The Aerodrome Studio - Machine_Punk

[machine_punk]

Old Man

Well, one of the disappointing things which comes with getting older is the loss of vision for close up work. As someone who likes to work with his hands, it is particularly annoying.

I found that having enough light helps a lot. I got the daylight bulbs, and plenty of them, for my studio/workshop...
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I installed a dental light over my bench, so I can put a LOT of light exactly where I need it for detailed work...

I have taken to carrying around a small, LED flashlight in my pocket, to help with reading small script. One of the most annoying things in the studio is trying to see the marks on the sheet metal, as I am trying to use the shear portion of my brake/roll/shear. There is a tan bar at in front of the blade, which holds the sheet metal in place, as you bring the blade down. It also does a tremendous job of blocking your vision, and any light, from the area around the blade. This is probably not a problem for a young guy, but with eyes that have reached 'bifocal age,' it makes it very difficult to cut accurately...
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I've pondered this problem for quite a while. I have plenty of general light in the studio, it just doesn't help with shearing sheet metal, which is the beginning of nearly every project I do. I've seen those LED strip lights on a lot of TV shows lately. They generally use them inside the wheel wells and under the car for special effects. It finally clicked for me that these lights would be IDEAL for my situation. I needed to get a long strip of light into a very confined space.

You know the lights I am talking about--they come strips of 16 feet (5 meters) and you can cut the strip every 3 lights, to get the length you need. There are several versions. For this project, I chose the cool white, single-color LED strip.

After looking at the 3-in-one sheet metal machine I have, I decided the best place to put the light strip was on the back of the hold-down bar (I am sure there is some official name for this, but it is the bar which descends just before the blade, to hold the sheet metal securely as you shear it). A few moments with a ratchet wrench and socket and I had the bar off. I hit it with red Scotchbrite pad and wiped it down with 99% isopropyl alcohol, to make sure the sticky-tape would, well, stick. Then, I held a sharpie to the edge of the piece and drew a straight line. Then, I cut the light strip to length. It already had wires soldered to one end, so I just used that end on this first project. I peeled off the backing on the double-sided tape and stuck it to the hold-down bar. I scuffed up the electrical adapter with a file and stuck the wires and the adapter to the bar with hot glue. I made sure to use hot glue on the sharp corners, to shield the wires from damage. Here are the lights, installed and ready to go...

And here is the bar, reinstalled on the machine and helping an old man see the marks on the sheet metal again...

Kev

 

[RivennHewn]

Simply brilliant!

 

[machine_punk]

Simply brilliant!

Hey...I was over looking at another reply from you, about the "which work light do you use," and what did I see...a bunch of clecos in use.

Whatcha makin'?

Kev

 

[RivennHewn]

Kev,

Check out the last few pages of The Making Of A Table thread.

I'm playing around with a vintage aviation themed table.

It's been a fun, but off my usual path, kind of build.

I will say, I've very much enjoyed this thread, and pilfered a few ideas from you.

Thanks

 

[machine_punk]

Thanks for the kind words. I've enjoyed sharing the things which inspire me.

WOW...you and I have very similar ideas. I really like your 'patch' table. As you read above, I think I am going to start including a 'patch' into every new project...just for the look of it. I like the heavy metal and riveted metal ideas you are using.

If you want to see some other, cool, cast-iron bases, search "Ritter dental" on eBay. They made the old, cast iron columns which dentists used by the chair. I've been thinking hard about using one of those in an upcoming project. (as much as I don't like going to the dentist, they have the coolest tools).

Kev

 

[RivennHewn]

More things to add to my watch list on Ebay.

I do love the vintage cast iron.

I got an appointment next week, going to be check out the tools real close.

 

[machine_punk]

The new stuff is not nearly as interesting as the old...

Check out "dental engine" on eBay (the old drill with the string-and-pulley system to drive the hand piece). Emesco was a popular brand of free-standing dental engine, but Pelton & Crane and others had them built into their dental operatories.

The old Pelton & Crane lights have so much more style than the newer versions. I've thought about getting the old Pelton & Crane chairs, to use the base as an adjustable work table--but it doesn't matter how old they are, they are still a ridiculous price used.

There are also some really amazing, vintage, Pelton & Crane dental air compressors out there. Not enough to run your shop, probably, but they would be a fantastic conversation piece for filling tires and light jobs. Modern dental air compressors are also SUPER quiet, but very pricey.

The vintage, cast-iron Ritter dental operatories were the ultimate in cool...I am thinking about replicating that look in riveted aluminum. That is an idea which is just smoldering for me right now.

Keep in touch.

Kev

 

[mdbeck1]

Simply brilliant!

I thought it was "enlightening".

 

[machine_punk]

Converting a Cabinet to a Tool Box

Much to the chagrin of Mrs. Machine_Punk, the hospital I work for had a furniture sale the other day. This is the second time I've been to a hospital furniture sale and I got some amazing deals at both. I happen to work in healthcare, so I usually have advance notice of the sales at whichever hospital I am working for at the time.


I made a couple of trips to pick up the items I bought. It is truly amazing how much you can shove into a Honda Fit, especially if you are willing to tie the rear hatch down. The piece I was most pleased with from this sale was a short, Russ Bassett, media filing cabinet. I've never heard of Russ Bassett cabinets before, but apparently this one was originally built to hold microfiche or aperture cards. As best as I can tell, from current retail prices, this cabinet goes for about $1800. I got it for a measly $10. No, I didn't miss any zeroes. Yep, that's right, I pulled one, solitary Alexander Hamilton out of my wallet and loaded the cabinet in my car. If I calculated that correctly, that is about one half of one percent of retail value.


