General metal fabrication

xtremeyj · Nov 6, 2009

cucvzuz said:
I have found these speeds to be about 50% to slow. they drill way to slow

Drill to fast and you heat up the bits and fuck em up. Have patience grasshopper

cucvzuz · Nov 6, 2009

xtremeyj said:
Drill to fast and you heat up the bits and fuck em up. Have patience grasshopper

Havent "fucked" any up yet and have been doing this for years.
We core hundreds of these at work and usually get 15-20 holes out of 3-1/2"-6" saws at that speed.

I have found that the increased speed helps pull the chips out throught the cut.

On a more tech filled note. Try this and hole saws start to really rock! A friend of mine suggested when drilling plate 1/4" and above with a hole saw, drill a small hole about a 1/4" on the cut line prior to drilling,to help eject chips out the bottom instead of riding around the cut. production will increase dramaticly, and speed can also be increased.

kabuki · Nov 6, 2009

cucvzuz said:
On a more tech filled note. Try this and hole saws start to really rock! A friend of mine suggested when drilling plate 1/4" and above with a hole saw, drill a small hole about a 1/4" on the cut line prior to drilling,to help eject chips out the bottom instead of riding around the cut. production will increase dramaticly, and speed can also be increased.

sounds like a good idea. I will have to try this.

ftoy507 · Nov 6, 2009

SeaBass44 said:
my plasma cuts sheet smooth
yours must be fucked up, as is your welder, sounds like it's not hot enough by the popin bacon sound
what brand/model are these tools?

Plasma is a thermadyne or thermal dynamics (45 I think) 220 volt power. Does not cut good on anything under 1/4 inch thick.

Welder is a Hobart Ironman 250 on 220 volt power.

I will check the power supply. A buddy who is a lineman at the power company brought the supply wire to me. The wire is about 1 guage and the run is only about 4ft long.

The welds look OK for my skill level and they are strong. But, the sound and spatter have become a problem recently.

Thanks for any help. Going to read my troubleshooting guides for the welder and plasma.

Swag Off Road · Nov 6, 2009

A simple technique for splicing tubing.

When I splice tubing together I always place a little tack weld in the middle of the tubing slug. This way I do not loose the center weld slug down either end of the tubing to be spliced, and it provides ~1/4" gap between the two outer mating tubes so I get good weld penetration a well.

maxyedor · Nov 6, 2009

Swag Off Road said:
A simple technique for splicing tubing.

When I splice tubing together I always place a little tack weld in the middle of the tubing slug. This way I do not loose the center weld slug down either end of the tubing to be spliced, and it provides ~1/4" gap between the two outer mating tubes so I get good weld penetration a well.

I usually mark the center with a sharpie and tap it in one side, then tack in the rosette hole. I've found 1/4" gap is a little too much to fill cleanly in most cases.

Another one I though of today, when you're welding link tabs, make an extra washer out of some thin sheet to put in with the misalignment spacers (old shock shims work too), once you paint them, that extra hair of a gap makes it much easier to reassemble and torquing to bolt closes the gap perfectly.

FrkyMnky1487 · Nov 6, 2009

Well I can finally add something to this. I was having problems the other day trying to chop saw notch and couldnt get it to line up properly. I ended up laying one tube over the one I wanted to notch at the angle I needed. Then I used a sharpie to mark the outside edge of the tube. I removed the top tube and then took the radius of the tube and drew another line parallel to the first mark. I then measured to find the center and drew 2 more lines from the center inside line to the edge of the outside line to use as my cut mark. After a little grinding the notch was perfect.

amp · Nov 6, 2009

Triaged said:
@amp
Where did you get that chart? FWIW the torque spec for 1" grade 8 is off by 200ft*lb. It should be 900ft*lb not 700ft*lb.

from "the engineers handbook"

amp · Nov 6, 2009

Triaged said:
@amp
Where did you get that chart? FWIW the torque spec for 1" grade 8 is off by 200ft*lb. It should be 900ft*lb not 700ft*lb.

Triaged, i think you are correct, the 1" must be a misprint.
The grade 7 has a higher torque than grade 8 in the chart.

I would have to agree, it should be 900.

dumb · Nov 6, 2009

geberhard said:
One quick tip for mocking up or designing tube bends on cages, bumpers, stingers, etc is to use a kid's pool noodle. Insert a strip of copper inside or other maleable metal and it will hold shape.

It will cost about a buck per noodle, plus you get to play when your are done

LOL! I've always been afraid to post up my tube layout trick but yours is similar and a lot more laugh worthy. I actually use a hose meant to connect your clothes washer to the water supply (black not stainless) and thread a length of brake line through it. Works great to get a visual on something and helps setting stop points when you are bending. Used it on a lot of tube projects and haven't really found a down-side yet. :homer:

j20brett · Nov 6, 2009

General drillbit speed chart

http://www.ibiblio.org/twa/info/drillSpeedChart.pdf
http://its.fvtc.edu/MachShop1/drillpress/cutspeeds.htm

featherflicker · Nov 6, 2009

ftoy507 said:
2 technical questions that will benefit others if answered.

First
My mig welder is leaving a lot of spatter on the metal I am working with. I think the settings may be wrong. About 30 minutes of tuning wire speed and temp is not helping so far. Also instead of a frying egg sound I get a sound more like bacon grease popping.

