The Tinbasher » Sheet Metal Sites

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-04-24

Paul Woodhouse — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 01:53:00 +0000

Here’s a round-up of last week’s tweets and posts you may or may not find of any interest:

Space tourism company opens, hiring astronauts http://zite.to/hLqDFv <~ good lad Dickie Branston. #
Stylish Digs for Urban Chicks http://zite.to/eupmfB <~ an aluminium chicken coop nonetheless. #
Numi’s stainless steel stool sprinkler will help you iMove your iMotions for less than $6500 http://zite.to/fZ34VO #
CNC mill built from junk and hardware store parts http://zite.to/dEkVfJ via @Ziteapp #
Manufacturing Chat – a social networking opportunity for manufacturers http://zite.to/hOiB8T #
Vacuum cleaner piracy ~> Self-Replicating 3D Printers Could Prompt Manufacturing Revolution http://zite.to/dS1tQf via #
Ex-pat Tinbasher originally from Bolton quits job in Oz to watch Trotters get tubbed 5-0 http://is.gd/WpQCSk #
FRIDA (not Frantic) Offers Glimpse of Future Factory Robots http://zite.to/gV48ZY #
New Graphene Material is Paper-Thin and Ten Times Stronger Than Steel http://zite.to/eW5DEy #
Steel Dynamics Showing Its Mettle In Industry Turnaround http://zite.to/feOAbm #
IKEA Table with Embedded Train Set http://zite.to/epi612 #
General Motors plans an open house for its Parma Metal Center http://zite.to/hsofwh via @Ziteapp #

Feel free to follow us on twitter at twitter.com/tinbashr

“Two World Wars and One Great Depression Do-Dah Do-Dah”

Paul Woodhouse — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 04:05:58 +0000

This credit collapse/meltdown/armageddon is a curious one to fathom. Do you not think? What are you lot seeing and hearing?

It seems like any response seems wholly inappropriate. For example, if you acknowledge there’s a squeeze going on but then follow up with how it isn’t affecting you and you’re bucking the trend, you’re a bit of an arse. Or, if you’re carrying on like you’re Prince circa 1999, you’re a bit more of an arse. And then if you race around like a financial Chicken Little, you’re an arse that’s on fire.

Now I received this email earlier today that falls into a category all of its own:

To say that 2008 didn’t come without its challenges would be an understatement. To say the New Year won’t bring new ones would be an overstatement. We’ve been there. We understand. ThomasNet.com is part of a larger organization that has survived, among other things, two World Wars and one major Depression. Experience has taught us how to navigate rocky roads and how to help businesses like yours do the same. This time is no exception.

To that end, we’d like to pass along some tips that can impact your bottom line as you consider and develop the upcoming year’s strategies:

Evaluate your current suppliers to secure a healthy supply chain that will keep your operations moving

Find out if your parts or products can be sourced locally to minimize shipping costs

Keep up with new product releases to remain competitive and inspire new ideas

Consult white papers to research new processes and technologies

Grow your business without expanding your sales force

Now I’m sure Thomas.net are being well meaning here but maybe they could’ve added a bit more gravitas by invoking the spirit of Churchill as opposed to an England football chant. Still, as if I know what it’s like to steer a steady ship in choppy waters. I’d barely started my tea-time paper round when the Falklands kicked-off.

I’ll accept this is shaping up to be fairly swift and merciless, and there’s many a sheet metal fabrication or engineering shop shut down or dead round our neck of the woods. But the chaps were telling me over Christmas they’ve never known a busier potential January. It’s always been a quiet month, so they simply can’t work out where the upsurge has come from. In fact, straight after the credit crunch crunched, everything ground to an immediate halt – they were even looking at having a full two weeks shut down over Christmas and New Year. But that didn’t even transpire.

Maybe it’s a case of companies having held off for a couple of months and we’re only seeing what we would’ve seen in October. Maybe the pond’s a little smaller and people are having to look for new suppliers. Although I doubt it’s got much to do with tumbling steel costs.

Still, an unseasonably busy January a full 2009 does not make, so maybe it is time to batten down the hatches, dig in and roll those sleeves up.

