Thomas Martinez

When you pick up a sheet of aluminum checker plate to throw on your truck bed, the dread sets in because it’s heavier than it … Read more

It’s just a matter of grabbing a rectangle piece, clamping it in the bender, and pulling the lever until angle looks right, but that guesswork … Read more

There’s that crunch sound; the one you get when a tube buckles in the middle, like a crushed soda can on shop floor. It is … Read more

Most shop disasters begin with a saw cut that is an eighth of an inch too short. So you set up your measurements. You figure … Read more

That means columns fail, but they don’t always fail dramatically, they fail expensively. They do not typically fail with a crack or a snap, as … Read more

Chances are if you’ve ever had one of those thin walled tubes that looked like it could hold up under pressure only to have it … Read more

When we begin any project, most DIYers measure their rooms. Feeling good about there numbers, they walk away. But it’s rare for a room to … Read more

Calculating the Weight of Expanded Metal Mesh Expanded metal mesh is manufactured by stretching a solid sheet into a diamond shape. That strips out some … Read more

That’s when most problems on the shop floor begin: Spatter all over your shoes full of iron shavings. You pick up the gun, pull the … Read more

The welder assume the time to complete the work based off the seam length. A structural beam requires a day’s worth of effort while a … Read more

There’s something about a wobbly or loose grinding wheel that triggers a certain kind of panic. It isn’t merely a mechanical annoyance; it store a … Read more

Many times a pavement failure starts out looking just fine until it fails. Maybe you drove on an unevenly compacted lot, then when you put … Read more

Grinding a cylinder presents the dilemma of removing metal fast while holding dimensions accurately. Running a grinding wheel at multiple thousands of feet per minute … Read more

In theory, most of welds on a structure look easy to calculate from drawings. Just show two plates at a right angle, then say make … Read more