Fabrication tips and tricks

[Im4yotas]

Let's see what you got for fabrication tips and tricks. I will start it off with a simple one and add as I can.
This should be 1st grade level stuff, but I was mostly self taught and picked up what I could on the old board, so it took me almost 20 years before I learned how to properly use soapstone for layout...
I would grab a chunk like this and rub it on the concrete until it had a 45 degree angle on it. The tip lasted about 3 inches worth of marking before getting too fat to be worth anything.

The better way is to sharpen in with a very long taper, like 3 inches long. You can get a really fine point that very slowly becomes more blunt. I used some antislip grip tape on a piece of flat bar to sharpen it.

They are pretty delicate, so a holder helps them survive

Another great option is thin soapstone. I use the 1/32" stuff. Works great for most of what I do and requires no sharpening. It is very delicate, so the holder is a must.

Of course, this is limited to a "pretty" thin line. When I need a really fine line, I go to my homemade scribe. Just an old carbide burr with the point sharpened.

 

[Clb]

Caution coffee is hot

 

[tracyb]

soap stone has it place.

fine lines... braze a carbide lathe bit to some rod and fancy it up with a handle. a guy at the shipyard used to do them up for 10bux if he didnt hate you. been using the same one for 10yrs or so

 

[pennsylvaniaboy]

For the soap stone...i use a rasp...

Another tip, a RASP, will also knock of weld BB's, and knock down welds as too. I love it.

 

[CarterKraft]

I have boxes of soap stone but after finding these pencils I stopped using them.
I like the regular wood pencil version of the Silver Streak too but this lasts 100x longer and is faster easier to sharpen with the built in cap sharpener.

 

[Lilyota]

I always lose soap stone for some reason

I did just buy a tungsten scribe last week...I'll see how long it takes to lose that.

 

[gt1guy]

If your marking becomes hard to follow/see when you cutting, run a series of center punch hits on the line. Easy to see and follow.

 

[back woods]

Old cut-off wheels work great for scribing straight lines. They are often all over the bench and easy to find as well.

 

[Byro]

So apparently I’m the only one who will clamp a 4’ level to the work piece if I have to make a long cut with the plasma and/or torch. And also the only one who doesn’t use soapstone.

Old cut/grinding wheels make great radius templates.

 

[Snoop dogg]

So apparently I’m the only one who will clamp a 4’ level to the work piece if I have to make a long cut with the plasma and/or torch. And also the only one who doesn’t use soapstone.

Old cut/grinding wheels make great radius templates.

No....I'm a big user of straight edges and any time I find long runs of aluminum with a lip from a tear off etc...those come back with me.


Also for long straight cuts with a straight edge I use circular saw with the diablo metal or aluminum cutting blades. Ive torch and plasma cut that shit for the longest time and the diablo blades were a game changer for me.

 

[reptillikus]

So apparently I’m the only one who will clamp a 4’ level to the work piece if I have to make a long cut with the plasma and/or torch. And also the only one who doesn’t use soapstone.

Old cut/grinding wheels make great radius templates.

Its fairly common for me to be torching 1" thick sheet steel at work, i always use a piece of angle iron clamped to the plate. Unless the track burner is available and then i use that

Good idea on the grinding wheels; i always end up just grabbing scraps of pipe from the wall and using that, never even thought of tracing a grinding wheel.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

So apparently I’m the only one who will clamp a 4’ level to the work piece if I have to make a long cut with the plasma and/or torch. And also the only one who doesn’t use soapstone.

Old cut/grinding wheels make great radius templates.

I hate soap stone, so no.

Clamping some form of straight edge to the sheet is the only way to go. I used to try and use the ~1/4" tall side of the angle iron, but now I just use the vertical side and space it out, it's a lot easier to make a consistent straight line.

 

[rockyota83]

So apparently I’m the only one who will clamp a 4’ level to the work piece if I have to make a long cut with the plasma and/or torch. And also the only one who doesn’t use soapstone.

