I'll go first
Hi everyone,
My family is in the early stages of turning our idea into a small business – we want to design and build foldable / collapsible food vendor carts for local customers. The carts will be made primarily from steel sheet, with multiple panels that need to fold down for transport and storage.
We’re complete beginners when it comes to metal fabrication, and we’ve hit a wall trying to figure out the best way to cut our steel sheets down to size. The sheets will be used to make the flat rectangular panels that form the main body, shelves, and work surfaces of the carts. The thickness we’re looking at is around 2 mm (could be mild steel, but we may need to use stainless for hygiene – we’re open to hearing how that changes things).
We’ve been researching tools, but we’re honestly drowning in options and would really appreciate some real-world, practical advice. The main choices we keep seeing are:
What we’re trying to understand:
We’d also love any other guidance you think we should hear as first-time metalworkers: jigs we should build, bending solutions, welding tips – honestly, we’ll take anything you’ve got. We’re a family that’s great with ideas but totally green on the fabrication side, and we want to build something safe, durable, and professional-looking.
Thanks in advance for helping us find our feet!
The existing holes are for m3 bolts but I need to use slightly larger screws and am worried about damaging the paint work. Will it crack/chip?
I was thinking of placing a think bit of scrap metal on top and using a hand drill. Or I could use a hand rotary tool so then I'm working on the inside of the hole.. Would these work or is there a better way?
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Learned an expensive lesson this week. Marked a skid of A36 structural steel with a 50W fiber laser. Looked perfect. Sent it out for a heavy powder coat and the serial numbers completely vanished. QA rejected the whole batch.
Lasers just do a shallow surface burn. We had to go back to pneumatic pin marking. A pin actually stamps a deep enough valley into the steel that the thick powder coat can't fully fill it in and level out. You can still clearly read the stamped indent through the paint.
Set up a HeatSign benchtop dot peen marker for the guys to stamp the parts before sending them to the coaters, problem solved.
If you guys are doing heavy coated parts, drop the standard 4mm stylus. We switched to a heavy 6mm pin, set the air to 0.6 - 0.7 Mpa, and slowed the speed way down so it really hammers deep.
Side note: anyone here pin marking hardened AR400 plate? We are chewing through carbide tips right now. Any advice?
I'm working on a wagon project for the kiddos' first birthday. I'm in a time crunch to get it done by the big day and hit a wall this morning.
I need to notch some tubes for the running boards and found out my tube notcher is a .75" shaft with 5/8" 18 threads and will not accept my 1" hole saw with 1/2" 20 mounting. To my knowledge, I can't get a 1" hole saw in the larger arbor size. Sure, I could portaband my notches but I have a few to do and prefer not to.
I could stick the shaft in the lathe and drill/tap a 1/2 bolt extension into the shaft. Or potentially fab a reducer arbor from larger stock.
I do see pre-made reducers available at auto stores but they are primarily brass for brake lines. I don't think brass will hold up to the abuse? But maybe it would get me through the <10 cuts I need to make.
What would you recommend?
So I have been doing light fabrication for a couple of years and had the opportunity to do a custom sign for a client. Essentially it's a powdercoated steel plate with brass letters on it. I am looking for advice on what is going to be the best way to adhere the brass letters to the sign since I can't weld brass to steel. I would prefer to use an adhesive or epoxy of some sort to maintain the clean look, but safety is a huge concern because I can't risk letters falling off and potentially hitting someone walking under the sign; so brass screws or rivets may be my best option. Hopefully someone can steer me in the right direction or give me some feedback. Thanks everyone!
Hi. I bought this project utility trailer. Just wondering if the brackets design and welding of the leaf spring hanger mounts appear sufficiently strong enough for road use, in terms of design.
The frame is 2x2x 1/4 steel angle bar. A small section of the same angle bar was used, welded upside down to the frame at all 4 connection points, with the hanger brackets then welded to the upside down angle bar. All welds are welded on the long side( parallel to length of trailer). The welds themselves loook good in terms of quality. Mostly wondering about the design and that theyre not welded all around.
Its a light duty trailer. Will be used for less then 600lb. I will always keep an eye on it but I will eventually sell it and want to make sure its good.
Thanks.
Any ideas?
Edit: Solution in comments
Hi,
I fabricating something and would like to get these squares as close to being in plain as possible. How can I measure these to verify? My welding table is only so flat!
These not being flat will really mess things up in the next part of the build.
To resist angle grinder attacks. Obviously nothing is completely secure against a determined thief, just thinking of a simple way to make it a bit more difficult to cut, for a door bar I'm making.
I've heard of putting a piece of rebar loose inside the tube makes cutting with an angle grinder difficult, as it just spins. Any other things people have done?
i’ve got 3mm square tubing i’m gonna use for the frame and a 10mm plate for the benchtop. i don’t have a perfectly flat surface so im wondering how i could go about tacking the frame so everything is square, plumb, and level. also any tips for avoiding/fixing steel warp? Should i rent an oxy-acetylene burner and try my hand at flame straightening?
I work on cars as a hobby and was interested in building my own exhaust / intercooler piping and maybe getting into roll cages / bash bars and tube framing depending on my comfort levels.
I've been searching around for pipe benders or rollers that support 3.5-4.0" OD but can't seem to find any. Wisdom would tell me that most of the time it's just cut and welded, but then again, I see products from companies with bends in large pipes and I'm wondering how they do it; like if it's just a super expensive and specialized machine that I'd never have any chance to afford or if it's just some method I'm not aware of.
Thanks for any help!
Building my new shop and if I can find a practical & ergonomic route for a stock rack that doesn’t take up much indoor real estate & right by the saw I’d rather keep most of it indoors to minimize PNW’s aggressively corrosive weather, at least for lighter materials. Had my main steel rack at my last shop tied to the roof framing above saw area at my old place which was convenient so I’m considering a similar approach here at the new shop with sectional cross-members tied to the steel framing that i’ll be welding in soon, possibly with a minor pitch & lip (pictured). But regardless of orientation or location, show me your creative diy stock racks for my inspiration/your flex.