We received a question via our youtube channel from RacerRob528.
Here is the comment:
Please let me know if your bender could bend 1″ x 3/8″ aluminum flat bar in
a U shape with a 6″ inside radius. If so, I might get one of these down the road. Oh, yeah,
I know there are all types of aluminum. I don’t have the name of the type I use in front of me.
It’s considered aircraft aluminum, and it’s hard. I currently have to bend it by heating it up and
pulling it around a 6″ diameter pole. It’s almost impossible but I do it.
We decided to take a short video to answer Racers question. Tom used a 1″ X 1/2″ flat strap as an example. The main issue was not having the correct die to use to bend the metal strap. The largest die that the 2020 compact bender comes with is a 3″. Rob asked about bending a 6″ radius. Tom ended up using a die made for round tubing. Please note that this die is not recommended by Shop Outfitters for this purpose, but Tom thought he would give it a try. A die can be easily made using a 6″ stock with a hole drilled into the middle. Hope this helps!

In this video Tom talks about how he built a metal wood stove to help heat his shop area. The welding/fabrication shop is a six thousand square foot metal building. The new wood stove does a good job of efficiently heating the space.
Tom came up with the design after careful research. It has an air intake at the bottom of the wood stove, that may someday be hooked to an outside air source to prevent recirculation of conditioned air.
Tom built a removable ash drawer to help reduce ash in the stove.
The metal stove is built out of five eights inch plate.
Tom welded in smoke shelves and pipes to help facilitate movement of the fire and heat. One of the tubes holds a thermostat from an attached thermostat motor. As the air gets warmer in the tube, it fires up a blower. Once the fire has died down, say in the middle of the night, the blower will switch off.
Tom also fabricated two pieces of rectangle tube to hold a water/antifreeze mix. A heat exchanger will be added to carry heat from one area of the shop to the shop addition.
One thing that Tom would change on the design is installing fewer smoke shelves on the inside of the wood stove. Having lots of smoke shelves allows for too much ash build up on the inside of the stove. Tom had to drill in several extra holes so that he could blow out the smoke shelves two or three times per year.

Tom had this tip to share while building a small metal welding table:
When you build something like this square metal table, it may rack a little bit and won’t sit on the ground level. It is a good idea to fabricate feet on the bottoms of the square tubing. Putting metal feet on the tubing allows you to level up the table. A gap was left in the right front end of this metal table so that it would even out the metal legs at the bottom.
This table was built out of square tube for the frame and a piece of plate metal for the top.

We recently received a comment on one of our early tips by tom articles. This article on aluminum cutting seems to get a lot of traffic. It was one of our original posts and contains helpful information on cutting aluminum in a pinch. The article explains how you can use equipment found in any wood shop to accomplish the job of cutting aluminum. At any rate, after several years we received this letter from Don in Florida. Since we are into entrepreneurship, we thought wed go ahead and post! Thanks for noticing our website Don and best of luck with your business!

Hi Tom,

My name is Don McKinney. Our company is Bob’s Saw Sharpening, Inc. I
read your article on cutting aluminum and liked the warning about the
“kick back” . Many people don not realize that when using the wrong
tool for the job could be very dangerous. The kick back comes from
using saw blades designed to cut wood or an improperly designed aluminum
cutting saw. We manufacture a line of blades for this material that
does NOT kick back or grab. Leaving a bur free cut on most shapes
including plate, pipe, window and store front extrusions, picture frames
and even PVC. It’s called the NO-GRAB. It has more of a milling action
than a cutting one. With a wood blade, the more you feed, the faster it
cuts. Our blades offers a controlled chip. The more you feed, it
doesn’t cut any faster!

If your interested, contact me at 1-800-359-2887
Don McKinney
President
Bob’s Saw Sharpening, Inc.
721 N.W. 7th. Ave.
Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. 33311

Sometimes the only way to fabricate a custom metal handrail is on the job site. This handmade handrail was welded partially in the shop and finished off at the custom home.
There are several things to remember when considering on site welding. It is best to be well prepared before leaving your shop. A few things to bring along might include a couple of grinders, one with a cut off wheel, chop saw, welding helmet, welding gloves, tape measure, square, and leathers if you doing some overhead welding.
Tom built a small dolly for his wire feed welder to take along when doing on site welding jobs. The dolly holds his bottle and welder. It is a little cumbersome to get out of the truck due to weight, but once Tom gets it out it can be wheeled around to wherever he needs to take it.
Tom used a regular dolly that can be purchased at any do it yourself store. He welded on a metal loop for the cylinder tank and also welded on hooks for the welder so he can easily bungee it on.
Don’t forget a few silver sharpies for marking up your steel as well.

It is also convenient to have a simple five gallon bucket for tools as well.

Tom ordered floor anchor pots from Auto Body Tool Mart. Normally, an anchor pot is installed into an existing concrete floor. If that is the case, the concrete needs to be core drilled before installing the floor anchor pot. This article will describe how Tom poured floor anchor pots into the concrete slab he formed for his new building addition.
Tom began by welding rebar onto the anchor pot. Tom then placed the anchor pots so they were flush with the finished grade of the concrete floor. Wet concrete was poured around the anchor pots to secure them into the floor. Blue tape was used to cover the anchor pot. The tape served to protect the anchor pot as well as aid in finding the pots after the concrete floor was dry.
Anchor pots are used regularly for chaining cars to the floor to help do body work. They can also be used to help straighten axles.