Old cut/grinding wheels make great radius templates.

nope youre not alone, i quit using soap stone over 10yrs ago. i use permanent markers(bic not sharpie) for everything besides the plasma, use paint markers for the plasma. i also clamp a guide for long straight cuts, i also recently started using a circular saw with a diablo metal blade for sheet metal and besides the chips i much prefer it to the plasma. plasma mostly gets used for cutting brackets/parts off of vehicles/tractors/trailers etc or odd shaped/circular cuts

paint maker

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00N3JQAJU

permanent markers
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TLQ4KVH (they were only $10 when i ordered a week ago)

if you live dangerous and removed the guard on your 4.5 or 5" angle grinders get yourself some 6" cut off wheels, i love them

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XKCV12K

not a good idea if you dont have much experience using grinders though

a 9" grinding wheel on a 7" grinder is also pretty nice but dangerous

an adjustable floor/box fan for blowing welding smoke/grinding dust away from you is nice

foam pads are great when you have to spend time in one spot on your knees if you dont like wearing knee pads(cue jokes)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0797Q5HL7

drilling a bunch of holes in steel with a hand drill, keep a bottle of water next to you and dip the bit in it after every hole or so to keep your bit cool/stay sharper longer(works great for sawzall blades too)

 

[Im4yotas]

I made these simple little vee blocks from some scrap 3 x 3 and 2 x 2 angle, little extra tab so I can clamp it down on the drill press. Makes it so much nicer just to keep tube from rolling around while marking for cuts or cleaning up notches.

Tube for marking tube. This is a piece of 2 x .120 for marking on 1.75 tube. Nice square cuts on the end. Super easy to line up where you want your mark and can be used to scribe a square line all the way around.

 

[Im4yotas]

Use a little flat piece of metal to help line up a tube in the drill press and drill on center. 6 inch scale works great.

Not on center holds the scale at an angle.

When you're centered up, the scale will square up to the drill bit.

 

[Im4yotas]

If you need to clamp a round tube down to the table, use another scrap of that same size tube, and clamp a piece of heavy flat bar or similar on top of both of them. This also works well for extending the reach of your clamp or tucking in under some overhanging feature on a part.

I have a few little blocks that I have cut down in height to half the OD of common tube sizes. They are a quick way to mark the center (vertically) of a tube.

If you want to mark the center at the top, throw a big square against the tube and set the block against that.

 

[Sterlingfire]

To expound upon the fan blowing grinding dust and weld/ cutting smoke away, if you tape a furnace filter to the back of the fan, you can filter out most of the particulate. I do this especially if I'm working in the shop in the winter when i won't open the doors. Works great for me.
Paint markers and different colored permanent markers from Milwaukee work well for marking on any surface. Soap stone is ridiculously annoying to try to fab with IMO.
As far as using a piece of angle to cut straight lines with the torch or plasma, you can do the same for grinders and circular saws. Just need to set the angle(fence) to the right distance off the cut line and use the fence as to your guide.
Cutting oil on drill bits and hole saws save some cutting edge for the next job. Also keeping your bits cool is the biggest thing, use the oil for that just as much as your using it for lube and to wash chips away. Water will work to cool them, but dipping them in water when too hot can make them brittle.

 

[Byro]

+1 on the paint pens and Milwaukee Inkzall.

I’ve been meaning to make a down draft grinding box, like the idea of the furnace filter on it to keep it clean as opposed to just blowing shit around the shop. The amount of dust generated from grinding/cutting drives me nuts.

 

[MuntCuffin]

If your marking becomes hard to follow/see when you cutting, run a series of center punch hits on the line. Easy to see and follow.

Thats a hell of an idea.

I normally just look disapprovingly at my crooked ass cut and fill the gaps with weld.

