Awesome Welding

This specialized gadget from Strong Hand Tools is a welder’s best friend. It uses powerful magnets to hold two pieces of steel together at 45º or 90º angles without clamping. It provides up to 90 lb. of pulling force and is easy to remove thanks to its magnet deactivation switch.

We’ve seen knives made from some unusual materials before. Knives Project took a box of metal arc welding electrodes, sanded off the slag layer, then forged them into a block which he hammered, cut, and polished into a knife blade. The finished piece is unique work of art – and incredibly sharp.

The Hacksmith spent more than the cost of Tesla Model S to make the world’s largest Thor’s hammer. His team fabricated the enormous Mjolnir by painstakingly welding numerous sheets of steel. It measures more than 15 feet tall when standing on its head. Watching it get dipped into the galvanizing tanks was amazing.

A normal 6-sided die weighs about 0.2 oz. This 4″ stainless steel die by Justin Voss is a bit heftier. This video shows how he used a CNC plasma cutter to slice up the steel, then cleaned up the edges with a grinder and welded the pieces together. If you know how to weld, you can pick up a kit of pre-cut parts on Justin’s website.

Andrey Kazantsev of Dirt Customs makes amazing low-polygon-count metal animal sculptures. Watch as he welds together a wonderfully pointy Doberman sculpture from dozens of pieces of precision-cut metal. He ships internationally, and his contact info is on his Instagram page. That giant panda sculpture blew our minds.

Friction welding is the process of joining two metals together by spinning them rapidly until they heat up enough to meld together. Anni, Lauri, and his dad Timo from the Beyond the Press channel show how rigged up an old manual lathe to join two hammers together by rapidly spinning one while the other was stationary.

If you’ve ever walked through an outdoor sculpture garden, you’ve probably seen sculptures that move when the wind blows. Artist Anthony Howe is known for creating kinetic sculptures like these. In this video, he provides a glimpse into the painstaking process that’s involved in making these dynamic and precise works of art.

As we’ve seen before, it’s possible to make a weapon out of melted washers. But Hassan Abu-Izmero was challenged by a friend to build a viking axe by welding the washers together, rather than melting them down and forging them. The resulting axe looks super cool, and actually works thanks to its razor-sharp cutting edge.

While humans are still very much a part of assembling vehicles, robots are often used for the heavy lifting and dangerous tasks like painting and welding. Watch in awe as an army of 45 KUKA robots work in harmony at MAGNA Presstec to create frames for the Mercedes-Benz G-Class SUV.

Magnets are extremely useful for welding steel, as they can be used to hold pieces securely together without clamps. Strong Hand Tools magnets are unique thanks to their double-jointed design, which allows them to hold round, flat, or square metal parts at any angle, and in a snap.

Learning to weld can be a daunting task. But with this slick bit of technology from Miller Welders, students can practice using an augmented reality welding headset which lets them practice all they need, and get detailed feedback on their progress.

Looking for a project to put basic welding skills to use? Check out this DIY idea from Ollari’s – a lamp with a shade made by welding a bunch of steel nuts around a curved form, and a base made out of the same. It’s a cool enough design that we’ll forgive his spelling of “baking soda.”

GoldPointProps walks us through the process of creating an incredible replica of the Dark Lord’s infamous head gear using sheet metal, bending tools, tin snips, an arc welder, a Dremel, and a heaping helping of elbow grease.

Most video footage you see of welding just looks like a blinding light and some sparks. mrbean022387 added an appropriate soundtrack to Vurt Runner’s super-macro footage of gas metal arc welding as a tiny pool of molten metal burbles and coalesces.

While much welding is done by adding molten hot metals with a torch or electrical current, friction welding creates strong joints by rubbing metal together at a high speed. Here, two blocks of titanium are merged into one. If you thought that was cool, check this out.

Students at the Netherlands’ Delft University of Technology and 3D printing company MX3D programmed a welding robot to “print” the cage structure of this awesome and unique bicycle frame. We love the open and organic design, though it’s probably still quite heavy.