Online Metals Blog

I know I’ve talked about the amazing time we had at MakerFaire this summer, and all of the outstanding people we met. Today, I got an e-mail from one of them, which I had to share with you:

Hi Amber,

My name is James. We met at the Maker Faire in San Mateo. You asked if I would mind sending you some information on how we use your products. Well, I’ve attached a jpeg to this message. I’m the machinist/rocketry nut on the right. 8^)

That little toy has had several test flights, but the big event is coming up on September 21st. Out at the Black Rock desert in northern Nevada, we’ll be launching this completely amateur built two stage rocket to an altitude of 18 miles above the Earth. It will burn 60 pounds of amateur made propellant in under 12 seconds, and achieve Mach 3.1 (2300+ MPH) at it’s top speed. In addition to the 7 on-board flight computers, it carries a digital video camera, and we’re hoping to get video that will include the darkness of space above the atmosphere, and possibly a view of the Pacific Ocean from Nevada. The bird does carry a GPS based telemetry system, to help locate it after the flight. If the recovery systems work as planned, and the jet-stream stays away, recovery should be well within a few miles of the launch point. (We DO have an authorized class 3 waiver from the FAA to launch this. Getting that waiver wasn’t easy.)

As to your metals in the project, the nosecone tip, the sustainer airframe coupler and recovery attachment bulkhead are all Online Metals 6061 T-6 aluminum. The sustainer motor casing and bulkhead were turned from some 4″ 6061 we bought from you. And there are several parts in the booster airframe supporting the booster motor that were turned from aluminum we purchased from Online Metals, as well as the piston head inside the interstage coupler. That piston forces separation of the stages at booster motor burnout, 3 seconds before the sustainer motor ignites. All of this is controlled by the on-board computers.

I have full confidence in the design and all of the metal parts we used, but we’re not allowed to use all-metal construction. I hope the fiberglass and carbon used in the interstage coupler are up to the task. The booster motor will produce a ton of thrust at start up, and this beast will pull 12 G’s off the launch pad. That’s a lot of pressure on the ISC. Essentially, at launch, that sustainer will weigh over 460 pounds for over five seconds. We’re going to find out if the ISC is up to the task. That’s for sure. 8^)

After the flight, I’ll let you know how it went… Wish us luck!

James,
HOW COOL!!! Thanks for sharing this project! Everyone here at OnlineMetals wishes you the best of luck! Kick some butt, and share a few more pictures when you’ve got em’! We’d love to hear about the flight itself, and everything you learned after your rocket returns from space.

John Page makes some AMAZING guitars.

He’s been an OnlineMetals customer for years, and we know he’s done some beautiful things with our Nickel Silver sheet, so we asked for pictures that we could post on blog.

Boy…did he come through!

For this project, he used nickel silver plate as a full pickguard, hand cut with a Celtic Knot motif, polished to a high gloss.

Here it’s used as a pickup trimguard, with a brushed finish.

This is also a pickup trimguard, but this time overlayed with Abalone shell. The luster of the nickel silver shines through the thin layer of Abalone and the highly polished edge sets off the whole thing.

Here he’s used the nickel silver sheet, again overlayed with Abalone, as a truss rod cover on his peghead.

All of John’s guitars are hand-built and can be seen at www.johnpageguitars.com

Thanks John, these are amazing!!!

Well, I feel terrible. I got so wrapped up in MakerFaire, that I didn’t get a chance to read blogger e-mails. As a result, I wasn’t able to cogradulate John and his lovely new bride until now.

They were married on June 6th…and we wish then nothing but the best!!!

Here’s the message Jim sent me a couple of weeks ago:

Amber / Online Metals Blog:

I am a hobby machinist and - with much pride - have actually put together a small machine / metal working shop in my (very small) NYC apartment. Given my urban location paired with the fact that I don’t own a car, I buy a lot of my metal online. I’m also an avid follower of your blog

I am very excited to be getting married in a few weeks (June 6th is the big day!) and I decided to make my wedding ring on my 7×14 lathe (don’t worry - my fiancee’s was purchased from a proper Jeweler ;)). I did some research and determined that stainless should be best for wear and aesthetic. You guys had the best selection of choices, so I purchased a few different varieties (303, 304, 316…) in early April. After a few nights of experimenting, I have finished my ring! Attached are a few photo’s.

Thanks for carrying such a wide selection and helping out us ’small guys.’ Feel free to browse more of work and adventures at www.nyccnc.com.

Best,

John

John,

Thanks again for your business, and your submission to the blog. I’m sure your wife is very proud of you for taking the time to create a wedding band. Hand made, one of a kind. That’s pretty special!

Congrats, congrats, congrats! From the entire OnlineMetals team. We wish you the best.

Hello. I’m a sculptor. I buy at online metals and I saw your postcard when I was picking up some steel today.

I have been sculpting at Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle off and on for a couple of years.

It’s hard for me to remember exactly which pieces are made out of OnlineMetals metal. A lot is built out of filler rod. The Owlhead Trillium, attached, and the Humanoid piece featured on the front page of the new site are primarily made from your steel.

Kevin.

Check out Kevin’s work here:

New site:

Old site:

Kevin,
This is really cool! All of the OLMers appreciate fine art, and it means so much more when our materials are amongst the ones used to make a piece.

MakerFaire is an excellent opportunity to meet new people. It’s also a great time to meet some of your current customers face to face.

There’s nothing cooler than hearing someone say “Hey, I know you guys! I used your materials to build ____________!”

Of course, we immediately ask for pictures.

This morning, I checked my inbox, and noticed this e-mail:

Hello:
At the San Mateo Maker Faire on Saturday I briefly spoke with someone from OnlineMetals. They requested that I send some pictures of one of my projects, in which I used material from OnlineMetals. Attached are some image files of my project I made for my little digital camera to flip from landscape to portrait format.