This cabinet definitely has positives and negatives. It sports full-extension, Accuride slides. The drawer height is pretty much spot on for what I prefer in a tool drawer. The sides of the drawer are 3" tall (76mm) and the drawer will close with items about 4" tall (100mm) in them. I don't like to stack tools in a drawer and these relatively short drawers discourage that, but still allow you to store your deep sockets standing up. Now for the downside.


The slides are only rated for 85 pounds per drawer. I think that is going to be enough, though. These are not huge drawers and I don't like to stack tools. The cabinet is only about 40" tall (1m). It is shaped more like a regular filing cabinet--that is, deeper than it is wide. The inside dimensions are about 19 inches wide and 27 inches deep. It is almost like having a tool cart with the drawers opening on the side, instead of the front. The insides of the drawers are just under 18.5" wide (470mm) and about 27" (685mm) deep. Not quite my preference, but it was way too good a deal to pass up.


The other issue is in the configuration of the drawers. They are built to hold microfiche (think of a file card drawer). They are divided into thirds, longwise and have channels in the bottom of the drawer, so it is nowhere near flat. At first glance, I thought it was going to be difficult to reconfigure the drawers to be flat. It looked like the center row and the short dividers were all one part. Since I only really needed a drawer that was a couple of inches deep, I came up with all sorts of complicated schemes to fill in the bottom part of the drawer and put a flat sheet of something across it. The answer turned out to be a lot simpler.


It took me a while to figure out how to get the drawers out of the cabinet. Most of the slides I have dealt with in the past have a little lever on each side, which allow the slide to separate and then you can pull the drawer out, along with half of the slide. I didn't see anything like that on these slides. What I finally figured out is that you have to pull the drawer all the way out and slightly twist the end of the slides out, as you lift the drawer off the slide. Very easy to do, once you figure out the trick, but not very intuitive at first. Removing a drawer allowed me a closer inspection of how it was constructed. I was pleasantly surprised at what I found.


Do you see what I see? You have to look closely, since the camera doesn't see it as well as the human eye can. Once I saw the signs of spot welding, I used a flashlight, placed parallel to the surface, to find the rest of the spot welds.

The bottom of the drawer is actually bent from one piece of sheet steel. The three channels actually do a great job of stiffening the drawer bottom. The short dividers are actually "L" channel, bent from two layers of thin sheet metal and spot welded in. All I had to do was hit the center of each spot weld with an automatic center punch and drill out the five spot welds. The dividers were painted after the welding process, so I had to bend the dividers from side to side a couple of times to break them away from the paint. Easy peasy. Unfortunately, this left two unpainted strips on each drawer. This isn't a problem asethetically, though, since I plan to use drawer liners. The only consideration for me is rusting, so I will just hit them with a quick coat of spray paint.

Continued in next post...

 

[machine_punk]

Converting a Cabinet to a Tool Box, Part 2

Now, the question of "which drawer liner will I use? Fortunately, I know of this amazing web forum where topics like this are discussed all day, every day. It rhymes with "Garage Journal." I made use of the search bar and did a little research on drawer liners. There are only a couple of things I need out of a drawer liner. I want to keep the tools from rattling around (not really much of an issue in a stationary cabinet) and keep the tools in place when opening and closing the drawers. Tools aren't eggs...they don't need a lot of padding. While I want the tools to stay still in the drawer, and the Snap-on style of liner seemed a popular choice, a lot of folks also complained that it was TOO sticky. That's not going to work with me. I'm not a huge fan of sticky.


That left me considering several other options. There are the Snap-on 'replicas' on eBay. They are not as sticky as the real Snap-ons and have a good following. There was also a popular following for the ginormous roll of thin yoga mat material. I just couldn't make myself spend the money on a product I couldn't evaluate. As far as the yoga mat material, I've seen a couple of cheap yoga mats...the smell is very unpleasant and overpowering--sorta like the olfactory offense which blasts you as you walk through the doors of your local Harbor Freight. There was no way I was going to put anything labeled 'yoga mat' in my cabinet, unless I could smell it first. It was clear that finding the right drawer liner was going to require actually touching, feeling and smelling the material. So what were the folks on GJ saying about stuff you could buy locally?


There were several options, from indoor/outdoor carpet to stair runner material at the local big box hardware store to stall mats and conveyor belt material at the local farm store. We aren't quite far enough out of the city to have a local neighborhood farm store, so that was out. One store name popped up quite a bit in my research...Lowes. Of the two big box stores, I kind of have a preference for Home Depot. Not sure why. Perhaps I just like the color orange. This time, though, I decided to try Lowes, since so many people found their perfect drawer liners their.


I ended up finding what I was looking for at in the kitchen cabinet liner section at Lowes (don't ask me...I am a boy. When I didn't see what I wanted in the tool section, I asked the salesman, who directed me to aisle 37.) Come to find out, that is where kitchen cabinet liners are). I thought I was in the wrong place, until I thought about how similar shelf lining is to drawer lining. Hmmm--maybe I should give this a closer look. I looked through the products and I finally settled on the Duck brand easyLiner in "taupe" (again, don't ask me...I am a boy. It sure looks like "very light brown" to me). In fact, it is very close to the color of the cabinet I just purchased. For those who are interested, the part number is #578367 for a 20" X 12' roll (500mm X 3,6m).


