[aaltman]

I'm considering building a welded steel frame gantry router and am trying to line up all the help I would need on it in advance of ordering parts and starting some of the assembly. Post-weld heat treatment aka stress relief is something I haven't been able to get quotes on yet.

In the Portland, Oregon area, I've found two businesses so far that advertise it: Stack Metallurgical, which was recommended to me in a call to Machinists, Inc., and Columbia Steel Casting, Co. Columbia and Machinists Inc I both found on a ThomasNet search: https://www.thomasnet.com/oregon/hea...7380805-1.html. So far Stack hasn't gotten back to me. I just put in a message with Columbia explaining what I'm looking for but I'm not all that optimistic since like Stack they seem to be targeted at huge business-to-business operations.

So that's been my search so far. How have you been able to source help for this step? Wondering if I'll run into the same type of problem when getting ways milled flat after heat treatment as well.

[mactec54]

I'm considering building a welded steel frame gantry router and am trying to line up all the help I would need on it in advance of ordering parts and starting some of the assembly. Post-weld heat treatment aka stress relief is something I haven't been able to get quotes on yet.

In the Portland, Oregon area, I've found two businesses so far that advertise it: Stack Metallurgical, which was recommended to me in a call to Machinists, Inc., and Columbia Steel Casting, Co. Columbia and Machinists Inc I both found on a ThomasNet search: https://www.thomasnet.com/oregon/hea...7380805-1.html. So far Stack hasn't gotten back to me. I just put in a message with Columbia explaining what I'm looking for but I'm not all that optimistic since like Stack they seem to be targeted at huge business-to-business operations.

So that's been my search so far. How have you been able to source help for this step? Wondering if I'll run into the same type of problem when getting ways milled flat after heat treatment as well.

Depending on how aggressive your welds are there is more than one way to stress relieve, there is a vibration method, Here is some information on it Stress Relief by Vibration (VSR) :: Vibratory Stress Relief

Another method is shot blasting

Some of the large steel suppliers that process the Steel plates like Grinding Etc have large ovens to stress relieve there plates before Grinding and your welded frame if you can find someone in your area

This company is in CA https://solaratm.com/contact/

[wizard]

When dealing with business you need to present yourself in such a way that they will not feel like they are wasting time. To that end make sure you are prepared to pay the going rate.

Some of the stress relieving operations are huge, that doesn’t mean they will not take small work. That work may need to be scheduled with other work though. I know that there is an operation in the buffalo area with what amounts to a drive in oven that has taken on small work. Note an 8x10 router would be small work for such an operation.

You may also want to look for businesses specializing in heat treating (gardening and tempering). Such a business might have a stress relief oven but the scale is likely in the opposite direction. That is their equipment might be too small.

Finally stress relief or normalizing (different processes) might be something you can do without. It depends upon where the welds are, how many and the materials used. It