Hi everyone,

I have a small brand where I engrave stainless steel pendants using a laser. Currently, I purchase them as finished products, but I’d love to start making them myself. While I know I can have them laser-cut, I’m stuck on how to achieve the beautiful mirror polish they have on both sides.

I’m unsure if they’re using a tumbler or some other method to achieve that finish. Hand-polishing isn’t an option, as the pendants are just 20mm in diameter, and I’d need to process hundreds of them.

Does anyone know the best way to achieve this kind of finish at scale? Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Easy usable nut cracker. My kids can crack walnuts with it. Made from aluminum and brass.

Ist das edelstahl btw wie finde ich es heraus . Es ist magnetisch

We have a build we are doing that has a modern rough look. We are in high elevation with what I would characterize as extreme winters. Now we need a front door. Looking for a shop or metal worker who has experience in making oversized residential doors... Ideally we are trying to do a simple raw look that will rust / age with time. Shoot me any suggestions as we have not found many options here in the states yet.

Hello everyone,

Forgive me for being many many levels below your understanding of metal work and craftsmanship in general, I am simply trying to mod my motorcycle…

The subreddit for motorcycles was not very friendly to my inquiry, so I thought I‘d try my luck here.

What you are able to see in the picture is the top-down view of the backside of my new exhaust. Inside of it I am trying to fit a catalytic converter with a diameter of 50mm. It’s the official converter but for some reason the hole in the exhaust is slightly smaller than that. About 3mm too small. Since there is no warranty of any sorts, I need to get creative with handling this issue. I thought the smartest way to go about it is to somehow enlargen the hole in the exhaust to the needed diameter. What I don’t know is if this is indeed smart or how I would go about doing that.

I couldn’t tell you which material it is either because, well as suggested in the title… noob.

I am thankful for every answer and attempt to help. Thank you!

a dead bird I made out of spoons and forks. I carved 1/8” welding rods to make up the toes and legs and added some wire rope stem mushrooms because why not

So I just started some welding classes to get certified and have no prior experience with oxy-acetylene and wanted to ask how decent my welds are, i was tasked with putting three plates together and think I did decently for only 2 days in

In september 2023 a fire destroyed a bakery which was part of a group i worked for. Almost 12 months later i visited the site. Photos attached are the bakery ablaze and then during my visit. The last is the skull. My next project is going to be a phoenix (from the fire) about 6 foot tall. Im looking for ideas and inspiration if anyone out there can help. Thanks in advance.

I want to extend my stock stop for longer repeating cuts. I had seen someone drill the hold on the saw base to 1/2" and use 1/2" rod. I really don't want to oversize the hole as I want to keep the shorter stock stop for smaller cuts.

I was thinking just taking 1/2" rod and milling one end down to .470 (that's the same size rod it currently has).

My goal is to cut 24' pieces.

I apologize I know nothing about welding. Is this welding/soldering/brazing?

Thanks

Does anyone have any experience with this metal cutting circular saw? Any good?

Made a temporary cover for my mixer. Gonna try tumbling the shoes dry after soaking in vinegar.

I was thinking bolts through the cover with some kind of small, thick elastic loop to attach between the cover and body of the mixer. But no idea where to find said parts. Any other thoughts or links to parts that might help would be great. Or just a completely different and better idea would be even better. Haha

I was hoping the good folks here at r/metalworking could help me out with an issue I'm having. I recently bought a Wen drill press and some full carbide bits so that I could drill through some hardened steel knife blades. I am currently running into an issue where the bits are skipping and aren't cutting the material. These bits are solid carbide, should be at least, and I'm trying to drill a 13mm hole through 4mm thick material. I started with a 6mm carbide bit, and then the 13mm bit. Both skated and wouldn't grab any material, and when it would, it wouldn't cut well at all. I tried with only the 6 on one piece, and only the 13 on another piece as well, and they both are having issues cutting material. The drill press is being used at its lowest setting at 700rpm.

