Stuff you have made today

[Hood]

I was asked to make a life ring holder and to weld it onto the inside of the shelter deck. It would have taken me longer to load the welder to the van, unload at the boat, weld, reload and then unload back to the workshop so I decided just to make one up that could be bolted to the ribs of the shelter deck.

Drew it up in fusion.

Arranged for plasma.

Cut the parts and welded together.

Fitted with the life ring in place.

 

[DennisCA]

Nice machine , when you sort things like that with no diagrams it can be a good feeling .

With luck you should be able to still locate test & service schedule sheets or even a complete hand book that gives voltage test points in each building block of the circuit boards somewhere on the internet .

I have a manual and a service manual with schematics and pictures of the PCBs layouts, I am not that good at reading diagrams, but when I saw the amplitude change sometimes when I wiggled the BNC connector I figured it must be a bad solder joint.

 

[Munkul]

Turned 4 spacers and cut two bits of steel tonight before getting sick and going home. Bandsaw has been playing up recently and I spent the first few hours fiddling with it trying to get it to cut straight... I put my spare blade on as last resort, and hey presto, straight cuts again. Really vexing, I've spent hours and hours trying different things over the last week. It was a Starrett blade that was nearly new and still sharp, totally scrap.

 

[Brad93]

Turned 4 spacers and cut two bits of steel tonight before getting sick and going home. Bandsaw has been playing up recently and I spent the first few hours fiddling with it trying to get it to cut straight... I put my spare blade on as last resort, and hey presto, straight cuts again. Really vexing, I've spent hours and hours trying different things over the last week. It was a Starrett blade that was nearly new and still sharp, totally scrap.

View attachment 315057 View attachment 315058

They do that. My imet is the same and you can't buy a better quality saw nor blades.

 

[DAPPH]

Turned 4 spacers and cut two bits of steel tonight before getting sick and going home. Bandsaw has been playing up recently and I spent the first few hours fiddling with it trying to get it to cut straight... I put my spare blade on as last resort, and hey presto, straight cuts again. Really vexing, I've spent hours and hours trying different things over the last week. It was a Starrett blade that was nearly new and still sharp, totally scrap.

View attachment 315057 View attachment 315058

One way I've over come the out of line cut on my cheapie Machine Mart 4" machine is to tension the blade well and take off a lot of the down ward pressure so the blade runs at 90 degrees to what's being cut instead of the blade being ever so slightly twisted over to one side . Then once it is cut through the top wall take the stock out the clamp and rotate it backwards to the motor end to get the cut vertical . The blade then has a vertical guide to follow . Slacken the blade off three full turns on the tensioner after each use session to reduce long term stress on the machine .

If I want a really accurate cut I do what my fabricator pal at Peterbrotherhood's told me to do . Cut over length then Dyechem the end & correctly scribe on the dimension ..use a 4 inch grinder or two to carefully grind back to the lines . Found this excellent advice especially when cutting 45 degree or other complex corner joints .

 

[Tupers]

A little hammer forming do-dad to make up rear quarter repair sections on the Mini.

 

[Munkul]

They do that. My imet is the same and you can't buy a better quality saw nor blades.

Usually, I can stand 180mm flat up in the vice and it will cut it square. That's why I mitre cut everything I can - because it cuts accurately enough.
I tried everything here... changed all the guide bearings, cleaned and re-set the guide pads etc, played with tensions, played with guide pressures, but nothing was working. That previous cut you can see was going to wander around 8mm before it had even got through the top, and start eating into the vice!
I chucked the spare blade on - no further adjustments - square cuts again.

I've seen bad blades at work before, but I've never had one myself. Very strange.

What blades do you use?

 

[Munkul]

One way I've over come the out of line cut on my cheapie Machine Mart 4" machine is to tension the blade well and take off a lot of the down ward pressure so the blade runs at 90 degrees to what's being cut instead of the blade being ever so slightly twisted over to one side . Then once it is cut through the top wall take the stock out the clamp and rotate it backwards to the motor end to get the cut vertical . The blade then has a vertical guide to follow . Slacken the blade off three full turns on the tensioner after each use session to reduce long term stress on the machine .

If I want a really accurate cut I do what my fabricator pal at Peterbrotherhood's told me to do . Cut over length then Dyechem the end & correctly scribe on the dimension ..use a 4 inch grinder or two to carefully grind back to the lines . Found this excellent advice especially when cutting 45 degree or other complex corner joints .

Like I said to Brad, this saw is usually superb on accuracy, I never have to worry about it usually. It does all sorts from heavy sections to thin wall tubes. I don't have the time or patience to correct a bad saw cut.

