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Maggie’s The Welding and Metalworking Thread

Well, if you have access to a table-saw, this can easily be done with a carbide blade. That is what we used for many years. You want a slow, controlled feed and for parts that small you'd be best clamping them to a miter-block.

Cut many/much aluminum on table-saws, chop-saws, and skil-saws. up to 1/2" thick, too. It's easier than you think.

Doing it wrong, feeding too fast, not holding everything steady though,,,, can get one hurt, maimed, or killed very quickly though, too. Be aware of that fact.
 
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lapping in breech after extensive repairs to the teeth. A lot of work with Swiss files followed by an hour or two of lapping. But now she is as smooth as butter and locks like a vault!
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Fortification Mount from c. 1890s coming together. What virus? Who needs to leave Schloss Nitrocellulose when you have a workshop!

cheers,

Sirhr
 
Picked up a new (old) tool last week from a good friend who first used it in the family business in 1968.

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Not that I can leave anything alone or stock. :whistle:

Chop chop!



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The original blades were shipped off to Beverly yesterday to be re-sharpened. New mounting plate will get TIG welded to the original home made stand after I prep it for painting.

I wanted one of these for years, to get one with family history from a close longtime friend is just icing on the cake.
 
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@Sieg ironically enough, I too am looking for one of those. Doesn't need to be quite so big, but I've a project coming up where I'm going to need one for maybe 6ish months. Hang on to GOOD TOOLS, and they'll last lifetimes.

I like how you cleaned that one up. Respect.
 
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@Sieg ironically enough, I too am looking for one of those. Doesn't need to be quite so big, but I've a project coming up where I'm going to need one for maybe 6ish months. Hang on to GOOD TOOLS, and they'll last lifetimes.

I like how you cleaned that one up. Respect.
That's the smallest of the Beverly Shears, the B1, 14ga steel and 16ga Stainless. The B2 is 10ga and the B3 is 3/16" capacity.

The Baileigh MPS Series is a classic example of the Chinese knockoff capability. Bastards, but you can't blame them, our politicians let them do it for their own personal gains. I guess that makes the Chinese smarter than our 'previous' group of politicians.
 
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They do make some good knock offs. I use a Precision Matthews bench top drill/mill and have some Grizzly stuff for tools I don't use often. Japanese make some good lathes as well. Nothing like a cool old Bridgeport, Lodge and Shipley or South Bend etc. though. It just feels good walking in a shop with old solid American iron tools. They are hard to find with both conditions of priced decent and well maintained though.
 
They do make some good knock offs. I use a Precision Matthews bench top drill/mill and have some Grizzly stuff for tools I don't use often. Japanese make some good lathes as well. Nothing like a cool old Bridgeport, Lodge and Shipley or South Bend etc. though. It just feels good walking in a shop with old solid American iron tools. They are hard to find with both conditions of priced decent and well maintained though.
You left out Monarch..... ;)

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I found this one while shopping for a smaller lathe.

This is what they look like after a restoration.....

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Beverly Shear rebuild progress.... stripped the paint off the stand post and TIG welded the new mounting flange today.

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Just for fun, here's a picture of an antique tool board that is in the shop the shear came from.

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I love stuff like this!

A close friend also has a board something like this, only it has a disassembled Winchester Model 12 shotgun...... Serial Number 1 on it. An original hand painted presentation board done by Winchester. ;)
 
Tigged up a stand for the old lyman m5. No more bending down to get the scale at eye level.
 

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Picked up a new (old) tool last week from a good friend who first used it in the family business in 1968.

i-WR2kMzt-XL.jpg


i-VrXhngG-L.jpg


Not that I can leave anything alone or stock. :whistle:

Chop chop!



i-8xqtcmx-XL.jpg


i-bZjGgr4-L.jpg


i-hVkHvbJ-L.jpg


i-NvWGzCQ-L.jpg


i-swdjTHc-L.jpg


The original blades were shipped off to Beverly yesterday to be re-sharpened. New mounting plate will get TIG welded to the original home made stand after I prep it for painting.