Thomas.net, while a bit austere, could be right on the money.

Scrapping Ships at Harland and Wolff

Paul Woodhouse — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 22:41:03 +0000

Harland & Wolff Ship Broken for Scrap

The linked photoset from this weekend’s Guardian:

April 12 2008: Belfast, UK: The MSC Napoli cargo ship lies in a dry dock at Harland and Wolff ship builders as it is dismantled for recycling. The ship was grounded off the English coast after getting into difficulties during bad weather in January 2007. After she was split into two pieces, the largest front section was floated to the Harland and Wolff shipyard for recycling in August 2007. After the removal of approximately 80 cubic tonnes of waste oil and other pollutants 150 workers began the task of cutting up the high grade steel of the Napoli by hand. The steel is then smelted locally in Belfast and will most likely be used for ship building. The whole process will be finished in three to four weeks.

This is one for Jasper seeming he spent his apprenticeship in the shipyards of Glasgow. I’d like to say he’s bored us rigid with his tales of welding ship floors, but we still don’t have a clue from day to day what he’s talking about. Think of it as a blessing in disguise.

But I’m also pretty confident it’ll get everybody who swarms round The Tinbasher for out-of-date scrap steel prices hot under the collar, too.

The Future According to United States Steel circa 196*

Paul Woodhouse — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 02:02:06 +0000

Syd Mead futuristic illustration for United States Steel

This is part of an absolutely marvellous flickr set of what United States Steel thought the future might hold. It’s a touch more optimistic than their British counterpart, Corus, who only managed to inspire the dystopia that is Blade Runner with their monstrosity of a steel plant in Port Talbot.

However, USS obviously didn’t figure current prices into the equation.

[cap doff]

Spring Steel Available in Small Quantities

Paul Woodhouse — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:05:56 +0000

I always get mightily confuddled by various steel grades and types. Oh, I have the basics from 304 to 316 down pat, but when our Steve at Steel Strip mentioned to me that he’d started selling small quantities of spring steel I had to scurry off to Wikipedia to find out what spring steel actually was. All we get is this paltry stub:

Spring steel is a low alloy, medium carbon steel with a very high yield strength. This allows objects made of spring steel to return to their original shape despite significant bending or twisting.

Silicon is the key component to most spring steel alloys. An example of a spring steel used for cars would be AISI 9255 (DIN and UNI: 55Si7, AFNOR 55S7), containing 1.50%-1.80% silicon, 0.70%-1.00% manganese and 0.52%-0.60% carbon.

Most spring steels (as used in cars) are hardened and then tempered to about 45 on the Rockwell C-Scale.

According to Machinery’s Handbook, “The spring materials most commonly used include high-carbon spring steels, alloy spring steels, stainless spring steels, copper-base spring alloys, and nickel-base spring alloys.” According to the same, the most widely used spring steel is ASTM A228 (0.80–0.95% carbon) known as “music wire”.

I presume we’re not talking about slinky spring steel?

It makes a change to hear of somebody prepared to service the little guy…..as it were. Here’s Steve’s raison d’etre and combined mission statement:

Whilst steel mills regularly insist on minimum order quantities of up to 5 tons, and stockholders upwards of a ton, we have recognised the need of smaller engineering companies who may require as little as a single sheet to complete a project, or to replace a part in an aging piece of plant.

It can be frustrating and time consuming for an engineer to spend hours on the telephone trying to source small quantities of spring steel, only to find the supplier loses interest the moment he realises the small quantity involved. To be honest it’s as a big a problem often for the supplier as for the customer! Not for us.

So, if you’re looking to buy spring steel in small quantities I’d recommend you go and have a word with Steve over at Steel Strip as he’s a top bloke. Or, you can give him a bell on 01709 740166. (Yes, he can ship worldwide.)

Oh, and I can assure you I’m not on any commission. I just like it when people aren’t trying to stiff smaller companies – especially when they happen to be a mate.

A Spring Clean.

WeldingWeb™ – Professional Welding Forum

Paul Woodhouse — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 01:48:50 +0000

Unlike a decent wine, Google’s blog search doesn’t seem to improve with age. Well not when you look for something sheet metal related that is.