Anyway, new blades ordered...

 

[Munkul]

They do that. My imet is the same and you can't buy a better quality saw nor blades.

Blades are a royal pain...
I can get off the shelf Arntz blades from TG which are usually decent, but don't last forever. I've been through 2 this year already.
I got an MK Morse M42 blade last year and it lasted forever...! best blade I've ever used, I could fly through stuff with it. Tried to get another, but got fobbed off.
Tried this Starrett blade - heard a lot of good things about them. It hasn't done much work. Maybe I stuffed it too hard early on, or maybe my brother did it. Who knows.

If I could find another Morse M42 blade supplier, I'd order 2 of them off the bat. Justbandsawblades only stock the cheaper matrix blade now.
I've ordered a Hakansson M42 to try out, as well as an Arntz as a spare.

 

[RichardM]

I bought some Morse hacksaw blades cheap from the car boot, never heard of them before but I'll give them a try! Excellent blades, wish I'd bought all the ones he had.
Have you tried these guys:

Home

We are a leading supplier for Bandsaw Blades UK, including M K Morse and MPS Sägen wood and metal cutting blades.

bandsawblades.co.uk

 

[Munkul]

I bought some Morse hacksaw blades cheap from the car boot, never heard of them before but I'll give them a try! Excellent blades, wish I'd bought all the ones he had.
Have you tried these guys:

Home

We are a leading supplier for Bandsaw Blades UK, including M K Morse and MPS Sägen wood and metal cutting blades.

bandsawblades.co.uk

Yeah I did, they don't have what I need.

 

[Brad93]

Blades are a royal pain...
I can get off the shelf Arntz blades from TG which are usually decent, but don't last forever. I've been through 2 this year already.
I got an MK Morse M42 blade last year and it lasted forever...! best blade I've ever used, I could fly through stuff with it. Tried to get another, but got fobbed off.
Tried this Starrett blade - heard a lot of good things about them. It hasn't done much work. Maybe I stuffed it too hard early on, or maybe my brother did it. Who knows.

If I could find another Morse M42 blade supplier, I'd order 2 of them off the bat. Justbandsawblades only stock the cheaper matrix blade now.
I've ordered a Hakansson M42 to try out, as well as an Arntz as a spare.

Harrison Saw Blades are who we use but we buy 20 at a time.
M42. Sometimes we get 6 weeks out of a blade sometimes 2 weeks. But at £12 a blade I think it was last time you can't moan.

 

[Munkul]

Harrison Saw Blades are who we use but we buy 20 at a time.
M42. Sometimes we get 6 weeks out of a blade sometimes 2 weeks. But at £12 a blade I think it was last time you can't moan.

What?? I'll have to try em. I'm paying £30/blade.

 

[Brad93]

What?? I'll have to try em. I'm paying £30/blade.

Bear in mind we buy 10 or 20 blades at a time.

but yes at £12 when it starts to wander you just bin it and stick a new one on.

 

[awemawson]

The 'set' of the teeth can be ruined by a hard spot in the work, and if predominantly on one side they'll cut a curve whatever you do.
A temporary fix is to set the blade running and lightly press a bit of carborundum stone on the side that is the inside of the cut curve, reducing the 'set' on that side. It'll get you going until the new blade arrives !

 

[Munkul]

The 'set' of the teeth can be ruined by a hard spot in the work, and if predominantly on one side they'll cut a curve whatever you do.
A temporary fix is to set the blade running and lightly press a bit of carborundum stone on the side that is the inside of the cut curve, reducing the 'set' on that side. It'll get you going until the new blade arrives !

I like the sound of that, I'll remember that for next time.

 

[dan.taylor.1]

What?? I'll have to try em. I'm paying £30/blade.

Are the arntz ones you're using m42? I get mine from tgs and they're m42, last ages but I doubt my saw sees the cuts yours does.

 

[dan.taylor.1]

Bear in mind we buy 10 or 20 blades at a time.

but yes at £12 when it starts to wander you just bin it and stick a new one on.

Are they in Rossendale?

 

[Brad93]

Are they in Rossendale?

Yes

 

[Munkul]

Are the arntz ones you're using m42? I get mine from tgs and they're m42, last ages but I doubt my saw sees the cuts yours does.

Yeah they are. The last two I've had they snapped at the weld joint before they went dull, and there's nothing wrong with the saw or guides. They do work fine for a decent amount of cutting though.

This past summer has seen us cut a lot more steel than ever before, so going from 1 blade a year to 3 or 4 seems to make a difference on the pocket