I wanted one of these for years, to get one with family history from a close longtime friend is just icing on the cake.
Blades are at Beverly being resharpened, should be here next week and we're in business!

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Blades are at Beverly being resharpened, should be here next week and we're in business!

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Now THIS warms my soul... Nothing like a good shear.

Plus thus drums are diceivingly heavy, good call!
 
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Any suggestions on a dueling tree I'm working on. I found a place to order the paddles and made the rest with some scrap I had in my garage. Its only for a 22lr and I will trim the post it sits in down to get the right angle. I ordered enough to do 4 trees with 6 paddles each. This is the beta test.

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It angles forward, I would guess around 10 degrees as it sits. The shorter the base it sits in the steeper the angle.

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It angles forward, I would guess around 10 degrees as it sits. The shorter the base it sits in the steeper the angle.

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I’d put a few more degrees on that angle, really annoying to have bullets you sent come back to visit no matter how small the price. MGM recommends 30 degrees of memory serves. I’ve got some at close to twenty and it’s sent stuff back my way with pistols from various positions.
 
Thanks.

With 22lr?

These are going to be 100% rimfire and I didn't want to start with too much angle to get them to work.
 
Thanks.

With 22lr?

These are going to be 100% rimfire and I didn't want to start with too much angle to get them to work.

Energy has to go somewhere. It will splatter 360 if there’s not enough angle.

If you don’t want to watch the whole thing skip to 6:30, it’s a good explanation/demonstration.
 
Just finished and I guess I don't quite understand.

22lr is almost always 100% lead and sometimes has a copper wash on it.

So I understand energy transfer and the splatter pattern and trying to figure out how to make it work.

30 degrees for me at 6'2" won't be 30 degrees for my 7 year old.
 
Just finished and I guess I don't quite understand.

22lr is almost always 100% lead and sometimes has a copper wash on it.

So I understand energy transfer and the splatter pattern and trying to figure out how to make it work.

30 degrees for me at 6'2" won't be 30 degrees for my 7 year old.

maybe weld a piece of rod or small but between the angle iron and the plate? So you don’t increase the forward angle but add a little backward angle? Going to increase what you’ll need to consider for backstop because the bullets will bounce away instead of down but if you’re close with a 7 yo (like I was when they were that age) it might be better than angled down?
 
My dueling trees are 3/8" paddles and need roughly 20-23* to function without bouncing back for 9mm 45. For a .22 with 1/4" paddles not sure but easy to just keep adding or subtraction tilt putting stuff under the rear and find what works then make it permanent. I can say that shooting my trees with .22 they don't move and they always just spatter. The thing I do with a tree is get the angle right for it to function as intended swinging one side to the other and not worrying about ricochet and that has worked well for me. We also shoot no closer than about 12yds with pistols.
 
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Very nice work, make sure you post a picture installed!

Here are some pics of the bridge in place, hot off the press.
In full disclosure: it was not without issue. Anchor bolts were not where the surveys said they were (imagine that) and the existing structure was not where the contract drawings said it was. Long story short, there were some slight modifications to the steel in those locations, but all in all, I feel the project was a success. it just stinks that when you put so much time and care into fabricating (and shop assembling to ensure no field issues) something that a freaking surveyor can’t even give you the exact locations of the things you are tying into. I would be lying if I said that had never happened before. Apparently setting anchor bolts is rocket science.

We are doing the new surgical tower next door (about 360,000 sq ft and 3,700 tons) too, but it isn’t quite as cool looking as this bridge.

Anyways, hope y’all enjoy the pics.

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My knowledge of welding is farm boy stuff on an old Forney. My son is 15 now, and with school out, we’ve worked at learning life skills. His homework was to pick a simple project, design, draw, measure, and build. So, my brother took the better part of his day to help him build a simple firewood rack. He caught on fairly quick and enjoyed the work.
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Beverly Shear rebuild progress.... stripped the paint off the stand post and TIG welded the new mounting flange today.

i-pkdWb4p-L.jpg


i-v37FF3J-L.jpg


Just for fun, here's a picture of an antique tool board that is in the shop the shear came from.

i-LJQLqW8-L.jpg


I love stuff like this!

