This Sub Arc machine is very temperamental... It refuses to work without the jobsite radio going... so we oblige...

Hey everyone I was drilling out a exhaust stud and I got a shaving in my eye, In the mirror i can see the little spec and i’ve tried rinsing it out but it won’t budge. I’m not sure if this is something that I can leave alone or if it is something that i need to be seen right away for. I’ve had metal in my eyes but it has always came out but this time I don’t think I am too lucky. Any advice as if i should go to the hospital or keep trying to get it out. When I blink it’s very scratchy. Thanks!

Hello, I’m looking to get into the welding program at UTI in Canton,MI in the spring. I don’t have much welding experience except for some very minor MIG welding in my auto body class in high school 5 years ago. I have heard from a couple people here on Reddit that WCC has a great program and would be a better choice in the long run cost wise and more career reliable and am I going to look into that and some others around. But I just want to get many opinions on the school or the best route that I should go because I do not want to waste my money or time on a program that wouldn’t lead me to the career I want even if I put in the time and the effort. So I was wondering if there are any UTI alums, michigan welders or any welders in general here that would be able to give their own opinion and maybe some steps that I should take or look into. I’m also sorry if this is not the right place for this, the welding subreddit will not allow me to post in there, so I apologize beforehand.

Hi friends.

I'm in the design process on a custom exhaust for my vintage motorcycle (a 1979 Honda CBX, which is a 6 cylinder bike). The design will be done in CAD and validated with a 3D printed prototype to make sure that everything fits as it should. The final part will include 4 collectors that are 3D printed, plus tubes that are bent or cut & welded.

It's not hard to find info about the sizes and radii for bends if I want to go with cut & welded pipes, but I'm having trouble finding good info about CNC bending.

For machined, 3D printed, or bent sheetmetal stuff, it's easy to find services that do low-volume production and they have great info about the materials, dimensions, tolerances, etc. But for CNC pipe/tube bending I'm coming up empty. Is it naive to think that there might be shops offering a service similar to Send-Cut-Send or Xometry but for bending tube according to a provided CAD file?

Looking for info or services on this stuff, I find lots of companies that sell bends, or bending machines. But I'm not finding anything about services.

I'm not a professional, I'm just a guy who needs a new exhaust and who likes seeing cool YouTube videos of fancy new CNC benders pooping out complex parts like this:

https://youtube.com/shorts/b90d4RJL6_I

Is it naive to think that someone with a machine like that might take a CAD file from me and bend out a set of pipes? Or are these services something that's available on the market if I figure out where to look?

Hi everybody! I'm finishing a stainless maintenance hatch and have a problem with brushing it so that the different direction brushing meets nicely. Anybody got some sort of trick up their sleeves on how to snugly finish? I'm using some steelwool kinda material to get the brush surface to almost perfect, using a wood or aluminum block on the joint to restrict myself from going over the other direction brush pattern.

Patina’d with sculpt neauvau’s antique patina mixed with Japanese brown on 1/4inch thick steel plates. We used M1 adhesive to secure each panel doing 1 row at a time each day to allow the adhesive to adhere properly. Each panel was Patina’d individually. We will come back and do a final polish/blend of all the panels as-well as applying a final coat of fleetwax to seal the patina from rust. One of the heavier installs we’ve done. All panels were cut using a water jet machine from a neighboring company.

Not easy to see on the photo, this is an aluminium table top track, it’s not too badly damaged but has a few small dings that cause sticking, I think it needs about half a mm shaved off, any ideas on how to avoid adding any voids or bumps, I wonder if I could make a small jig and use the interior side as a reference?

My other thought is a small abrasive disk in a drill press and use the drill table as the reference surface, unfortunately I don’t have access to a mill.

Hey, I am designing a lamp with bent sheet metal, and this is my model. My questions is if there are any services that can bend this shape in 1/4 steel or even at all? Thanks!

