Spot Welder FTW! | Fabricating a Steel Shelf for the CNC Plasma Table
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- čas přidán 5. 09. 2024
- Today we're putting all the sheet metal tools together: The CNC plasma table, the magnetic bending brake, and a spot welder, to make a steel shelf for the plasma table.
More details on plasma CAM in Fusion 360: • Making a Torch Splash ...
Tools used in this video:
*This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated
Hypertherm Powermax 30 XP Plasma Cutter (eBay*): ebay.to/2JgTrK6
Rhino Cart Welding Fixture Table (Amazon*): amzn.to/3za8aez
Milwaukee Brushless Right Angle Die Grinder (Amazon*): amzn.to/3j8pqeh
3M 2" Roloc Disc Adapter (Amazon*): amzn.to/3E39hyX
Scotch-Brite Surface Conditioning Disc (Amazon*): amzn.to/3p9zxDj
HHIP 2-4-6 Blocks (pair) (Amazon*): amzn.to/2Wi03eM
Aventor 12" DPS IP54 Height Gage (Amazon*): amzn.to/2WGlB40
Milwaukee Brushless Impact Driver (Amazon*): amzn.to/2Xgcjjc
Raw Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons...
Tip for parameterizing your model… just draw the part, and when you enter the dimension constraint for the first time, type ‘Width = 6’. This creates the parameter, sets its value, and assigns it to the dimension in one step.
Oh. My. God.
Shane of Stuff Made Here made an attachment for his plasma table for a marker, which puts the bend lines on before you cut. Pretty neat
It'll have to do. :) The Shars is probably an order of magnitude more accurate than the plasma cut edge plus the human error at the brake.
You could do an air engraver to get an accurate line.
Just do a tool change, replace the plasma torch with a spring loaded drag engraver. Something akin to a tap follower with a carbide point, done. It's not a front panel, would be more than sufficient for fabrication lines.
I have a silly idea, let's say I'm working with thin aluminum sheet metal which I can cut with a desktop size CNC but don't have the rest of tools like flat surface, height gauge etc. Is there a way like getting the folds printer on a piece of paper, then ironing it over, if not, using a centre punch to mark the connecting vertices, mark the rest with carbide scribe? (Hobbyist only, I don't own any of the above, but looking to acquire something like 3018 CNC.)
@@arthurmorgan8966 Jenny calipers, or odd-leg calipers, are cheap and will let you scribe a line a set distance parallel to an edge.
"Temporary unless it works" is a good one. Nothing is more permanent than a temporary solution.
I've got temporary solutions all around my shop. Some have been temporary for more than a decade. But one day I'm going to...
I love that this video had not only some spot welding action, but was also a good workout of the sheet metal brake with all the extra clamping fingers. It was good seeing how those are used to bend more complex shapes.
This must be the most precise sheet metal box ever created
Powder coat the shelve. Yes, more sheet metal projects please. Great content overall. Thank you.
Build a powder coat booth and oven for your sheet metal fab set up! You will be glad you did!
Hey James loving all the sheet metal and CAD stuff, it’s a big part of what I do professionally. Moving forward try building your models centered on the default planes. This is easy to do given you can make rectangle sketches centered on the origin. This will keep you from needing to make midplanes and helps later if making assembles.
Every time I see that mag brake on your channel I start looking around the shop for a spot to put one!😀Some destructive testing on some spot welds would be a nice video. Down here in Mississippi that 20ga mild would have rust on it before you finished the project!
Cracked up on the rust comment....
I’m really enjoying your Fusion360, sheet metal, brake, and now spot welder content! Thanks for making my Saturday!
James now you need a bead roller.
This would be a perfect project to build on your channel.
Fantastic! I get to live vicariously through your shop. As a suggestion since you are going Full Metal Shop, (you know what they say, never go full metal), go with powder coating instead of painting. Just get an old electric oven (i got mine free from someone putting it out on the curb). An Eastwood Powder Coating starter kit and you are set. Cheers.
That's true, powder coat is on my list too!
I was going to build an electric oven, but my neighbor had an old gas oven. It works fine and commercial powder coating oven are gas. I need to build a powder coating booth and am thinking about using an 18"x48" bench/shelving unit as the frame. A shelf can be set at bench height and horizontals at the top will give a place to attach plastic or sheeting. This will sit outside under a patio cover. Powder is very messy to have inside and I don't have the space for it. If it was used inside, a fan and filters could be used to draw the powder into the filters rather than all over the garage. For small parts, I set a large plastic tub on it's side, on my welding table, and sprayed them inside it so that some of the powder was kept in and around the tub.
