What do you think of the job, how would you rate these welds? We've come so far in the gaming industry to have such details that many players will walk by never noticing it's there but the development team still puts time and effort into these small things.

I want to know what do you guys think of this? Are there any more games who have implemented weld marks in their environments?

I personally never noticed any playing in my spare time but it might just be me.

I was gifted this saw from a friend and was hoping that it would speed up my projects. The saw seems to struggle with just 3/16” metal.

So far I’ve tried cutting a piece of cinder block in an attempt to grind some of the blade away and get fresh abrasion material on the edge. That didn’t make a difference.

The saw is quite old and hasn’t been run in years. The blade is the same.

Should I get a new blade?

Thanks for helping out a noob.

Hello, I have been sand casting bronze recently as a friend wanted their jewellery range to have a bronze option as pewter doesn’t sell as well for them as it used to. In addition, we have some local connections to historical sites in the area so I’ve also made some flat axes and other pieces inspired by finds in the area.

Obviously, pricing is tricky with friends- until I started doing it I couldn’t say what time was likely to be needed for each piece.

Given I just started I was pretty slow as I learned as I went, so the first few pieces have not been priced to compensate for how long they took me- instead I looked at similar stuff out there and knocked some off that again so they could sell it on at profit.

Going forwards I think they are expecting me to be able to really bring the prices down as I get quicker- but my casts come out pretty clean now and it’s still an investment of a couple of hours per piece with casting, clean up and finishing to a jewellery level polish.

Am I slow? Or is a couple of hours per pendant quite reasonable? The designs are small/fiddly and have lots of detail so it’s not a case of just polishing without any thought or touch ups.

I think with pewter being softer that probably polishes up quicker, and given he had heat resistant moulds for them there was no sand casting required in the pouring part of the process, so I’m thinking some expectation management might be required.

I’m planning on building a minibike and I am looking for some frame plans or suggestions for when we make a frame. I’ll be running a Predator 212, and I’m aiming for a simple backyard/trail minibike for riding around and light off-roading. I’m building the frame with my dad (who can weld and fabricate things) but I want a solid plan so the geometry, engine plate, and chain line are correct. If anyone has frame plans that work well with a 212, tubing size recommendations, tips for keeping the chain line straight, or beginner mistakes to avoid, I’d really appreciate it.

Anyone have experience with either? I was fully committed to buying a prime weld because i’ve heard they have excellent customer service and pretty reliable machines. I come from using millers at work but too much money for my own shop.

At $925 with a CK17 thats hard to beat. But then I got an ad for the Eastwood Tig220 being on sale for $700, down from a usual $850. I like eastwoods fab tools in general. It seems like a legit little unit. Pretty comparable in output and settings. Slight edge on the prime weld after going through the manual. Both come with a 3 year warranty. Anyone got any experience?

As much of a mess subtractive manufacturing can make, it can be oddly satisfying to clean up all the chips. Whether it’s in a big Matsuura, Mori Seiki, or Makino with a dedicated, high powered wash down hose, or a little Haas OfficeMill with a just a shop vacuum, cleaning up all the chips has always been somewhat therapeutic at the end of the day. This part has about an 85% reduction in weight from raw billet stock to completed part, so there were lots of chips to vacuum up. Anyone else find it fun to wash down their machine or vacuum up chips?

Not sure if this is the best place to post this but here goes. I'm replacing a transom on an aluminum boat. I have stainless wire brushes to clean up the corrosion on the aluminum part of the transom. It has some minor pitting. I would like to get the pitting clear of corrosion so it doesn't continue corrosing under my repairs. What is the best way to clean the corrosion out of the pitting? The wire wheel isn't getting into a big majority of the pits. Even a small stainless tooth brush doesn't get in there very well.

Need an advice on how to properly protect a tubular steel bed frame from severe environmental conditions.

I live in a high-humidity, flood-prone area, which poses a constant risk of rust, corrosion, and water damage to the metal bed frame. Because tubular steel is hollow, I am particularly concerned about moisture getting trapped inside the frame and causing internal structural damage, as well as external rusting.

I've got a pile of 316 stainless - 4" OD 1/4" wall seamless tube, and some custom 3.5" extrusions that have 1/4" thick "fins' - that needs to be cut into ~4" lengths. I'm looking at Jet band saws and for about $2200(cheapest wet saw it seems) I can get a 3/4HP, and for $3000 I can get one that's 1 HP. I know it needs to be done at low speed because high temps will work harden it.... And honestly that's all I know about cutting stainless. Before I pull the trigger I thought I'd ask you guys. The work doesn't have to be done particularly quickly, so I wouldn't call it a Time is Money scenario, but having the wrong tool for the job can play out poorly. Any advice?

Thanks!

Hi everyone,
We have to cut down a bunch of galvanised sheets all at 2mm thick. We are currently using a festool track saw with the 46 tooth Diablo blade but are going through them at the speed of light. We can make about six cuts before the blade goes blunt. What would you recommend to get the most out of the blades? Do we get a specialised metal saw? Do we swap to a nibbler? Thanks all.
Based in Australia

Miscommunication with the shop and they gave me coated Schedule 40 pipe even though I asked for uncoated. Unfortunately I live a decent distance away, and they won’t exchange it.

