2017 POTD Thread Archive

[scwhite]

That should work well. You might run the 6011 root pass hotter than normal and consider preheating the thicker material prior to welding.
Back in the day (Navy) I would burn close to 40 pounds in a 12 hour shift. I seldom burn rod these days as the 350P does the bulk of my work ,but once in a while I'll bid low for a hard face job as I find burning rod therapeutic.
Keep us posted....
Turn and burn!
Paco

Yep I know what you mean about burning 40 lbs
I worked in a ship yard one time in the early
1970s - 73
You would pick up a full 50 lb box of 7024
At the start of the shift . I would seldom have any left at the end of the shift .

 

[scwhite]

I cut my other two yokes out today

 

[savarin]

Savarin, Please help me learn, How in he-- did you cut such a perfect looking ring out of a steel plate?? Great finished product, by the way. Your insight is incredible, without your explanation I would still be trying to figure out where the two pieces came from out of the ring. Thanks for showing us all your great projects, JR49

I marked out a circle of the correct inside and outside diameter on a length of 12mm hot rolled plate, then marked out a square around that.
Then using a thin bladed angle grinder I cut most of the excess off but not touching the outer diameter.
Drilled the centre for a 12mm bolt (largest one I had laying around)
Chucked a long joiner nut up and bolted the rough disk up to it.
The force of the interrupted cut helps tighten up the bolt.
Turned the outside diameter to size.
Unbolted the disk and used the external jaws to hold in the chuck and bored out the inside diameter.
Faced off all the yuck scale, flipped it and faced the other side.
This gave a nice clean ring.
For bluing I use a very wide marker pen that I top up with acetone which diluted the ink and it dries in milli-seconds.
Marked the square on on the face, dropped the ends down the edge, marked the centres on the edge and the face, centre popped them and drilled.
The blue sections were cut out with a hacksaw, set up on my vertical slide and the relevant sections milled out. You could drill out the middle of the two sides and file smooth.
Hope this helps
Charles.

 

[BGHansen]

POTD was making a couple of punches for a Roper Whitney #5 hand punch. One set of 1/8” and 5/32” punches were pretty beat up and worn. The 1/8” one mic’d at 0.118”. Kind of tough to push a 1/8” rivet through those undersized holes.

I used drill rod for the punches. Simple lathe work using the existing punches for the dimensions. Flame hardened with an oxyacetylene torch, then back to the lathe for polishing. I have a Thermolyne hot plate which works great for tempering. Some web research showed punches go to 540 F or a purple color for carbon steels. I use a HF non-contact thermometer to watch the temp as it heats up. Quenched in oil once at temperature and they were good to go!

Bruce

 

[BGHansen]

Another POTD was making a tape dispenser for ¼” wide masking tape. One of my ongoing projects is reproducing Erector set parachutes (part number NU). I’ve made these repro’s for years which require 8 lengths of ¼” wide masking tape about ½” long. In the past, I’d hold the roll between my knees, pull off a length of tape and cut pieces that were stuck to a piece of plastic. Time to make a tape dispenser . . .

Simple design, used 3/16” thick, 2” wide aluminum for the base. Used the same sized pieces for the risers for the cut-off strip stolen from a scotch tape dispenser and the reel support. Started by turning a piece of plastic to support the roll. Used a shoulder bolt for the axle.

Then on to TIG-welding the pieces together. Boy do I need some more practice welding aluminum! Some of the worst welding I’ve done . . . I have an AHP AlphaTIG 200. Using straight Argon, current set to 185 Amps, flowing 15 CFM of gas. The joints were scrubbed down with a wire brush ahead of time too. Just about blew through in a number of areas and had a nice puddle going, but the welds look like pigeon droppings . . . Oh well, at least they hold. Any tips and suggestions would be appreciated!

Design change after finished. The riser for the tear off strip was too low so I screwed another piece of aluminum to the welded riser to raise it up. I was getting a little frustrated with my quality of welding so went the mechanical fastener approach instead of laying more dropping on the project. Time to do some more practicing.

Bruce

 

[T Bredehoft]

Ain't it great, having fun (making things) and producing income, too.

 

[RJSakowski]

POTD was making a couple of punches for a Roper Whitney #5 hand punch. One set of 1/8” and 5/32” punches were pretty beat up and worn. The 1/8” one mic’d at 0.118”. Kind of tough to push a 1/8” rivet through those undersized holes.
Bruce

Some years ago, I was using my Roper Whitney type hand punch on an almost daily basis. I needed some non-standard punches and rather than make them from scratch, I bought a spare set of punches and turned down one of the seldom used oversize punches and bored out a seldom used undersized die to the required diameter.

 

[BGHansen]

The intended POTD was TIG welding some sheet metal buckets (another Erector set part). Problem was in the presentation. The adjustable welding clamp straps between the two magnets were too short to allow the part to swing so the weld joint was flat to the world. I tried clamping to the outside of the part, but it wasn’t as stable as I’d like. So, an unintended POTD.

The straps have square holes in them to keep a carriage bolt from rotating while tightening a wing nut. I happened to have a ¼” square broach and the same sized strap stock for making longer straps. So no workout with a file making square holes. Drilled the broach pilot holes and started pressing the broach through on my HF 12-ton shop press. My 1-ton arbor press doesn’t have enough travel to do the complete job there. The 12-ton press doesn’t have enough travel to complete the stroke there either without adjusting the table. So, started on the 12-ton press and finished on the arbor press.

It was so much nicer to weld up the sheet metal parts with the joint setting flat. I won’t mention how many I fiddled with before finally making the new straps . . .

Bruce

 

[jrstech]

Then on to TIG-welding the pieces together. Boy do I need some more practice welding aluminum! Some of the worst welding I’ve done . . . I have an AHP AlphaTIG 200. Using straight Argon, current set to 185 Amps, flowing 15 CFM of gas. The joints were scrubbed down with a wire brush ahead of time too. Just about blew through in a number of areas and had a nice puddle going, but the welds look like pigeon droppings . . . Oh well, at least they hold. Any tips and suggestions would be appreciated!

I've had welds look just like this on a couple occassions. Once when I forgot to switch to AC and another time when I used stainless tig rod on aluminum.

 

[scwhite]

I'm curious why you are using 6011. Do you have only AC power or just happen to have 6011?

Yes AC welder cracker box Lincoln 225 amp
Max .
I like to us 6011 in those seams and that tubing
Rounded corners . That 7018 wants to pin hole some time when I start over the top of the 6011 .
I guess I didn't clean it good.
I had to grind out pin holes several times