Work your way to fabricating success People have been hammering metal into shields, cookware, and ceremonial headdresses for centuries, and fabrication continues to be a popular and growing industry today. Fabricating For Dummies provides you with all the information you need to begin learning about metalworking, or fill any gaps in your existing knowledge in order to advance your career. Simply put, there's little out there for light reading on manufacturing. What's available is often quite expensive, so boring it puts you to sleep, or filled with so much technical gobbledygook that one's eyes glaze over within a few pages. This book offers a much-needed alternative, cutting through the jargon and getting right to the heart of what you need to know to take your fab skills to fabulous new heights. Get a glimpse of the day in the life of a fab worker Discover the different alloys, shapes, and sizes of sheet metal Understand welding and joining processes Master the use of press brakes, stamping presses, and turret punches Whether you want to get your feet wet with waterjets, laser cutters, or hi-definition plasma cutters, there’s something for you inside this hands-on book!

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1 About This Book 2 Foolish Assumptions 3 Icons Used in This Book 4 Beyond the Book 4 Where to Go from Here 5 Part 1: Fabricating Truths 7 Chapter 1: Manipulating Metal 9 Defining the Processes 10 Cutting up 10 Shearing specifics 11 Slitting success 12 Punching out 13 Boarding the Bending Express 15 Putting on the brakes 15 Forming opinions 16 Thinking progressively 17 Spinning in circles 17 Peeking at the Neighbors 18 Touring the machine shop 18 Wake up, it’s time to get vertical 19 Reviewing the Rest 20 Thinking additively 20 Casting away 21 Forging partnerships 22 Honorable mentions 23 Embracing Mechanics 23 Bearing witness 23 Motoring about 24 Controlling motion 24 Mulling over the miscellany 25 Chapter 2: Looking Back at Fabricating History 27 Digging for Gold 28 Pounding progress 28 Hello, Bronze Age 29 Pumping Iron 30 Smelting success 30 Steeling for progress 31 Caring About Fabricating 34 Admiring appliances 34 Building tall buildings 35 Cruising about with cars 36 Heading out to sea 36 Lifting off with aircraft 36 Chapter 3: Getting to Know Materials 37 Pondering the Properties 38 Touching on the Elements 40 Reconnoitering the Metals Landscape 43 Steeling history 43 Carbon copying 44 Alluding to Alloys 46 Shining up with stainless steel 47 Supersize me 48 Tooling around 49 Riding the Gravy Train 50 Seeing red 51 Playing with polymers 52 Peeking Under the Sheets 53 Part 2: Making Metal Fabulous: The Processes 57 Chapter 4: Cutting Up 59 Eating Cake: Power Shears 60 Lasing About 62 Looking for problems 63 Beaming up 64 Do me a solid 64 Peeking over the edge 67 Firing Up 68 Beholding the Gantry 70 Watering Down 71 “We want to pump you up!” 72 Dirtying the water 73 Nozzles, schnozzles 74 Chapter 5: Bending Down 77 Bending History 78 Furiously folding 78 Wiping around 79 “Braking” Up Is Hard to Do 80 Coming to terms with press-brake terminology 81 Learning about the force 83 Diving Into Dies 85 Don’t be pushy 86 Diversity in dies (and punches) 88 Backgauging the Bends 89 Crowning Is King 90 Calculating Conundrums 93 Accommodating Potter 93 Laying it all out 94 Chapter 6: Stamping About 97 Striking Gold 98 Don’t be sore 98 Coffins to clutches 98 Decompressing Presses 99 Closing the gap 100 Laid back 100 Straight talking 101 Picking Up the Lingo 102 Taking Off the Covers 103 On the fly 103 Achieving happiness with hydraulics 105 Along came the servo 106 Feeding the Machine 107 Being Progressive 108 Let’s pretend 109 Done in one 109 Chapter 7: Punching Out 113 Punching Madness 114 It’s all about control 114 A matter of form 115 Exploring Operations 116 Picking Your Station 118 It’s automatic 118 More tools, please 119 Getting a Grip 121 Deciphering Dies 122 Taking the Combo 123 Chapter 8: Fabricating Odds and Ends 127 Working Iron 128 Coping isn’t hard 130 Drilling and more 131 Rolling ’Round 131 A Booming Success! 