Anything welding

No I mean, I've heard of that a lot as in...it's been common around people I've worked with

When I was TIG welding at my last job, most of the guys did away with the pinky/bottom of the palm wrap in lieu of gloves underneath so it's what I did

Only to hear it from a few other people elsewhere

In other words, it works!

 

Yeah it definitely works. I just work alone in my garage so I had no one to show me lol I just gave it a shot and it worked. Cool to hear others are doing it too.

 

https://weldmongerstore.com/pages/weldmonger-tig-finger

The tig finger worked for me.

 

I have one of those. Works great for it's intended purpose, but if you're running high enough amperage for long enough on a non water cooled torch, the torch itself will cook your hand. Tig finger does well for your hand resting on a hot workpiece, or the radiant heat off of the arc.

 

Yeah I have one of those.

Nailed it! This is exactly why I was looking for a different option.

 

Ta-da

Yeah larger hole was better. I opened it up from 10mm to 16mm. There is probably enough space for 20 or so without remaking the bracket.



I have some small straps that fit just fine.

 

That looks good.

There's enough room left on the base you could weld some of these folding rings to the other side for additional tie downs.

$10 FZJDSD 20 Pcs D-Ring Tie Downs 1/4" D-Rings Anchor Lashing Ring Compatible with Tie Down Ring with Mounting Bracket Loads on Trailers Trucks RV Campers Vans ATV SUV Boats Motorcycles

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09G68DFM9

 

thursday was a perfect 70 degree high. naturally, started making plans for working outside. today finally rolls around, and it's 87 with 100% humidity. real-feel is 102 degrees, in the open air, likely 110-115 in the garage, even with the fans going. not fun.

i assembled my second axle, then called it quits. not worth it.

 

Humidity

It's dry out here

Friends came by to stay at our house for the weekend, and one thing I was going to do is make a duplicate CAT skid for a 2nd Gen Taco



Aside from the corners having a different size radius, everything else matches



Opted to just drill the holes for the wings rather than plasma cut them since we deviated slightly from the original design

 

i made a mess.



got my two mistakes of main frame rails cleaned up, primed, and set to the side. yes, they're that crooked.


the primer is really just so i don't need to sand blast them later. i can weld through it, touch up as needed, and it's still rust-proof enough to handle the weekends until i can raptor-line the completed assembly.

and my front a-frame setup is bent as it needs to be, and 90% prepped as well. i wanted to install a cross beam to tie the two wider arms together, but decided to leave that until after i got the main trailer section done.

 

Bwahahaha!

I thought I was the only one with an elliptical in my shop!

 

i was actually saving that from a scrap run, as the arms all have really nice bearings, and had thought about using it for a panhard bar. unfortunately, i only got one arm out of the deal, so not enough parts.

the original plan had been to make my own panhard bar(was roughly following this build for it's simplicity), but i'm now starting to think of going with a flat triangulated 4-link setup, where the airbags are on the outer links, and the inner links would form a 'V' to the center of the axle.

 

The rust

 

Dirty, contaminated aluminum can be tricky

Had to bevel it pretty well to get some metal in there

 

Made some progress on the tundra bumper.

 

Been a little slow in the shop, on account that I've been doing most of my paid work via PC lately

Decided to run a test with my easyscriber mainly cause I forgot how to use it

I had done this months back as some of you may remember, a little 3.5" x 2" card



With extra scrap on the table, I thought I'd see what it looks like at a smaller scale, 2.4" x 1.5"



Thinking I'll make an actual business card for myself seeing as how it can really create some fine details

 

and progress was made.



main goal today was just to get square tubing for the suspension arms. got the front panel 50% welded in, both axle locations marked, linkage lengths set up, and decking supports all cut out. i'm hoping i can use the supports to push/pull the frame rails straight without too much cutting and bending...

 

far too much work for a saturday.

ran out of welding gas 6 passes short of where i needed it to be. ended up finishing the tailboard with flux core, not at all fun.

 

Frame is looking good, but definitely buy more bottles!

 

For each 150cf bottle of gas I have, I also keep an 80 that I just toss in the back corner of my garage and forget about. If I ever run out of gas after business hours on a Friday or over the weekend, the 80 is enough to get me through the weekend.
Cost and storage space are very minimal for two 80cf bottle. One of argon and C25.