Metal Fabrication

Ursa provides metal fabrication services including design, hydraulic tube bending, CNC plasma cutting, machining, welding, painting, and powder coating from our shop in Somerville, MA. Our team has been practicing fabrication in various media for decades, focusing on stone, steel, wood, plastics, and sheet metal. Our project management background helps us to better manage our fabrication processes to ensure that projects are delivered on time and to specification.

Custom metal fabrication and automotive restoration projects can be performed by Ursa on a fixed price or time and materials basis. Need help learning metal fabrication or a consultation on a project car that's out of hand? Brendan can bring his extensive foreign and domestic auto mechanic experience to your place and teach you the skills you need to finish your projects.

Here are some of our favorite fabrication projects from the last few years!

Flat File Workstations

These Flat File Workstations are a conversion of a standard flat file into a rolling, adjustable-height work table. Ursa designed and fabricated the birch plywood and Formica table tops and the steel bases to match the client’s existing flat files. The bases were designed with nickel-plated leveling feet, so that they could be configured as one continuous work surface for this digital photography print lab. When lowered onto the casters, the fully-loaded flat file workstation can be rolled around the room, to allow the end user to reconfigure the workspace.

Print Lab flat file risers

The completed project, with each flat file working together to create one continuous work surface.

One feature of the design is creating a toe space beneath the flat files. Without this toe space, students will have to stand farther back from the surface, making it difficult to work.

When the flat file is to be moved, the feet are raised up until the casters are bearing the weight of the table. It can then be rolled around with ease, even when loaded.

The adjustable height leveling feet allow for these two flat files to be leveled at the same height to combine the two flat files to create one continuous work surface.

Printer Prisons

This project for an institutional client is a prototype printer security device. This client spends $600 per year per printer repairing these printers because of member misuse of the printers, mostly from feeding the wrong paper into the printers. These “Printer Prisons” allow for the printers to be in used in a public area, while denying unauthorized access to the paper trays.

Printer Prisons

Initial Printer Prison concept. (Really glad to no longer be designing our 3D projects in Autocad! Fusion 360 is so much better for this work and is certainly worth the time investment to learn the software for designing 3D projects.)

One sheet of steel cut into the parts for the Printer Prison.

Prototype 1! The lockable Printer Prison has a lift-up front panel that allows the authorized staff to load paper drawers. Would rather have fancied-up the rectangular lift handle opening, but otherwise pleased with the result. Also, glad we put all the speed holes to lighten the lift assembly. (It’s at an art school, perhaps they’re art holes?)

The padlock was a key feature. The Academic Computing department uses these keyed-alike padlocks to allow only their staff access to the various electronic equipment and shop equipment throughout the facility. The large brass locks are perhaps overkill for the application, but sends a clear message to student users that access is restricted.

Prototype 2! This printer is much smaller, so the smaller lift-up panel wasn’t lightened. Even with this lighter assembly, the flip up door is too heavy. The next prototypes will have gas struts to help lift the doors for ease of use.

Chainsaw Chopsaw Table

Maybe our favorite Metal Fab project from 2019! Certainly the strangest! This Chainsaw Chopsaw Table was built for a client that needed to cut a few thousand 12” long log chunks for use in building a cordwood masonry home. This chopsaw will allow her to quickly cut these log chunks with consistently square ends.

Chainsaw Chopsaw

The chopsaw table, mounted to a pallet for shipping to the project site on the west coast.

This is an example of a cordwood masonry wall.

The chopsaw table has a counterweight on a pulley system that helps the saw to return to the ready position after each cut.

The chainsaw table rotates on two axes, so that the saw can be fueled without unbolting it from the table.

One of the tricky details to this project was allowing for fueling of the chainsaw. It requires turning the saw on its side, so the table has to rotate on two axes.

This view shows both of the pivot axes. Weld hinges were used for the side flip, and pillow block bearings for the primary sawing axis.