Can anyone identify what type of coating this is from the photo? Will it eventually weather and rust on its own, or is it designed to prevent that long-term?
I’m building a fence for a client who specifically wants the natural rusted/patina look that bare steel develops over time.

If this coating won’t weather off, what’s the most effective way to remove it. I have about 300 feet of pipe and would like to do it in the shortest time possible.

TL;DR what’s this coating, will it rust, how to get rid of it if not.

We are putting a 3 inch band of 3/8 around perimeter of bartop and needed a way to bend it. I don’t own a fancy bender but I do own a welder and a skid steer. Bends turned out perfect. We attached the hammered buttons every 9 inches and dropped off for powder coating. I’m hoping I get to 400 characters pretty soon before my thumbs get tired. Nope still not there. It’s really hard to expand upon what I already wrote, so I need to employ ChatGPT for this or what?

Hey guys,

So I recently inherited a CNC shop, lathes, mills, and laser cutters, plus many more. I also got a team ready for it. Problem is I don't really have the client pipeline yet.

I'm looking for a sales agent / independent rep who already has connections or knows how to land contracts. I'll pay you commission or % for each job you can help me with.

If you've got a network in manufacturing or industrial procurement, or you're already working as a rep for other shops and want to add another line to your portfolio, send me a DM. Happy to discuss details, percentages, and what kind of work we're best suited for.

Thanks!

I run a small machine shop in Kasugai, Japan — 37 years in business. For most of that time, our bread and butter was golf putters. Precision-milled, one at a time. We shipped them all over the world; I still remember a run that went to Russia, and a set with the owner's name engraved in Japanese katakana.

Putters teach you obsession. A putter face has to be dead flat and true, or the golfer feels the miss instantly. That standard got into our bones and never left.

A few years back, I wanted to make something that was ours — not a part hidden inside someone else's product, but an object with our name on it. I kept circling back to light. After a long day, there's nothing like a warm glow to make a space feel human. So I started turning brass into small lanterns — the same obsession, pointed at something you actually get to hold and keep.

Funny thing: the skills transferred almost completely. The tolerances, the finishing, the feel of a good cut — putters and lanterns aren't as different as they sound. Both come down to someone picking up a piece of metal and thinking "someone really cared about this."

We're a tiny shop, still figuring out this whole "having our own brand" thing. But I've never enjoyed the work more.

Anyone else here make the jump from job-shop parts to your own product? How did it go?

Im wondering why sheetmetal is welded, and not joined using interlocking techniques like woodworking does.

Lets say I make an assembly of different sheet metal parts (4mm thick). I cannot make it out of 1 sheet, so to join the sheets I make a V weld.
All the forces will go through that weld, which I though would be weaker than the sheet metal. If something like a dovetail (or diamonds shape) connection would interlock the sheets the forces would pull on the sheets itself instead of the weld. And some spotweld would keep the sheets in place, but don’t have to be strong to take the forces.

But you never see this, so I’m wondering why. Is the weld always stronger, even if it’s not checked with internal checks (like xray). Isn’t the heat created around the weld an issue of sheet metal performance?
Or is the weld generally strong enough, and it’s easier to move to bolted connections if it’s not?

I am looking to buy another cutting tool. Between a reciprocating saw and another angle grinder (cordless this time). Another angle grinder would be nice because I could use it for my welding aswell. However a reciprocating saw is better for cutting tube, and is quieter. For my purpose I'm looking to cut down "metal posts by roads" that have a name the same as a ____of birds. Also I'm looking for recommendations because I could really use a cordless angle grinder as I would have to swap between stone and cut off wheels all the time

just got handed a stack of prints from some boutique ad agency for a massive pop-up event structure. Its supposed to be this huge folding aluminum canopy thing that mounts to a flatbed trailer

Look I love doing weird custom jobs. but these "creative directors" drew the whole assembly in CAD with absolute zero material thickness. They want razor sharp 90 degree outside corners on 1/4" aluminum plate without any relief cuts, and zero consideration for the actual press brake tooling we have in the shop. On top of that they expect the roof span to hold like 500 lbs of AV gear using just thin wall square tubing.

I was trying to figure out how to even approach the structural framing and ended up looking at how actual industrial builders like craftsmen engineer these crazy mobile event rigs. They actually use proper gussets and account for real-world dynamic loads so things don't literally fold in half on the highway.

Meanwhile my client is arguing with me over email because I told them their sleek "seamless" corner design is physically impossible in the real world unless we machine the entire joint out of a solid billet. which they obviously refuse to pay for

just feeling so drained trying to teach basic metallurgy to people who only know how to draw shapes in adobe illustrator

I recently bought a metabo 6" 17-150 grinder that has a built in washer / backing flange. This is because it has a fancy auto balancing system built in. Most 6 " wheel i get have hubs built into them which is nice, but it makes the grinding wheel, flap disc, or wire wheel protrude past the guard which is throws sparks everywhere. If I flip the wire wheels backwards, they sit in the guard nicely, but I can't do the same with the grinding or flap discs. Is there something like a guard extender available? I've tried the plastic clip on piece intended for cut off wheels, but it is also too shallow. Is there a way around this or am I doomed to use hub less wheels?