Resources

Tools in the Shop
Metal We Stock and Sell Here
Stores to Buy Metal
Places to Buy Welding Equipment
Places to Buy Old Wood
Design Inspiration
Patinas
Shopping Guide/Tool Recommendations
Jobs (opens in a new window)

Tools

MIG Welders: Lincoln Electric Mig Welders (mostly the 140C running on 110VAC), good for welding up to 1/8″ steel consistently. With multipass, can do up to 1/4″. We have the spool gun for the lincolns and can weld aluminum or bronze. Bronze not so good. Surprisingly good with the aluminum though. Also have a Miller 211 which can do 3/16″ single pass (220VAC).

TIG Welders: Miller tig welders, inverter and air cooled, up to 3/16″ steel, 1/8″ aluminum, maybe more. Max out at 200A.

Oxyacetylene: Bunch of victor oxyacetylene rigs, and can weld up to 1/4″ plate. Can also cut up to 1″ thick plate.

Spot Welder: Welds up to 2 sheets of 16 ga steel together total. Works better for thinner sheet. Works on Stainless but not aluminum.

Ellis 1600 Bandsaw: can cut steel (no stainless) up to about 6″ x 6″ at 90* or 45*. Cuts up to about 50*, but nothing beyond. Also only does single miters (no compound miters).

Harbor Freight Tubing Roller: dies for 1/2″ square (also works for 3/8″ round), 1″ round, 1.5″ round, and 2″ round tubing. Can make down to about a 14″ circle.

Harbor Freight Compact Bender: Good for making brackets and small bits of wrought iron looking stuff.

Pexto Jump Shear: cuts up to 36″ of 16ga steel. Good luck with that though. Better off cutting 24″ or smaller at 16ga or 36″ of 18ga. Will not cut even a small piece of 14ga steel. Aluminum up to 13ga. Stainless 18ga.

24″ Sheet Metal Box and Pan Brake: will bend a sheet of sheet metal up to about 130*, 24″ wide and can make a pan about 3″ deep. 16ga up to about 16″ wide, 18ga the full 24″.

24″ Sheet Metal Roller: will roll a piece of sheet metal into a circle. Maxes out at 24″ wide and about 16 ga thick steel. Aluminum, probably 14 ga thickness. Will roll down to about a 3″ diameter circle.

JD Squared Tubing Bender: we have dies for 3/4″ round, 1″ round, 1.5″ round, and 1″ square, all capable of 180° bends, with centerline radius noted.

3/4″ round die bends to 180* at a 2.25″ radius: 180 degree bend. Minimum Wall Thickness – .058”. Maximum Wall Thickness – Solid.
1″ round does 180* at 3″ radius: 180 degree bend. Minimum Wall Thickness – .058”. Maximum Wall Thickness – Solid.
(3) different 1.5″ dies: 4.5″ radius, 5.5″ radius, and 7.5″ radius. 180* at 5.5″: Minimum Wall Thickness – .095”. Maximum Wall Thickness – .120”.
1″ square bends to 180* at 5.5″ radius. Minimum Wall Thickness – .065” Maximum Wall Thickness – .120”

Miller Spectrum 375 Plasma Cutter. Minimum thickness 23 ga, Maximum thickness about 3/8″. We need a bigger air compressor.

Drill Press: drill bits available in sizes 1/8″-1/2″, generally″. Anything beyond that is up to you.

Metal We Stock and Sell Here

WE NOW STOCK METAL! MMW is now stocking metal for sale for use in open shop, classes, and general use, sold in 5 foot increments at a small markup. We’ll get at least 60′ of each of the following every Weds. But feel free to call the shop and check stock (323-333-9952). Monthly members can pre-order steel from our online store here and have it delivered on Wednesday (by 2pm). All orders must be in, finalized, and paid by 12 noon on Tuesday.

Square tube: 1/2″, 3/4″, 1″, & 1 1/2″
Round tube: 3/8″ (30′), 1/2″ (30′), 3/4″, 1″
Round rod: 1/8″, 3/16″, 1/4″, 5/16″, 3/8″, 1/2″
Solid bar: 1/8″ x 1/2″, 1/8″ x 3/4″, 1/8″ x 1″, 1/8″ x 2″
Angle: 1″ x 1″ x 1/8″
Sheet: 16ga 1′ x 1′, 2′ x 4′ and sometimes 4′ x 4′; 1/8″(11ga) random pieces around 2′ x 4′, and 26ga 1′ x 4′ pieces
Scrap/Random: Assorted random other lengths of leftovers and usually have a good selection of <3′ cutoffs and random sheet metal scraps, either for practice or projects.

