The Metalworking Thread

[JIMG]

Here's the latest plasma cut project. Hand cut.

 

[JIMG]

 

[Woodtroll]

View attachment 463588View attachment 463589View attachment 463590View attachment 463591

Wow! Nicely done!

 

[davidwyby]

Super cool

How did you transfer onto the steel?

 

[JIMG]

Heya David. Freehand in soapstone.

 

[Wilhelm]

Making a new clamping aid, the steel stock I had was not wide enough so I stick welded two together.

I did not expect the stick weld to be hard enough to deflect the countersink and chip the tip of my Solid-Carbide drill bit.




I have a feeling it'll be fun milling the block flat and the workpiece seating holes into it.
Drilling & tapping clamping threads will surely also be interesting.

 

[dangerousatom]

Some of the trophy's I weld/fab for the Car Show Ive been involved with since 2001. I make the bases and plaques at my work

 

[Wilhelm]

I just needed to get the surfaces flat and parallel, milling out the welds is not needed for the intended purpose.



6 insert mill head, one insert chipped the other 5 are showing mild wear.
As suspected, the welds are damaging the tooling.

 

[dangerousatom]

To be expected, good penetration on a thick metal weld is always super hard.
.
.

 

[Wilhelm]

To be expected, good penetration on a thick metal weld is always super hard.
.
.

I think my tiny iWeld MicroForce 120 VRD "Gorilla" did great melting a 3+ decades old 3.25mm basic coated electrode.
This little welder was 80€ out the door with a 2 year warranty.
That weld puddle is over a 1/2" wide.

 

[Wilhelm]

I worked a 19mm CR-V allen wrench piece today.
Milling the end flat with a Solid-Carbide 10mm end mill, and drilling the hole with a 8.5mm Solid-Carbide drill bit was a piece of cake.
But the M10x1.5 machine tap nearly seized in the workpiece, luckily I knew this was going to happen so I only gave it 1mm cutting depth at a time and stopped when it began to scream.




HSS/HSS-Co is a good affordable all rounder, but certain applications require more expensive & specialized tooling.
I will try and get that thread a little bit deeper with a 3-step tap set, I just wanted a straight thread start anyway.

Plunge feed milling w/o chip breaking


Drilling with chip breaking

 

[Wilhelm]

19mm Allen wrench CR-V, snapped w/o prior deformation.
Very fine structure, nearly clean break.


24mm 12.9 grade bolt, shoved minor deformation before breaking.
Notably coarser structure, quite uneven breakage surface.


I like messing with metals, highly alloyed steel in particular.

 

[Wilhelm]

"Off with their heads" or something like that.

I may scrap all the short pieces, but definitely keep the longer ones.

ISO 12.9 grade bolts & cutoff pieces.

 

[SimonHS]

"Off with their heads" or something like that.

I may scrap all the short pieces, but definitely keep the longer ones.

ISO 12.9 grade bolts & cutoff pieces.

View attachment 475217

You could make a Damascus stack with the short pieces.

 

[Wilhelm]

You could make a Damascus stack with the short pieces.

I don't smith!
I find the process fascinating though.