Stainless Steel Welding Tips

Stainless steel is a beautiful, shiny metal that does not rust, which is why people love it. However, it can be tricky to weld, especially with higher gauge material. Though if you follow a few of the following tips, you can be successful at it.

First, you want to thoroughly prepare your weld surfaces with a stainless steel wire brush and then clean it with acetone or denatured alcohol to make sure it is completely free of any debris. Then, the main thing to keep in mind when welding is the heat. Stainless steel gets hot very fast so you should weld at the lowest amperage necessary to prevent warpage. For example, if you are welding 16-gauge material, set your machine between 40 and 60 amps. Start with cool settings and then add heat slowly if you need to for stronger welds and better penetration. Tack weld your piece in several places far apart then fill in later, which will also reduce warping. You can also weld in short bursts of three to four seconds to avoid warping as well. Do not weld for too long a period of time; you want to stop and allow your material to cool off, then weld again. Stainless is also stronger than most metals, so it can be fused together without much rod. However, as with anything, the best way to become proficient in welding stainless steel is to put in the hours and practice!!

We offer a Stainless Steel class at our shop and shop time is always available to practice.

Stay tuned for tips on welding brass and aluminum!

Camden's work

One of our lovely assistants, Camden Place, has been using his shop time wisely, coming in almost every week to practice his metalworking skills. We love to see people bring their design ideas to fruition! Just look at this lovely side table and dresser! All you need is a vision and you can make it come true in metal here at Metal Shop Fantasy Camp! Beautiful work, Camden! You can follow Camden on Instagram @camdensplace

Partnership with N.Y. Adventure Club

Metal Shop Fantasy Camp is proud to announce our partnership with N.Y. Adventure Club!

N.Y. Adventure Club is a community-driven organization that curates all sorts of tours and experiences around New York City while giving residents and visitors alike insider access to the city’s best-kept secrets, one of which, hint: is us! While the Club primarily focuses on history and storytelling, it also cultivates uniquely New York experiences.

On Sunday, May 20, participants from N.Y. Adventure Club had a uniquely N.Y. experience in Bushwick, Brooklyn, the creative heart of all that is happening here! They explored our shop and learned about our tools. They witnessed the CNC plasma cutter in action, received their very own bottle opener to take home and even got to weld! We hope to have another N.Y. Adventure Club outing in the shop in about a month's time.

We can't recommend N.Y. Adventure Club enough; not only for exclusive access to our shop, but for all your N.Y. adventure needs as well! Their tours include wonderful, memorable experiences such as a behind-the-Scenes tour at Eclectic Props, the largest film & TV prop company in NYC; Underground Manhattan, The Secret History of the Subway System; a trail hike at the Old Croton Aqueduct with rare access inside Abandoned Weir; as well as a private Japanese tea ceremony demonstration at the secret Kyoto Garden, in addition to many more. Check out their website here!

And here are some photos from the afternoon below!

Boy Scout Merit Badge Welding Class is a Success!

We are happy to announce the successful completion of our very first Boy Scout of America Welding Merit Badge class! We had a lot of fun this past weekend in this brand new class; watching these youngsters work and quickly progress to be able to weld in a couple of hours! These scouts now have an additional set of skills to add to their repertoire, and another merit badge to show for efforts. The class was such a success, we already have interest in future classes, which are now on the schedule and will start in the new year! 

Come get your weld on!

A Brooklyn Metal Partnership!

If you were not already aware, there is a great need for skilled metalworkers in the United States. That is why we at Metal Shop Fantasy Camp are so proud of what we do and love teaching others to weld! It is also why we decided to partner with other experienced metal shop owners in Brooklyn for our first ever Brooklyn Metal Partnership Training. For the past three months, nine participants took classes with Argosy Designs, WaxRax, Bott Welding & Consulting, Lee Spring and Metal Shop Fantasy Camp to learn metal fabrication and welding with the goal of catapulting them into careers in the field. Participants rapidly immersed themselves in various aspects of metalwork such as shop drawings, layout, machinery, fabrication into production, welding, and finishing.

The skills these students developed are for the real world since they have been trained by those who work in the real world each day, and they can now put these skills to work! Total Metal Resource is thus very happy to have hired two BMP students as interns and we are proud to have them on our team!

An assistant builds!

You may have had the pleasure of taking a class when our lovely assistant, Mec, was helping out. We just had to share the workspace she is currently building in her back yard (with a little help from her dad). She will soon come into the shop to work on a lumber rack and a few other fixtures for it and we can't wait to see the completed project and most importantly, what she will create in her space! Just as it is for us, we hope this is an inspiration for you to get out there and build your dreams! Rock on, Mec! You can follow Mec on Instagram here and on Twitter here.

Creating an herb box!

We have been running our TIG welding Level 1 - stainless steel herb box class taught by Alex Cape for a while now and just wanted to show off our finished product! The corners are filed, we gave it a nice orbital sanded finish, and planted the herb box with fresh marjoram, parsley and rosemary! Beautiful and useful!

Come get your weld on!

Make Metal, Create Happiness

Make metal, be happy! Metal Shop Fantasy Camp is where you achieve the satisfaction of building your very own creation with your own two hands! Just add metal, heat, fire and voila! In our community of metal makers, this is what we do!

One of our members, Rich Boyd, completed yet another project this month, and this time it was a Zen Garden! Close your eyes and say, "Om." We are also super proud of our shop manager, Michael Opalenski who, after about 100 hours in the shop, finally completed his pretty sweet smoker! I guess he really likes his smoked meats because this beauty was surely a labor of love!

If you are new to welding, start with our signature four hour cube class where you learn all the basics of MIG welding and preliminary finishing techniques. If you are not ready to dive right in but are just a little curious, we also have our new Intro to Welding class! In just one hour, students whet their welding appetite and obtain substantial, practical, hands-on metal learning experience by making their very own steel hook to take home! 

Whatever your level of interest or experience is, Metal Shop Fantasy Camp is your resource for fulfilling on all of your metal making fantasies! We invite you to sign up for studio time or cash in on any one of our money savings membership options to turn all of your metal making dreams into reality!

Come get your weld on!

Winter's arrived, get hot making metal!

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A lot is happening in the shop! We had a fabulous crew of Verizon technicians take cube class and we had a blast teaching them all of the necessary welding basics! They finished their cubes and are now on to our TIG level 1 class taught by the incredible and fastidious Adam Mick! Scott was also able to teach them an additional thing or two and showed them how to repair an angle grinder! Good times!

We've also got new members, new classes, and more in the works! If you've taken the intro to TIG welding class, you got a taste of what it takes to do it right, which is practice practice practice! We recommend our level 1 stainless steel TIG welding class where you can perfect those skills and create your very own herb box to take home! Or if you want to advance your MIG welding skills take our accent table lamp class or our three-day steel oval coffee table class! Get fired up and join our community of makers! 

If you want to make anything in metal, Metal Shop Fantasy Camp is your resource. We have three options for memberships that accommodate your schedule and meet all of your metal making needs! As a member, you also enjoy all sorts of perks including discounts on classes!

Come get your weld on!