Second
What is the best way to cut sheet metal. Jigsaw tends to bend it, plasma leaves a very rough edge, Skill saw sucks for curves.

On the welder check your ground cable and clamp. Also don't try to adjust wire speed and voltage at the same time. Set the one in the right range and then adjust the other to run smoothly.

For sheet metal I like a 4.5 grinder with cut off wheels.

bggrnchvy · Nov 6, 2009

For straight plasma cuts I've got some 1-1/4" square stock that works great.

Angle is nice too but you have to clamp it down, the solid stock is heavy enough to run up against as a guide without clamping so repositioning is fast and easy. The sharp edge that sits perpendicular on the sheet prevents you from cutting under the guide too.

phoenixsomd · Nov 6, 2009

featherflicker said:
On the welder check your ground cable and clamp. Also don't try to adjust wire speed and voltage at the same time. Set the one in the right range and then adjust the other to run smoothly.

Also make sure where you attach your ground is real clean down to bare steel

LazyDog · Nov 7, 2009

When plasma cutting free hand, don't drag the tip on the material, it will just get hung up on smaller irregularities and make your cuts less even.

Directions for right handed folks (like me)
1) Rest the torch in your left hand, palm up
2) Lightly rest the back of your left hand on the material... keeping the proper torch stand off the material
3) don't rest your left forearm or elbow on the material. In other words don't support your fat ass with your left arm in anyway.
4) control the direction with your torch with your right hand and the speed of your cut with your left hand.
5) practice your cut (without pulling the trigger) and make sure your comfortable and you can move the torch in a steady motion.
6) start cutting and move just your arms as you cut (no shuffling your feet). If you need to move your feet, then stop cutting to adjust your position.
7) pull the torch towards you when cutting. Pushing the torch makes it very hard to cut evenly. Move around the material so you can always pull the torch towards you during the cut.

Using this process, I can plasma cut VERY evenly. Just a whack with hammer to remove the slag and a very light touch with the grinder and I'm done. I've taught a couple others this process and seen their plasma cuts improve dramatically. YMMV.

Lars915 · Nov 7, 2009

maxyedor said:
I write all the various settings and stuff for all 3 of my welders, plus the misc. other information you may want like torque specs, spark-plug gaps, band-saw blade size etc. on masking tape and stick it inside the top lid of my too-chest.

Another version of this that works great is to use pull down shades (The spring-loaded wind-up ones you can never get to stay down). You can put several on a bracket and pull down the one you want. A sharpie writes on them just fine.

TheGreenDominicker · Nov 7, 2009

ftoy507 said:
2 technical questions that will benefit others if answered.

First
My mig welder is leaving a lot of spatter on the metal I am working with. I think the settings may be wrong. About 30 minutes of tuning wire speed and temp is not helping so far. Also instead of a frying egg sound I get a sound more like bacon grease popping.

Second
What is the best way to cut sheet metal. Jigsaw tends to bend it, plasma leaves a very rough edge, Skill saw sucks for curves.

I'm no expert (and correct me if I'm wrong) but:

1. I guess you know to keep to keep the metal clean...oils and greasy metal will make that noise. A good 220 welder can burn through an oily film and make a half decent weld (sometimes). But it'll definitely spatter and make a funky noise, and it won't an acceptable weld in most people book either.

2. Is it the same gas you've always used? I know of a gas shop that actually supplied the wrong bottle to a buddy and he didn't notice until later.

3. old wire? Ours at work is all rusted because no one ever uses it, so when I go to use it it gives me issues.

If you wire speed is slow it'll intermittently stop arching or drip and spatter a bunch of buggers.

If it's too fast you'll feel the wire keep pushing against your hand as you weld.

You may know all this, maybe your problem is tougher.

that's my .02

Rob G · Nov 7, 2009

desert racer said:
For you guys that use band saws to cut tabs ect. Do you use any kind of fluid to lubricate/keep the blade cool? One of the local metal supply houses uses a water soluable solution and they say it triples the life. The reason Im asking is because Im looking around for a table saw and want to see what my options are. Pics?

generalee7 said:
Obviously use a blade with a higher tooth count, it'll be better for cutting cold rolled. At work we use some sort of wax that looks like its in a grease can container that prolongs the life of blades.

Regular beeswax works great as a band saw blade lube.

GBG · Nov 7, 2009

bending metal for corners

any suggestions for making corner guards.
i have some diamond plate, i'd like to try my hand at bending it up for my 3B

magoo117 · Nov 7, 2009

mj said:
some people are special and are able to destroy hole saws, my brother is one of those

I can use a 2" hole saw on 1/2" plate many times with no issues and my drill press is way over 250rpm ay its lowest setting
if you are a hole saw destroyer you need to figure out what you are doing wrong
an airblower to blast the chips out and cool the bit works but is very messy
as soon as you hear a tooth get clogged stop and clear the debris

I drill an extra hole rite on the inside of the hole saw cut for chips to have a place to go, it seems to work, but I'm not really a hole saw killer either.:laughing:

General metal fabrication

xtremeyj

cucvzuz

kabuki

ftoy507

Swag Off Road

maxyedor

FrkyMnky1487

amp

amp

dumb

j20brett

featherflicker

bggrnchvy

phoenixsomd

LazyDog

Lars915

TheGreenDominicker

Rob G

GBG

magoo117

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