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I’m guessing a trailer tire rolled on top of it

I was using phosphoric acid to take rust off of some steel near this sheet of brushed aluminum, and some acid came in contact with the edge of this sheet damaging the finish. I thought maybe I could sand it to restore the brushed look, but that has left a very shiny spot. I thought maybe a magic eraser (finest abrasive I have on hand) might blend it out, but it also seems to have left the sheet more shiny without blending the 400 grit spot or the acid damage.

I obviously have no idea what I'm doing. The sheet cannot be removed from it's current location, so I'm hoping there's a way I can spot repair this damage and end up with a cohesive looking sheet of aluminum again. I believe it was originally a #4 finish, but I could be wrong.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Hi all.

A magnet stuck to it but I read that's not always definitive

?

Any way to know for sure?

Thank you!!

Hello all, I recently took over a shop that the previous owner had been hoarding scrap metal for welding projects. Everything from I beams, to aluminum tent poles. I’ve been trying to get into the hobby of metal working and would like to attempt a knife via stock removal. The problem is I have no idea what type of metal I have. I know the difference between steel, aluminum, brass etc but is there any way to tell the type of steel or at least if it’ll be ok for my projects? I know some is not good for what I’m trying to do. Thank you!

Hello all, I’m trying to build this space frame out of 1.5 in metal tubing and I don’t quite understand how to cut the angles of the shorter support pieces. I’m very new to this and I see that they are labeled at 5.4 and 12.1, but how would I cut these angles on a miter saw so that they end up flush with both the top and bottom section. Thank you in advance

Hi there so l'm a welder/fabricator and I'm setting up my own place at the moment to do some projects hopefully it leads into permanent self employed work. I have experience working from 2d printed technical drawings for factories that I worked in and now l'd like to try my hand and my own stuff. I'm fairly open to what I'll end up making but ultimately this post is to ask is there any places online that you can buy drawings from that include both drawing and cut/fold files?

Hi, please forgive my naive question. I'm looking for a corner-to-corner hardware connector for wood, as in this sketch. If these commonly exist, I can't figure out what they're called?

If not, I wonder if they would be straightforward to hire someone to make?

The situation is I have a salvaged "apron" tabletop without legs, and I'd love to set new legs further out than in the original design. Otherwise my chairs won't fit between them on the narrow end.

Apologies for being rather off topic & thanks! 🙂

I took some advice and used isopropyl alcohol to clean up adhesive’s residue on my aluminum laptop and it left some bad stains… Is there anyway I can fix this?

As the title admits, I'm a total noob in metal works. I've had a stick welder for a few years, did some basic welding, but nothing to brag about. In my recent project, I was building a stand for a furniture piece in my son's room. As it was a metal box, I butchered the angle welds. Had to redo the damn thing q few times. That got me thinking that maybe getting a MIG welder would be more forgiving. There are some local shops that sell 130a and 160a machines for about 200 bucks. I'm in eastern Europe. So it's not a big chunk of cash to spend on a tool.
BUT, will a Tig welder really make welding better? Does it make sense to pay more, say 400 bucks, on a stronger, 320A welder? Do I get something more other than the ability to weld thicker metal? Do these stronger inverters contribute to higher quality welding?

I'd use this perhaps a handful of times per year. I'd weld L profiles and small pipes, with say 2-4mm metal thickness. I'd perhaps use it to weld corrugated steel sheets to fix some garage door issues, so nothing complicated.

Thanks all.

Galvanized bottom shelf of a table. I would like to remove the rust and either paint it or seal it to prevent further rust how should I go about it?

I have separate wheels for steel and stainless, but I'm wondering if I can also use the SS wheels for aluminium (and copper alloys) or should I keep them separate? (maybe steel, stainless and non ferrous?) I have 4 compounds that I use so not having to use separate wheels will safe on some space and organising (always a plus in small workshops).

While on the topic (and because I need the text to be able to post) how about blasting media? I have cast iron for steel and anything dirty and glass beads for anything else. Should I keep a batch of beads for stainless and one for non ferrous?

Thanks in advance!

I just built this welding table. It has one issue: while the edges of the slats are adjusted within.001” the centers are almost 3/32” off being flat. I think the sticks of 1/2” x 4” flat bar were slightly bent. Any ideas to straighten them out? Any ideas to improve the table as a whole?

A bit about the design: i welded 2 bolts to the bottom of each slat with a nut on top and bottom of c channel to make the top adjustable and/or remove slats for cutting.

So, my dad passed away in 2013 from lung cancer. His favorite cigarette was Marlboro Reds. When he passed, we had him cremated as his wish but I couldn't afford a proper urn at the time. I would love to make a custom urn made of metal in the shape of a Marlboro red box with all the logos, but with his name and DOB and DOD. He would love it and have a laugh. My question is there someone that would be willing to do this? Anyone online that I can consider? I can't locate anyone to do this or know who to ask.

Best metal alloy for clockwork

Starting my Journey with clockworks from the zero, and this includes melting my own alloys and Maringá my own gears, but i really dono know what would be the best tipe of metal, Copper? Regular bronze? Aluminium bronze? What would be the best % of each one? Im in a country where its that much more cheap to do this things yourself and im here for the Journey wanting to learn.

The goal it is to make a simple music gearbox, after that, a simple clock, and the end goal it is tô make my own singing bird automaton.

Thanks for your time.

I wanna make this little money holder, my original plan is that I have some zinc metal leftovers and I was thinking about cutting it to size, sandpaper then use a metal stamp set for the letters then fold it in half. If anyone knows how to make it shiny like in the picture then please let me know. I'm open to discuss other alternative ways and ideas and tips please let me know thank you