Anything Manufacturing - Small to Medium Scale Metal Work (CAD/CAM included!)

I won't post up the cutting and welding I did most of the day yesterday, but I did have a big OOPs

At one point, I backed into my CNC table's motor that was sticking out (as in me, walking into it)

Fire it up to jog it all the way back only for the motor on the other gantry to catch my welding cart I had out

This threw it out of alignment pretty bad on the Y axis

Did a quick automatic home, performed a test cut, and it is within 0.0095 on the two worst sides









I would mostly attribute the difference to the slight beveling since it's 16 gauge that I did a quick test cut for

I did a 4" x 4" just because it was really bugging me that I had knocked it out of alignment in the first place

 

I never bumped into the motors but have hit the supports for the home/ limit switches and cable chains ... that shit hurts, caught myself more than I want to admit. and it is right at the soft tissue under the ribs too

and there may have been a couple of times that one of the stepper motors was not moving right and racked the gantry out of square, or even tore itself apart. with the move and and the new control cabinet this is once again a risk. I plan on leaving the gantry unbolted from the Y axis ball screws for the first test to confirm the steppers are moving in the right direction and the home and limit switches work.

it is surprising how powerful these machines are, and they will keep trying to move until they break or the motors stall, if they do not get an estop signal first when things go wrong. good thing you was able to get your machine stopped before real damage was done.

 

God damn, not only the physical pain aspect but just having the table 'tear itself apart' really hurts.

It's why even in the middle of the job, I set aside a few minutes to draw out, cut, and measure a square to confirm that my machine had squared itself.

It's funny though because I had posted about it on Facebook STV, just to say something positive about the table since we all know forums/groups are typically meant to help resolve issues.

I wanted to just post something positive about my table.



Anyway, I just got done burning myself from some freshly cut 3/16". I was impatient as I was seeing some beveling so I wanted to get it out as soon as it cut.

Well, it slipped my hand and the open circular cutout landed right on my finger which allowed the metal to sear through the glove and burn me





Totally sucks but also 100% my fault

Good thing I'm always prepared

 

you need to grab a pair of turnout gloves from that the fire department uses, I have a couple pairs I got from a buddy of mine. they have an expiration date so they get tossed from time to time, but still work.

we use them at camp for moving burning logs

https://youtube.com/shorts/wPCbvkp-g98?si=M1NDMGBNKcfk00qV

just keep them dry. while wearing them

 

Bold to assume I have friends

 

Just walk up and offer to share your crayons, and don't eat them all yourself. good devil dog... sharing is caring

 

Even more bold to assume I'd share

 

Firefighting gloves are ok to get wet... I mean we use water (most of the time) to put out fires. They're insulated leather with a water barrier inside.

The only reason the gloves would ever need to be replaced is when they're worn out/have a hole in them. While firefighting exposes you to a ton of carcinogens, the gloves, along with the rest of the bunker gear are designed to be cleaned.

Grab the garden hose, a bit of Dawn dish soap and put them on, add the soap and rub your hands together. Please don't do this in your kitchen sink! The minimal heat exposure youre getting from these tables or playing with a camp fire isn't going to wear them out very fast.

 

This table just runs.



Had cut myself the beginnings of a table extension for my fab table. I've always thought they were cool, but never considered them since I normally use a pipejack for any overhang. With a recent large frame I'm welding up, I figured it's about time I make myself a set.

First part fit perfect right on my table, no clean up.



Followed up with the remaining parts and got her all cut and welded up yesterday.









But as the saying goes, two is one and one is none so I cut and welded up another one today.

Even though these will never be used side by side, as the answer to that would be a wide setup, I wanted to ensure they were even with one another.



And they're done!





Other shops sell these but I'm too poor to afford them at +$120/each.

Not perfect, but definitely more than good enough!





In order to use them, I do have 4 ball lock pins on the way. The blocks seen above were just to ensure that my parts were accurate and true as far as hole spacing goes, as well as being level with the fixture table.

 

After a long weekend and way to many trips to the hardware store, the sinks are finally in (mostly) I still need to attach the rest of the P trap, but right now the funnel portion for the air gap is curing. I will also need to silicon around the sinks. Dad also brought down the paper towel/ trash can combo unit, which will get frame in next to the hand wash sink. Hopefully in the next few days I can get the paper work filled out to get my state manufacturing license.

 

I quoted this from the grilling thread... but if you could sort out the heating elements, you could easily build a larger oven and power coat your parts.

https://www.eastwood.com/powder-coating.html

 

I had considered *trying* to add powder coating specifically for my bed stiffeners; this is because I only make parts and many customers have all been good with raw parts.

But lack of space and lack of funds have easily made that decision for me!

There's a handful of guys in the CNC group I'm in and they absolutely kill it with their DIY oven and using Eastwood's powders and gun.

 

This is on the "to build" list I have a small toaster oven that I insulated for doing small parts. I could use a bigger oven and now I have room for one like in this linked article.

https://www.powdercoatguide.com/

 

Been out of the garage the last 2 days, so it's been weird not cutting or welding stuff as I usually take care of stuff on weekends.

So instead, I shot a quick video for the group showing them how to use the pattern and mirror function in Fusion 360.

https://youtu.be/CzPSLyD0ejA

Right after I posted that, I thought maybe it'd be cool to make a small vise mount.







I may never actually cut it out but it's cool to have. I may instead just make a single wider extension for situations where the two narrower versions won't work.

 

This would be much more beneficial; may just cut and weld up a single one of these.

 

Has anyone cut any 1/4" or 3/8" AR500 on their plasmatable? I cut 3/8 mild without any issue.

 

I would have cheated and just made 1 cell, extrude, mirror, then copied and joined the 2 pair, then you would have all 4 cells joined as 1.

I'm not good at vids, so explaining is the best I can do.

 

I've cut AR plate in 10 gauge, and it was no different than 10 gauge A36.

I'd expect the same on 1/4" and 3/8".

Test cuts are key.

 

Just make a video

I'm terrible at them and all I did there was screen record. I say this because I don't extrude items at all and did so just to post that screenshot here as an assembly.

All my DXF are done in 2D and stay that way. But I do mirror or pattern a lot which is essentially "copy pasting" stuff for quick work.

 

Exactly the encouragement I needed. I'll pick some scrap up next time I go