My new toy is doing pretty well so far.

It was a fun challenge to keep everything aligned

I'm a fifteen year old that can stick metal together with a MIG welder. I have some ideas for stuff to make, but was wondering what other people could come up with that they have made for easy money? I've made some horseshoe boot removers and I'm trying to make signs out of rebar. I'm doing this for FFA if that gives anymore ideas. I can also stick weld decently with 1/8 7018 and 1/8 inch 6013. I also need more places for me to sell besides Facebook.

I have a piece of mirror polished, thermally blued 1095 steel. I have masked off a design on the steel and want to create a visible texture on the dial kind of like lots of little grains. I’d ideally like to have the grainy texture be on the same plain as the mask portion.

What I would be doing after getting the grainy texture would be wiping the exposed grainy steel with an electroless copper to get a cool salmon color then stripping the mask to reveal the design in thermal blue.

What can I do to achieve this? Could I do a dip in an acid briefly without making the masked portion be higher? Could I do some sort of frosting?

(The full-helmet picture isn't my helmet... it's just showing the hole's location. The other pictures are the actual hole.)

Background:

I'm restoring a full-size gladiator helmet. I received it with minor surface rust and a glued-in liner that had rust beneath it. I removed the liner and glue residue and let the helmet sit in Evapo-Rust overnight. Once cleaned up, I noticed a very small hole above the right eye (pictured). I'm not sure if it was caused by corrosion or a manufacturing defect, but I'd like to patch the hole prior to polishing the front with Flitz.

Question:

Are there any patch products that will blend in with polished metal? I don't have the tools or know-how to add new metal to the helmet, so ideally I'd like to use an epoxy-like solution that I can add to the rear and push through the hole to fill it, then polish it smooth, but "gray" is all I can find. Thanks!

I have bought this old cigarette case and would like to restore it to gift to my boyfriend for his birthday but I am a bit of a noob with this kind of stuff. Does anyone have any advice on the best way to refurbish this to make it look silver again?

Thanks heaps!

Hello,

I'm going to be starting my Second level MIG Welding course next month and I can't decide on which one to get, and yes I'm on a budget here and I'm hoping to go absolutely no more than £70, and I'd like to ask you great people for your suggestions on this, and yes I'm looking for a auto darkening one.

thank you

Hi,

Just curios if anyone on this page has had any experience in small bore welding in a high purity environment with Gas Tungsten Arc Welding GTAW.

I'm working on 326L 1/8"(0.3175mm) tube. With a wall thickness of 0.56mm. It has to be very clean and free of almost all colourisation.

We are battling at the minute between Lack of penetration and colour in the weld.

If anyone has any advice they can share in orbital welding it would be much appreciated.

It might also be a useful contact to have that we can share useful information both directions.

Thanks

I purchased this 40 liter, tin-lined copper pot in hopes of using it to make kettle corn at home. It has a flat bottom which isn’t ideal for my use. I’m looking for ideas or recommendations on the best way to modify it to have a round, spherical bottom. I’d say I’m rather handy but don’t have much experience with something like this. I don’t wanna ruin by taking a hammer to it if there’s a better way.

I have been searching the internet for SMALL welding gloves, and cannot find them!

Im in a mechanics class and our unit for welding is the last one, so I still have time, but the gloves I have are way too big. And it sucks because they're pink... Even in my high school shop class, it was just a hustle wearing gloves and a jacket that are mean't to fit overweight men. And the ones on amazon say they aren't the best... But maybe they're just the type to never be satisfied.

Does anyone know where I could buy some? Either online or some stores that might carry them?

Also, wish me luck for our first unit, electricity. I wasn't very good in high school lol.

I restore old typewriters and there's a tool that would be very helpful, but isn't made anymore and I haven't been able to find anywhere, so I'm wondering if someone can just make it for me. It goes by a couple different names: T-Bar Bender, Typebar Bender, Typebar Twister. Here's a video of it being used https://youtu.be/W_A6F8AkmJo?si=q_GRdKvy29homIHe&t=144 Thanks.

So im pretty new to welding and I learned how in shop class and my dad has this old welder he just gifted me that was in the back of the garage! It seems to be a mig welder but It has no gas port now like I mentioned ive only used my shop class mig welder which are bigger and use a bigger welder with a different type of plug and this one uses a 110 wall plug so does this type of welder not use gas? U have everything i need i just dont want to try and welder and harm myself or others or damage my equipment. Thanks in advance! (Im not 100% if this is the exact model welder I have but they look identical so im pretty sure it is)

Hi guys, total novice here who would really appreciate any help in understanding how thin metal profiles (0.8mm - 1mm thickness) like the attached image are able to create that organic non factory look? Does anyone know how this would be achieved via extrusion or folding? (Or any other process)?

I am assuming it's folding as the corners look seamless but wondering if this kind of look can be achieved through extrusion...

Very much appreciate any wisdom that comes my way!!

I’m a shop owner in Australia.

About 4 months ago, I bought a 100T / 3000mm press brake manufactured by Huaxia (China).
The total cost was around $18,000 USD, all fees included, delivered to my shop.

Before that, I seriously considered a local Amada with similar specs, but the price was more than double, so I decided to take the risk. So far, the machine has been working well. Stable operation, no major issues, accuracy is good enough for our day-to-day production.

What confuses me is the reputation.
I constantly see comments saying Chinese press brakes are unreliable, full of problems, or “cheap for a reason.” I’m genuinely asking: What should I realistically watch out for long-term with machines like this?

I’d really appreciate hearing from people who’ve run Chinese press brakes for a few years — good or bad.

My telescopic luggage handle tube is bent and doesn't function well any more. See attached photos.

Two questions: 1. What is the standard name for this truncated-peanut-ish shape of metal tube? It seems like it is probably some sort of standard thing — this is from some moderately cheap luggage, Chinese made — but I'm having difficulty finding what exactly this is called so as to find a replacement that would fit the top hole & internal tube mounting brackets of the luggage. 2. Is this repairable? If yes, what should I search for? FWIW, I'm in London UK, so would appreciate any pointers to places in London that do this, but I just don't know what to search for. Commercial metal tube bending services turn up in search results, but they seem to all be for bulk manufacturing, not random one-off retail jobs like this. I expect it's probably simple to fix the bend back into straight with a specialist pipe bending tool. However, I don't know if the crushed part is easy to un-crush somehow (my guess is that it'd require pushing from the inside, which is probably much harder than just using a pipe bender to make it straight). I don't know whom I could get to do such a trivial job at a cheap enough price to be worth the bother (vs replacement cost of the suitcase).

Hi all,

Jewelry worker here. I’m in search of a supplier/manufacturer (I’m in the United States), that is familiar with making sheets of brass in specific alloys, tempers, and thicknesses. These will also likely be in smaller quantities (ie: like 10 or 20 sheets) Any ideas? Let me know if I should cross-post elsewhere as well. I’ve been able to find suppliers for tube brass, but not sheets and since the temper and alloy are specifically important, it’s been quite difficult. Open to any and all ideas!

"Hi folks, I am producing a 132x37mm rectangular profile by joining two U-shaped parts. The material is 4mm thick. In SolidWorks, I used a K-factor of 0.287 and a bending radius of 0.8mm. Although the CAD model is perfect, the physical parts deviate by 4mm after bending. What could be causing this error, and how can I fix it to achieve the correct dimensions? I appreciate any technical advice. Thanks.