lorenzo
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Posts posted by lorenzo
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Okay, in that price range you only have one realistic option that doesn't require any electronics knowledge.
https://www.harborfreight.com/120-volt-spot-welder-61205.html
One of these things will do alright for 14-18g steel. You'd need to replace the copper arms with some heavy copper cable and bolt the electrodes to a chunk of plywood or something. You want to leave about a 3/16" gap and make sure that they're insulated from each other. You can check out how I did my electrode setup in Fig. 1-1 of this article.
http://www.mailleartisans.org/articles/articledisplay.php?key=594
There's some other useful info in there too but some that doesn't apply to you, it was the manual for the old TRL welders.
There are videos on TRL's youtube showing how the electrodes are set up and how the weld is done.
There are some newer videos as well but all you'll learn from those is how not to weld.
Later on you can upgrade this welder with gas plumbing and a timing circuit for titanium. It'll weld most metals pretty well with a bit of practice.
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I can think of a few options for welders, what's your budget for this?
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Sounds like the filler isn't wetting to the base material, is that correct? I'd suspect an issue with oxide first.
I'm not familiar with speedwire, what's the fineness of the silver? What alloy is the base metal? Are you using a flux or shield gas? How did you clean the piece?
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Just FYI, if you make bracers with the tips of the scales pointing up towards your elbow it can be pretty easy to get your hands stuck in your pockets.
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cohort and maldar reacted to this -
I'm a bit late replying but I can confirm that the type of machine you posted a link to on ebay will weld .5mm sterling in 3mm rings. One problem though is that many of these Chinese pulse arc welders are poorly made and don't function properly, caveat emptor.
If you're using the argon correctly then you won't need to do any clean up because it shouldn't oxidize. A tumbler might not be necessary in that case.
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Anybody even thought about using that on my pots would be eating one of 'em. SS is rust resistant, but will scratch iron and SS badly.
You're dead wrong about that, as long as your cuts and closures are good there won't be an issue, they work great. Any "scratches" are a minor cosmetic thing but if you're worried, copper alloy ones take care of that too. I've personally tested them on seasoned cast iron, steel, stainless steel, aluminum and teflon pans.
Keep in mind that this type of scrubber was common back when seasoned iron and steel pans were the only option. Most of the ones you find for sale now are garbage though, Badly made ones could scratch the hell out of a pan.
For any one who wants to make them, smaller rings in thinner wire work best. I recommend welding the rings for strength.
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No problem, I know what it's like to be busy. See my e-mail in my signature below.
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TRL's nickel silver alloy "C74500" is not recommended for arc welding without an inert gas shield. A shield gas such as argon would keep the zinc from oxidizing for a better weld and less fumes.
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1. Tungsten also can't be used with any solder containing zinc, is quite heavy and is brittle.
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I find it easier to just build them out from the torso.
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To the best of my knowledge there isn't anyone in Australia and aluminum doesn't make reliable armor in any case. You'd be best served with welded stainless steel.
I work at MailleTec and we do ship to Australia although it's a bit pricey to do so.
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Yeah, we could discuss doing a plastic run, feel free to send me an e-mail.
Jon works with the same Injection molding place that I do so he might already have a better idea of the numbers involved. I think we'd have to do a redesign from what the movie wanted though, I remember that concept art as not being very historically correct.
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Delrin can't be waxed or painted by traditional means. There are various ways to "activate" the surface to take paint but because of the dangerous processes and chemicals involved I'm not comfortable giving advice there.
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I'm a big fan of using various types of acrylic, epoxy, urethane or silicone with maille. I look at it as just another engineering material, pick the right adhesive for the properties you need.
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There have been a few experimental designs tried by me since the last update on this thread. I'm pretty sure that I have a practical CAD design at this point but I haven't had time to do any prototypes of it.
A manufacturing run in plastic could be arranged in short order with a small investment, metal is still a ways off even with a relatively serious financial backer.
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Sounds like you're trying to make the weight of the shirt hang from the scale pauldron, it causes the sort of issues you're describing. Think of the scale pauldrons as a cosmetic overlay, they aren't meant to bear weight.
Mat reacted to this -
I usually go with a random mix pattern, it tends to look pretty good over a large area. If that's not your cup of tea then I'd recommend not mixing them at all.
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Yeah, the scales are a much larger portion of the weight than the material the rings are made from. There are significant weight savings from using smaller gauge rings mostly from needing less scales to cover the same area in addition the weight of the rings themselves. If you make your own rings you could also experiment with slightly larger diameters to get a similar effect.
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Medium scales were designed for use with 1/4" rings.
While 17g aluminum is durable enough to use butted rings it isn't readily available and makes the weave quite stiff.
18g stainless will be about the same strength/weight but the weave is more flexible. I wouldn't personally trust 18g Aluminum and the weight reduction is quite small, less than 10%.
Split rings are much stronger with the same weight and flexibility as 18g steel. The downside is that they chafe, cost more and take longer to weave. I'd recommend the #5 fine split rings from Worthco for medium scales. http://rings.worthco.com/products/fine-gauge-split-rings
For welded rings you can use 19g 1/4" stainless, it's about 2/3 of the weight of the butted rings version and so strong that it will never need repairs, by far the best choice if you can afford it.
Meepenbump reacted to this -
For stainless rings the cheapest solution is brass brazing, any thin brass wire will do and you can use borax/water for the flux. Propane torch will work fine as a heat source for that ring size.
Lead/tin doesn't flow in my experience but it might with the right flux, silver/tin plumbing solder is probably a better bet though.
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You can always just make another one, looks like less than 50 scales so it shouldn't take more than 15 minutes.
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Take your piece of scale and paint the back with a sturdy layer of rubber. Use clear stuff in case some seeps through. Put it on a form then set the shape and leave it to cure. Once it's done you can attach lacing or whatever you like.
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I'm a bit late answering this but I recall that those were octagon shaped rings for the dwarves, they were injection molded from plastic and assembled then painted to look metallic by the costumers at Weta Workshop.
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I don't think there'd be a problem, the polycarbonate they're made from is plenty tough, they stand up just fine to a 12 oz. hammer on an anvil.
Ring/jewlery welder
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I can advise you on welders but first I'd need to know what your budget and application are.
If you just need a cheap jewelry welder then it's probably best to wait for TRL to restock them. I can't recommend the ABI pulse arc welders at all.
If you're wanting to make high end jewelry then learning to do hard soldering with a torch might be your best option.
If it's armor you want to weld then there are a few options depending on the size and alloys that you need it to be able to handle.
You can also find some useful info about resistance welders for armor in the most recent reply I made in the following thread.