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My name is Alec Steele. I am a blacksmith, amateur machinist and all-round maker of all-things metal. We make videos about making interesting things, learning about craft and appreciating the joy of creativity. Great to have you here following along!

MUSIC:
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[derekscheele]

I am a titanium aerospace welder who welds tons of jet engine parts inside an argon chamber and we have very strict requirements of what we're allowed to Weld on because our company and companies like Lockheed Martin and airbus who we make parts for have done tons of testing on how to get the best weld possible with no inclusions and a little tip that might be helpful is that we are not allowed to Weld on stone or belted surfaces because the stones and belts can smear contaminants into the titanium that can cause gas pockets or porrisity when welded! We can only Weld on either acid etched surfaces or surfaces that have been carbide burred! I have also forged my own damascus knife but just the once so I know the forge welding process is a bit different than tig welding but it's something to consider that if you want the best finish possible and highest chance of success for forge welding especially damascus with so many layers that each could have a problem you should acid etch after you surface grind your titanium to insure the cleanest material and best chance for a perfect forge Weld! 😁

[disgruntledwookie]

"Gratuitous application of mechanical persuasion" is a wonderful sentence

[mymechanics]

Most entertaining blacksmith content on YouTube!

[Delorkay]

I enjoy very much that failure is an option on your channel, as are 1000 side projects, never felt more seen as a craftsperson.

[daveemerson]

I was NOT ready for the weaponized cuteness of 11 year old Alec

[_ingoknito]

Louis: "Hal, did you replace the light bulb in the kitchen?" - Hal: "WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE I"M DOING?" (rolls up from underneath the car)

[kodweb]

To everyone buying one of those DNA tests in Alex’s advert I warn you I was charged £114 extra because I forgot to cancel the subscription then when you go to try to contact the company they make it impossible

[brucematthews]

This is the Alec Steele that drew me in some years ago. Pushing the limits of metallurgy and in due time the limits of delicate machining. Learning what doesn't work and then figuring it out. Turning your eventual billet into a set of frames will be yet another learning experience too.

[andrewphelps]

Use a compressed air Venturi vacuum generator instead of a vacuum pump. That's what method that industry uses.

[patrickmcguire]

When surface grinding longer thin pieces like this, I found that putting the pieces on the chuck more diagonally will help keep them from lifting.

[pjbth]

You should be dipping them in acid and immediately putting in an argon atmosphere because the titanium oxide coating takes milliseconds to form. When you are grinding it in an oxygen atmosphere it's re formed before you even finish grinding it so you are always going to have inclusions and weak points between the layers. In a stack with a just a few layers like 5 it might be ok but with the harringbone pattern you are actually multipling the ammount of included oxide by 4 times every cut using the inverse square law

Ive actually heard a process where you electroplate it with aluminum guranteeing no oxide than use Sodium Hydroxide to dissolve the aluminum leaving a clean surface of titanium

[dementedpaintballer]

@AlecSteele, ditch the vac pump and get a vac generator. Easily turns compressed air into vacuum strong enough to hold parts such as you're doing. You can easily find an in-line vac generator for $15-$20 from most robotics and die/mold suppliers.

[DarthCuddlefluff]

I hope one day Alec realizes he's actually an engineer and not a smithy. That hose setup at the start.. . you made it so easy.

[JonaSchmidt-iqhn]

TIP Alec FESTO makes a valve (Vakuumerzeuger called here in Germany) that you just plug in compressed air on one side and on the other side it pulls a vacuum that way you don’t need a pump they are used in industrial applications to suck up components on a assembly line for instants eg.
Festo
VN-10-L-T3-PQ2-VQ2-RO1

[KrisKamweru]

30 seconds main project into immediate side project seems like the appropriate amount of time any maker spends 😂😂😂
Glad to see whether you're designing, forging or coding, we all work the same

[Bender-yyzw]

Ya just bc a company says they “wont give your data away” doesn’t mean they won’t. Especially with DNA data you definitely don’t want that being on someone’s server

[AshtarteD]

Always appreciate when creators don't try to cover up or ignore their mistakes. You let us see all the times you've goofed up and it feels far more genuine.

[nautica]

Btw, a better method of generating vacuum pressure for that grinding fixture is what's called a venturi vacuum generator, very commonly used in industry for securing flat, non magnetic materials. Essentially a device that you plug in high pressure, low flow rate compressed air from an airline, and redirects the air out in such a way that the Venturi effect pulls air out of a perpendicular connected pipe that the airstream rushes past. Not super high vacuum pressure (needs a greater vacuum pad surface area), but just needs compressed air and are small, inexpensive, completely pneumatic, and can be attached inline.
Ideal for such applications where the actual airflow rate through the vacuum pipe is zero, such as vacuum fixturing.

[theteenageengineer]

You probably won’t see this Alec but I’ve actually got some experience with grinding non ferromagnetic materials and good ways to go about workholding with them. I inherited my workshop from my grandfather and he happened to specialize in grinding glass, ceramic, and silicon. The silicon was especially special as what he did living and working in the heart of Silicon Valley was cutting the silicon wafers used to make integrated circuits and any semiconductors into the individual dies. That’s a very very complex and precise process. For work holding for the ceramic, silicon, and glass his preferred method of choice was to glue the materials to pieces of 1/4in thick mild steel plate. And he’d use a glue that’s easily dissolved by certain chemicals. It’s about as simple of a solution you can possibly use to be able to still use the mag chuck on a surface grinder all while not having to glue parts directly to the table or the mag chuck.

[monsteraddict]

Vacuum tables are one of the coolest things I've seen in the machine shop I work at. I've only used it once but it still takes the cake for the coolest way to clamp.