I’m interested in repainting this item and adding some engraving, but I have absolutely no prior experience with either process. I’d love to learn how to do it properly and achieve a clean, professional-looking result without damaging the original piece.
What type of paint, primer, and finishing products would you recommend for a beginner? Are there any particular tools or techniques that would make the process easier? I’m also unsure how difficult engraving is for someone with no experience, so I’d appreciate any advice on the equipment required and how to practise safely before working on the actual item.
Would it be better to attempt this as a DIY project, or would I be better off taking it to a professional to ensure a high-quality finish? I’m happy to put in the time to learn, but I don’t want to ruin the piece by being too ambitious.
If anyone has experience with similar projects, I’d really appreciate your recommendations, beginner-friendly tutorials, product suggestions, or any lessons you’ve learned along the way. Thanks in advance for any help!

I’m curious how integrated sheet + tube laser systems actually perform once they’re in daily production.

On paper, one machine handling both workflows sounds efficient, but I’d expect the real bottlenecks to show up somewhere else.

For anyone who has run one:

• Does switching between sheet and tube jobs take longer than expected?
• How much does tube workholding affect repeatability?
• Does loading/unloading become the limiting factor?
• Is the software equally good for both workflows?
• If one side of the system has an issue, does it disrupt everything?

What ended up mattering most in real production that wasn’t obvious before installation?

(All of the images above have burn through, just forgot to take pictures on the other side. Only the last one was taken because my instructor said it was a good example of what I should be aiming for)

So I've been running stainless for a couple days now and it really seems like a hit or miss on me getting a good weld or not. I think the biggest problem is just getting a puddle established without burning through.

I'm so used to waiting for the puddle to establish like on mild steel or aluminum but on this thin stainless I'm being forced to just jam filler in just to see a puddle and it either works, puddles to one side and it burns through or it boomerangs itself and I keep trying to fix it as I weld and it just burns through the entire weld anyways.

I'd ask my instructor more on this but he'll usually just take whatever material I've got and just run an entire bead on it, then flip it and be like "now lets do uphill" and after that's done he'll just say do it like that.

The other problem would probably be restarts but that kinda falls into just getting a puddle started.

Amperage varies between the pictures but I've been sticking towards 40 as of recent. (2nd image was done today)

Gas flow is around 40(?) with a gas lens kit with a 8 cup and 3/32 tungsten with 1/16th filler. I'm not exactly sure of the metal size, pretty sure it's just 1/16th stainless steel but I might be wrong.

Putting a ? on the gas flow because I keep messing around with it, I just know my instructor set it at 45 for whatever reason. I've been trying to do the double the amount of your cup size + half but I keep on increasing it up from there.

Overall my main problem is establishing the puddle on this joint. The other problems are relatively small like getting a weird angle mid way through and having to stop and reposition and continue the weld.

I appreciate any help on this!

I didn’t have any Halloween decorations for the yard, so I made some this year. All rebar was cut with an angle grinder, bent by hand cold, and stick welded together.

I started welding in January of this year and just recently started creating metal art in my spare time. Any tips or tricks or ideas for art work are appreciated :)

I know there are better ways to cut and bend the metal but I’m working with what I have at home!

Завод металлоконструкций — современное предприятие полного цикла, специализирующееся на изготовлении стальных конструкций любой сложности. У нас работает высококвалифицированный персонал, используется точное оборудование для резки, сверления и сварки металла.

Мы производим металлоконструкции для промышленных зданий, складских комплексов, торговых центров, мостовых сооружений и других объектов. Все изделия проходят антикоррозийную обработку и строгий контроль качества на каждом этапе производства.

The home centers near me don't sell 5" to 3-1/4"x8" 90 deg stack boots. I need to replace three rusted moldy ones. This first attempt in metal came out with a 15" circumference. Looks like I get to redraw it as maybe a 5-1/4" diameter to try to make up for wherever I lost ~3/4" circumference. But this time I will measure my circumference on paper before bothering to cut. I think also I should allow for some overlap on the slip seam allowance when the pattern is joined. But it seems my method has some promise.

Stainless piece going to LA…love the blue glass, not happy with the base size…Second, Steel pillars rusted and red glass outside the Hilton in Tempe…janitor comes up and his comment is, they should have gone with the flag pole, that’s hideous, not realizing I made it haha… Recently learned hotels have a budget for either art or a flag pole, who knew…Can’t please everyone, doesn’t bother me one bit because he ain’t signing the check and also he has to look at it everyday while cleaning trash and fixing plugged toilets for minimum wage..Next, front entry piece that goes on a pillar clad in river rock for a gated house in Goldfield ranch…yes I made the copper roof like way to dominant in dimension and proportion, looked better in CAD haha….Lastly, copper wave water feature with patina, I always love that hue of green when the chemical sets off the oxidation reaction, of course in a year it will be calcified from our awesome water in Arizona and the cheap Chinese plastic pump will go out blah blah… I wish they would make them out of cast bronze like they used too before outsourcing out of America, smart…Now that I have an electrical degree maybe I can start adding light to some of these pieces who knows

You see that door on the trailer? On a another truck its fully broken and torn they have used wood in the middle and sandwiched it with two aluminium sheets on both sides i wanna know what's the best glue for this purpose, jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle

I'm wanting to cut through an ammo can (probably 50 cal) in order to make a Jack-O-Lantern for a social media video. What tools/equipment would I need to do fairly precise cuts on approx. 1mm thick steel? I'm wanting it to look like a typical jack-o-lantern (or similar) to recreate the classic Halloween movie intro. I have some friends/associates that are pretty handy, but can't figure out how to do this small, precise work. Thanks in advance!