-J

Thanks for sending this to us J. Great use of OLM Aluminum.

Every once in a while, we take an order for a bunch of identical pieces of stainless sheet. We can tell by the specific size and shape, that they’re building a fuel cell for their car. We love the concept, and were seriously excited to hear from our friends at Transitional Technologies, LLC who build and sell HHO kits, components, installation kits, and more…using OLM materials. Here’s an e-mail from the CEO:

Dear OnlineMetals,

We make and sell small hydrogen generators for cars. The plate stacks are made using 316 Stainless we buy from you. After they are drilled and prepped, we assemble them into our special containers and everything is sealed up tightly, checked for leaks.

The first picture is the plate stack.

The second shows how the unit looks hooked up and being checked for any leaks before being sent to the customer.

Once filled with electrolyte, and hooked up to the engine’s air intake, the hydrogen generators electrolyze the hydrogen and oxygen out of the water which gets mixed in with the air/fuel of the car’s engine. The hydrogen makes the gas burn more efficiently and oxygen helps combustion process. Most cars get an average of 20-40% increase in mileage and emissions drop because they are burned more thoroughly with the hybrid fuel.

We now build and sell these around the world and sales continue to grow every month.

Online Metals gives the best overall price even with the cut fees, and their service is fantastic- product is always shipped out within a few days of ordering and it allows us to keep up with our JIT manufacturing schedules.

Thanks OnlineMetals!

Transitional Technologies, LLC
www.hhokitsdirect.com

Every once in a while, we take an order for a bunch of identical pieces of aluminum sheet. We can tell by the specific size and shape, that they’re building a fuel cell for their car. We love the concept, and were seriously excited to hear from our friends at Transitional Technologies, LLC who build and sell HHO kits, components, installation kits, and more…using OLM materials. Here’s an e-mail from the CEO:

Dear OnlineMetals,

We make and sell small hydrogen generators for cars. The plate stacks are made using 316 Stainless we buy from you. After they are drilled and prepped, we assemble them into our special containers and everything is sealed up tightly, checked for leaks.

The first picture is the plate stack.

The second shows how the unit looks hooked up and being checked for any leaks before being sent to the customer.

Once filled with electrolyte, and hooked up to the engine’s air intake, the hydrogen generators electrolyze the hydrogen and oxygen out of the water which gets mixed in with the air/fuel of the car’s engine. The hydrogen makes the gas burn more efficiently and oxygen helps combustion process. Most cars get an average of 20-40% increase in mileage and emissions drop because they are burned more thoroughly with the hybrid fuel.

We now build and sell these around the world and sales continue to grow every month.

Online Metals gives the best overall price even with the cut fees, and their service is fantastic- product is always shipped out within a few days of ordering and it allows us to keep up with our JIT manufacturing schedules.

Thanks OnlineMetals!

Transitional Technologies, LLC
www.hhokitsdirect.com

OK, so we’re not physically going there. Yet. But OnlineMetals is so proud to sponsor Team Phoenicia in their quest for the Google Lunar X Prize!

Team Phoenicia is based in Emeryville, CA. They’re a group of extremely talented individuals, chasing their dreams…and using OLM materials to do it. What could be better!

In my talks with Will, one of the team members, I leared that their participation in the upcoming Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge will help them to develop technology that is needed to achieve their ultimate goal: landing packages on the Moon! (Then who knows where they’ll go!)

By building a scalable and semimodular design, Team Phoenicia is tackling the Challenge in a manner that allows the follow-on development of landers with potential commercial application. (OLM Lunar Lander Kits: Available in 2022! Pre-order now!)

OnlineMetals is proud of their X-Prize team, and hopes to one day have a disgustingly HUGE OnlineMetals banner on each planet the lander visits. Aliens need metal too, you know! Ha!

If you want to be a part of this great team, consider a sponsorship of your own. Visit Team Phoenicia’s website today.

Good luck guys!

We’re becoming a pretty popular resource for Robotics Groups and hobbyists worldwide, and OnlineMetals couldn’t be more excited about that fact. No, really. We love the variety of applications our metals and plastics are used for.

Some things are machined into engine parts, used as supports, build into cars, and so on. But how often does that metal become an integral part of a super awesome AI robot.

Take the LEAF family of robots. I was excited about these things before I knew they were made with our materials!

After my visit to their website, I knew I had to get in touch with Alex, to see if he knew about us. He did, and had this to say in his reply:

“I think that Online Metals is a great place to get those specialty materials that are impossible to find locally; like the 2×1 inch rectangular thin wall aluminum tubing used for the sensor support structure on the top of my robot Rocky 2.”

He also invited OnlineMetals customers to visit his site, leafproject.org.

There you’ll find; pictures, videos, a project history, and instructions on how to start building your own leaf bot.
Oh, you’ll find a link to OnlineMetals there too…and we’re honored!

Happy Building!

A girl wrote in to share a project that her dad Scott had been working on that day. He spent an hour or two working in the garage, and when he was done, the rug shampooer attachment that they were going to throw away could be used again!

Here’s the attachment before. (See the busted brush?)

The metal next to it, is a 12″ piece of our 6063 Aluminum Channel. 1×1.5.
It costs $1.95

A few miter cuts, a new hole in one side of the angle, zip ties, and a few attachment screws later…it’s FIXED!

This picture shows the hole Scott cut into one side of the aluminum angle. Cleaning fluid sprays through that hole, and on to the carpet during the shampoo process.

I found a replacement for that attachment online. It retails for $20. $18 savings. Great job Scott.