Puget Dude’s creations and fabrications (Random project thread.)
- Thread starter PugetDude
- Start date
Ohmthis
Well-known member
Finished fabricating another bench for the community this weekend and got it off to powder coat this AM..
This one has a prospector/miner theme to match the street name.
The seating is the last of the Trex we had leftover from our cabin deck projects, we had also purchased a couple of sample boards of different colors, so I cut them up and have been using them here. Ended up with 4 different colors, I really like the way this one turned out. Had to go from 10 boards to 11 to get the symmetry I wanted with the different colors. Shims worked out perfectly for the spacers in between, didn't have to trim any of the Trex to width. . I love it when a plan comes together...
I did manage to incorporate both rebar and diamond plate into this design. Since these are going to get sandblasted and powder coated with a textured rust finish I didn't have to spend much time sanding the silhouettes. Grinding my welds was a different story...
I cut the gold panner silhouette out manually with my plasma cutter, it worked fine. Went to cut out the rock pick miner and my plasma just quit, it wouldn't strike an arc. Trigger works with the air valve but no luck on the arc. I f'd around with it for way too long trying to figure it out, so I gave up and ended up using an angle grinder, bandsaw and jigsaw.
Two down, two more to go...
This one has a prospector/miner theme to match the street name.
The seating is the last of the Trex we had leftover from our cabin deck projects, we had also purchased a couple of sample boards of different colors, so I cut them up and have been using them here. Ended up with 4 different colors, I really like the way this one turned out. Had to go from 10 boards to 11 to get the symmetry I wanted with the different colors. Shims worked out perfectly for the spacers in between, didn't have to trim any of the Trex to width. . I love it when a plan comes together...
I did manage to incorporate both rebar and diamond plate into this design. Since these are going to get sandblasted and powder coated with a textured rust finish I didn't have to spend much time sanding the silhouettes. Grinding my welds was a different story...
I cut the gold panner silhouette out manually with my plasma cutter, it worked fine. Went to cut out the rock pick miner and my plasma just quit, it wouldn't strike an arc. Trigger works with the air valve but no luck on the arc. I f'd around with it for way too long trying to figure it out, so I gave up and ended up using an angle grinder, bandsaw and jigsaw.
Two down, two more to go...
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readhead
Well-known member
Thanks for picking up more diamond plate. Good looking bench.
M.Brane
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Bigblue&Goldie
Well-known member
Isn't that Nevada?
Bob Heine
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Scott, now you have me worried. I thought the Grim Reaper was like Boris Karloff in the 1932 Mummy, slow as hell and dragging one foot. If he's riding a bike I better keep moving. By the way, even as a little kid, I never understood how that mummy ever caught up to anyone.
M.Brane
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Model A Fan
Well-known member
The cactus in the background is flipping us the bird! What a view, I would love to see that on a daily basis.Got the bench back from the powder coater. He used a textured rust finish, keeping with the neighborhood theme on these. I re-installed the Trex seating boards with 1/4" stainless carriage bolts. All the Trex is leftover from our big deck project at the cabin, I cut everything down to 16", bundled in stacks of 10 and hauled them back down the mountain in anticipation of doing a few benches this winter.
Waiting on the engraved plaque that mounts on the stretcher to get it installed. It's at a trophy shop in Tempe, should be done this week.
Needed a bunch of 1-1/2" diameter rebar rings for a welding project.
Dug out my oxy/propane setup and a piece of 1-1/4" S40 pipe.
Cut a 10' stick of 3/8 rebar in half, clamped one end to the pipe, fired up the torch and got to wrapping ...
The coil shrunk on the pipe when it cooled, too tight to slide off, even with a BFH trying to persuade it. It didn't matter in this instance since I was cutting it into rings, but it wouldn't have worked if I needed a true coil.
Slit the wrapped coil lengthwise into rings with my little M12 cutoff tool, them fine-tuned them to fit with the portaband saw table and a ball pein hammer in my big vise. These are going to be decorative, not structural so the fit is fairly forgiving.