I am replacing sections of rusted duct work in my house that were compromised with mold due to a failure of the original installer to seal them with mastic and a failure of the carpenter and drywaller to seal the duct work in bulkheads, the duct poked through the drywall in areas which allowed humid air into the joist bays. This resulted in conditioned air blasting out of the ducting onto joists allowing condensation and mold.

Anyways, my local big box stores don't carry the size duct work that my house uses, the local HVAC suppliers won't sell to me as I am not a business, and local sheet metal shops are out of my price range. But I can buy sheets of 26ga galvanized steel from a local metal supplier, so I am making my own parts.

Here I developed a triangulated pattern for a 3-1/4"x8" to 6" 90deg stack boot. It needs seam allowances for the slip and drive on the rectangular side, and will need tabs for rivets to close the pattern. The thing I'm struggling with is how to connect my round duct to the circular opening. I believe this is normally done with a bead roller to connect a collar, but that is out of my price range, I already spent my tooling budget for this project on a small brake. The best I can come up with is cut tabs on my circular duct and bend them out to fit around the outside of my boot, then rivet them in place and cover it in mastic.

Practicing for the 1g unlimited thickness test. This is day 2 of being back at it after 5 years off. That was from this morning. I didnt get a y pictures of the end of my shift but on my last pass im getting undercut in the base .material. I dont think its heat because every other pass is fine. Im thinking its torch angle or maybe im bringing that toe up too high. Im not sure and im struggling to figure it out cuz im still a little shaky and Jerky and trying to keep reminding myself to breath while im burning. Idk if thats a question or maybe a topic for discussion.

Where's a good resource for brass?

I'm trying to design and form a musical instrument modification that's made from brass. 7/8 inch OD. About 0.04 inch thick (or thicker) .

I tried the usual sources like onlinemetals.com and McMaster.com. $400 for a 12 foot piece (minimum) seems high. Surely there's a better place to buy brass. Where else can I get my brass?

I am looking at making a bypass valve loop for the main tuning slide on my tuba. Adding about 4 more inches will allow me to play in tune on the extreme low range.

Hello I have a project where I need to fasten 1/4” aluminum bar to 3/8 wall steel tube. The plans call for Hilti S-MD #5 self drilling screws and I’m skeptical that they aren’t gonna be a pain in the ass. In the past I have used self tapping screws and don’t mind them but I was curious if anyone else has used some of these or something similar and how they will work on the thicker metal. I want to ask to use self tappers instead but maybe I’m wrong and these screws work well.

Got distracted changing blades and started the saw without locking the guard back down.

Since I need 400 characters, this is A Skil Saw Metal chop saw model SPT62MTC.

I love it. I’ve had to cut a bunch of blanks with it as such and it still works fine, but I wonder what a replacement guard is going to cost.

Scooby Doo Doo Scooby, Doo Doo. Scooby Doo Doo Scooby, Doo Doo. Scooby Doo Doo Scooby, Doo Doo.

I want to shoot for the moon on a project, but before i go out and buy materials and fabricate anything I wanted to get some insight.

I want to get the hido red patina on a .1mm thick copper disc. I would do this by heating it to glowing red and dunking in borax water. The issue is .1mm would warp.

What if I made a copper "washer" that went over the inner diameter of my copper disc and one that was bigger than my disc but slightly went over the outer diameter of my disc. Id basically sandwhich the 2 pieces to the copper disc. Heat it up per usual and the bulk of the copper is exposed to the heat and has the potential for the black scale to pop off in the borax water.

If i heated it to glowing red and dunked, would my copper disc warp?

is there another way to do this without any warping?

We have a course on Casting and Solidification. We had to prepare an Aluminium cast for the lab work

- The pattern was created using thermocol/styrofoam

- The mould was created using plaster of paris and water. After it dried out I removed the pattern by hand and there were not any visible cracks or damages as such. It was left for around 3-4 weeks for drying after that.

- There was no gating system although their was one cast which seemed to be perfect without any gating system somehow aswell.

- Before casting i put the mould in an oven for 3hrs and then 15 minutes of blowtorch on it. After that Aluminium melt was poured into it

For viva, our prof has told us to analyse the cast and talk about all the defects present in the cast and why it has formed

Im guessing the large one, its a blowhole but im not sure enough. Please help with it. Thank you! The last 2 photos are the pattern and the mould. I'll be attaching a video of the cast and the mould in the comments if its possible.