Piston on Milling Machine

A piston from a turbo charged engine came into the machine shop that needed the compression ratio lowered. The customer could no longer find pistons that were dished with a lower compression ratio. The turbo pistons brought in needed to be dished 10 CC’s.
The first step was to do the math to find out how much material Tom should remove from the piston using a radius end mill and rotary table. Tom knew he would want to take out about 3 inches in diameter from the metal piston. He then converted 3 inches into centimeters. Then he did the reverse of “Pie R Squared” equals the area. Then he was left with the diameter. The end result was fifty thousandths that would need to be removed from the center of the turbo piston.
After milling out the center, Tom wanted to double check the results.
Tom used a CC Kit to measure the milled out space. A CC Kit includes a small piece of plexiglass, with a tiny hole in it, and a measuring beaker.
The first step is to seal the piston with grease and set the plexiglass on top. Next, fill the beaker to the top measuring line. Then carefully release water into the area that has been milled while holding plexiglass in place.
The beaker measurements told Tom how much volume was milled out of the piston dish.
A CC Kit can be used on pistons and heads to establish an accurate measurement.

A ring roller is a great tool for metal shops. A ring roller works by forcing steel material through three rollers also called dies. The three rollers are set in the machine in a triangular fashion. The two bottom rollers can be adjusted up into the top roller or drive roller to achieve various degrees of arches. The metal is wheeled through a ring roller until the desired radius is formed.
The drive roller pushes and pulls steel through simultaneously so that the steel has no where to go and thus forms a metal arch. If the ring roller operator moves the two bottom rollers or dies up, it changes the size of the ring. The rollers or dies are moved using a small hydraulic jack and lock screw on the ring roller. The operator unhooks the lock screw and pumps up the hydraulic jack and then tightens the lock screw once the desired span is achieved.
Standard dies that come with a ring roller usually handle flat strap metal. The roller Tom uses is the Shop Outfitters #238 Ring Roller. This is the discontinued Shop Outfitters Ring Roller and has been replaced by their newer and improved model, the 338 Pedestal Ring Roller. Shop Outfitters newest ring roller is able to accept wider steel, 3″ X 3/8″ steel rather then 2″ X 3/8″ of the previous model. The 338 Pedestal Ring Roller also has an aluminum handle and a heavier hydraulic jack. The 338 Pedestal Ring Roller also is able to roll square tubing. The square tubing dies are purchased separately. Special recesses in the dies allow for either tubing, round stock or square tubing.
A Ring Roller is an essential tool for many metal shops. Tom has used his ring roller to build items such as custom spinning pot holders, decorative metal tables and large wood racks.

This video shows how Tom built his dream shop/house.  The shell of the building was ordered through Fast Trac Buildings, Inc. in Colorado.  Much of the interior of the shop and home was purchased as was needed through local building supply houses and stores like Builders Square, Lowes, and Home Depot.

The two and a half year project was a life long dream of Tom.  How did he talk his wife into it?  Well, she got her new home for their growing family.

The building is a 60 X 100 structure.  The house sits on the west end and was built three feet lower than the shop to allow for the second story.

The living room has a twenty five foot opening that gives the home a dramatic entrance.   There is an open kitchen with hickory cabinetry, a large eat in bar and a unique spinning pot rack.  The first floor has a large mudroom/full bath, guestroom with private bath and a den/office.  Upstairs there is another open family room as well as three kids rooms along with a kids bath.   The master bedroom and bath is also upstairs.

Tom’s shop is an all service machine shop and houses his tools and machinery.

There really are many possibilities for anyone wanting to design their own metal building house.  It is a great way to incorporate your lifestyle with your livelihood.  For questions or comments, please contact Tom at tom@toolsbytom.com.

Metal Building Patio

This is a lightweight pancake style tank version with an oilless compressor.  An oilless compressor means that there is no oil to lubricate the compressor.  Bostitch makes this low maintenance air compressor.  It is a 2 horsepower peak and 1.5 horsepower running, 135 psi maximum.  One thing to look at when purchasing an air compressor is it’s cubic feet per minute.  They are normally rated at two different pressures.  This particular model will put out 2.1 cfm, that’s 2.1 cubic feet per minute at 90 psi.  That isn’t a whole lot and is usually used to blow up air mattresses, filling up car tires and the like.

This air compressor took a while to reach up to 135 psi.  Tom and Dave tested the new compressor on an ordinary camping air mattress.  It took several minutes to get the queen size mattress to fill with air.  They decided an ordinary hair dryer might do the trick a little better.  A simple reason for that is that a hair dryer moves air at a high volume with low pressure and moves much more air at a lower pressure.  The air compressor moves less air at at a higher pressure.

The compressor works much better at a task like filling a car tire.  Interestingly enough the tire gauge that came with the air compressor kit work just as well as a more expensive model Dave had in his garage.