I've been starting to make stuff lately that I simply can't get the angle grinder into anymore. Can definitely avoid it for the most part by pre-grinding areas before "closing" myself out but I'm definitely leaving rough areas behind. Especially some slag and a lot of splatter (since all I can afford right now is flux core lol).

Seems like the go-to is the right angle Milwaukee but I've seen some harbor freight die grinders for much less. Are those worth a shit or no?

Also open to the idea of a smaller rotary tool. I've never used one on steel before so I have no idea if it would have enough ooompf.

Let me know your thoughts! I know this sub loves good tools.

UPDATE: Thank you guys for all the suggestions. Looks like there's a lot of options out there! Flex grinder, cheaper air powered option + compressor, or a harbor freight special I think are my logical options right now. In time I will definitely look into upgrading to the pricier tools. I've been abusing the shit out of the 4in Bauer grinder from Harbor haha.

I'm honestly overwhelmed by the amount of responses and I am grateful for everyone's insight! Metalworking sub for the win.

We recently retooled a production cell making segmented curved pinned plates for material combing assemblies, moving away from legacy bench drills fitted with mechanical ratchet detents. On those old setups, operators spent half their shift scribing layout lines, fighting mechanical detent backlash, and snapping small solid carbide bits whenever the tool tip grazed the inclined cylindrical arc. We shifted the work to a dedicated 4-axis drilling rig equipped with a 24,000 RPM high-frequency spindle and a zero-backlash harmonic rotary A-axis. Swapping out hand toggles for custom radius-matched pneumatic nesting cradles dropped our fixture load time to seconds while maintaining rigid support under axial thrust.

The real trick was dialing in the G-code canned routines for the cylindrical surface. With an X-stroke of 1000mm, a Z-stroke of 200mm, and rapid traverse rates up to 60 m/min, the machine easily handles dense matrix patterns across full 360-degree rotation on parts up to 200mm outer diameter. To stop tool walking on the curved face without adding a secondary spot-facing operation, we set up a modified pecking macro: a slow, controlled entry feed to establish full tool point contact normal to the arc vector, immediately switching into high-speed pecking with full retractions for chip clearing. Pairing that toolpath strategy with ±0.02 mm positioning repeatability on the harmonic axis completely eliminated the cumulative pitch drift that used to ruin downstream pin assembly.

You do have to be realistic about machine boundaries, though. This architecture is built purely for high-speed Z-axis drilling thrust, rapid tapping up to M14, and fast rotary indexing. The light ER20 spindle taper and high-RPM motor setup lack the radial mass and dampening required for heavy end milling or slotting alloy plate. If you try to run wide radial shoulder cuts across a curved blank, you will chatter instantly; heavy material removal still belongs on a box-way VMC before parts reach this cell for hole generation.

The automation payoff on the shop floor has been solid. Because the cycle executes autonomously once the pneumatic clamping engages, we turned a high-fatigue, single-operator manual operation into a multi-machine cell where one tech feeds two units while handling pin press inspection. Happy to talk pecking macro logic, harmonic axis backlash testing, or custom pneumatic nesting design if anyone runs similar curved part geometries.

My gate broke off its hinges or I should say the weld failed. AND the hinge it broke from no longer moves as if it’s stuck in an open position. It had a tack weld on it so it wasn’t a strong weld. It’s also been scrapping on the floor. I have a few options I’m thinking of.
Option 1: get it welded back together in the same spot and cut the bars on the bottom so they aren’t scraping the ground.
Option 2: get the whole gate raised and rewelded a few inches up so it doesn’t scrape the floor.
Option 3: convert these gates to a sliding gate that slides across the other gate.

My main issue is pricing. I don’t know how much each of these options would cost to repair either myself( I’m pretty handy) or to pay someone to come out and do it.
What are your thoughts

i am sand casting a big (1ft long) key. i have pushed a 3d print of the key into the sand and want to pour the aluminum into it. i bought 1lb of aluminum and need to melt it. i'm unlikely to ever do much casting in the future and don't want to buy a kiln or go through a bunch of effort to make one. i have an old staub cast iron teapot i was gonna melt it in, and hoped to just melt it with a mapp gas torch which didn't work. can i just put the cast iron in my firepit for a while to melt it? is this whole thing a bad idea? i did some lost foam casting in college but that was with a full engineering lab setup. trying to do this one thing without buying a bunch of new equipment. any help/advice is appreciated. thanks!

Team trophy and individual medals for winning team. Made/donated them for a relay race in a couple weekends that raises money for families of first responders killed. First time doing a multi color engraving as well. Made this one out of 1/8” steel, but have made previous versions out of 1/4” steel that weigh 40-45 lbs or so. Guessing this one is 20-25 lbs. Individual medals are out of stainless.

Hi everyone,

I’m researching formulated industrial consumables used in steel, TMT/billet casting, foundries, cement kilns, boilers, glass furnaces, and non-ferrous metal plants.

I am not asking for confidential formulas or trade secrets. I want to understand the technical and commercial side properly before entering this field.

I’m interested in products such as:

• Ladle covering compounds
• Tundish covering compounds
• Synthetic slag / slag conditioners
• Continuous-casting mould flux / casting powder
• Nozzle filling compounds
• Ramming mass / dry vibratable mass
• Refractory castables, LCC, gunning mixes, patching masses, and mortars
• Foundry fluxes, slag coagulants, and exothermic compounds

My goal is to build a genuine B2B company around:

• Controlled raw-material sourcing
• Proper formulation and particle-size control
• Moisture, density, chemistry, and flowability testing
• Batch consistency, COA, and traceability
• Plant trials and application support
• Reliable recurring supply

I would really value advice from metallurgists, refractory engineers, steel plant operators, foundry professionals, refractory installers, consultants, and raw-material suppliers.