My plan was to remove all the partial-height dividers in all the drawers. This is quickly accomplished by drilling out the five spot welds on each divider. Then, shoot the bare metal under the removed dividers with some spray paint. I might actually paint the insides of the drawers with a bright color. I originally planned to cut out tempered hardboard liners for the bottoms of the drawers, since I have some of that in the materials pile. I wasn't really happy with the flimsyness (is that a word?) of the tempered hardboard. I took out one of the stiffening structures of the drawers and I didn't want the bottoms of the drawers to bow down, when I filled them with tools. Fortunately, I saw two, nearly-complete sheets of very thin, cabinet-grade plywood. Score! This stuff was barely thicker than the tempered hardboard, but was a LOT stiffer. I had more than enough to make the seven drawer liners I needed. It was a quick matter of setting up the table saw and cutting out 7 pieces of plywood.


The actual drawer lining material came on rolls, so I had to cut that to size. That was a simple matter of laying one of the plywood drawer liners on top of the material and cutting around it with something sharp. I've been using scalpels as my 'something sharp' lately. You can get a scalpel handle, with 100 blades, for about $10 on Amazon. Scalpel blades are thing which Xacto blades are copies of. The numbering system is the same for the different sizes and shapes of the blades.


The plywood makes a flat surface on the bottom of the drawer, by covering over the three channels in the bottom of each drawer. It also muffles some of the 'thunk' setting metal tools on a sheet metal drawer. Even if I chose to glue the liners down, I would still be able to remove them easily removable for cleaning. I decided not to glue the liners at this point. If I begin to have a problem with drawer liners bunching up, I will use something like 3M Super 77 for gluing down the liners.


I had some decisions to make about "which tools are going in which cabinet." A long time ago, I purchased the HF five-drawer tool cart. It wasn't much, but it was my first "real" tool cabinet and it worked well for a while. It is finally overwhelmed and stacked to the gills with tools. Even with the addition of a seven-drawer HF end cabinet, it was "ten pounds of tools in a five-pound sack." Since I have acquired quite a bit of oxy-acetylene welding equipment, my original thought was to get another four- or five-drawer HF cart for just welding supplies. Then, I was going to leave some of the tools in the current five-drawer cart and some of the tools in the new, converted media cabinet.


The more I thought about this, though, the harder the decision became. I was originally going to store some air tools and hand tools in the new cabinet and leave wrenches and pliers and files in the tool cart. The reality is, however, that I never really move tools to another place to work, except my welding stuff. I never weld inside. There is too little space in The Aerodrome Studio and the risk of fire is too large. Ideally, that means my welding equipment would be stored in a rolling cabinet of some sort.
I don't work on cars as a hobby, so I don't need a basic set of mechanics tools to roll out to the driveway. My studio is too small to need to "roll" tools to where I need them. Almost everything is essentially within arms' reach. I really don't use basic mechanics tools, like wrenches, pliers and screwdrivers much. Most of the tools I use routinely are specialized sheet metal and riveting tools. There has to be an obvious answer.


I let all these facts settle for a few days and it suddenly hit me...if I don't need to move my tools, I don't need any of them in the tool cart. I can put all my common hand tools in the new cabinet. That leaves the current tool cart to be converted into my oxy-acetylene welding cart--which is a perfect choice. I take my welding equipment outside to weld and bring it back inside for storage. That leaves more room in my studio for other things, since I don't have to find a storage spot for a new tool cart. All of the air tools and power tools can go on the wire rack shelving unit I have in the studio.


Here is a picture of a lot of different things. In the background, on the left, you can see the new Russ Bassett cabinet. In the foreground, you can see one of the drawers, with the partial-height dividers still in place in the drawers. on top of the drawer, you can see one of the plywood drawer liners. On the right you see a piece of drawer lining material cut to size and the remainder of one of the rolls. On the left, you can see two of the inner dividers after being removed. The one in the front is laying down, so you can see the bottom, which has no paint on it, since it was spot welded to the drawer before painting. The other inner divider show more detail of the construction of the dividers. They are essentially thin pieces of sheet metal, folded over and bent into an "L" section.

This drawer conversion took a LOT longer than I anticipated. There was a lot of labor invested in the drilling of spot welds, deburring the holes, painting, cutting plywood drawer bottoms, researching and shopping for liner material, and cutting the drawer liners. Overall, though, the cabinet was only $10. I suppose a few hours of labor to convert a media cabinet to a tool cabinet was the price I was going to have to pay.

I couldn't be more pleased with the cabinet I ended up with. I already find myself more motivated to keep the studio clean, since I actually have a place for all my tools now. Who knew that's all it would take? I did sit down and fill most of the drawers with tools. Then I decided I wanted them in different drawers and moved them. It never ends, does it?

What's next? I think I will save the tour of the new cabinet for a video blog, which is coming soon. I wanted to do a video blog of converting the drawers, but the video cameras were not charged and I was ready to get started. I did end up doing a sound check with my new audio recorder though. Watch for that post soon.