Aha, said the blind carpenter (as he picked up his hammer & saw): now I understand the beauty of a magnetic brake!
Don't miss, James gets into powder coating and paints his new shelf! That's another road you can get swallowed up in. My son powder coats and it is really cool. Great work James!
LOL ... now there is a subscribe cliffchanger if i ever saw one! Well played!
James, that is a nice sturdy shelf. All of that expensive equipment that you have really makes any job a pleasure and easy experience provided you know as much as you do about machining. I love watching all your videos but I can only dream about most of the things that you do because I will never be able to afford any of that wonderful equipment.
I think the shelf you made would make the table look better if it were painted black like the legs on the table. Great job!
Agreed. I picked up some primer and paint.
James you have a pretty sweet sheetmetal setup, love watching your shop grow.
Hi James:
Rather than "paint" the new shelf, wipe it all down with paint thinner, or equal, and spray a couple of coats of rattle can lacquer to prevent corrosion.
Best - Michael
Subscribed for paint updates
James I'm very appreciative of your step by step narration of the Fusion 360 design.
It's helped me learn a lot and I'm finding it easy to play/pause my way through your video while I do my own design. Excellent pace.
A nice thing to do is add a second 'tool' to the plasma. Drag engraver or even just a sharpie to mark all the bend lines directly on the part
Great to see the sheet metal bender in action!
It is absolutely amazing the world we live in where a hobby level worker can produce amazing parts with such ease( relatively speaking). These are expensive tools but not compared to industrial equipment. Volume is the key difference but just a few years ago it would have been exponentially more expensive diffucult to do the same work.
That magnetic brake is really cool. Good video.
Nice job, and yet more new toys that I want, need, must have, will surely die without...
James, thank you for sharing this. If you ever decide to fool with aluminum though, don't scribe it or you risk causing cracks -- a (soft lead) pencil line is preferred instead there.
I do a lot of work with aluminum. If I ever build an airplane, I'll be really careful about stress risers in the material. For most of what I do in the shop, it's unlikely to ever become a problem.
As a sheet metal worker we do this typically....
If your going to do more types of trays/shelves, get or make offset bent tips. You'll be able to make a few welds in the corners.
Also when you start a new set, need to file the tips to make a good point, fresh copper exposed, and that they are aligned.
When doing a bunch of welds... Need to file on a regular basis.
A good weld is usually signed by a copper mark in the weld. Especially in galv.
What I'd really like is a bottom tip that can reach inside a 1" x 1/16 wall square tube.
@@Clough42
Offhand... A ~1/2" copper rod/square bar with a small tip to clear inside can do.
In a pinch, A tip can be made out of any copper rod or even a mig tip cut down to fit...
Depending on how for into the tube you need to weld to, this could work...
If farther in , might just need a flat bottom tip and your regular top tip.
This will focus the energy onto the top..
Many different ways can be made for this operation...
James, thanks for your great videos. One suggestion that might help would be to pick up a retractable tool balancer to mount over your fixture table to help handle the spot welder when your parts are clamped down to the table. Keep up the good work!
The spot welder has a threaded hole in the top for a support cable for exactly this reason. I don't really have much trouble managing the weight, but I was struggling to figure out how to hold it without pressing the buttons.
Superb execution, James, from start to finish! 👍🏻👍🏻
Impressively fast workflow for incredibly strong parts! Can't wait to see what other projects you throw at it!
Very nicely done. I have always wanted one of the magnetic sheet metal brakes, but don't have the space or any real need. But the machine does seem to have endless potential.
That's another awesome video, James. I like the projects you have and appreciate the clarity of your explanations.
Another awesome shop project. And I see even you are not immune to dumb mishaps ( pinched hand ). I having done that numerous times know how painful it can be. Can't wait for the next Sheetmetal/spot welder project.. Thanks as always for sharing...
Great video! I had a chance to use a magnetic brake and think my box pan will go on marketplace. I was CNC laser operator and worked in the bend brake dept. at JD,my favorite was during shutdown the maintenance guys would need boxes containers and fixtures made from sheet metal, was fun building some one off stuff. I'm sure you will be making plenty of stuff for the shop.we also had big watercooled spot welders,maybe make a stand and foot pedal for it.
