I am a newer (about to be) member to Assmbly who took the metal workshop safety class a few months back but has mostly been focused on woodworking classes. I have a few minor projects I would like to knock out, but could use some feedback on a) how best to accomplish these and b) whether they can/should be performed in the Assmbly workshop.
I’d like to make a small sign with house numbers (#15) for our main property. The lots aren’t sequential out there and when the normal postal/fedex/UPS guys aren’t working people get lost all the time. I see the big laser cutter has an enclosure around it now. Is it online?
Abrasion/rust removal - I’ve got two larger cast iron pans with melty bits of indoor/outdoor rug stuck to the bottom (seasoning misadventure gone horribly awry). I feel pretty confident the melted rug material (fabric and rubber) would come off with bit of targeted tough love, but I don’t have access to a good vise/worktable at home. What tools/consumables would you recommend for this? Sander? Angle grinder?
Abrasion/rust removal - Similarly I’ve got some stainless steel and aluminum grill parts that have accumulated surface rust I’d like to get all this off and give them another good round of seasoning as part of my seasonal work to get the smoker ready and back online. I assume I’ll need a eye/breathing protection and a vise? Welcoming recommendations on tooling/procedure here as well.
I have my own orbital sander, angle grinders, and dremel/rotary tools, if those are the right tools for the job. But I’ve never attempted this kind of work before and some of the feedback on Google is all over the road.
I welcome feedback from you all on how best to get from A to B.
Big laser availability hasn’t been announced and the safety class for it is likely to be booked out for several months once it is (people who donated towards the installation were promised priority for that sign up).
For a steel sign I would recommend going through the one of the other laser classes and a welding class. Cut out plywood or acrylic templates, stick them on your stock and use the plasma cutter.
Hi Joseph, welcome to Asmbly! It’s probably the case that you can’t attach photos or links as a new account, but you should get a trust level upgrade by reading and posting on the forum a couple more times.
Re: the cast iron pan, a wire wheel on an angle grinder should work well to remove anything burnt on. I would recommend doing this outdoors and wearing a mask and good eye protection.
Re: the grill parts, it’s hard to say without knowing what they are or what they’re attached to, but surface rust would clean up with a Brillo or Scotchbrite pad.
Agree with the wire wheel suggestion - either on the angle grinder or the Dremel.
For your pans inside surfaces at least, avoid using anything silicate based - sandpaper, flap disks, etc - and stick to the more metal-on-metal things. You’ll definitely want to clean the little wires off, but that is way easier than trying to make sure that microscopic silica and aluminum oxide particles are all out of your porous pan surface before you season and eat from it!
A home depot stiff putty knife for scraping can help. But the boy scout in me can’t help but note… If it burned onto it, it will probably burn off! Technically I think they call this pyrolization, which seems like someone made it up when they got caught seeing if fire would fix their problem.
For the grills, I have had great luck with evapo-rust on lots of tool-like things. There is also the abrasive blaster, but I believe it is currently under repair.
Technically I think they call this pyrolization, which seems like someone made it up when they got caught seeing if fire would fix their problem.