Kev

 

[machine_punk]

New Tool Cabinet - Stocked With Tools

Here are a few pictures of the stocked tool cabinet. I am extremely pleased with it. It is a sturdy cabinet and my tools have a home where they are not stacked a foot deep, like the drawers in the HF 5-Drawer Tool Cart. My Oxy-Acetylene welding supplies now have a home too, since they took over the tool cart.

Drawer 1 (top drawer): I suspect most folks put wrenches and sockets in the top drawer. Since most of my products include metal fabrication, I put something else in the top drawer. In my mind, this drawer contains "sharp things." It is mainly files. I do plan to expand my file selection soon. I'd like to get some files made just for aluminum. I do a LOT of hand work and filing. I often find it easier to just use a file than set up a machine to do the same task...

Drawer 2: In my mind, this is 'heavy things you hit other things with." I find myself reaching for a hammer of some sort often too, since I primarily do metalworking, I often need a hammer. I suspect these bodywork tools will eventually find another home. When I get my forming stump completed, they will likely have their own hanging hooks on the side of it. This drawer shows that I am going to have to glue down the liners. I think the hammers are sticking in place, but the liner material is sliding on the plywood drawer bottom. That's not going to work for me...

Drawer 3: This drawer is still quite unorganized. So far, I've just dumped stuff in there in piles of like objects. It primarily belongs to screwdrivers and 'other' drivers. There are some specialty tools in there too, though: watch repair tools, bicycle repair tools, scrapers and putty knives, dental hooks and scrapers, and miscellaneous brushes. This is pretty much all the stuff which lived in the top of my tool cart.

Drawer 4: Pliers, sockets and socket wrenches. I'm sure some day I will have one whole drawer for just the pliers. I reach for the pliers frequently. I rarely reach for the sockets. I'm a little surprised I have as many socket wrenches as I do. I did, recently, buy a Proto 1/2-drive socket wrench, Craftsman 1/2" beam torque wrench and a basic 1/2" breaker bar, since I now have the 1/2" air impact wrench and impact sockets...

Drawer 5: Since they rarely get used in my studio, I have the wrenches in the bottom drawer. I also keep my limited selection of impact sockets in here, since there is room, including a 3-piece, reversible, lug nut socket set I recently purchased. There are some specialty wrenches in here too: an oil filter wrench, a basin wrench, a plumbing wrench for large fittings, and a couple of sheet metal brake pliers. I started my wrench collection about 20 years ago, with a basic Craftsman mechanics set. Those have served me well, but I finally bought a set of SAE & Metric ratcheting wrenches too. They are super handy and it is nice to have more than one of each wrench size sometimes...

Drawers 6 (& 7): What is this!?!? Not just one empty drawer, but TWO empty drawers for now. I'm sure these will be filled up soon enough. I may put my air tools in here for now. I eventually want them to be far more accessible than a drawer, since I use air tools frequently...

There is still plenty of organization to do in The Aerodrome Studio. I'll probably show you the welding cart next.

Kev

 

[machine_punk]

Small Workbench

I got these small tables at the furniture sale too. They look like they are typing tables. They are just big enough for a keyboard and a mouse and they are the perfect height for typing. The truth is, it doesn't really matter what they were. I bought them for the legs. They were $5 each and I couldn't get the materials to make these set of legs for that price.

While I didn't have a plan for them when I bought them, I do now. I am replacing the Harbor Freight version of Black & Decker's clamping workbench. The HF version is less than impressive, but someone gave it to me for free and it worked well enough for the tasks I used it for. I used it as the clamping bench it is and I used it for a basic welding bench (I don't weld big things...I really just clamped coupons to it for practice. Anyway, I left it out during the rainy season this year and it doesn't really matter how free it was, it is pretty much ruined.

So, I needed a bench I could sit down at and work. I also needed something to weld on. Hmmm...I have two sets of table legs now, so I can make two separate tables and make them specific to these purposes.

I got working on the work bench today. I've got several 12" X 4" X 24" blocks, which I plan to use as forming stumps eventually. I wanted a...you know what...I'm tired of typing. Here's the picture.

Kev

 

[nkachur]

Re: Converting a Cabinet to a Tool Box, Part 2

It sure looks like "very light brown" to me). In fact, it is very close to the color of the cabinet I just purchased.

I also don't get the fancy colour names. Men should only use the colours:
- Brown, red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple and maybe pink
- Black, White, Grey

If required the terms Light and dark can be used in conjunction.

By the way those practically "stolen" drawer units look awsome.

 

[machine_punk]

Re: Converting a Cabinet to a Tool Box, Part 2

I also don't get the fancy colour names. Men should only use the colours:
- Brown, red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple and maybe pink
- Black, White, Grey

If required the terms Light and dark can be used in conjunction.

By the way those practically "stolen" drawer units look awesome.

I agree on the colors.

Thanks for the kind words. It took a few hours to convert it to a tool cabinet, but I am well-pleased with the result. Now, I just need to glue down the drawer liners and I'm on to some other projects.

Looks like you've got a great building for a workshop. Any new pictures in the past couple of years? Is it filled up yet?

Kev

 

[machine_punk]

Aero Can Holder

Cans were taking over every horizontal surface in my tiny studio. I had some grungy sheets of galvanized steel lying around the shop. Hmmm...I have a sheet metal machine...I should be able to come up with something.