It doesn’t bother me so much that it displays any sheet metal site that’s come within a country mile of an RSS feed, but call it an RSS feed search as opposed to a blog search. I know it’s not quite as snazzy, but it would at least say on the tin what’s inside it.

Anyway, I will give it the thumbs up for throwing welding web into the fray. Probably a devilishly useful site for welding fans.

Steel Industry Flickr Photo Group

Paul Woodhouse — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 03:17:19 +0000

Whilst furtively doing the rounds checking to see how how Steve over at Steel Strip was doing I came across a link in his siderbar for a steel industry flickr group.

And it’s some group. There are 235 members with 1,356 photos of pictures of steel mills and whatnot. Bloody brilliant.

I’ve been spending most of this evening (and failing quite miserably) to integrate some sort of googlemap mashup type of plugin to display a worldmap of steel mills that have been geo-tagged by the group.

So, seeming I can’t get anything to display, the best I can do is offer a link to steel industry photos mapped on Google. I’m pretty sure somebody must have it working somewhere, so I’d love to know so I could offer it as a page on The Tinbasher. Some of the pics are great.

For example, if you do click on the map you’ll find one lonely tag inbetween Ohio and Pennsylvania. Well, that’s Weirton, West Virginia, which isn’t too much phlegm away from where I currently am in Wheeling.

Some steelworks in Weirton.

You’ve got to love it. Good find Steve!

Welding of Stainless Steels in English, Czech, Dutch and Turkish

Paul Woodhouse — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 13:39:41 +0000

Oh, and don’t forget Polish. (You’ll have to scroll down a bit to find that one.)

Found this lurking in my inbox and thought it might be useful:

The frequently downloaded Euro Inox Welding brochure is available now in an updated English version as well as translations into Czech, Dutch and Turkish:

The Welding of Stainless Steels
by Pierre-Jean Cunat
Second Edition 2007
(Materials and Applications Series, Volume 3)

Target audiences:
- Fabricators
- Teachers in vocational training

Content:
- Welding processes
- Weldability of stainless steel
- Shielding gases
- Joint preparation
- Finishing treatments
- Safe practices

Languages:
- English
- Czech
- Dutch
- Turkish

Format
- Brochure, A4, 36 pages
- PDF file (about 1 MB)

To view or download, please click here:
English: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_1_EN.html
Czech: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_1_CZ.html
Dutch: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_1_NL.html
Turkish: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_1_TR.html

Still available (First Edition):
Polish: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_1_PL.html

I’m wondering if Steve Sawford can confirm the authenticity of the Turkish translation.

Trumpf In-Tech Open House

Paul Woodhouse — Thu, 24 May 2007 14:16:53 +0000

If you ever needed an excuse to go to Luton (and to be honest, you’d need a very good one), there’s this:

In-Tech 2007, 4th-8th June
This year’s In-Tech is special. As well as the latest production technology, we’ll also be introducing you to our new Technology Centre as well as debuting the very latest laser technology from TRUMPF, the fully compact and flexible fabrication centre with integrated automation, TruLaser 2030, and our new flagship, the TruLaser 5030 whose key feature is its cutting head which processes all sheet metal thicknesses eliminating the need for head changing.

You can register here.

Multimachine – an open-source machine tool.

Paul Woodhouse — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 15:31:47 +0000

I found the following Multimachine over at Boing Boing:

“The multimachine is a milling machine, drill press, and lathe all in one machine that is made from old truck engines and other scrap parts. The very making of it imparts the skills needed to use it. It’s of the ‘teach a man to fish’ school rather than the ‘here, have a fish’ school. Some hand tools are required to build it. I’d love to see a group handing out the tools needed to build one and the manual all over Africa.

“Right now if a NGO gives a well pump to a village in Africa, what does the village do when it breaks? With a multimachine, or tools like it, they can fix it themselves.”

Now you can join this particular yahoo group here to download the pdf to show you how to make one and join in with the discussion. But, you can also take a look at the pdf here.

I’m sure there’s some scope to do something remotely useful surrounding this.