If I wanted it stationary on the bench, it will sit there easily without a stand. Being hands free might be nice, but with my limited shop space, I like being able to stash it on a shelf under the welding table.
@@Clough42 I'm the same, space is limited for me too,thx for the great content again!
Thanks for sharing 👍
I now see the benefit of a steel bending cnc.
It was nice learning more about sheet metal this way.
Great show of the strengths of sheet metal fab.
And it’s not like you have to take out a small business loan to put this together….
Very nice!
Great choice of tools appropriate to the kind of projects you have in mind. Plasma torch and design tools make this a snap.
In all honesty I’m always hesitant to watch your videos but always happy I do. The long form videos are hard to cram in my busy schedule but always worth it. Keep it up!
Interesting to watch.
Is a shelf for the buckets or cable management next?
Thanks for letting us watch over your shoulder.
Nice little spot welder. May want to consider a little waist high table to mount it and connect a foot pedal to the operating handle. Spot welders really shine when assembling odd shaped or curved sheet metal parts but you often need both hands to hold pieces together thus the need for the foot pedal. With the weight of that unit, it’s easier to take the work to the welder, not the welder to the work.
In this case, I was more concerned about the trays ending up flat, so I clamped them down and lifted the welder.
Now I need to go get me a spot welder and a Baileigh electromagnetic bending brake!
BTW James, that Crossfire is WAY too clean!! :)
I wonder if you can get magnets that would recess nicely in those 2-4-6 blocks that you can just bolt in, pop the sheet to it, align to the surface place and not have to hold AND scribe. Also keep up the excellent work. It's great to casually watch and add to the mental toolbox with these projects!
Sheet metal is really some kind of art, I did quite some sheet metal parts by myself already... I asked professional companies to do my parts and they did not have much clue about it since the volume was too small (few hundred pieces) and making a full punch / die gear would be too much for that - and very likely not yield a good result either in my case. My conclusion would be that some 3D laser cutting would be best after folding for my parts.
that's so simple while not being simple. i love it!
Now you need to make a shelf for your buckets.
Re: safety glasses. I have had my safety glasses on when I really needed them on more than a few occasions starting with my work in an auto shop in the late 1960s and early 70s. I have always worn specs made with safety lenses since my early teens and those incidents made all of the "four eyes" taunts worth it.
If the tabs fit the finger slot, I would have bent the tabs and all on the side bends, less steps, instead of individually bending the tabs. It's been +40 years, since I've used a sheet metal brake in anger.😎
Best wishes from the far North.
The side bends and the tab bends are offset from each other.
Paint it first, then spot well it back on. I'd subscribe to see that :) Excellent job.
Great production/discussion/build….luv my spot welder
Lol James, the one tool you didn't put in the "Tools Used" section... the spot welder.
Once you go down this line of metal fabrication, the next thing is powder coating, to keep all you new things rust free and is so much better than paint.
Great video! Liked and subscribed. Your skill and knowledge of F360 is impressive. I learned 3D modeling on another platform and the difference in both paradigm and increased number of bewildering options is making the learning curve of switching quite a challenge. I'm amazed not only with what you can do but how quickly you do it.
I have a very similar unit from htp welders. Learned u can spot weld aluminum with it as long as you put small steel straps on either side of the aluminum for the electrodes to squeeze.
Hmm. I tried it (without the steel) and got very little fusion.
31:10 RE: removing in future if needed. Those round holes would be nice to tap for small size bolts like M3/M4, straight through the spot welt. It could break the parts apart and you have a bolt fastened system in the end. Your self drilling/tapping screws would work, too.
Yeah. I wanted to avoid screw heads in the bottom of the tray.
Very cool project and thanks for showing it from design through testing to final. One minor suggestion for Fusion 360 is you can make/modify the drawing template title block to allow you more usable drawing space on the sheet. It’s a bit tedious but you can save the revised title block as a new template for use in the future. Or you can use one of the larger drawing formats then print to pdf then print the pdf to the 8-1/2x11 with scaling to get a paper copy for the shop.
Great machine , a brake and home gym all in one . LOL
In a pinch, the spot welder makes a good 30lb dumbbell.
@@Clough42 Yes ,LOL. I have a 10 feet brake for aluminum flashing work (windows ,roofing e,t.c) the fold you made ,we call it double fold and we use either of the two ways to make it. I am a Glazier (commercial glass installer) by trade. You have a very nicely equipped shop,enjoy. Cheers from Toronto.
