• Scam Alert. Members are reminded to NOT send money to buy anything. Don't buy things remote and have it shipped - go get it yourself, pay in person, and take your equipment with you. Scammers have burned people on this forum. Urgency, secrecy, excuses, selling for friend, newish members, FUD, are RED FLAGS. A video conference call is not adequate assurance. Face to face interactions are required. Please report suspicions to the forum admins. Stay Safe - anyone can get scammed.
  • Several Regions have held meetups already, but others are being planned or are evaluating the interest. The Calgary Area Meetup is set for Saturday July 12th at 10am. The signup thread is here! Arbutus has also explored interest in a Fraser Valley meetup but it seems members either missed his thread or had other plans. Let him know if you are interested in a meetup later in the year by posting here! Slowpoke is trying to pull together an Ottawa area meetup later this summer. No date has been selected yet, so let him know if you are interested here! We are not aware of any other meetups being planned this year. If you are interested in doing something in your area, let everyone know and make it happen! Meetups are a great way to make new machining friends and get hands on help in your area. Don’t be shy, sign up and come, or plan your own meetup!

Recent content by Chris Cramer

  1. Chris Cramer

    Metal finishes

    Personally, I use fine abrasives with a 90 degree die grinder or an angle grinder for polishing. If your looking for a bright mirror finish then fine abrasives up to grit 3000 or above will deliver very shiny reflective results which can still be coated with a finish for protection; but if you...
  2. Chris Cramer

    Shop Is your shop messy or spotless?

    Though I don't mind working in a messy environment I've come to think that I should pay more attention to the hazards that build up over time. I've started working a bit with fiberglass as a cheaper handle material for my knives, and the dust that comes from shaping that with a belt grinder is...
  3. Chris Cramer

    Shop Is your shop messy or spotless?

    I'm proud of the layout I have put in place to fit everything I have in a way that still gives some room to move. However, I always have projects on the go, and I realy don't understand the benefit of putting everything you're still using away when you stop working, unless you have come to...
  4. Chris Cramer

    Laser Cutter/Engraver

    I figured that before engraving the coaster. I made sure to polish the entire coaster before engraving because polishing would remove the oxide. Now I'm not sure how much regular wear the oxide can take only by use or by water based cleaning. If it can't take anything I'll need to aply a finish...
  5. Chris Cramer

    Laser Cutter/Engraver

  6. Chris Cramer

    Laser Cutter/Engraver

    I Decided to try nonfocused color engraving with my fiber laser on some stainless steel. After doing a 20x20 material test array between frequency and power there were a lot of colors that showed up. The material test labels every row and column with the power and frequency used, which makes it...
  7. Chris Cramer

    Laser Cutter/Engraver

    This is a custom stainless steel coaster that I designed for Wilco landscape and construction. The coaster was first cut out with my plasma table, and then later laser engraved with my fiber laser engraver. It took longer than expected to get sufficient depth in order to make the parts of the...
  8. Chris Cramer

    2002 VW Golf refurb

    Nice, I wonder why I see more people going after the VW golf. My younger brother refurbished an old GTI as the first old vehicle he refurbished.
  9. Chris Cramer

    2025 Calgary meetup dates

    Thanks John, I'll put a reminder on my phone.
  10. Chris Cramer

    Portable hardness tester

    That's similar to what I currently use, only I have testers as hard as 58, 60, 62, and 64 rc which requires a bit of inaccurate prediction when one doesn't cut into the edge and the next barely does or easily does.
  11. Chris Cramer

    Portable hardness tester

    That would be very helpful to me for testing the hardness of my blades! I'd definitely be willing to wait, as I've pretty much been waiting till I have enough money to purchase a hardness tester. Currently I just use some sharpened peices of metal that are hardened to specific levels and see if...
  12. Chris Cramer

    So I've jumped into the rabbit hole

    I got a new controller and I figured out why the printer wasn't running the g code on the onboard sd card. It was because the hot bed wasn't preheated to the correct temperature for the selected filament, however the motors don't seem to be running with as much amperage when printing as they do...
  13. Chris Cramer

    Laser Cutter/Engraver

    Yeah I'm thinking it would be laser engraved. I have a stainless ruler and the marks and numbers look just like an engraving from both my Diode laser and my fiber laser. I've had in mind to make some stainless measuring tools myself like a protractor, and a longer ruler or square by cutting them...
  14. Chris Cramer

    Huge list of unfinished projects for the new year

    I always have unfinished projects around. Some are still around because I haven't solved the problems that keep them from functioning properly. Those projects include much more electronic technology than metal fabrication. Other incomplete projects fall below actual requests I get from others...
  15. Chris Cramer

    Laser Cutter/Engraver

    I gave a description of the difference in the settings on the engraver between the engravings in the first two images. The second one is slightly lighter because it traveled at a speed of 2000mm/s instead of100mm/s both at full power and a frequency of 20khz.
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