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Posted by Curt Welch on July 21, 2008, 10:41 pm
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I mentioned in one of the threads about welding that I was working on my
first milling project to learn some basic metal working skills and thought
I'd share it with the group.
I took an introduction to automotive machine shop class this summer at the
same community college (NOVA in Manassas VA) where I took my 6 welding
classes and I've been learning some basic milling machine operations for
the first time in my life.
Though the class had no formal projects, I made up my own project to create
a 3" square dice out of 6 pieces of 3/8" aluminum. Here's the finished
work:
http://www.newsreader.com/red_dice.jpg
Though you can't tell from the picture, all the sides also have rabbet
joints in them to make them interlock with each other. That added yet
another level of complexity to my project.
It's powder coated - which is something else I'm learning how to do this
summer by finding a old used oven on craigslist and running a 50 amp 220
volt circuit to my garage. I picked up the powder coat starter kit from
Eastwood after someone here mentioned it. Running the power to the garage
and adding a sub-panel to allow me to support more 220 power tool outlets
in my shop ended up costing 6 times what the oven itself cost! :)
The class was mostly an introduction to all the specialized machine tools
used for rebuilding engines, and only spent a few hours on the mill and
lathe but it had lots of lab time where we could play with anything we
wanted. My plan was to spend about half the class working with the mill
and half with the lathe (I've never used either before this class) but this
project I created took a lot more time than I expected and I ended up
spending it all on the mill. I've only got one class left now to start
playing with the lathe!
Now I've added a mill and lathe to my "must have some day soon" list. :)
Metal working is such fun. Like welding, I don't know why I waited until
so late in life to start learning it!
--
Curt Welch http://CurtWelch.Com/
curt@kcwc.com http://NewsReader.Com/
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Posted by Ignoramus14558 on July 21, 2008, 10:59 pm
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>
> Now I've added a mill and lathe to my "must have some day soon" list. :)
> Metal working is such fun. Like welding, I don't know why I waited until
> so late in life to start learning it!
>
I feel the same about metalworking. Nice good looking dice. If you had
a aluminum capable welder, you may have been able to weld outsides and
then mill flush, to make the welds invisible!
--
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to spammers, I and many others block all articles originating
from Google Groups. If you want your postings to be seen by
more readers you will need to find a different means of
posting on Usenet.
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Posted by Curt Welch on July 21, 2008, 11:36 pm
Please log in for more thread options > >
> > Now I've added a mill and lathe to my "must have some day soon" list.
> > :) Metal working is such fun. Like welding, I don't know why I waited
> > until so late in life to start learning it!
> >
>
> I feel the same about metalworking. Nice good looking dice. If you had
> a aluminum capable welder, you may have been able to weld outsides and
> then mill flush, to make the welds invisible!
I could easily have used the equipment in the welding lab to weld it into a
cube but I wanted it to be purely a milling project so I opted not to do
that. I actually like the seams and cap screws!
Here's a 2" dice I made as a welding project. This was done with
oxy-acetylene The dots are brazed. It's made out of 18 gauge steel. The
holes were drilled, then I welded backing plates to each piece and then
filled the holes by brazing. Grinding off the excess got it back to the
nice round circle shapes for the dots. (no seams or screews :)
http://newsreader.com/dice.jpg
On the same line of projects, I made a 4" cube out of 3/8" steel with only
stick welding. It was done with 7018 rods.
http://newsreader.com/cube.jpg
At a bit over 5 lbs in weight it makes for a serious paper weight.
I also made a 2" cube out of 18 gauge steel with Tig. Don't seem to have a
picture of that online. TIG was by far the easiest for me.
Welding a cube is an interesting project because the errors of alignment
and distortion tend to add up showing off your mistakes. Welding shut a
sealed container is also an interesting task as the hot air tends to want
to expand and blow out your weld pool. Nice little projects for testing
your skills as a welder and you end up with something fun for you desk in
the end.
For the oxy-acetylene class I also made this more complex art-like
project....
http://newsreader.com/rosebee.jpg
--
Curt Welch http://CurtWelch.Com/
curt@kcwc.com http://NewsReader.Com/
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Posted by Ignoramus14558 on July 21, 2008, 11:50 pm
Please log in for more thread options >> >
>> > Now I've added a mill and lathe to my "must have some day soon" list.
>> > :) Metal working is such fun. Like welding, I don't know why I waited
>> > until so late in life to start learning it!
