Anything welding

Any motivation helps!

Hell I think I've only had 2 friends visit while I was actually "working" in my garage...then that stopped cause beer and conversation

His truck is so badass, I can't wait to see a video of it up and running finally.

 

Yeah I can't have people visit when I have a project to work on. I like even go out of the way to not even lock eyes with my neighbors when I am balls deep into a project because my garage time is too small and too valuable these days.

 

This is true.

I need to have no distraction anymore...plus more beer gets drank than work done.

After that second beer, any chance at getting anything done is out the window .

 

Yet whenever I see one of my neighbors, I'm always offering help...seems so much easier doing things for others than doing things for yourself

 

super nice welds! Those FML’s don’t play. Idk what it is about those things but they floor me. Drank the last one last night and got fucked up off the single. Those things are take my phone away dangerous!

At the rate I’m going the past few weeks we are gonna be talking about it on the custom rocking chair fab forum.

I’m still on the beginning of year trip though. Hope I can get it done soon.

 

I have to do some ghetto shit cause I don’t have tables but it works. Setting angles before notching.

 

A flat surface is a flat surface no matter where it's located.

Nice job!

 

Super bored, and because I have no rectangular tubing for my bumper, I figured I'd work on something else.

Bought the Harbor Freight vise recently, since I've always found them to be useful in any shop.

But then I also just bought an Eastwood rod bender, mainly to have fun bending rod to make dumb shit since it's stupid cheap.





20 feet of this stuff, 1/4" thick runs only $4.55



Anyway, quick project to make a dedicated stand for the vise.

First, pre-drilling the mounting holes using an extra 3/16" steel plate that'll be used for the top plate.



Using two 2" square tubes, 3/16" thick for the stand itself.

Happy with how square my free bandsaw cuts.



Marked and ready to go.



@koditten square coming in super handy tacking this thing square to the base.



More tacking.



Top plate welded up, only to add 1" welds with 6" centers across both sides of the tube.



Balances on its own, guess it's nicely squared and center



I thought about using some 1/4" plate as the bottom base, and adding square tube to the bottom cut at 45 degrees at the ends but that's too much work.

I'll wait to see about getting a free spare, steel wheel to use as the base of my stand.

 

Muffler to tailpipe coupler rusted out. 3" of tail pipe was rusted beyond salvage.

Welded in 4" of muffler pipe and clamped back in.

Good as new.

Should be good for another 200k.

 

Love seeing stuff fixed up here

Good shit

 

We had some guests for a bit, so rather than going inside I stayed in the garage a bit longer.

Cut off and grinded the corners down.



Also cut some scrap square tubing to add as small supports to the top plate

 

If you had a plasma table, the corners would already be rounded.

 

I did cut the corners off with my plasma cutter

My OCD kicked in however, and I needed to round each corner to match all the way around.

33 amps seems to be the sweet spot for 3/16" steel.

 

@Kwikvette

I see you using that new benchtop drill press; how are you liking it?

 

Loving it!

I love that I can adjust the speed by the use of a lever versus moving the belt on a pulley like most other drill presses. Display in the front tells you what speed you're running -







Also surprised at how quiet and smooth this thing runs; got it bolted down to my work bench but nothing on top rattles or even vibrates -





I can't say much about the original chuck the press came with since I only drilled a handful of holes with it, but I really like the keyless chuck I swapped in -







Just make sure you use a quality bit! I use this Milwaukee set -

 

Love the review. My use would probably be primarily wood working with less metal work but I like the feedback for sure.

 

They are so damn good though. Definitely a walk around and clean up beer that's for sure.

After struggling with a recent tire change I started digging into how to become faster. So I found this video and gave myself an excuse to fabricate something again for the first time in almost a year. I forgot how much I love the smell of grinding and welding metal.

https://youtu.be/xT8pROuwXHE

Started with a bunch of scrap metal:

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

Circles always suck without a plasma.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr
Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr
Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

And viola, my take on the tire changing stand.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

Just waiting on my sheet of 1" thick HDPE to come in. I decided to make it usable via hitch receiver so I can bring it to events and swap a tube relatively easily if I needed to.

 

Man, it's ridiculous how hard it is to find a spare where someone doesn't want less than $100

Went to a small mom and pop shop and asked if they had a spare, offering them payment, only to get a dirty one free -



Quick rinse, and wipe down with some acetone to get it all cleaned up and ready.

Got a nice 3/8" thick scrap I'll use as a backplate on the inside -



All welded up -



Just need to buy some bolts to mount the vise but that's pretty much it -



Once it's bolted down, I'll be bending some rod as hooks to keep my rod bender and other misc. items attached to the side of the leg.

 

Do yourself a favor and mount the vise close to the edge of the plate. That way if you have something long that needs to be clamped vertically while you work, it can hang down without hitting the plate. I’ll also add that a bench mounted vise is way more sturdy than a free standing one if you really need to put some leverage into bending.

That stand is really similar to my bench grinder mount though.

 

Noted on the vertical pieces.

Just means I should plasma cut the excess off the table top, versus moving the vise and re-drilling holes.

I'd opt for bench mounting but that's not an option with the limited space I have.

One bench holds my drill press and battery charger(s), one bench is my welding table, one small table is my catch-all or second welding table, and the last one is for my cold cut saw.







I could make another table from 1/4" steel but I'd hate to think about where I should put it...and how heavy it'd be...