My first design from start to finish using metal and new bambu 3D printer. Key holder for the wall.
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Your a machine!
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I cut out a couple more Bears signs for Christmas gifts. I live in Indiana so there are quite a few Bears fans in the area. Two of the three are for family members.
18 gauge with 22 gauge backplates. Debating on upload to Fireshare since I used the bear head off their logo.
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I figured I would make another gift for a family member this morning. Used one of my simple 0.5” standoff wall hangers. I like to keep my signs clean and hide any wall mounts if possible these days.
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How come you don’t tape off when spraying the blue? or don’t you like a clean line?
I personally like the transition and shows the fade instead of the clean line. The other part is the waiting a day before taping and painting second color. I made this in under 2 hrs. I had to be careful not to touch the front with my hands when applying the Lion.
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I was thinking that
Yes I forget about taping problems with slow drying enamels. I have had trouble even after 2 days with tape marks.
Looks good, you will have the printer wore out if you don’t slow down!
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I might bevel the edges on future designs. I did this one just because a family member really loves the Lions.
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I’ve been watching sheet metal fab videos for skills needed for my garden shaman. Saw one using a manual shrinker.
So I bought one (HF).
Made this little part in about 5 minutes. Wanted to see if I could weld a piece to this curve.
So I scanned it.
Traced the scan in inkscape, cleaned up the trace, etc.
Added a profile to cut.
Cut a test piece on a laser using hardboard. Perfect fit.
Cut one out of 18ga.
It too was a near perfect fit. So far so good.
Tried to fusion TIG this but to say I’m bad at TIG is under statement. So I switched to MIG and tried to recover. This was moderately successful. You know that “Try your welding settings on scrap first” saying, well I skipped that crucial step as you can see. Blew holes all over the place and didn’t penetrate for a 1/3 of the seam.
Tried to stitch it again, ended up welding it to my table. Ha!
Now, I’ve cleaned it up so many times that the 18ga metal is wafer thin. Good looking final piece huh? Gonna hang this on my shops’s “Wall of Shame”.
I look at this project not as a failure but a total success! The shrinker/stretcher combo offers fast and easy rounded corners. Scanning with image tracing produces near perfect part fit up. Need set up my welder on scrap first and look for a local TIG class. Most importantly, I had a blast in the shop this afternoon.
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I always skip this step and after my first couple of crappy welds, I gradually get moderately better…. It’s about the time my welds start to get better I remember I should have done a couple of practice welds first…. I lack patience. 
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One of my daughters painted these up this weekend. They are giving two as gifts at their bowling league party.
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You made that with the shrinker? If so I would love to see how you did it. video for next time?
Looks perfect
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Nice to see there is a shittier welder than me on this site. 
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That HF shrinker stretcher is not a horrible tool. I mostly use it on copper but it will work on mild steel up to about 18 ga as long as the flange is not too long. I don’t use it every day but it’s lasted through a lot of pulls
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will do, started with a ~3x6" 18ga flat piece, bent a ~1/2" 90deg flange on the long side. Then stuck that short flange in the shrinker and started shrinking, which caused the big curve. Probably makes no sense, I’ll film it next time for you.
These are the first 2 scrap pieces I played with.
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I take no offense at that truth.
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Both my shrinker and stretcher function. There are many YT videos about overcoming the horrible manufacturing of these. I just got lucky I guess. 
Oh trust me, you have some competition over here for that award sadly
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