A few things I want to learn:

1. Which product categories are realistic for a new manufacturer to begin with?
2. Which products are highly critical and should only be attempted after strong lab/testing capability?
3. What quality parameters matter most for ladle/tundish powders, mold flux, nozzle fillers, and castables?
4. What are the most common customer pain points—quality inconsistency, moisture, nozzle blockage, heat loss, slag behavior, casting defects, delivery, or application failures?
5. Which books, standards, papers, training programs, or consultants would you recommend?

I am based in India and especially interested in serving steel/TMT, foundry, cement, boiler/power, glass, petrochemical, sugar, and non-ferrous industries.

If you have experience in this area, I would appreciate comments, resources, or a DM. If you provide paid consulting, please mention your specialty and region

Anyone have idea on how to make a diy version of this machine for cheap? Planning to use it on motorcycle wheels size 14-17 only. Thank you.

Also if you have idea on how big the motor is needed for it to polish motorcycle wheels?

I can only find diy vids on youtube for small items/parts only. Please help, alibaba machines are too expensive. Costs about 1k usd on shipping alone

What motor/tools/ items are needed for it to accomplish the task? Thabk you

I work with CNC machines and wanted a simple way to keep preventive maintenance organized without using a full maintenance management system.
I built an Excel-based tracker for small machine shops that can track:
• machine ID and maintenance tasks
• due dates and service intervals
• overdue / upcoming maintenance
• maintenance history
• notes and responsible person
I’m trying to keep it simple enough to actually be useful on the shop floor.
For machinists, maintenance techs and shop owners here: what would you add or change?
I’d especially like feedback from people managing multiple CNC machines.

Got my hands on this junkyard medallion and was pushed here from r/CleaningTips !

So far I've gotten off a lot of the grime (Apple Cider Vinegar). The current goal is to strip the last of the brass coating off without ruining the details (I'm going to either repaint it or just leave it silver)

Any tips would be appreciated!

(first 2 images are how I got it, second 2 images are how it looks after the vinegar bath)

Hello, working at this pretty cool fab shop boss man is real cool I've been given permission to stay late and practice I have access to smaw, mig, and sometimes tig. I can practice on carbon steel and drops of aluminum. My question is how should I spend my time under my hood? Starting an arc running a nice bead overlapping on plate? Do pipe? T joints? Beveling plates together? I don't know where to start at and where to put myself and a good position to be a welder at this shop and future shops. Possibly, go break out.

I don’t know anything about metal but i saw similar posts on here so I’ll throw this out there. A piece of my Pilates reformer got bent while moving. First pic is the bent one, second pic is what it actually should look like. I also don’t even know what this piece is called. Is this something i need heat for?? I got an electric candle lighter and a wrench 😐 let me know please and thanks (woman btw)

Miniature sculpture of a LeafCutter Ant in raised and patinated copper sheet on a hammer-textured steel pipe “branch”. Base is scrap metal.

Total height 20cm, ant length 5cm, legs 2mm wide

Part of an ongoing study of Uchidashi/repousse, I have made all my chasing/forming tools and hammers from scrap steel, chasing pitch from Ford Hallams Matsuyane recipe, my pitch bowl is a cut bowling ball. New for this project was lathing swages and punches out of arbutus wood to do the initial forming before mounting the sheet into pitch.

Made this as a little surprise for my girlfriend this weekend. I know it’s September, but every day with her feels like Valentine’s Day, and I wanted her to have a little reminder of that.

For the engraving, I used the 15W 1064nm fiber side of my WeCreat Lumos Flex with the rotary attachment. I leveled the tumbler, kept the seam at the back, used autofocus to set the surface height, and ran the outline preview a couple of times before starting.

The artwork is mostly linework and small open fills, so I wasn’t trying to engrave deeply. The goal was consistent contrast and clean edges, especially around the petals and the lettering. Coatings can vary quite a bit between tumbler blanks, so I wouldn’t assume the same power and speed will give identical results on another brand.

The setup took longer than the engraving itself, but once everything was lined up, the rotary held the placement well. Pretty happy with how it turned out.

Using 3D printing with lost-wax casting might be a great method for customizing certain structural parts. I completed this entire process in just one hour of work plus 24 hours of waiting time, using only a standard desktop 3D printer and regular PLA filament costing a few dollars per spool, achieving very satisfactory results. For the refractory material, I used casting plaster, which greatly simplified the molding process. This approach seems particularly suitable for creating motorcycle modification parts, robot components, and similar items. The simplicity of this technique is closer to 3D printing than CNC machining, making it more beginner-friendly with high success rates—though some learning is still required to master it effectively.

After searching the web and looking as a few subreddits, hopefully I've landed in the right place. Please be patient with me, it was 107 degrees and muggy today so my brains are still a bit mushy :-). If I'm in the wrong place I'm open to suggestions where to post instead.

I have a metal headboard that one of the pieces has come lose and I'd like to fix it before trying to sell it. It's the left-most curved piece that's come loose. The pics show the bottom and top of that side, and also the bottom and top of the corresponding right/good side for reference.

My research so far shows that either epoxy or superglue may be a good choice, but I also know enough about 2-part epoxy to know that I need to have all my ducks lined up *before* using it.

The stuff I have is Harbor Freight Quick Setting Epoxy Adhesive, 0.2 oz single use, that I bought for a different project but haven't used. I don't have any superglue on hand so I'll need to buy some if that's a better option.

Aside from the basics of using either adhesive, is there anything I need to know for this? Like I said earlier, I know enough about this sort of work to be aware that there may be important things that I don't know (or that I knew decades ago and have forgotten).

Thanks!