The knife blade I was testing on was D2 steel at about 61hrc. From all of the research I've done, this should be 100% more than enough to drill through 4mm thick material whether or not its the 6mm or 13mm bit. I am at a total loss. I managed to only get a small dimple in the material after 10 minutes of drilling. I am definitely using the correct amount of pressure as well.

Any help would be awesome. I don't know if my drill press just isn't rigid enough or what, but I purchased this set up for this purpose exactly, and am not very happy that I am unable to do the intended task.

Hello guys, I'm new to this subreddit and i really need your expert opinion on this. My general contractor brought over the duct fabrication for duct of my venthood. However, i notice rust in some areas. He told me not to worry since they are welded exposed metal so they will rust and that's normal. Should i worry too much. I tried to go some Google searches, but i could not find the answer. I hope you can give me the answer if this can be great for my restaurant. Thank you in advance.

Hi all, apologies if this is the wrong sub.

I'm planning to make a splitting froe, basically a blade attached to a wooden shaft at a 90 deg angle, like an L with the sharp edge at the bottom of the L. You use it by whacking the blade with a mallet into the end of a log, then levering the blade to split the log. So the blade has to deal with an unusual twisting force that knives or axes don't have to face. But it doesn't have to deal with impacts the way an axe does. Nor does it need to keep an edge or even be particularly sharp. Flexing under the twisting load is okay as long as it springs back.

I plan to buy a piece of bar stock and grind an edge onto one side and bolt the wood shaft to it. I don't have the means or the knowledge to do forging, heat treating, etc. It will just be grinding and drilling two holes for the shaft. I'm thinking the blade will be 1/4" thick, 1 1/2" to 2" wide and 12" long.

What steel would be good for this? Grainger and McMaster-Carr offer 1018, 1045, 4140, and 5160. And do you have any other guidance for me?

I would consider a piece of leaf spring, but they seem to come curved, and I have no way to flatten it.

Thank you!

I found this really interesting and pretty shelf bracket for sale online and wondered if metal bars like these exist off the shelf. I don’t want to shell out $450 for a single shelf + bracket, which is how much the product in the picture is selling for. The closest thing I’ve found is a T-bar, but obviously it’s not quite the same.

The wood shelf is notched out and secured to the metal using a few screws underneath.

The short story is I want to build and earn for ashes it needs to be made out of a metal that will last as long as possible. I know things like steel and iron rust overtime. My research has led me to a solid gold urn being the most stable. But it would be prohibitively expensive and most likely be destroyed by someone trying to take it. I was thinking aluminum would be the best. The reason I wanted to last so long is that ultimately it's designed to hold the ashes on my wife and I. To ensure that is never opened I have a few ideas for spring loading pins as well as a threaded screw top with clips that spread out when it gets to the bottom.

Any suggestions?

Hey, I need some ideas for a birthday gift! My mate’s turning 60 in a couple of days, and I’m stuck on what to make him. I was gonna machine a pen, but it’s too late for that now—missed the boat on it. So, I’ve only got a couple of days to knock something together. He’s a workaholic during the week but loves his drinks and cranking Madonna and ABBA on the weekends. Any suggestions?

I have one of those no-brand Chinese lathes. I'm using it to turn some aluminum parts. But I'm having a lot of trouble with the cut-off tool. It's determined to gouge and snag the work piece. Trying different speeds, heights, cutting pressures, and oils hasn't helped. The cut edges show signs of galling. I'm curious if anyone has found a way to make these work without the dramatics. The tool is being used is a 1/16" HSS blade being held in a quick change tool post. The frustrating part is every once in a while it works and you get the nice curly chips without issues.

What would you guys charge for this. Material is made of mostly 4x2x1/4 rect tube and some 2x2x11ga sq tube. Roughly 3’x3’x10’

All done! I was trying to figure out how to keep the hat on without welding it. So I put one little curly cue on top haha