Porsche 944S2 maintenance

This client is a hero to me for being unwilling to drive anything more sedate than a Porsche track day car with full roll cage. Ursa once restored a 924 way back, so we share an enjoyment of the Porsche front engine/ rear transaxle cars. We maintain this car for him in his driveway, to keep costs down. It’s expensive to live to your mid-eighties, so we’re happy to help keep this car generating speeding tickets for the client.

944S2 service

Unbelievable, but you have to remove the front body panel between the lights in order to change the air filter on this car! The screws are all cleverly hidden.

Dealing with failed electrical connections is half of maintaining European classics.

Reconnecting this ground wire for the rear windshield defroster solved every electrical gremlin in the interior of this car. Hours spent with the wiring diagram trying to sort out why. Decided it wasn’t worth it and to accept an accidental success for once!

This car doesn’t run many miles per year, so we’re going to be changing oil and filter based on age. It’s shockingly difficult to find the right oil filter for this car!

tube bumper for off-road rally car

Craptor Bumper Gallery

The completed bumper, fresh off a 500 mile off-road rally! Period-correct KC HiLites and thousands of dead bugs complete the look.

This is the tube bumper mockup, with the light bar guard hoop positioned on top. This light bar guard will be held in place with a CNC plasma cut bent sheetmetal bracket.

This is the first mockup of the light brackets and the bent sheetmetal light guard bracket.

The 1.75” steel drawn-over-mandrel bumper tubing is precision bent with Ursa’s hydraulic tubing bender.

Loft Ladder

This is a recently completed project for a client in Maine. Their original ladder design was very low profile, but it was not accessible enough, so this ladder was designed to minimize the visual volume to keep the feel of the chimney in the room, while still providing a very stable stairway with a small footprint. To play along with the existing loft railing and hardware, the ladder was built in cedar and platinum powder coated steel and assembled with stainless hardware.

Loft Ladder Gallery

Loft ladder

This steel and western red cedar loft ladder provides access to the loft in the client’s daughter’s bedroom. It was designed for ease of access and safety, while revealing the brick chimney to be an accent for the room.

Steel and Cedar

The steel brackets are TIG welded and counterbored to allow for flush installation of specialty square drive Simpson stainless steel screws with thread pitch designed for very soft wood.

Loft ladder detail

TIG welded top bracket, in ‘platinum’ powder coating.

Jeep Wrangler Winch Bumper

This bumper was fabricated from 3/16” steel sheet metal that was cut on a CNC Plasma table. The sheet metal parts were designed in CAD, bent into the complex shapes of the bumper, welded and painted. It’s been used hard with zero failures.

Jeep TJ Bumper

Bumper parts cut from 3/16” sheet metal on CNC plasma cutter table.

Bent sheet metal parts assembled and tack welded together

Completed Bumper, painted with a textured non-slip black paint.

Letterpress Classroom Work Table

We designed this Letterpress Classroom Work Table around the client’s initial design intent. We added the steel legs with leveling feet to support the cantilevered work surface. This rough and ready furniture is designed to carry heavy steel, cast iron, and lead letterpress equipment, and to provide an easily-cleaned surface for setting up letterpress type for printing. Having a dedicated, rugged work table that allows students to gather around for demonstrations of this art technique has transformed the teaching and learning in this space. Deep overhangs on the tabletop make accessing the cabinets a bit difficult, but allows students to sit at stools on all sides, and wheelchair access on two sides. Double layer 3/4” plywood shelves support hundreds of pounds of metal letterpress equipment.

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Letterpress Classroom Furniture

Jeep Wrangler frame repair

All New England vehicles face severe rust. The frame on this 2001 Jeep Wrangler was badly rusted out and it was repaired using laser-cut patch panels.

Jeep Wrangler Gallery

The control arm hanger and frame arch were paper-thin and needed replacing. The jig in this photo is welded to the control arm bolt, and two makeshift center punches are welded to the arms. After marking the frame with the ‘center punches,’ Brendan was able to perfectly locate the control arm hanger on the new frame repair panel precisely in the factory location.