>> >
>>
>> I feel the same about metalworking. Nice good looking dice. If you had
>> a aluminum capable welder, you may have been able to weld outsides and
>> then mill flush, to make the welds invisible!
>
> I could easily have used the equipment in the welding lab to weld it into a
> cube but I wanted it to be purely a milling project so I opted not to do
> that. I actually like the seams and cap screws!
>
> Here's a 2" dice I made as a welding project. This was done with
> oxy-acetylene The dots are brazed. It's made out of 18 gauge steel. The
> holes were drilled, then I welded backing plates to each piece and then
> filled the holes by brazing. Grinding off the excess got it back to the
> nice round circle shapes for the dots. (no seams or screews :)
>
> http://newsreader.com/dice.jpg
>
> On the same line of projects, I made a 4" cube out of 3/8" steel with only
> stick welding. It was done with 7018 rods.
>
> http://newsreader.com/cube.jpg
>
> At a bit over 5 lbs in weight it makes for a serious paper weight.
>
> I also made a 2" cube out of 18 gauge steel with Tig. Don't seem to have a
> picture of that online. TIG was by far the easiest for me.
>
> Welding a cube is an interesting project because the errors of alignment
> and distortion tend to add up showing off your mistakes. Welding shut a
> sealed container is also an interesting task as the hot air tends to want
> to expand and blow out your weld pool. Nice little projects for testing
> your skills as a welder and you end up with something fun for you desk in
> the end.
>
> For the oxy-acetylene class I also made this more complex art-like
> project....
>
> http://newsreader.com/rosebee.jpg
>
Looks very, very cute. I love the handle on that rosebud. Did you have
access to a sandblasting machine?
--
Due to extreme spam originating from Google Groups, and their inattention
to spammers, I and many others block all articles originating
from Google Groups. If you want your postings to be seen by
more readers you will need to find a different means of
posting on Usenet.
http://improve-usenet.org/
|
|
Posted by Curt Welch on July 21, 2008, 11:55 pm
Please log in for more thread options > >> >
> >> > Now I've added a mill and lathe to my "must have some day soon"
> >> > list.
> >> > :) Metal working is such fun. Like welding, I don't know why I
> >> > :waited
> >> > until so late in life to start learning it!
> >> >
> >>
> >> I feel the same about metalworking. Nice good looking dice. If you had
> >> a aluminum capable welder, you may have been able to weld outsides and
> >> then mill flush, to make the welds invisible!
> >
> > I could easily have used the equipment in the welding lab to weld it
> > into a cube but I wanted it to be purely a milling project so I opted
> > not to do that. I actually like the seams and cap screws!
> >
> > Here's a 2" dice I made as a welding project. This was done with
> > oxy-acetylene The dots are brazed. It's made out of 18 gauge steel.
> > The holes were drilled, then I welded backing plates to each piece and
> > then filled the holes by brazing. Grinding off the excess got it back
> > to the nice round circle shapes for the dots. (no seams or screews :)
> >
> > http://newsreader.com/dice.jpg
> >
> > On the same line of projects, I made a 4" cube out of 3/8" steel with
> > only stick welding. It was done with 7018 rods.
> >
> > http://newsreader.com/cube.jpg
> >
> > At a bit over 5 lbs in weight it makes for a serious paper weight.
> >
> > I also made a 2" cube out of 18 gauge steel with Tig. Don't seem to
> > have a picture of that online. TIG was by far the easiest for me.
> >
> > Welding a cube is an interesting project because the errors of
> > alignment and distortion tend to add up showing off your mistakes.
> > Welding shut a sealed container is also an interesting task as the hot
> > air tends to want to expand and blow out your weld pool. Nice little
> > projects for testing your skills as a welder and you end up with
> > something fun for you desk in the end.
> >
> > For the oxy-acetylene class I also made this more complex art-like
> > project....
> >
> > http://newsreader.com/rosebee.jpg
> >
>
> Looks very, very cute. I love the handle on that rosebud. Did you have
> access to a sandblasting machine?
The school has one (or two maybe?), but I've never used it. I used a wire
wheel to clean it up and then clear coated it with some type of clear
acrylic spray paint which caused it to turn a darker color in the process.
Getting sand or bead blasting equipment is yet some more stuff on my wish
list.
--
Curt Welch http://CurtWelch.Com/
curt@kcwc.com http://NewsReader.Com/
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> Now I've added a mill and lathe to my "must have some day soon" list. :)
> Metal working is such fun. Like welding, I don't know why I waited until
> so late in life to start learning it!
>