Needed (18) of these to fit 1.5" diameter tubing and (4) to fit 1-1/4" black pipe. My wife has sent me down another rabbit hole, aka an ornamental iron welding project.. but at least I get to use rebar...
More to come.
Dug out my oxy/propane setup and a piece of 1-1/4" S40 pipe.
Cut a 10' stick of 3/8 rebar in half, clamped one end to the pipe, fired up the torch and got to wrapping ...
The coil shrunk on the pipe when it cooled, too tight to slide off, even with a BFH trying to persuade it. It didn't matter in this instance since I was cutting it into rings, but it wouldn't have worked if I needed a true coil.
Slit the wrapped coil lengthwise into rings with my little M12 cutoff tool, them fine-tuned them to fit with the portaband saw table and a ball pein hammer in my big vise. These are going to be decorative, not structural so the fit is fairly forgiving.
Needed (18) of these to fit 1.5" diameter tubing and (4) to fit 1-1/4" black pipe. My wife has sent me down another rabbit hole, aka an ornamental iron welding project.. but at least I get to use rebar...
More to come.
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I..I…I get that. But I’m telling ya a #15 rosebud will embarrass the **** out of that stuff in nothing flat PLUS the benefit and catching everything in the surrounding area on fire.
Kill two birds with one stoner kind of thing.
All joking aside I’m impressed. That was a fair amount of work creating that coil at that diameter.
I had to make 3 coils to get all the rings I needed. Couldn't swing more than a ~42" long piece of rebar around the pipe due to ground clearance without shifting the coil in the outdoor vise, which meant I had to set the torch down, loosen the vise, shift the coil around, tighten it back up, then reheat. Learned that on the first one.I..I…I get that. But I’m telling ya a #15 rosebud will embarrass the **** out of that stuff in nothing flat PLUS the benefit and catching everything in the surrounding area on fire.
Kill two birds with one stoner kind of thing.
All joking aside I’m impressed. That was a fair amount of work creating that coil at that diameter.
Bigblue&Goldie
Well-known member
You've got the fanciest roller on GJ and here you are rolling rebar with a torch!
WoodsTruck
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2013
- Messages
- 1,024
Too bad you couldn't have clamped the tubing in the vise in a vertical position and then you could heat and wrap by simply walking around the vise.
So much cool to look at, especially in your last picture. Not to mention your scenery.Rolling steel with the new ring roller...
1/2" square tube arch segments- needed 10 matching pieces so I made a quick cardboard pattern for repeatability.
1/8" x 3" flat bar ring 36" diameter
I love being able to work outside in AZ.
slowtwitch73
Well-known member
That's a nice roller.. I cheated and made some flat dies for my HF roller.. here's a railing I made (no children have died in it as predicted when I first posted it lol)
www.garagejournal.com
Show us your welding projects
Great video, with solid tips. Also, where did you find a girl that looks like that and fabricates? :beer:
www.garagejournal.com
The rolled ring was for a hanging plant stand I built for my neighbor. Had an extra 1-1/2" diameter rebar ring left over from my project, so of course I used it here....
(Also made 10" long stakes out of 3/8" rebar, so I was able to check that box twice on this little project..)
(Also made 10" long stakes out of 3/8" rebar, so I was able to check that box twice on this little project..
)
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SilverJimmy
Well-known member
What’s the biggest rebar you’ve ever “utilized“? I want to get some 1-1/2 or bigger to use as a footrest for the outside bar I’m planning for my new shop!
I built an outdoor staircase handrail out of #12 bar at my old cabin on the Mogollon Rim. It would look great as a bar footrest, IMO.
I do have about a 4' long piece left, I will try to remember to get a picture of it with something next to it for scale.
Now you've got me thinking...
zmotorsports
ALLIANCE MEMBER
The rolled ring was for a hanging plant stand I built for my neighbor. Had an extra 1-1/2" diameter rebar ring left over from my project, so of course I used it here....