The end plates are from aluminum scraps piling up under the shear. I assembled them with solid rivets because, well, that's what I do. I made two of them, because I could get exactly two from each small piece of galvanized scrap.

What you do see is that I built these to exactly fit my rack system in the garage. What you don't see is that I put mounting slots at 16 inches [405mm] on center (stud spacing in the United States), so I can mount these on the wall easily, when I fill up the rack on the wall.

Oh...decided to start buying WD40 in bulk, gallon cans (way cheaper, reduced wasted material from cans, etc.). Notice the cool WD40 squirt bottle...you can fill it without taking the squirty cap off and make a mess.

Kev

 

[machine_punk]

Hale Bale Cart

We have guinea pigs. We've had as many as 6 at one time. I have a huge cage for them. They love to eat hay. Buying hay in small bags at the pet store is redonkulously expensive (about a dollar an ounce for timothy hay in a bag) [$1 USD for 28 grams].

We learned to buy hay by the bale. That is so much cheaper--$25 for a 3-string bale, which weighs 70 pounds [32kg]. That cuts the price down to 2 cents an ounce [$0.02 USD for 28 grams], but it tends to make a Huge Mess in the garage.

I had planned to take a break from having guinea pigs for a while, but situations conspired and here I am, with two more amazing little guinea pigs. So, time to do something about that hay storage problem.

Every couple of weeks, I go out to the garage with big, plastic, Rubbermaid storage bin and refill it with hay, so we can keep some inside for daily use. My first plan was to build a plywood box, mount it on the wall and make one side easily removable.

Here is what I ended up with, instead. Essentially frame made of 2x3 stud material [50x75mm] with galvanized roofing material screwed on the inside. I am pleased. It stores the hay without the Big Mess. I can roll to wherever I need it, including the back of the car to reload it with a fresh bale from the feed store. It stays out of the way in the garage and easily rolls out to when I need to refill the container kept in the house. It has a door on one side with a latch, so it is easy to use...

Kev

 

[machine_punk]

Aero Welding Station

For now, Oxy-Acetylene is the welding process I have in The Aerodrome Studio. I tend to do small stuff and I was trained by Kent White (TM Technologies), so my go-to torch is the Meco Midget. I do have a vintage Victor 100 for larger projects.

The price of acetylene has skyrocketed in the U.S. I prefer to use a gas valve while welding, so I only have to pay for gas while I am actually welding and the gases stay in the correct ratio for relighting the torch. The gas valve has a long arm sticking out, so the weight of your torch turns off the gas. Most gas valves have a built-in pilot flame, which taps off the fuel gas to allow you to instantly relight your torch.

I was taught a more-efficient way. I like the little electric lighter, which are often used by jewelry guys. You press one of the buttons on the top of the lighter with your torch and an electric sparker starts up (light the automatic starter on a gas stove...a spark a couple of times a second). I like the electric starter, but I wanted to mount it in place of the pilot light on the gas valve. I also wanted to be able to continue to use the gas pilot, as a backup. Not asking for much, huh?

On top of all that, I wanted a simple way to attach the valve/light combination near where I am welding. I usually keep the lightweight, 12.5 foot [4m] hose attached to the torch. The gas valve is fed from the longer, standard hoses going to the gas bottles. I was going to custom build a clamping mechanism on the bottom of the whole rig. In the end, I decided to go with a ready-built clamp...a large pair of vice grips.

I've come to prefer the CH Hanson Automatic locking pliers. They fall firmly in the category of How Did I Live Without These? You set the tension of the mechanism and then it will automatically adjust to any thickness of material, without all that Fiddling About you have to do with normal locking pliers.

While I was at it, I figured I'd like to have all the torch tips easily available too. This project took a Long Time. I think it's been off-and-on for about a year and a half. I'm finally done. I finally built a cool rivet project I get to keep.

I didn't want to go for the super-clean, super-nice look on this one. I went more for the Frankenstein's workshop version. I haven't come up with a name for this style yet, but I wanted more it to look more like the fanciful style ofmachine you see on Wallace and Grommit.

I've included a new concept in this too. There's something cool looking (to me) about riveted repairs. So, if I make a mistake in a project, I just keep moving forward and fabricate a riveted repair. If I don't make a mistake, I create a mistake (cut out a chunk) and fabricate a riveted repair. In this case, the missing chunk with a copper patch is the 'on purpose' mistake. The tab which holds the electric sparker in place is the truly accidental accident (sheared off one of the tabs during fabrication).

Kev

 

[machine_punk]

Welding Station Ready to Go

And, here it all is...set up and ready to practice welding some coupons. On the docket for this evening...18 gauge steel, autologous and with filler. The new welding station works beautifully and brings everything together in one, easy-to-move unit.

BTW, beginning to like using my cell phone for taking quick photos of projects to post. So much easier than going through the process of hauling out the DSLR. The pics are pretty good too.