Thanks that has really cleared up how to convert F360 sheet metal into the real world.
Dam Cool. That is some thing that should be in more small shops.
James... I Hate You! I've been convincing myself for years that I Do Not Need to assemble a sheet metal shop in addition to my woodshop and machining tools. I've run out of room in my garage but that shelf was quick and very professional looking. And the things I could build... A little Boeshield T9 every one and a while should keep it from rusting.
Nice job. I'd recommend you pop a couple of drain holes in it with a step drill.... Seems there is a lot of water above it in a place that could potentially turn it into a bathtub...
If you look closely, you can notice small openings in the four corners from the bend allowance
With the Hem you can do it as two flange commands omitting the sketch. Overbend the first using the Symmetric option (maybe 110 degrees) with inner face and tangent at 3/16" (in your case?) then a normal 90 flange for the second. Tried to include a link to my plaything but you must have them disallowed.
I tried that and didn't get the result I wanted. I might try again. Re: the links: I got fed up with all the bots dropping links to sex, malware, and scam sites on every video.
@@Clough42 Yeah painful with the spam/scam stuff. I will drop you an email with the link anyway to take a look.
Slightly amused that this was a spot welding video (yes, and some other stuff) yet its the only tool you did not list in your Tools Used :)
Quality project.
Nice. Might want to borrow a trick from networking/IT guys and grab a "2U" cable organizer for all those cables on the floor. Tack/bolt it right onto that shelf. Any of the ring style ones should be full metal. TBH you could probably make one yourself.
Way ahead of you. It now has 40x20mm finger duct along the rails for cable management.
Link to the spot welder would really be great.
Nice work! Have you thought about adding a magnetic angle finder to the brake so you can see what angle you are at? Not totally necessary but easy to install. Also, I'd be adding an intermediate circuit to the magnetic release circuit incorporating a ~3 second timer so that you only need to PRESS the release button rather than holding it. Just a thought!
The brake has an angle scale on the left handle.
Now what you need is a scribe/marker on your cnc plasma
Indeed, you have entered the sheet metal realm. That additional resource will be so worth it. I can’t believe how long I put off having the same basic resource. Had my setup now for a few years, just néed the plasma cutter once I can get some more floor space. Have you considered a notcher for simple box, pan fabrication?
The easy answer to rust is galvanized metal. Plays just fine with the spot welder.
Not super excited about plasma cutting zinc.
Since you parameterized your LENGTH you could easily automate your hem length with a formula of LENGTH - some value. Or, parameterized your tab length and your hem length becomes LENGTH - 1.1*TABLENGTH (the 1.1 provides a 10% gap).
Yeah. I felt a little dirty just dragging it out until it looked about right.
I like to use a flat piece of steel with a nice square edge to knock off the dross on the parts. It's much faster than grinding and requires no consumables. An old or cheap parallel plate works really well or something along those lines.
Good idea. I could probably fine tune things better to minimize the dross so a swipe on the scotch Brite wheel would be enough.
A 2.5-4 inch cold or mason chisel works well. It is far easier to scrape from the material outward/perpendicular to the cut, so that the chisel can get under the dross and break it off. The same goes for using a flap wheel. On the back side, I will lightly use a 40 grit flap wheel and on the front a 60 grit used lightly will clean up the pierce points and media blasting will remove the grind marks before powder coating. What really helps is to soak the parts in pool acid for an hour or so and then clean off the dross. It eats up part of it, especially on pierce points you plan to drill and on very detailed parts of thin sheet. The dross comes off easier after acid and any heavier rust (old material or sheets that have sat on the plasma table for a while) is dissolved. This saves wear and tear on drill bits and flap discs and reduces the amount of blasting needed. When I'm in a hurry, I scrape, use flap wheels, and then scotch bright pads on my 5" grinder. Flap wheels work much better than scotch bright for dross and the scotch bright cleans light surface rust.
James, James, you can give up your day job ?? you are so dam good at this stuff,New Zealand
James has entered the "let's make sparks fly!" phase of his life. 😂
Consider using a Rivnut to give you a threaded nut in the wall of the tubing leg to bolt your tray to the leg.
You're the second person to suggest this. And since it's a new tool I don't yet own, I'm listening. :)
Excellent presentation. I enjoy every one of your videos.
