Wiley Tiki Talk
Welcome one and all to Tiki Talk!
First of all, what’s with the name right? Well, Tiki Talk comes from our fun project where we used scrap metal to build our unique Tiki Bar. At our scrap metal Tiki Bar we’ve shared a few cold ones and exchanged some pretty good (and also some pretty bad) ideas. We figured it would be a great name for our virtual gathering place.
Tiki Talk is our blog, but more importantly we want it to be a place where we can address your questions, share your comments and let you know what is going on with our company. We want everyone to take part…customers, potential customers, experts and novices alike. We hope it will be a fun and friendly exchange.
Look, if we could hang and have a couple of beers and play a round of golf with everyone, we would do that. Believe me we would do that. For now, Tiki Talk is the place. Pull up a stool and join in.
765-671-7865
Adhesive Bonding or Welding? The Answer May Surprise You
In fabrication the main way we create permanent joins is by welding. Welding has it's drawbacks though, some of which we've discussed here. Thin materials, dissimilar materials, aluminum, even stainless can present challenges. And then there's all the prep and...
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Metal Fabrication: The Original Additive Manufacturing Technique
If it feels like you can't escape 3D printing at the moment, well you're probably right. Pick up a magazine, visit a website or turn on the TV and you'll see somebody talking about something they printed. The thing is, while 3D printing is relatively new, additive...
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Heavy Metal Fabrication vs. Light Metal Fabrication
We're partial to a bit of heavy metal here at Wiley, but we don't mean the music. Walk through our shop and you might see the occasional Metallica or Iron Maiden tee-shirt, but when we say heavy metal we mean it in the fabrication sense. We've nothing against light...
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How Strong is Extruded Aluminum?
As you may recall from some earlier Tiki Talk posts, we’re big fans of extruded aluminum. It’s strong for its weight, machines easily and can be extruded into an almost limitless variety of cross-sections. That makes it ideal for applications ranging from window...
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Headed for a Slowdown or Poised for Growth? What Industry Analysts are Predicting for US Manufacturing
Read any two different trade magazines or newspapers or talk to any two people involved in industry and you will find that some believe we are headed for a US manufacturing slowdown, others will tell you we are poised for growth. For industry analysts, there is more...
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Is There a Place in Metal Fabrication for Generative Design?
Remember Groundhog Day? Not the day in February but the movie starring Bill Murray. In it Murray plays a character forced to live the same day over and over. This gives him the opportunity to try different things until he hits on the magical combination of actions...
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Metal Fabrication Cutting Tools: Saw vs. Angle Grinder
Is there anyone alive who hasn't used a saw? It's one of the simplest tools to use, (or so it appears at first glance.) Just place the teeth against what you want to cut and push it forward. Then draw it back and push it forward. Over and over. At this point perhaps...
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6 FAQ’s about Cold Weather Welding
Despite our superhuman feats of fabrication, we're all mortals here at Wiley, and we've been shivering through what feels like a long winter. That got us wondering though, we know Superman’s Fortress of Solitude is somewhere in the Arctic: how does he handle the cold?...
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Welding in High School Gives Students a Look at Fabrication Careers
Wiley Metal Manufacturing has called Marion, Indiana, home of our metal fabrication business for over 35-years. Marion is a community of about 30,000 - and many Hoosiers have held fabrication careers at our local business. Located in the North Central part of the...
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How Additive Manufacturing is Being Used in Sheet Metal Fabrication
General Motors got a lot of attention recently when they unveiled a 3D-printed seat bracket. With its weirdly organic shapes it looked like something that might have been grown rather than made, but it was in fact produced from stainless steel. GM noted that this one...
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Effective Cobot Implementation Using 4 Principles of Lean Robotics
Walk through our shop, (or take the Wiley Metal drone fly-by,) and you'll see we're a high variety, low volume operation. Yes, we take on longer runs but we're not the kind of high-volume business that uses a lot of automation. It just doesn't yield sufficient "Return...
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How a Good Attitude Can Advance Your Welding Career
There is an attribute that you don't have to pay to learn to build a successful welding career. It reaches beyond skill and even talent. In most cases, it is more valuable than knowledge and even experience. If you want to build a successful welding career it starts...
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