I finally got some cheater lenses to try with my welding goggles. WOW. Should have done that a couple of years ago. The plastic ones are cheap, wherever you buy them ($2-4 USD each), so no excuse for not actually being able to see what you are welding. I also got the magnifying lenses for working in the shop--the set with a headband and you flip down the hood with the built-in magnifiers. I'm quite pleased with those too. That was $35 USD well spent.
Kev

 

[Lippyp]

Re: Hale Bale Cart

We have guinea pigs. We've had as many as 6 at one time. I have a huge cage for them. They love to eat hay. Buying hay in small bags at the pet store is redonkulously expensive (about a dollar an ounce for timothy hay in a bag) [$1 USD for 28 grams].Kev

I grew up with a load of guinea pigs, at one point we had over 100 of the buggers, we used to have them running loose on our fenced off lawn with a big hutch up on blocks that they put themselves to bed in at night over the summer. Mum used to sell the little ones to pet shops, it was never an intentional thing but we started with a couple and it kind of snowballed from there. We did have a fox get in one year and wholesale slaughter resulted sadly. They are fantastic things to watch with real characters and are much happier in a group as they are social animals in nature.

 

[machine_punk]

Wow! 100 guinea pigs. That had to be a blast. Yes...I always make sure I have at least a couple of them at a time. They are much happier that way.

Kev

 

[machine_punk]

Mini Me Welding Table

I finally completed one of the rights of passage for welding--making my own welding table. I'll admit, there wasn't MUCH welding involved and it is definitely much smaller than the monstrosities I see other guys build.

Here were my requirements:
- fire proof
- easy to clamp material to it
- small
- correct height for sitting and welding
- inexpensive

Here it is. Remember the legs? Go back a few posts. I got two, identical tables for only $5 USD each. I think they were just large enough to hold a keyboard and mouse. I replaced one table top with a huge block of wood and had planned on replacing this one with a small welding table top.

I was shooting for about the size of the Strong Hand Tools Nomad welding table. While that is super portable and about $150 USD, this table is still small and light enough to move easily by just picking it up, has a thicker top than the Nomad and was a LOT cheaper. One set of $5 USD used legs, metal from my scrap pile (originally bought at scrap price from the local scrap yard) and a 3' (1 meter) stick of 1/4-20 (6.3 mm) all thread from the hardware store.

As you can see, there isn't much welding involved. I just welded the 4 mounting tabs, which are simply short sections of 1.5"x1.5"x1/8" (38mmx38mmx3mm) angle iron to the back of two 1' (300 mm) lengths of the same angle iron. One of each of those welded brackets were bolted to each side of the pre-made leg section.

One of my goals with the mounting brackets was to get a little more height, so the table wouldn't be down on my knees, while welding. I also wanted it tall enough that I could use my adjustable roller stand to hold longer stock (the thing you usually use as an outfeed for a table saw). the top is 3 pieces of 1/4"x25"xabout 4.5" (6.3mmX635xabout 115mm) mild steel (I think) plate. I had just over 6 feet of it and simply cut it in thirds and ground off the slag on one edge, from someone cutting it with a torch. I didn't bother removing the layer of rust (or 'patina' as Mrs. Machine_Punk called it) from the top. This table is going to sit outside most of the time.

My original plan was to stitch weld the top to the brackets. I've heard horror stories about warping tops of welding tables from too much welding to attach the top. In the end, I decided to tap 4 holes in each plate and bolt them to the bracket. I used /4-20 again, for uniformity.

I try to use a few standard sizes of fasteners in the shop. That way, I can keep a larger assortment on hand. I do have a FEW basic fasteners in most of the sizes, but mostly stick to 10-32, 1/4-20, and 5/16-18, unless I have a compelling reason. This allows me to stock a large assortment in a few sizes and some basic stuff in the rest of the sizes. The tips for my Meco Midget are 1/4-28 (not a common size in the US), so I ended up getting a few fasteners in that thread, as I built the welding tip holder, but I'll likely never stock a lot of that).

Anyway, since I was drilling and tapping the top, I didn't need a full bolt, so I got a piece of all thread, cut it into 1" pieces (254mm) and used a washer and bolt on the bottom side. The upside to this is that I can use shims on the plates, if I ever need to get this table super flat. The downside is that I didn't get to use rivets anywhere on this table. The dark blobs around the tapped holes are from the cutting fluid.

As you can see, there is plenty of room between the plates to get standard welding clamps in there. I no longer to worry about catching a wooden table top on fire anymore. It is a small table and easy to move around. It is the perfect height for sitting and welding. Just about everything came from my scrap pile. It met all my criteria.

There were some challenges here. I'm used to using the Meco Midget torch on 18 gauge (1.27mm) material. For this project, I pulled out my vintage Victor 100--which most folks would call a small torch, but felt to me like I was holding a freight train.

It took a while to dial everything in, but they really do work the same. Not enough heat? Increase your tip size. Inner cone about 3x the thickness of material for tacking, 2x for welding. Filler material about 1/2x to 1x the material. Degrease with 99% isopropyl alcohol, then abrade to shiny in the weld area. It all scales up and down nicely as a starting point, no matter the thickness of material.

Once you know how to make all those adjustments, it doesn't really matter how big or small the torch is.

The table doesn't look like much, but I was surprise just how long it took to fabricate the parts. I plan to eventually build a rack for this table to hold a couple of grinders. I'll probably also add a tab to clamp my welding station (see a couple of posts up) below table level, for when I am welding larger items.

Now, I guess I am going to have to build my own bottle rack. Most folks build a welding cart for their welding machine. Since I only use oxy-acetylene, I'll have to build a bottle rack instead, as my next right of passage into welding.

Kev

 

[Zeke]

I'm surprised this thread went dormant. One of the GJ epic threads, for sure.

Kevin, what's up?