132 Piping Up 133 Keeping a schedule 134 Let’s go tubing! 135 Buckle up 136 Of saddles and fish mouths 137 Squeezing in the Rest 138 Fantastic forging 138 Rolling your own 140 One ring to rule them all 141 Part 3: More Than Machinery: Digging in the Toolbox 143 Chapter 9: Tooling Up 145 Digging Metals 146 Carbide: The tooling superhero 146 Tool steel: Second best, not second rate 147 Setting Standards 149 Punching Through 152 A quick peek inside 153 Keep it clear 155 Keep it sharp 155 Keep an eye on things 156 Stamping and Stuff 156 Donning a Smooth, Slippery Coat 157 Wrapping Up 158 Chapter 10: Welding: Putting It All Together 161 Wondering About Welding 162 Doing Me a Solid (State) 164 Firing Up 165 Arcing Across 167 Marking the Spot 169 Getting Gassed Up 169 Shields up, Captain! 169 A smatter of spatter 171 In flux over flux 172 Choosing a Good Joint 173 Learning Safety with Jimmy 174 Chapter 11: Automating with Robots 177 Taking Robbie Apart 178 Effecting change 179 Teaching them a lesson 179 Leaning on the Tin Man 180 Pushing the limits with press brakes 181 Feeding the factory 181 Laying Down the Law 183 Gaining Flexibility with an FMS 185 Watching from Home 187 Avoiding Bad Actors 188 Chapter 12: Making Tools and Machining Parts 191 Touring the Tool and Die Department 192 The usual suspects 192 I’ll take the combo 193 Facing the hard facts 194 Justifying their existence 194 Meeting a Few Machine Tools 194 Turning terrifically 195 Milling majestically 197 Staying Sharp with Cutting Tools 201 Spinning ’round: Rotary tools 201 Hold still: Stationary tools 202 Increasing Your Carbon Footprint with EDM 204 Sink or swim 205 Wired up 205 Grinding Is Groovy 207 Chapter 13: Going Soft(ware) 209 Unraveling Difficult Acronyms 210 Figuring Out File Formats 212 Coloring in the Lines 213 Abra-CAD-abra 213 Rhymes with ham 215 Going flat 216 Why nests aren’t for birds 217 Modeling Reality 219 Your high school industrial arts project 219 The importance of a solid footing 219 Staring at Clouds 220 Eliminating Toolroom Chaos 221 Designing with an Eye to Production 223 Designing for manufacturability 223 It’s elemental, Dear Watson 223 Herding the Shop Floor Cats with MES 224 Chapter 14: Embracing Quality 227 Giving a Rip About Quality 228 Showing tolerance 228 Dimensioning geometrically 230 Confusing characteristics 230 Internationalizing Your Standards 232 Shopping for Tape Measures 234 Touring the Inspection Room 237 Gaging success 238 Hello, Mr. Mic(rometer) 240 Filling up the metrology lab shopping cart 241 Letting Machines Do the Measuring 243 Decisions, decisions 244 Jumping at shadows 245 That’s a Wrap 246 Chapter 15: Making Metal Parts Pretty 247 Assessing Abrasives 248 Wheeling About 251 I’m Bond . . . abrasive bond 252 Let’s get small 254 Talking about Tools 256 More power! 256 Tools for the toolroom 258 Working ’em Like Dogs 260 Blasting Away 261 Of glass, shells, and stones 262 Getting all stressed out 263 Finishing Up 264 Part 4: The Part of Tens 267 Chapter 16: Ten Techie Things to Know About Fabricating 269 Joining the Revolution 270 Cruising the Clouds 271 Going Green 271 Getting Lighter 272 Getting Lost on the Paper Trail 273 Cutting the Wires 274 Viewing Machines Virtually 275 Manufacturing Additively 275 Embracing Automation 278 Leaning Out Your Shop 279 Chapter 17: (Almost) Ten Ways to Be a Better Fabricator 281 Changing Things Up 282 Adopting New Technology 283 Marketing Your Business Vertically 284 Shortening Setups, Increasing Uptime 285 Maintaining the Machine (and Tools) 287 Learning That Manufacturing Is Not a Dirty Word 288 Becoming Certifiable 289 Donning Some Cool Safety Shades 291 Keeping Your House in Order 293 Index 295