he made, and I remember it vividly to this day. Apparently, in the old days, apprentice machinists had to figure out how to make it, and then make it. I had the advantage of Google to figure out how to make it, and 3D CAD to test if I had the geometry right. Made it in my basement on some pretty cheap tools. I ground the toolbit on my pedestal grinder, using a round knob as the pattern. Chatterred like a bugger while at the deeper cuts. My buddy is a machinist and I get under his skin by pointing out that I can make one, but he can't --- I won't tell him how I made it.


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## techie1961 (Dec 16, 2014)

SPS-1 said:


> *Bingo. We have a winner.*
> 
> Cut a radius on a tool bit, turn the cross-slide to an angle, and feed the bit in through the hole that was roughed into the cube.
> 
> A machinist showed me about 25 years ago the one he made, and I remember it vividly to this day. Apparently, in the old days, apprentice machinists had to figure out how to make it, and then make it. I had the advantage of Google to figure out how to make it, and 3D CAD to test if I had the geometry right. Made it in my basement on some pretty cheap tools. I ground the toolbit on my pedestal grinder, using a round knob as the pattern. Chatterred like a bugger while at the deeper cuts. My buddy is a machinist and I get under his skin by pointing out that I can make one, but he can't --- I won't tell him how I made it.


I suppose that I cheated a bit. I am a tool and die maker so it wasn't too much of a challenge to figure out (as opposed to some here that are not machinists). I am surprised that your buddy can't though. I've never seen one but they are a nice little piece to have. Great conversation starter.:thumbsup:


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## High Gear (Nov 30, 2009)

That's pretty cool ...never seen one heh heh
One die shop I worked at one of the fellas EDM'd up a square I.D. nut.
I felt obligated to machine up a 5 headed bolt for it. heh heh
Oh gosh ... more than a few coins where turned into 2 headed ones over the years among other things.

Welding advice ...Hmmm .....Oh Yeah..

oxyacetylene and balloons don't mix.

( still have all my hearing .....shouldn't have)


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## ChuckF. (Aug 25, 2013)

High Gear said:


> That's pretty cool ...never seen one heh heh
> One die shop I worked at one of the fellas EDM'd up a square I.D. nut.
> I felt obligated to machine up a 5 headed bolt for it. heh heh
> Oh gosh ... more than a few coins where turned into 2 headed ones over the years among other things.
> ...


Years ago, -okay decades ago, we used to guess at a good oxygen/acetylene mix at the valves, and use the gas coming out of the tip to fill a plastic bread bag. Then close the bread bag with an old spark plug and a twist tie. Sneak out to the parking lot and stick it onto your buddy's car engine, just pick whichever plug wire is easiest to get at.

This is of course in the days before inside hood releases became standard.

No damage, but a real surprise.


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## flhtcu (Oct 12, 2014)

Toller said:


> Seems to me you could make more in retirement by welding then by delivering newspapers.
> I have a couple things every year that I throw away because taking them to a welding shop is just too expensive. If someone local were doing it at a reasonable price.
> A couple years ago I put a broken snow blower on CL. A guy offered to fix it for $15. Incredible bargain, a repair shop would have been $75, yet it probably took him 15 minutes. That sort of thing.


 Hee Hee-the paper route gets me out of the house[and away from my crippled girlfriend] and into the country side for a few hours. I usually have a side job in the garage to work on-last one paid 1k [cash]..
You're absolutely right though,I wouldn't advise anybody to take on a paper route for "extra money"


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## 123pugsy (Oct 6, 2012)

Metal fab forum. Cool.
I didn't see it til today.

Been working with stainless sheet metal for 35 years.
Built the chassis for my hot rod from stainless even although I'm on the fence about actually driving it. May have to start from scratch with mild steel.


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## Bondo (Dec 8, 2007)

123pugsy said:


> Metal fab forum. Cool.
> I didn't see it til today.
> 
> Been working with stainless sheet metal for 35 years.
> *Built the chassis for my hot rod from stainless even although I'm on the fence about actually driving it.* May have to start from scratch with mild steel.


Ayuh,.... Where's the Pictures of it,..?? :whistling2: :laughing:

SSteel is funny stuff to work with,....
Easy to weld, a bytch to cut,...


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## 123pugsy (Oct 6, 2012)

Here you go........


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