If you’d like to order custom cuts or material that isn’t stock (there’s a lot of other dimensions we don’t carry), go over to IMS’s online store and get a quote for your piece(s). Email the quote to shop@moltenmetalworks and we’ll call you for payment (if you don’t have a card on file). Keep in mind that the online quote system can take up to 36 hrs to get back to you and orders need to be finalized and paid Tuesday at noon to make it on the truck for our weekly Weds delivery. Price for the quote is the price we will charge.

Industrial Metal Supplies (Sun Valley)– Full service supplier with fantastic showroom and good selection of cutoffs and scrap. Free next-day delivery for orders over $100. And open Saturday 8am-2pm.

Industrial Metal Supply Co, 8300 San Fernando Rd, Sun Valley, CA 818-729-3333

Bobco Metals (Downtown LA)– Somewhat the opposite of IMS. Disorganized, dirty, and downtown. Slightly cheaper, but rustier metal, and customer service is questionable. Oddly appealing though with dive bar-esque character. Wouldn’t guess it from their fancy website.

Bobco Metals, 2000 South Alameda Street Los Angeles, CA 90058 (877) 952-6226

Kit Kraft (Studio City)– Best selection of little hobbyist & model making metal brass and aluminum. Expensive.

Kit Kraft, 12109 Ventura Place, Studio City, CA 91604 (818) 509-9739

Online Metals (Seattle, WA)– Good selection of smaller stuff. Bigger stuff too, though they’ll have to UPS it to you in 8′ lengths. Really good info on various alloys, with weights, densities, chemical composition of alloys, etc.

McMaster Carr (Santa Fe Springs, CA)– The Granddaddy of all industrial suppliers with everything and anything industrial you might need , all shipped to anywhere in LA by the next day. More expensive than IMS, but they’ve got waaaaay more stuff. Great website with a ton of info.

Places to buy welding equipment

Airgas (DTLA, Glendale, Burbank, Culver City, El Monte, Paramount, Pacoima, & more)–My go-to spot for buying welding equipment, helmets, gasses, etc. We go through the Glendale branch, (up near Golden Road brewery) and they’ve been good to us. Stock Radnor brand which is pretty good for the price. They also carry a full line of Lincoln and Miller tools and gear. Pick a store and keep going to the same one, since the pricing can vary.

Cyberweld (online)–You can buy welding equipment here, but if there’s a warrantee issue, or you need spare parts, you might be out of luck. But it tends to be quite a bit cheaper. I would not buy a helmet online though. You just never know how it’s going to fit or the weight of it until you actually try it on.

Praxair (9 in LA area)–The other big welding gasses supplier. Ford vs. Chevy–I just have a preference for Airgas.

Places to buy old wood

The Reclaimer: Sylmar CA

Elmwood Reclaimed Lumber: Smithville, MO

The Vintage Wood Floor Company: Costa Mesa, CA

Timeline Prefinished Wood: Downtown LA, CA

Design Inspiration

Flickr Page of Metal Furniture Designs for Inspiration

March Furniture San Francisco Really nice kitchen worktables. Prices are not for the faint of heart.

Mortoise and Tenon in LA on La Brea. Nice stuff from looking online.

YLiving Terrible name for a store selling anything but antidepressants, but a huge selections of tables, including a bunch of weird stuff I’d never ever want, but interesting to see you could build a table like that.

Apartment Therapy Saving the world, one room at a time. Or so they say (because you know, war).

Convoy Can get a little too Wes Anderson sometimes, but I like 98.4% of the things this guy/girl/thing posts. Especially the cars, watches, furniture, motorcycles. All of it.

Archiexpo online catalogue of all sorts of designers doing work with wood and metal. lot to sort through.

Rotsen Furniture Live edge like goddamn.

Shinya Kimura / Chabott Engineering Not Furniture, but the best looking motorcycles anywhere:

Patinas and Finishing

Sculpt Nouveau: A full line of patina products designed specifically for art purposes. Premeasured, work well, and fairly reasonably priced. Available at IMS or online.