A close friend also has a board something like this, only it has a disassembled Winchester Model 12 shotgun...... Serial Number 1 on it. An original hand painted presentation board done by Winchester. ;)
Got a picture of the Model 12 board by chance?
 
My knowledge of welding is farm boy stuff on an old Forney. My son is 15 now, and with school out, we’ve worked at learning life skills. His homework was to pick a simple project, design, draw, measure, and build. So, my brother took the better part of his day to help him build a simple firewood rack. He caught on fairly quick and enjoyed the work.
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A skill that wil last a lifetime. They need to bring back vocational training in schools. Not everyone wants to go to college. Not everyone wants to go into debt to receive a sheepskin that is worth about $80 after 4 years of their life and $100,000 indebtedness.

Even if you do go to college, a life skill is never lost.

Congrats to your son. Hopefully this opens up a new and exciting chapter of his life.
 
Mear mortal trying to glue some metal today.

Steel hanger version 6.
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Like how it hangs better than V5 already, we’ll see how it holds up. Kids will probably be aiming for it:oops:

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So I finally gave it a shot and got an optrel crystal Haven’t had to much time behind it yet but so far it’s a really nice hood
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Pic through the lense
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tried my best to take a shot with an arc stiked kind of hard and is way cleaner looking then the picture shows which doesn’t do it justice.
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Can't find any filters for my 3m respirator, 2097 is what I have been useing.
Any ideas where to kook
 
Going a little on a tangent, I 'm wondering how many folks are making their own components for a Form 1 silencer? If so, are you just making the cones or are you making the body and end caps?
 
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Weight? My neck needs a break.
It is light it weighs 18 oz compared to my Esab sentinel that I was using before which weighs 23.5oz and it feels more balanced and better on my head than then my old miller performance that weighs an oz more then the optrel
 
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Mear mortal trying to glue some metal today.

Steel hanger version 6.
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Like how it hangs better than V5 already, we’ll see how it holds up. Kids will probably be aiming for it:oops:

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Welding ar500 sucks.
My $.02 for hanger advice is to use old tires...cut the sidewalls out, use the treaded section.

Carriage bolts through the plate into two layers of rubber the width of the plate with fender washers in the back....use a nylock nut.
. Fan/spread the two sections of rubber and mount to your post with cabinet screws...adjust pitch to suits.

The rubber lasts all year...and allows the target to swing and return more quickly while reducing bullet splash.


Shred
 
Welding ar500 sucks.
My $.02 for hanger advice is to use old tires...cut the sidewalls out, use the treaded section.

Carriage bolts through the plate into two layers of rubber the width of the plate with fender washers in the back....use a nylock nut.
. Fan/spread the two sections of rubber and mount to your post with cabinet screws...adjust pitch to suits.

The rubber lasts all year...and allows the target to swing and return more quickly while reducing bullet splash.


Shred
My biggest problem is the damn bolts. We’re shooting these at 100m mostly and between spall and direct hits on the bolts we’d tear one off per range session (me and four children). Once I put the hangers on they lost significantly longer as those chains seem to be able to shed several rounds before they get cut. I need to grab some fire hose I just haven’t seen any pop up locally.
 
During college I worked as a welder during the summer on the UU Bar in Cimarron then in the oil fields if NW New Mexico. Enjoyed doing fab work and made enough money to pay for my education. Been working in commercial construction most of my career and have a complete woodworking shop in the barn behind my house and have been doing it as a hobby for over 35 years. Always had a cheap mig and oxy/acetylene setup for the odd jobs around the house and farm. A couple of months ago I was bitten by metal working bug and picked up a good mig and tig machine as well as a plasma cutter. It has been a blast and made a fixture and plasma cutting table as well as numerous other appliances for the shop as well as the range. This was the project that actually planted the bug. I am little rusty but with some time under the hood I should be GTG.

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