Topic: Building stuff for Wife's business

[Davez134]

I've been slowly working on my 750 projects, but have mainly been busy with the house remodel and building stuff for my wife's clients (She owns her own interior design business) She asked if I could build a custom stainless steel range hood, and I said "sure." It happens this is going in a $1 Million+ home. New tools/ skills included TIG welder, plasma cutter, sheet metal brake. Now, maybe I can build a proper welding table.

[754]

 It looks really good..
I think what could look really cool is if the riveted part was brass or copper.
Copper is getting obscenely expensive..

 I am thinkng of trying it on a flatrack styled rear section.. Aluminum pieces held together with a riveted copper or brass piece.

[Davez134]

I thought about doing the trim in brass. Wife said it didn't fit the design of the kitchen. I do what I'm told! Haha. First time working with stainless. Heat builds up quick when welding and it's a m-f'er to cut/drill without correct speed of saw or drill bit (which I finally figured out) Plasma cutter didn't care though!

[Stev-o]

Looks good Dave.  How are you bending the trim pieces?  Must be difficult.
Sheet metal guys use a brake for nice clean bends.

[TwoTired]

Looks good Dave.  How are you bending the trim pieces?  Must be difficult.
Sheet metal guys use a brake for nice clean bends.

um...the first picture shows a big red metal brake... labeled central machinery.

Thought I would point that out.

Cheers,

[Davez134]

Haha, yeah I bought a sheet metal bender for this. Cal, thanks for the advice on plasma on the stainless. It is very tricky to work with, especially welding the thin stuff. I got lots of practice in on this one!

[edwardmorris]

So what's next man? Can we sign up for some full body 750 fairings? I got dibs on serial #1

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Great job, Dave.  I hope she marked up the heck out of it!!

[MrGardman]

Wow...very nice work. Looks great.

[strynboen]

it vill be hell to klean all those gaps..dont think vify like that  or the vet kontroll..stainles steel parts need to be kleaned often..and it have to be easy..so no open gaps..
make  dubbel bends. and do it to the inside.and you can bolt it together and make closed corners..mu English is not as good as my steelwork..but you have done very vell ..open a stainless steel Pandora  box.  (soft iron is just so mutch easyer..)

.this material is hell to vork vith..just to drill holes can be a problem..is it run hot..it hardnent up..and the drill cant brake through the hard shall..

[Yamahawk]

Drilling stainless is something to learn by experience... After drilling with a hole saw in a Paint booth made of stainless in a car plant, I was getting about three holes per hole saw... then, I read the box on my 4th one, and found that the recommended RPM is 50...rpm's. That's less than 1 revolution per second. So... slow down your drilling speed, and the holes will drill much nicer, and the bits, or hole saws will last MUCH longer.. I got 30 holes out of the next hole saw.
I've welded a bunch of thin wall stainless pipe and tubing, and calj737 is correct...fuse the two pieces, precision fit will help with that, tack carefully and often,and you want to minimize your contact with air, by using purge gas if you can. The post flow will allow cooling to where it won't sugar, and if possible, (which isn't probably) purge the back side with argon also. The coloring of stainless can be quite striking if you learn heat control too... but, probably not in this application. Built quite a few stainless belt buckles in the spare time in Nuclear Powerhouses too.. lol.
Charlie

[Davez134]

it vill be hell to klean all those gaps..dont think vify like that  or the vet kontroll..stainles steel parts need to be kleaned often..and it have to be easy..so no open gaps..
make  dubbel bends. and do it to the inside.and you can bolt it together and make closed corners..mu English is not as good as my steelwork..but you have done very vell ..open a stainless steel Pandora  box.  (soft iron is just so mutch easyer..)

.this material is hell to vork vith..just to drill holes can be a problem..is it run hot..it hardnent up..and the drill cant brake through the hard shall..

Cleaning stainless is easy; there's several products readily available in the US (Bar Keepers friend for one) or simply use Olive Oil to wipe it down. It won't turn rancid, removes stains and fingerprints rapidly, and restores a simple luster to it. The "gaps" are the result of heat distortion from the tack welds. Whether its mild steel, or stainless, heat will warp it when you use thin sheet metal.

Stainless cutting and drilling needs a good quality fluid. Period. I use Walter Stainless Cut and it will allow my 14" steel cutting blade to slice through a piece of 3/4" stainless rod flawlessly without dulling or heating the blade, or the material. And for drilling, it makes it a snap. Too many people use crap like WD-40 as a cutting fluid because they don't know better, or they're too cheap to use the right tool. Cheap tools and cheap machinists produce crappy results.

As for using mild steel for a range hood, it would very likely rust unless completely coated with a high temp paint. The condensation from cooking, steam, heat cycles, will attack it immediately which makes stainless a far better choice. Dave just needs more experience working with stainless, and some new tricks to help produce the highest quality results he is known for on his bikes. But with the Wife's burgeoning business, I suspect he will be getting plenty of chances to bend that curve 

...fuse the two pieces, precision fit will help with that, tack carefully and often,and you want to minimize your contact with air, by using purge gas if you can. The post flow will allow cooling to where it won't sugar, and if possible, (which isn't probably) purge the back side with argon also.

In this application, a back purge is nearly impossible, but, a piece of 2x2x1/4" aluminum angle clamped in position would make a great argon dam, and support the panels, and help extract some heat. I would not have used filler in this application. A large cup, and a 1.5 sec/amp post flow would be my recipe. With a pre-flow of about 2 seconds.

The gaps are from a slightly imperfect frame that the sheets are tacked, then riveted to. Also, the 2" stainless strips on the edges had to overlap causing more gap. I didn't know how else to do it.  I did get some distortion from the initial tack welds, but I ground them down and just put enough to hold in place until I riveted. I am going to get some that cutting fluid you mentioned as well. I'm back to making some stuff out of mild steel this week and I feel like I could do it half asleep!

[strynboen]

ha... i alvays did some Work on my cbx.,,.then all vas as easy  as cake,, vhen i turned to the cb 550..

[Don R]

 A guy in our shop made a hood from copper and brass, it had hooks all around for hanging pots and pans. The dude had a ton of talent and experience. The hood was for the shop owners new house so there was no bid to worry about.