You should make a pen plotter attachment like Stuff Made Here, I know it was already said but just in case you missed the other comment
The Langmuir Crossfire controller is closed source and doesn't really offer the flexibility to add something like that. I was aware of this limitation, but opted to go that direction anyway, because I wanted to use a plasma table--not build a plasma table.
@@Clough42 too bad we don't have a nice co-op making such things, with all open source hardware and libre software. Hopefully one day...
Fun and informative, as usual.
Looks to me like you would have been able to run the hems full length if the weld tabs had been put on the long sides. Or would that interfere with the folding operations in some way I'm not seeing?
Love the work flow James! keep up the great content.
i took the wheels of my table , i have same one. made it alot more sturdy
Have you tried using paintlock sheet? I also live where it is dry and unless it is out in the elements, it almost never rusts. Plus it's not oily, so saves clean up time.
No, I haven't.
You can paint it in place. Not that bad.
Yeah, I guess I could. Not usually how I roll. :)
James, spot welding is cool, but TIG welding is the schiznit.
TIG is versatile, for sure. Takes more skill, though.
@@Clough42 True. But it’s all about decent hand/eye coordination. The rest is experience and experimentation, kind of like tool choice and feeds and speeds. You can get really good AC/DC TIG machines for around $800 like the PrimeWeld. I’m fortunate enough to live 15 minutes from Lincoln Electric HQ and have taken some TIG classes there. Was worth it. TIG is my happy place. 😊
Cool stuff!!!
Great video. Glad I subscribed.
Hopefully you picked up a bunch of subs because of the closing remarks :)
Have you considered attaching a sharpie to the plasma cutter to do the first pass and then do the cutting?
Considered it for marking the bend lines, but the Langmuir controller would need to be replaced with something I could modify.
I live in Hawaii and 20 g mild steel would rust before you got the draus off:) But it would be so easy with those tools to do it in SS. :)
Well done! Really an excellent set up James, thanks for sharing. Can you share the type of screws and screw holder please?
Nicely done James...The price of eBay and Craig's list spot welders just went up 50%
Am I big enough to cause the Lipton Effect?
@@Clough42 Your getting close...😉
Very impressive and educating, can you give a link to the spot welder used and/or an indication of the price level.
If you have to ask...
Yes please: link to the spot welder.
@@Clough42 Sorry, but I don’t understand your answer. What am I missing? My question was just a serious request for more information.
@@sm6fie sorry, it was an attempt at light-hearted humor. It's a common euphemism: if you have to ask the price, you can't afford it. Just Google "HTP Quick Spot II". It's about $700 in the US, imported by USA Weld. I didn't realize there would be so much interest. Maybe they should sponsor me... :)
@@Clough42 Thanks! English is not my native language so I can easily miss the “finer nuances (tones)” of the language…
Nothing more permanent than a temporary fix that works.
29:26 Love that comment. That is the way I usually finish my projects....
I "finish" my projects when I lose interest. The CZcams channel probably drives me to a more complete state of "finished" than I would otherwise achieve.
Nice work James keep up the great instructions. The HTP spot welder is the shirt and giggles I bought one 4 years ago and never look back works flawless ya.
I did not like the magnet sheet brake at first but after watching your video today I very much impressed with it.
I run a hydraulic press brake air bending NC and changing dies to do thicker material aluminum stainless A36 and pno but the 20ga pno I do on the big brake but I going to rethink my thoughts now thank you.
BTW when are you going to do more cnc milling on g704.
Did you get the extra accessories for the quick spot II
No extra accessories yet. To be honest, I'm a little disappointed in the G0704. It's fine, but adding a more capable spindle made its other limitations more obvious (Z backlash, MACH3, open-loop steppers). I have another CNC project in the works, but it's proceeding slowly due to supply chain backlogs.
@@Clough42 yep the supply change problem is pain now.
I been waiting on nema 34 3 to 1 gear reduction for large 5x10 plasma table build and helicut gear and track for 5 months.
It needs a nice powder coating finish
The floor if your garage is impressively clean for how long you've been at this hobby.
That particular spot spent 17 years under a table saw.
Have you tried welding metals of different thicknesses together?
Ouch on the pinch...3D printed safety collars?
How are you adapting your Milwaukee M12 die grinder to accept a bigger shaft for the roloc disks? Mine only has an 1/8" collet?
Love your videos!
Great work as usual👍