MN Metal Shop

Lathes

• Clausing-Colchester 6527 13" x 36" Gap Bed Lathe
• LeBlond Regal 13" x 42" Lathe with DRO

Milling Machines

• 2 Bridgeport J-Head Mills
• Bridgeport J-Head Variable Speed Mill
• Kearney & Trecker 2H 10" x 50" Horizontal Milling Machine (not currently on line)

CNC Tools

• Birmingham CNC Conversion Mill (not currently on line)
• XTools Metalfab CNC fiber laser

Tips

• Select the correct cutting oil for your job

• Select the correct cutting oil for your job. cutting fluid and lubricant are different in action. Cutting fluid improves the cut quality, while lubricant just cools the part and does not change cut quality.
• Know your material, all metals behave differently and the tools and ways you use the tools will very widely depending on what you are doing. Be sure to be aware of what material you are using as some tools will only work with specific materials.
• Know your consumables; the consumables like drill bits and end mills are material-specific and will break or damage the tool if used with the wrong material.
• Cutting speeds are critical with all machining tools; the feeds and speeds of a tool dictate the cut quality and will greatly affect your outcome when making something. Be sure to know what the correct speed is for your project.
• Make a mockup first for all sheet metal work. Your biggest limitation will be the tolerances with tooling. To be sure that the tool will behave the way you expect, making a paper or cardboard mockup will help you work out folding order, and if it is even possible to make the shape you are planning.
• Ask the community. If you are having trouble or don't know something, feel free to ask a member or staff member. Often, they will be able to help you, and this will speed up the process and get you back to making!

Welding

tips and tricks

• MIG Welding
  • Millermatic 220 (mild steel only)
  • Miller 230 MIG welder aluminum spool gun (not online)

• TIG Welding
  • Lincoln Electric TIG Welder (not currently on line)
  • Millermatic 220
  • MillerDinisty 300 TIGrunner

• Arc Welding
  • Millermatic 220

Plasma Cutting

A GoFab CNC plasma cutting table with a 48" X 96" bed. It can pierce up to 1" but it cuts 5/8" well, however it also depends on the material. For example, Aluminum would not go past 3/8" max.

A plasma cutter has the largest allowance of any metal cutting CNC with a kerf of 1/16" so it is not the best for extreme precision but good for most projects.

Why is the max thickness of aluminum less than that of steel? Aluminum when it oxidizes puffs up which causes the cut edge to be less clean than that of mild steel, the thinker it is, the more pronounced this effect is, so it cuts increasingly poorly. It's not that it won't cut, just that you lose quality as the material's thickness increases more so than other materials. You'll see this kind of cut variation with many metals and you will want to adjust your settings to account for that. GoFab has some settings for different materials to account for this so you don't need to spend time troubleshooting material types.

Drill Press

• Delta Drill Press

Saws

• Horizontal Band Saw
• Vertical Band Saw
• Makita LC1230 12" Metal Cutting Saw
• 12” cold cut mitering saw steel
• 12” cold cut mitering saw, aluminum only

Grinders

• K. O. Lee S718 6" x 19" Surface Grinder
• Pedestal Grinder
• 72” edge grinder
• disk sanders
• angle grinder

Media blaster

1536 SKAT BLAST® Cabinet:

• Powerful 180-DC HEPA Dust Collector to remove dust within cabinet as you blast
• lens, 12″ x 45″ x 3/16″ with peel-off inner lens protector
• Molded glove and lens trim – prevents leaks
• 32″L Super-Pro Cabinet Gloves (provide 10x the life of standard cabinet gloves)
• Automatic abrasive recycling system
• Expanded metal screen holds objects up to 300 lbs

Sheet Metal Tools

All of our sheet metal tools have a capacity of - Mild steel: 16ga; Aluminum: 14ga; Stainless Steel: 24ga.

• Finger Brake
  • 48" finger brake with adjustable fingers
  • capacity of 16ga. mild steel and a capacity for 24ga. stainless steel.
  • a maximum angle of 140
  • the throat has a 3" vertical through and a minimum finger width of 2"
• Stomp Shear
  • 48" sheet metal
  • an imperial measured siding stop
  • 16ga. mild steel capacity and a 24ga. capacity stainless steel.
• Roper Whitney No. 58 5-Ton Punch Press
• Floor Mounted Slip Roller
  • 48" wide slip roller
  • 1" minimum radius
  • 16ga. mild steel capacity, and a 24ga. capacity for stainless steel
• Tabletop Slip Roller
  • 12" wide
  • a 3/4" minimum radius

Misc Tools

• Sand Casting

Hand Tools

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