Fordkid's ADHD Fabrications

[fordkid88]

I tried to document the hot mess of projects that I have going on in different threads but that just gets lost or jumbled up and I never can fully keep track of everything. So like you clever folks ahead of me Im going to start a thread that keeps track of what goes on in my shop and school.

I will try to keep the posts organized and somewhat categorized when I do post but Im sure I will spam those in.

Projects that will come up frequently:
Fixture Table
Welding Cart
Honda Scrambler
Mini Truck
Sidewinder
Machine work

I did go back to school recently for welding and fabrication so at this time most of my projects will be based around what I can get done before or between classes as other days im working or to tired to do a whole hell of a lot in my own shop.


Fixture Table(Tig only I hate cleaning up splatter):
Some fixture clamps that I made from either c clamps or heavy duty f clamps. I have many more that I need to make. Hockey pucks for leveling feet, I still have to epoxy them to the threaded rod.



We cut the table top with the plasma cutter this morning. The water jet would have taken forever to do it and for the tolerances and accuracy this requires was not necessary. My instructor told me this is the largest thickest thing that has been cut on this machine as its brand new so it was a learning curve. Some of the interior corners need to be cleaned up slightly with a die grinder as it struggled to make tight precise 90 degree cuts.

The top looks a little rough but the bottom side is much better. Its also being sold to me through the school for scrap price and at 1/2" 2' x 4' I cant complain it will just require a little sweat equity.



The tops not welded on yet I hope to do that somewhere throughout the week, it has a slight bow in it so it will take some careful planning to get it mounted.



I intend to have this table be modular, so next I plan to start the accessories.
Accessories:
Bench Grinder
Bench Vise
CNC(loosely defined) Rotary Table
Tube Bender

General Accessories
Tig Tube Holder
Grinder Rack
Clamp Rack


Well hopefully I can post enough interesting content to have you folks sticking around.

 

[36truck]

Love the bench top will come in very handy.

 

[fordkid88]

Love the bench top will come in very handy.

Im hoping so. I had drafted quite a few designs and styles before settling on this one. I plan on using this for most things that require tight tolerances. My other table will collect dust unless i have a large project.

 

[fordkid88]

Prototyped a small grinder station thats easily removeable. Gave it to a buddy in class because i want to make a 2 small tweaks.

 

[fordkid88]

Ive had no time to work on the table but i was able to make a little bit of time today between classes to draft out a tig rod tube holder and water jet it.

My Tee nuts also came in and i was hoping i could toss them on my little mill and knock them down a little to fit my table but theyre hardened which never even crossed my mind so i had to finesse them with the angle grinder.

Excuse the super crappy pictures, I quickly snapped them before i left for the day so i will take better ones tomorrow after i bend up the rod holder.

 

[fordkid88]

I tried to get some work done early this morning. Started bending the rod holder up. I thought i had the bender order figured out but i didnt account for one flange being taller than the die so i screwed it up and prevented myself from using the gauge back stops. All the the remaining bends came out dead nuts from eyeballing and measuring except one. Its less than a 16th off but its there.

Im going to eventually redo both the grinder holder because it occasionally catches the paddle switch and the tube holder is going to have gussets on it and instead of being sperate they will be incorporated.

 

[fordkid88]

Not my best tig welds. Im somewhat out of practice as we've been doing gmaw for the last three months and ive hardly had time to tig at home. Still a fun change of pace. Im going to shear the gussets and tig them on in the morning.



upload image

 

[fordkid88]

 

[Hammer1963]

Nice builds! Having access to a CNC plasma cutter would be a wonderful thing for me. Good to see someone using their imagination

 

[fordkid88]

Nice builds! Having access to a CNC plasma cutter would be a wonderful thing for me. Good to see someone using their imagination

Thanks! I've got a list of a things I want to make while I have access to all of these amazing pieces of equipment and discounted materials.

 

[36truck]

You have some great projects. Looking good.

 

[fordkid88]

You have some great projects. Looking good.

Thanks. Im currently working on the files for a rotary table and then i plan to release them for free if it all works out.

 

[Bears Fan]

Love the welding table! I to wish I had access to a plasma table, I'm subscribing to your thread to see whats next

 

[fordkid88]

Love the welding table! I to wish I had access to a plasma table, I'm subscribing to your thread to see whats next

Thanks! Its super handy to have access to this table but honestly i prefer the water jet table. Better quality if cut just much slower.