 

[machine_punk]

Thanks for the kind words! Life gets in the way sometimes.
- Had to build a privacy fence
- Had to start cleaning out the garage, because we thought we might be moving soon.
- Work was a little nuts for a while.
- Trying to decide if I want to continue a thread here, or start a YouTube channel.
- Ended up moving to a new house and remodeling the old house as a rental.
- Been busy setting up my new (larger) Aerodrome Studio in the new garage.

I'll try to get more content up soon...have plenty of projects to show, just need to get the pics uploaded and move my web page to the new server, so we can see the pics.

KDub

 

[TwoBytes]

Welcome back Kevin, looking forward to more updates mate.

 

[Mpower5266]

Wow great thread and I love the projects. I'm only a few pages in but I just had to comment. I haven't worked too much with rivets lately but my dad taught me how to buck them when we restored a 1948 Cessna 170 and looking at your photos brought back a lot of memories. I also noticed some aircraft spruce labels in your pics, I work in the will call store at the Georgia location, if you need anything shoot me a pm and I will give you my contact info.

 

[machine_punk]

Wow great thread and I love the projects. I'm only a few pages in but I just had to comment. I haven't worked too much with rivets lately but my dad taught me how to buck them when we restored a 1948 Cessna 170 and looking at your photos brought back a lot of memories. I also noticed some aircraft spruce labels in your pics, I work in the will call store at the Georgia location, if you need anything shoot me a pm and I will give you my contact info.

Thanks for the kind words!

Near the end, quite a few of the pictures are not showing...I'll have that fixed soon.

I learned to fly in a Cessna 172 (I think...it's been a long time).

I'll be visiting family in Georgia before the end of the year. I still buy all my aluminum rivets from Aircraft Spruce.

Thanks for stopping by!

KDub

 

[machine_punk]

Welcome back Kevin, looking forward to more updates mate.

Thanks!

 

[machine_punk]

So, Mrs. Machine_Punk and I moved to a new home. Not far. Just 1/8th of a mile (200 meters) from our old home. Needless to say, this implies changes to The Aerodrome Studio. One of the requirements for the new house was, "at least a 3-car garage."

The Aerodrome Studio 'in transition.' Fortunately, I have almost everything in the studio on wheels. In the case of that big, wooden bench, I designed a way to easily get it up on car tire dollies to move it. That made this process a lot easier. What you cannot tell, from this picture, is just how far the truck is leaning to the left, with the 1,300 pound (600 kg) sheet metal machine strapped to the left wall.
View media item 64065
The blank canvas. A 'tandem' garage. Apparently, everyone BUT me knew the name for this type of garage. Double door at the front, extra spot for a car (or workshop) at the back (sort of the 'mullet' of garages...all business up front and all fun in the back).
View media item 64066
First, I put strut up on the wall. One strut for every other stud, or 32 inches (0.8 meters). I went with vertical strut in the new studio, instead of horizontal. A little more expensive in the beginning, but I think it will be more versatile in the end. Each of these are 8 feet tall (2.5 meters).
View media item 64073
First, I painted the bottom of the strut...in the official colors of The Aerodrome Studio (brown and yellow). I went for the 'industrial' look. Here, you see some of my first attempts at welding. More on that in the next post.
View media item 64071
Mostly settled in. You see two new benches in there. In the back, left corner is a taller bench I build for some of my bench-top power tools. It also has oodles of storage below. In the middle, on the left, is an IKEA countertop/bench, which used to be in the kitchen. YES, I need to upgrade the electrical, including the electrical for the lighting.
View media item 64062
This garage had exactly two 15-amp circuits, including the 2 wall outlets, 1 garage-door opener outlet and single light bulb. Electrical is HIGH on my priority list at this point.
View media item 64063
This corner still needs a little work. I had a lot more raw materials to store than I thought. Still working on plans for storing some of it in a way that keeps it out of the way, but allows easy access.
View media item 64064
KDub

 

[machine_punk]

Me, being a bit of a **** and posing with my new (to me) welder. The Lincoln 210 MP. Got a smoking deal on a used one, with all the toys...the TIG torch, TIG pedal and the spool gun for MIG aluminum welding.
View media item 64074
I have plenty of acetylene and oxygen cylinders, but I did not have any argon or C25. I decided on 100% argon first, so I can add all metals in TIG and aluminum in the MIG spool gun to my processes. I have the 210 MP set up with 10-pound (4.5 kg) spool flux core wire in the regular MIG gun for now, so no hurry on the C25.

While I HAVE built the classic first welding project, a little welding table, I have NOT yet built the classic second welding project, a welding cart. I have some cool plans for the design of my welding cart and I suspect I'll start on it soon. Most of it will be gas brazed with silicone bronze.

In the meantime, I didn't have a place to safely store the new, 220 CF 100% argon cylinder. A few pieces of strut later, I had a place to attach the newly-fabricated-and-painted brackets, then chain the tank to the wall.
View media item 64077
Each bracket is simply a piece of angle iron, sized to fit well on the strut. On the left bracket of each set, I also welded a cut piece of a chain link, so I could keep the end of the chain off the floor, when there is no cylinder at that station. It took me quite a bit longer than I expected to fabricate these 4 brackets.
View media item 64078
I've been comfortable with oxy-fuel welding, brazing and soldering for a while. While I have been trained to use TIG welding, I only recently got my first electric welder. I've been working on stick welding with 6013 and 7018. I've also been practicing with flux core (MIG, without shielding gas). Now, I'll be able to start practicing TIG too, along with using the spool gun for aluminum projects.