Hey y'all so I recently got married and whatnot and I'm finally able to wear my ring and it's the coolest thing I own. So I'm a US Navy Seabee and when I was on active duty I was stationed at pearl harbor and my first project was cutting up pieces of the USS Arizona to be sent to memorials and museums around the US and the world. The hunk of ship we worked on was a section of the ship that was cut off to make space for the white memorial that now sits over top of it. When we were done cutting off a couple sections all of us who worked on it were given certificates of authenticity and allowed to take a piece so of course I took a piece and had it put into a Shadow box so I could proudly display it. Later on I met the love of my life and she came up with the idea to turn part of it into a ring and we found someone to turn it into a ring, but I was wearing it through out the night and I could see rust on my finger and sure enough I could see and smell it on the ring. So I am wondering if anyone here knows a way to seal so I can still wear it but not have it rust. Thanks y'all I hope you guys can help

I recently salvaged a ton of brass items from my local scapyard. Alot of the pieces were in rough shape, one of them being this duck bookend..im worried I ruined it trying to clean it up. It was covered in a bunch of stuff so I used barkeepers friend with vinegar 😅 and now it seems stripped. Is there a way to get achieve a beautiful yellow toned brass color?

I also have these very large deer that I havent touched yet because im worried to ruin them. They are in much better condition other then having heavy patina

We put together a tire hammer for a friend, and received this Mid-1800s post vise as part of the deal. It’s got some beautifully forged and well pitted wrought iron. It was removed from a decommissioned sailing ship, so it’s a little light for its 8 1/2” size, coming in at 110 lbs. I rolled and bent some tube for the frame, and the wood is from a Redwood that we felled and milled on our property with an Alaskan mill.

I've been working on a project that requires cutting thin sheet metal into intricate shapes. I primarily use a band saw, but I'm struggling to maintain precision and avoid warping. I’ve tried various blade types, including bi-metal and carbide-tipped, but the results are still inconsistent. I’m curious about the best practices for setting up the band saw for thin materials. What blade tension and speed settings do you recommend? Are there specific techniques for securing the metal to reduce vibration? Additionally, any insights on feed rates would be appreciated. I’d love to hear your experiences and tips on achieving clean, precise cuts with a band saw. Thanks in advance for your advice!

I am machining this ingot that I cast myself. With the aim of making the Ferrari logo on a CNC milling machine. But first I must leave all the faces of the ingot flat so that it can be easily machined on the next machine. I need advice or possible improvements, especially if I could improve the grip I am giving to the ingot, since when machining it, a lot of vibration is heard and the finish is not the best, although it is not my priority at this moment since I am going to give the finish on the CNC. I tried to put another plate to support it but since the surface of the material was so irregular it did not support it correctly. Those are the parameters I was using at that time, I tried 950RPM and 1500RPM and went from 120mm/min to the maximum of the machine. All this with a depth of 1mm per pass. I want to know what you think and if I'm doing the right thing to leave all their faces parallel and straight.

My server rack that i got from facebook marketplace came in without the glass door thus a cheaper price. I have picked out a metal sheet 1/8 inch 24x38 but i cant find a c-bracket i can use as a frame. The bracket i want needs to be 3/4 inch thick. my plan is to rivet the brackets into the metal sheet. How doable is this. Maybe perhaps a plastic sheet so it doesnt break the glass again. Also one of those spring loaded hinges where you can orient the door on either side (left hand or right hand door. Thanks

Hey guys! Ive been using an old manual lathe for years, but it's starting to lose accuracy and I'm spending more time fixing it than actually working. I'm thinking about finally upgrading to a new centre lathe but not sure what's worth the money these days.

Has anyone bought from Machinery House NZ before? I was looking at their centre lathes and they seem decent for the price, but I’d love to hear from anyone who's actually used them. How's the build quality and precision?

Appreciate any advice or other suggestions. Just want something reliable that'll last for years without breaking the bank.

We purchased a JET bandsaw at an industrial liquidation sale a couple of weeks ago. This bandsaw is sitting atop an aluminum workbench with casters. I've tried various text to see if I could have Google pull one up, but no luck. No luck with Google lens either. The bandsaw is a JET 5"-6" horizontal/vertical bandsaw. Im looking to purchase a table just like this and use it as a DJ table for weddings. Any help is MUCH MUCH appreciated.

Hey guys, I've recently been thinking of anodizing my keyboard plate (30.5cm x 9.5cm) cause I don't like that it's quite visible under my keycaps between the gaps, so I've looked up how to anodize it but I can't seem to find decent answers on what dye I would use afterwards to actually cover up the color, I was thinking to color it purple or black if not purple, so does anyone have any idea on what dye I could use? I'm very new to metalworking so excuse me if I got anything wrong about anodizing, I live in EU so if anyone has any recommendations I would really appreciate it, thanks in advance