(Also made 10" long stakes out of 3/8" rebar, so I was able to check that box twice on this little project..
WOW, I'm jealous of your neighbor's lawn. It is so nice it looks like carpet......
Bob Heine
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Mike, I agree. I'd really like to see the mower that cuts it that perfect.WOW, I'm jealous of your neighbor's lawn. It is so nice it looks like carpet......
This was posted somewhere recently. I damn near tagged Mike ( @zmotorsports ) in but thought it best not to tease him with the ultimate in lawn perfection….i was seriously concerned he’d have a stroke.Mike, I agree. I'd really like to see the mower that cuts it that perfect.
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lawnpecker.com
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Working on another project, needed (4) domed pipe caps for 1-1/4" pipe. (Ornamental, not structural )
Didn't feel like driving across town to Industrial Metals, so I thought I would try making them myself.
Got out a BFN, a couple of BFH's, and a short piece of pipe. Had a 1-5/8" solid steel ball in the ornamental iron stash, so I used it to start the dome. The 18 gauge sheet metal came out of the drop bins.
Didn't take very long to pound out the caps, I discovered that the big 4# rawhide striking the 32 ounce ball pein hammer gave me the most control to finesse the final shape. Got the caps welded onto the table legs before calling it quits for the day; will try to get the table assembled tomorrow.
More to come...
)Didn't feel like driving across town to Industrial Metals, so I thought I would try making them myself.
Got out a BFN, a couple of BFH's, and a short piece of pipe. Had a 1-5/8" solid steel ball in the ornamental iron stash, so I used it to start the dome. The 18 gauge sheet metal came out of the drop bins.
Didn't take very long to pound out the caps, I discovered that the big 4# rawhide striking the 32 ounce ball pein hammer gave me the most control to finesse the final shape. Got the caps welded onto the table legs before calling it quits for the day; will try to get the table assembled tomorrow.
More to come...
Continuing on with the big patio coffee table build.
This one is going to be 27" x 76" with two 7/8" thick stone inserts. Frame is 1-1/2" square tube with 1/8" x 1-1/2" flat bar to support the stone.
Legs are 1-1/4" pipe with domed caps, 3/16" plate feet and rolled stretchers made from 1/2" square tube.
I got all four of them completely done, then realized when I mocked up the table that they were too long. The table would have been 20" high... Bit the bullet, cut an inch off the domed top, then 3" off the leg. Welded the top stub back on, ground the welds then polished the joints with my pipe sander. 
Took about an hour and I was .back on track.
I cut the corners of the frame with a 1-3/4" hole saw to allow me to inset the legs.
Surprised how well the hole saw tracked that close to the corner.
Got the table welded up, but too dark for pictures. Will take a few tomorrow before I haul it off to powder coat.
This table is part of a much larger fabrication project I have been working on for the last week or so...
More on that later.
This one is going to be 27" x 76" with two 7/8" thick stone inserts. Frame is 1-1/2" square tube with 1/8" x 1-1/2" flat bar to support the stone.
Legs are 1-1/4" pipe with domed caps, 3/16" plate feet and rolled stretchers made from 1/2" square tube.
I got all four of them completely done, then realized when I mocked up the table that they were too long. The table would have been 20" high... Bit the bullet, cut an inch off the domed top, then 3" off the leg. Welded the top stub back on, ground the welds then polished the joints with my pipe sander. Took about an hour and I was .back on track. I cut the corners of the frame with a 1-3/4" hole saw to allow me to inset the legs.
Surprised how well the hole saw tracked that close to the corner.
Got the table welded up, but too dark for pictures. Will take a few tomorrow before I haul it off to powder coat.
This table is part of a much larger fabrication project I have been working on for the last week or so...
More on that later.
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Background story. After our big neighborhood party (54 guests) on Jan 20, my bride decided we needed additional seating on our covered patio.
We did some shopping and found a design she really liked- but not the price. $4800 for (2) 3-seat outdoor sofas. Photo from the internet.