KDub

 

[Mpower5266]

Thanks for the kind words!

Near the end, quite a few of the pictures are not showing...I'll have that fixed soon.

I learned to fly in a Cessna 172 (I think...it's been a long time).

I'll be visiting family in Georgia before the end of the year. I still buy all my aluminum rivets from Aircraft Spruce.

Thanks for stopping by!

KDub

Where in Ga? You should stop by Spruce, I can give a tour.

 

[machine_punk]

Flying into atlanta, but I will be near Dublin, Augusta and Albany. I'll send you a PM. I'd love to see Aircraft Spruce.

 

[Duker]

Kev, the new shop is looking great! I just bought the 210 for my little farm. I have not even had a chance to fire it up. I still need to figure out all the options.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Guster]

Welcome back Kevin. New shop looks good. Enough room to work and a car in there.

Even some wall space for a certain logo!

 

[machine_punk]

Kev, the new shop is looking great! I just bought the 210 for my little farm. I have not even had a chance to fire it up. I still need to figure out all the options.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thanks. I've always appreciated the thought and detail you put into your welding table. That was certainly an epic thread on GJ.

The 210 is great for new welders...you don't have to think a lot about settings. It also works on both 120 & 240 volts.

As I use it more, I can see where eventually I will likely leave the Lincoln 210 MP set up for MIG or Flux Core and use it a lot for stick (I've really been enjoying learning stick welding. A lot of what I plan to use welding for is 'structural' stuff, which stick welding excels at). If I end up using a lot of TIG, I'll probably get a dedicated TIG machine. The primary joining method in my shop is still rivets.

KDUb

 

[machine_punk]

Welcome back Kevin. New shop looks good. Enough room to work and a car in there.

Even some wall space for a certain logo!

Funny you should mention a logo. I'm researching vinyl cutters right now. Not going to happen in the next couple of months, but that is something that is really going to be a game changer for some of the things I do. (yes, I see that Jack Olson, over at the 12-gauge garage beat me to it). I'm looking at the Titan 2 in 28". A little steep for my hobby uses, but I don't think I'll ever need to buy another vinyl cutter in my lifetime. I'll use it for cutting stencils for painting and for producing actual vinyl logos.

Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment!

KDub

 

[Terrick down Under]

MP, I love the detail! I like doing things like that , on cars and trucks, but I like it even better when people can't see that you have done it.
BTW, The pics of the welding cart did not show up down here.

 

[machine_punk]

MP, I love the detail! I like doing things like that , on cars and trucks, but I like it even better when people can't see that you have done it.
BTW, The pics of the welding cart did not show up down here.

Thanks! I'd like to think that the thing which sets me apart from some other fabricators is that I am actually a designer too...and I like to put a lot of detail in the design. Some of the detail is obvious and some of it is subtle.

I have not completed my welding cart yet...it is still in the design phase. What you see the welder on now is just an old audio/visual cart I happened to have. I have some interesting ideas, but I'd rather let the pictures show the story, when I get started.

Or, were you referring to my comments about Duker's welding table, which has its own epic thread on GJ. You can see the welding table, as his avatar, and the link to the thread is in his signature. If you haven't seen that thread yet, you are in for a treat.

There are some missing pictures in some of my posts. I'm in the middle of switching over to a new server (staying with Go Daddy, but upgrading to another physical server) and have to get the pictures moved and the old links pointing to the new physical location of the server.

Kev

 

[machine_punk]

Bike Storage in the Garage

The cool thing about the new garage is that we can fit both cars AND the Aerodrome Studio in it. The new garage is still a case of "10 pounds of stuff in a 5-pound sack," though. Mrs. Machine_Punk laid down The Law--it is time to get the bikes indoors, before the California rainy season begins. When you run out of horizontal storage area, you have to move to vertical...going 'up.'

In the case of bicycles (we go for walks a LOT, but rarely use the bicycles), that means hanging them from the ceiling. While the low-tech hook is quite functional, I didn't want Mrs. Machine_Punk to have to wrestle her bike up and down to a 9-foot ceiling. As a matter of fact, I didn't want to wrestle my bike up and down, either.

I've known about the pulley systems for bikes for a long time. I figured that would be just the trick to get the bikes off the floor (out of the workshop) and make it easy to get them down for a ride. We found a set of pulleys online, $20 for a kit to hang two bikes.

There was NOTHING easy about putting these things up. I thought it would be a 3-ish-hour process to put all 4 of them up. NOPE. I always expect the 'first' of anything to take more time, as you sort out the process. I suppose a lot of the difficulty was just standing on the ladder all day, working over your head.

Now that they ARE installed, though, I am very happy with them. They work great and make it easy to lift the bikes up and bring them back down.

Here is the finished product:
View media item 64334
KDub

 

[ScubaSteve]

If you rarely use the bikes (if ever), why not sell a few or part them out for a project?

 

[machine_punk]

If you rarely use the bikes (if ever), why not sell a few or part them out for a project?

We did recycle 3 bikes in the move to the new home (along with getting rid of thousands of pounds of Stuff: trash, recycle, or given to the Goodwill). I wanted to part those 3 bikes out, but ran out of time. These last 4 bikes either have sentimental value or some minor chance of being used.

KDub