Workshop Mastery with Jimmy DiResta

Chapter 4. Working with Metal

I love working with metal: bending it, peening it, welding it. There’s still a lot I have left to learn, and I’m always trying out new ways of shaping and cutting it. A lot of my videos came about simply because I wanted to try out a new technique.

In this chapter, I describe four metal projects I worked on recently: a steel box sign that employs a novel assembly method, a machete (seen in Figure 4-1) cut out of a saw blade, a table with aluminum legs milled on a lathe, and finally, a skull belt buckle carved out of wood and then cast in metal.

But first, I’ll share a selection of my favorite metalworking tools, ranging from my trusty Delta band saw to a selection of angle grinders, as well as my all-time favorite ...