 

[desertPOS]

Been meaning to take a pic of this for posting here. Diamond discs for sharpening tungsten - works great and cheaper than a specific tungsten grinder. Discs just stacked up with some spacers - course, medium, fine from right to left. Discs aren't perfectly 'true,' so I was going to cut out aluminum or plywood for a backer between discs, but hasn't really seemed to matter at all... Course only needed on new or broken tungsten

Discs I got are 80, 180 and 400:

Amazon.com

Got the idea from an old youtube video, but don't think it's up anymore

 

[desertPOS]

Thats a hell of an idea.

I normally just look disapprovingly at my crooked ass cut and fill the gaps with weld.

I always keep a good headlamp and a bag of fresh batteries in the shop. Even with good lighting, seems theres always a shadow just right on a cut line or cutting disc blocks the light. Mounting a bright light directly on the front of my skull seems to work very well when doing precision work. Next time I need to buy one I'll probably just go rechargeable with it

The upgrade to that idea is to start mounting lighting on all hoods

 

[speed bump]

I always keep a good headlamp and a bag of fresh batteries in the shop. Even with good lighting, seems theres always a shadow just right on a cut line or cutting disc blocks the light. Mounting a bright light directly on the front of my skull seems to work very well when doing precision work. Next time I need to buy one I'll probably just go rechargeable with it

The upgrade to that idea is to start mounting lighting on all hoods

I buy the cheap 3 for $10 cree flashlights for that. But a glued on headlamp would probably work better.

 

[power_by_429]

Last summer I swapped my buggy engine using plexiglass as a template for making the adapter plate. I really like this method because it's quick and allows you to see any interference issues before wasting materials. I started with one hole for the block alignment pin and one hole for the crankshaft/input shaft center. Then traced both hole patterns and clocked it all till everything jived. Then simply use the plexiglass as a template to lay out the steel adapter plate. Only tools required are a marker, drill and maybe a die grinder for fine tuning.

 

[arse_sidewards]

Last summer I swapped my buggy engine using plexiglass as a template for making the adapter plate. I really like this method because it's quick and allows you to see any interference issues before wasting materials. I started with one hole for the block alignment pin and one hole for the crankshaft/input shaft center. Then traced both hole patterns and clocked it all till everything jived. Then simply use the plexiglass as a template to lay out the steel adapter plate. Only tools required are a marker, drill and maybe a die grinder for fine tuning.

Gonna want something a little more accurate than a sharpie for plotting the location of those dowel holes but that's a great idea otherwise.

 

[Wisconsinite]

The video is a little long winded, but skip through it or watch it on fast forward. It is a pretty clever idea, and I have used it a few times.

 

[CarterKraft]

Not revolutionary tip, but a regular wood router with 1/4 carbide straight cutting bit and hole cutter jig makes awesome holes for fans etc. in aluminum. I usually draw the circle with sharpie then spray a ring of WD40 on the cut line to keep from chip welding to the router bit. HSS bit might work too. I screw the whole thing down to some scrap wood via the center of the circle and when you get around to the last tab I just pull the piece away from the bit to prevent mishaps.

I even did this to a shroud that already had a hole in it, enlarged the hole 1" and cut a perfect ring out of it. Obviously jig saw works fine but this is more perfecter...

 

[chaplinfj60]

So apparently I’m the only one who will clamp a 4’ level to the work piece if I have to make a long cut with the plasma and/or torch. And also the only one who doesn’t use soapstone.

Old cut/grinding wheels make great radius templates.

i use a straight edge all the time when cutting with a plasma torch, hady as hell arr the cheep speed squares from HF.

 

[chaplinfj60]

no soap stone here either.

 

[Im4yotas]

Soap stone works great on heavy mill scale or rust and sucks at pretty much everything else. It only gets used for plate work in my garage, but it is a must have at work (I do structural steel).

 

[reptillikus]

Agreed, there is a soap stone and a sharpie in my pocket at work all day every day. Never know what im doing, but i probably need one of them.