Committee Meeting April 2017

Metal Shop
#1

Continuing the discussion from Committee Meetings to Elect Chairpersons:

Thank you for the reminder, Tim ( @tbjk ).
I would love to be there, but my schedule does not permit.
Item #1 I presume is Chair election?
I presume Chuck Graf is willing to serve as Chair for another 6 months?
Is anyone else willing to step up?

Do we have any kind of agenda or things to talk about otherwise?
I’ll draw our attention to the last such thing I’m aware of:


We already got everything on Tim’s list from that thread, so… :slight_smile:
I’ll second Owen’s ( @Owen_Soccer22 ) call for a dry saw. Two examples, from “opposite ends” of the spectrum, pricewise:
https://www.amazon.com/DEWALT-DW872-14-Inch-Multi-Cutter-Saw/dp/B0000302QS
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200641810_200641810

Proposed topics of discussion, if anyone wants to put these out there:

  • The blasting cabinet. What needs to happen to make it have a more positive reputation? Is it a simple matter of maintenance? Education? Something else? We spent a bit of money on it. It’s new. It SHOULD be a shining star of excellence, but instead is derided and regularly proposed to be removed from service for being dirty. I would like to change that, but I’m not really sure how.

  • “Metal Shop 101”, aka “how not to ruin our machines and when to ask whom for help (and maybe help save your sorry neck in the process)”. Where are we on this?

  • Possible tie in to above: Can we work something out to allow members to take a “welding safety” class BEFORE the marathon days that Lee ( @LeeCJones ) schedules (which are AWESOME, but for the scheduling/prerequisite workflow making it nigh impossible for a new member to start welding in one weekend, as was, I think, the intention). I would be willing to teach such a course, time and curriculum agreement permitting. Possible moodle & quiz to meet this prereq?

  • Project page: it would be nice to have a “things that need done” page similar to the Machine Shop. We sort of have a list on our wiki page, but it’s woefully unkempt. The powdercoating equipment and induction forge are a couple of examples of the moment where no one seems to know what’s going on with them or how we might be able to help. The repair of the 250 is another. Keeping a checklist of materials we stock, how/when to order, etc. might be helpful. Etc.

I’m sure there are tons more to talk about, but I’ll leave my suggestions there.
Thanks again for the reminder. Notes/minutes would be greatly appreciated (but I know what a PITA that is…)

2 Likes
#2

We talked about this, he did say he was re-running.
I don’t know if co-chair is even possible but I’d be willing to do that. I would even run for chair if I knew that I could put the time into it. My fear with that would get extremely busy at work, it happens, thus not leaving time for space fun.

1 Like
#3

Also if anyone wants to get involved in metal shop, show up at the meeting.
However don’t count on us getting a 8-10k tubing bender, at least at this point in time.

2 Likes
#4

Hell Tim - we just weldrup with C-Chanel and an Enerpac ram, buying the dies only. Maybe 1k - 2k?

#5

All great ideas Andrew. Metal Shop has a lot of potential for unique production by the members. I do feel like it needs about double the size and better ventilation with exhaust hoods. The 2 culprits to poor air quality in that room is the plasmacam as the vent does not exhaust all the smoke. Not sure why the vent wasn’t a complete exhaust hood? I’m sure there was a good reason that i don’t know about. The bigger culprit is that sand blaster. If being used, every person in there should mask up. It needs its own dedicated vent hood. If there was a vote, I would vote to decommission it.

I bought the Ironton, works great, but I don’t use it that much. The Dewalt is great, but the blades are expensive as Sh#%. Proper use will extend the life of the blades, but abuse will exhaust them quickly. As much as I like the saws, not sure it’s a good match for the space. It would be interesting to see how many blades are gone through in a year and the costs though.

#6

Not entirely true: This is due to poor operator procedure. The unused portion of the bed (or a large fraction of it) needs to be covered with scrap material to ensure that there is sufficient vacuum to pull all the fumes out. If you cut a very small piece with most of the bed open, then yes, the vent fan will be somewhat ineffective.

#7

Didn’t Machine shop just throw one of these in the dumpster, due to the availability of the cold saw?

#8

No (I’m assuming)
They threw away (I’m presuming, based on what you said) a wood miter saw (operating RPM close to 3k as oppsed to the 1.5k of a metal dry saw) that had a soft metal blade on it. (though I offered to take that off their hands)
It was great for cutting soft metals, but people were scared of it.
I assume the dry saw will be the same, but the abrasive chop saw is universally hated, too…
I mostly think it’s a pity we don’t have a nice tool like this in the place of the (grit spewing) chop saw. :frowning2:

1 Like
#9

No doubt creating more vacuum would help by covering the un-used exposed portion of the cutting bed. I’ll need to test that out. Why wasn’t a complete covering exhaust hood placed over it? Was it a money issue? This poor operator usage would have been solved with an exhaust hood.

#10

Yep, that was not a dry saw. It was being used improperly to cut metal. A dry saw with a nice blade is a joy to use. Until you have, you just don’t know!:grinning:

#11

Would that be a CNC tubing bender? I wonder what you get for that much

#12

I assume he’s referring to this

or this

from here

#13

facepalm
The model I proposed with a hydraulic ram costs ~$800. (JD2 Model 32) ~$300 with a manual arm. Then the discussion was hijacked at the suggestion we get an $8000 Ironworker… THAT DOESNT EVEN BEND TUBE!
If it pleases the powers to be, I merely requested a means of getting tight radius bends (not possible with the roller) in a reasonable tube size.

2 Likes
#14

If you’re coming to the meeting, you’ll get to chat about it.
That is the point of this thread; so we can pre-talk about the things the meeting should cover.
Tim was trying to funny (though not off point: we ain’t buyin’ a multi-thousand dollar bender any time soon, I’d wager).
But you should probably propose that, and then counter with “I SUPPOSE this $800 JD2 MIIIIIGHT do it…it’s certainly more reasonably priced…”

Ya never know, but at this meeting, would be the time. :thumbsup:

(even if you’re not there, it was a good add to this thread, so it’s fresh on the people who WILL be there’s minds, so maybe one of THEM will champion it)

#15

I have used the heck out of my abrasive saw and a little of the 'space’s saw. Works great for dang near anything, except soft metals. :slight_smile:

“Use the right tool for the job” - Mr. Scott

(edit: one notable use - hardened metals. Anything with teeth will fail on those. It’s either abrasive cut or plasma.)

1 Like
#16

Most of the fumes from this go under the work being cut. So a down draft makes a lot of sense. A hood above would have to move a lot more air to do the same job.

1 Like
#17

As a general item: Metal shop needs better ventilation. However, we can’t saw holes in the side of the building for a big ventilation fan. :frowning:

1 Like
#18

Fair enough. Then let’s get a decent one of those, then, instead of that hazard fraught POS. Woudln’t mind having both, honestly.

LOLZ.
Hadn’t even noticed that.
But the $8.5k tubeshark DOES bend (and notch). Prob’ly not getting one. I’d like to see a group-build of the “Trike” one like Tim has. At least one of us has already been through that build, and seems like it’d be a good thing to get folks involved in a group build using a bunch of our tools, and we’d end up with a TUBE BENDER (hopefully). I’ve already proven my lack of ability on making that happen, though…

#19

Ya think the landlord would OK a crank out wall?
Then we could just open it up, like an RV awning.
Put a hydraulic roll-out platform in, to double our working space when it’s good weather…
OK. Back to reality…

1 Like
#20

Would either of these be correctly called a “chop saw”? (I’m learning here …)

1 Like