Shop Made Tools

[DATo]

jhe.1973

I'm a bit confused. How does the device you made make the penetration of the weld possible? Does it simply provide inert gas to the inside of the area to be welded? I'm missing something here.

[jhe.1973]

Hi Everyone,

“I'm a bit confused. How does the device you made make the penetration of the weld possible? Does it simply provide inert gas to the inside of the area to be welded? I'm missing something here.”

“Thats what I am wondering, how is this any different then back purging?”

.................................................. .......

It isn’t different from back purging, it’s a tool to assist w/back purging. So, yes, it is simply to provide inert gas to the rear.

It doesn’t make the penetration possible, keeping the back free of oxygen when you penetrate all the way through (which would form scale, contaminating front, back & interior of the weld) allows a solid bead on both sides & all the way through.

Welding something that can be closed off easily, like the tube sample I showed at the start, aluminum foil can be used to close off the ends & stick a tube w/inert gas through the foil.

When the backside can’t be closed off so easily, this tool makes the inert gas flare out, just as it does from the torch, so it covers a wider area than if you just use a simple tube in back.

By making something like this, a person is able to use any of the cups available for the torch & get the gas right up against the back of the weld, i.e. the heat won’t affect the nozzle.

In case you are wondering, you do have to move it as you progress, just a lot less than w/a simple tube in the rear.

Hope that this helps & thanks a bunch for your interest!

[jhe.1973]

jhe.1973

Well, that internal weld sure looks nice and clean. I could use this technique and plan to give it a try. Thanks for posting it.

Hi DATo,

A few points to be aware of when you try this.

You will need a bit more heat than you would normally use for the thickness of the material.

Second, you'll have to feed a lot more filler rod into the puddle because you are trying to end up with a bead on both sides.

Once the puddle is started, keep moving.

Remember you are actually melting all the way through. Pausing can be risky.

[gizmo2]

shop made buffer

Here's a buffer grinder from the shop. The idea was to get plenty of room between the wheels for barreled actions, and the wheels to have their own seperate arbors so they ran true from time to time. The base is from a Crosby gage tester from the 1930's, with the tray filled with lead ingots. There is a one horse farm motor for giddyup, on a turn buckle for belt tension. Red doghouse covers the pulley, houses the wiring, and serves as a place to mount other tools.

THis is the collet detail; think of a scaled up Dremel tool, but just one size collet. Wheels are marked for direction and grit.

The cabinet above keeps the wheels sort of clean...

The little bandsaw is on the doghouse, and to the right on the wall are some of the other tools that share that spot. At the back is a lip and two pins up front allow the tools to be swapped easily but stay put in use.

Boy I sure hope this works; don't trust the bucket of photos yet.

[Harvey Melvin Richards]

Here are a couple of new miter gauges that I designed and had my guys help me fab. I built one for work, and one for myself.

[Chris S.]

Here are a couple of new miter gauges that I designed and had my guys help me fab. I built one for work, and one for myself.

Very nice. What was the raw stock?

[DATo]

Beautiful piece of workmanship Harvey. My compliments.

[Harvey Melvin Richards]

Very nice. What was the raw stock?

The aluminum angle is a piece of 4" X 6" X 1/2" 6061 that I purchased on eBay. The miter slot bars are O1 Starrett stock from McMaster. The large adjustable handle was another eBay purchase and the other bits were all from McMaster. When I get some free time I will design a flip stop for the t-slots.

[Chris S.]

The aluminum angle is a piece of 4" X 6" X 1/2" 6061 that I purchased on eBay.

Wow, that's a lot of material to remove. I thought you started out with some type of "L" or "U" stock. Was the bulk of the material bandsawn out?

[Toolguy]

Angle

The aluminum angle is an "L" shape to start with. In this case, one leg was 4", one leg was 6", each one 1/2" thick.

[Chris S.]

Ah, I should have paid closer attention to the dimensions you posted.

[Harvey Melvin Richards]

The aluminum angle is an "L" shape to start with. In this case, one leg was 4", one leg was 6", each one 1/2" thick.

That's correct, I guess I was a little obtuse in my description. The inside of the aluminum angle was basically left alone. The angle had radiused edges, but it was machined off.

Here are the parts, pre machining.

[noah katz]

Beautiful work, Harvey.

How many hours in those?

[Harvey Melvin Richards]

Beautiful work, Harvey.

How many hours in those?

It's really hard to say, we have been working on them on and off for months. I cut the aluminum in the last photo back in April. I just finished assembling them yesterday. The main body with the pin holes, and half circle slot was done on a Tree 325 CNC, so it went fairly fast. The lock down clamp washer is a "T" shape that is radiused to fit the slot, so it took a little work. Maybe 10 hours total in the pair of them, but that's probably low.

[ftownroe]

My shop aids

Here are some of the things that I have made to make my work in the shop easier:

This set of screw jacks are from plans in Model Engineer Workshop. I added the locking ring to keep the height set.



Here is one fo the screw jacks in use:



This is a workstop that I made. I know that they are cheap to buy, but it was a fun project.



Fed up with the lousy table stops that came with my mill and table feed, I made these more substantial and adjustable ones: