Anything welding

Cut order from 1 - 8.

Small bracket # 7 exhibited a slight jaggedness in the inner circle.

Larger bracket exhibits the same jaggedness inside as well as a tiny bit on the outside.

 

Looks like a man's face and he's got a really bad headache in one eye. If I get time I'll sketch it out.
Zim

 

Can someone recommend a bender for DOM tubing? This is strictly for hobby projects so I can't justify spending thousands. On the other hand, I'm not going to just throw money away buying garbage.

 

I really like metal art. This reminds me of a topographical map. CNC wood topo maps sell for crazy amounts of money on Etsy. I can't imagine what a metal one could sell for.

 

Holy fuck I suck at aluminum. Not even gonna post close ups lmao

 

Yeah...with the exception of using my spoolgun just some weeks ago, I don't TIG aluminum anymore.

Last time I TIG welded aluminum -







You have to move quickly and you need to pull your filler out your puddle; too far though and it gets contaminated damn near instantly.

 

No welding, but we post our CNC stuff here anyway.

Another member made his own skid, having used foam board as his template. With no CAD or CNC experience, I brought his template to life and created a cut file for him to offer.





He actually has a logo, and although he didn't request to have it added, I did it for him anyway.

 

That's alor better than what my shit looks like lol

 

You already know how to TIG weld, so aluminum will come easy to you.

Need to treat it like you're robbing a bank; bring the heat and hit it fast.

Longer you stick around, worse it gets.

You'll want more heat than you think you do cause you want to penetrate that oxide layer right away to start welding; that layer has a higher melting point than aluminum itself.

Going too low on the heat will only cause your work piece to heat soak, and by the time that oxide layer melts....everything else goes with it and your puddle ends up wide AF or buring right through.

 

Used Aluminum is all most impossible to get clean.

Making good welds impossible.

sometimes you can adjust the balance to get better cleaning action in the arc.

Then the output of the machine it is a fine line between to cold and to hot. A nice puddle going right along then it all just falls.

Practice /practice The best Aluminum welders for the most that is all they do.

 

There is really no "in between" It's $2000 or nothing. Tubing must me "drawn through with a heavy duty die and that's expensive. Otherwise it will wrinkle and collapse as you press down on it. Nothing harbor fright will do tubing. (even brake lines) LMAO. Hossfeld makes a good manual bender but it will kink also.
Zim

 

Looks good!
Make sure he wants you to add a logo. I wouldn't want one cut out of a skid as it would just help it fill up with mud

 

We were texting back and forth; he was happy about the whole thing and when I asked about a logo, apparently he already had one. He had just lost his DXF file and would've wanted it used but said not to worry.

Recreated it and he was stoked to have it on there.

Granted, anyone using that file to cut that skid out would most likely have enough knowledge of how to remove the logo from their cut path.

 

As mentioned, gotta spend money.

JD Fab or Swag Offroad at the very least.

Quality dies alone are in the 300-500 each.

 

I'll stick to steel lol

 

All I know is I’m a lot cleaner at the end of a 10.5-12.5 hour day welding aluminum than I was welding steel ha.

 

I finished paint on a few football helmets and cut some Grateful Dead bears and Harley signs. Dead Heads love the bears as they are from the 1st album cover.



I paint them purple.

 

really looks to me like a computer issue.

it's a rather large file, and other portions are cut correctly. almost like the steppers aren't getting the right signal at the right time to move.