Week 1

This was my first week in the shop. I only spent ~5 hours there but it was a productive week. I got time on the manual mill, TIG welder, and horizontal bandsaw. I hit a few bumps (as expected and desired), for which I found workarounds that I can try next week. They include buying a face mill and parallels — something I had put off for a while but finally pulled the trigger.

Activities

Manual Mill

TIG

  • Used angle grinder with thin wire cup brush to prep steel plate

  • Cut 1/4” steel plate on horizontal bandsaw

  • 👎 Failed to cut 1/8” steel plate on horizontal bandsaw (too thin for vise to hold)

  • Sharpened tungsten rod

  • 👎 Failed to create weld pool on 1/4” plate, much less actually fill it

Lessons Learned

  • To properly hold short or thin stock in vise on horizontal bandsaw, first tack-weld it to a long square tube and put the tube in the vise

  • Use at least 150 amp when TIG'ing on 1/4” steel plate

  • Use flap disc (not wire brush) to properly prep metal for welding

  • Try squaring a larger cube (>1.5”), it should be easier

    • Buy a shell mill to face/square more quickly

    • Buy parallels — ones in shop are too dinged up and only ±.001” parallel

Show and tell

Failed TIG welds on 1/4" steel plate

Several failed attempts to TIG weld 1/4" mild steel using 3/32" 2%-lanthanated tungsten at 100-130 amps. Most of the welds have no filler because I had difficulty creating a weld pool big enough. I need to up the amps to at least 150.

The orange color on some of the welds is caused by mill scale. I need to do a better job of cleaning the metal before welding. I used a thin wire brush with my angle grinder; I should have used a flap disc.

metalworkBradley Berkin