After looking at them I opined that I could make them... So.... after some sketching, discussing and pricing, we had a plan. Similar to the ones we looked at, but I did take some design liberties (Is anyone thinking rebar?) so I have been fabricating the sofas and a big coffee table, a local upholstery shop is making a set of 6" thick bottom cushions- stock size back cushions were purchased online. Since these were custom, we opted to do 4 seat sofas instead of the 3 seat version we looked at at the patio furniture store. So, these are pretty big at 94" long.
Turned out to be a much bigger project than I envisioned, all the angles were a challenge. I traced a cardboard pattern off an existing comfortable patio chair, then started transferring the pattern into steel.
1-1/2" round and square tubing for the frame, the seat supports are 1/8" flat bar, backs are 3/4" heavy wall round tubing and 1-1/4" flat bar. Used the rebar rings I showed earlier on the top of the back posts and on the legs to attach the rolled 1/2" square tube stretchers.
The 3/16" x 2" arms were a fun project, bumped the first one into shape with a little bending jig in the vise, a BFH and a piece of heavy wall pipe After I was satisfied with the shape I welded an 1-1/2" diameter piece of tubing to close the scroll , then made a full size bending jig for repeatability. I was able to cold- bend the arms, but there was too much springback, so I ended up clamping the arms in the jig and running a torch around it. When it cooled it retained the shape I wanted. I only needed four of these, so I didn't get too carried away making a fancy jig with moving parts, a bending form was all I really needed.
These are ready to go to powder coat tomorrow.
I'll post pictures when I get them back and cushions installed.
We did some shopping and found a design she really liked- but not the price. $4800 for (2) 3-seat outdoor sofas. Photo from the internet.
After looking at them I opined that I could make them... So.... after some sketching, discussing and pricing, we had a plan. Similar to the ones we looked at, but I did take some design liberties (Is anyone thinking rebar?
) so I have been fabricating the sofas and a big coffee table, a local upholstery shop is making a set of 6" thick bottom cushions- stock size back cushions were purchased online. Since these were custom, we opted to do 4 seat sofas instead of the 3 seat version we looked at at the patio furniture store. So, these are pretty big at 94" long. Turned out to be a much bigger project than I envisioned, all the angles were a challenge. I traced a cardboard pattern off an existing comfortable patio chair, then started transferring the pattern into steel.
1-1/2" round and square tubing for the frame, the seat supports are 1/8" flat bar, backs are 3/4" heavy wall round tubing and 1-1/4" flat bar. Used the rebar rings I showed earlier on the top of the back posts and on the legs to attach the rolled 1/2" square tube stretchers.
The 3/16" x 2" arms were a fun project, bumped the first one into shape with a little bending jig in the vise, a BFH and a piece of heavy wall pipe After I was satisfied with the shape I welded an 1-1/2" diameter piece of tubing to close the scroll , then made a full size bending jig for repeatability. I was able to cold- bend the arms, but there was too much springback, so I ended up clamping the arms in the jig and running a torch around it. When it cooled it retained the shape I wanted. I only needed four of these, so I didn't get too carried away making a fancy jig with moving parts, a bending form was all I really needed.
These are ready to go to powder coat tomorrow.
I'll post pictures when I get them back and cushions installed.
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stinkity stoink
Well-known member
That is some impressive work!! I’m glad my bride doesn’t go on this site to see how inferior my skills are. 
WoodsTruck
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2013
- Messages
- 1,024
Nice job.
Is your wife familiar with the Red Green show?
I see your left hand "welding" glove looks like mine do. The nylon thread used to stitch them together melts at the seams exposing the finger. I picked up some light welding gloves at the local welding supply (usually a 3X so I need to try them on) and they are holding up good.
Is your wife familiar with the Red Green show?
I see your left hand "welding" glove looks like mine do. The nylon thread used to stitch them together melts at the seams exposing the finger. I picked up some light welding gloves at the local welding supply (usually a 3X so I need to try them on) and they are holding up good.