 

[fordkid88]

I was able to go to Fabtech today. Absolutely amazing. The only downside is that i spent a total of 10 hours on a bus for 4 hours of floor time. I had to skip the pipe and tubing hall which supposedly had some really cool stuff but i was able to harass and question a **** load of equipment venders. I probably spent a half hour just with the JD2 representative, and many of the fixture table and equipment companies as well.

We were told there was a cell phone and photo policy in place so i did not take many pictures.

I did have to get a picture of a "mid" size Davi Roll as we use a very small one apparently for pressure vessels. For reference im 6'1" in my boots.






Im going to have to spend some time looking into pneumatic clamping systems that seemed to be pretty popular.

 

[fordkid88]

Two different projects currently going on at once. At home Ive decided to setup a shop in the basement. I cant do another winter going through a tank of propane every other day. So my mini lathe and milling machine came downstairs which took the better part of day to disassemble the mill and bring it down stairs.

Sorry for the mess im still in the process of moving **** from the garage to downstairs.



Since ive brought my table home last week, i decided to do a major overhaul on my harbor freight 4 x 6 bandsaw.
Ill be doing a new frame out 1.5" square tubing. I formed a 32 by 18 coolant tray out of 12 gauge crs. Ill be drafting and cutting/forming a new motor mount as mine is tweaked. The wiring will be modified to incorporate the coolant system. A removeable coolant reservoir with abaffle to keep chips from entering the pump area and then ill probably look into a hydraulic down feed.

 

[henrysgarage]

Are you adding some plugins on the welding table?

 

[fordkid88]

Are you adding some plugins on the welding table?

I sure am. Im going to do a water proof gang box on the back side close to the grinder rack. Ive got a 20ft heavy insulated extention cord that will be my donor.

On a side note i was able to finally use the table to start a box frame for the band saw last night.

 

[fordkid88]

Got the bandsaw stand 90% done. I used it as an exercise for different material thicknesses and flange profiles. The tray is 12g to handle heavy material drops. The uprights are 16g and contain 7 bends a piece and are quite stiff. Now where i went wrong and what caused a design change. I did 18g for the bottom tray with 14g c channel that bent in a way to sit flush with the flanges of the tray. Its bowed along each edge and will make putting in covers on each side a huge pain in the ***.

Pardon the bird, my classmate wanted proof that it would hold my "fat ***"

The other valuable lesson learned is no matter how many times you have to take your gloves off and then put them on 30 seconds later, you take the time to put them on. I wound if severing a nerve in my left middle finger. Hopefully with time it will recover pretty well

 

[fordkid88]

Wellvim done with school for the next 6 weeks so between work and dad duty i plan to get alot done around the shop. That unfortunately does not leave a lot of time.

Last night i spent some time working on the band saw. I have to tweak the mounts a little bit to get it fully level, route the holes for plumbing and redo the wiring.



The next project is the planning stages. Heres a hint, it involves 3 axis and my plasma cutter.

 

[slowtwitch73]

Nice stand..

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

Looks great

 

[fordkid88]

Nice stand..

Looks great

Thanks guys. If you've ever own this style, you know what garbage the stock stand is. I know with work this little saw kicks *** for the price. I thought I'd take it a step further though. Id work on it right now but its to damn cold.

 

[fordkid88]

Working on the mill. End goal is to do a cnc conversion down the road. I need a second mill do the work on it so for now im working on machining some brass bushings that replace the ball oilers with 4mm tubing elbows for a one shot oiler.

 

[fordkid88]

Not much going on right now on the mill. I have to order a multi prop valve and figure out a fluid delivery method.

In the mean time ive been hitting the books and have been designing my cnc plasma cutter. Right now im at 30" by 48" give or take for the capacity . Some parts have been slowly coming.

Im really twitching to get back to the lab. Ive got a number of files that need to be burnt out and quite a bit **** id like to work on.

 

[fordkid88]

Just a couple a sacrificial welding squares. 12g material cut on the plasma table and then formed on the press brake with the appropriate angle corrections. They' re pretty damn close if not spot on.

imghost

 

[fordkid88]

Were trying to raise money for skills usa so ive prototyped a socket tray(which before it was even off the water jet i was making the changes i thought were necassary) and im also working on a drill/impact stand that i can go pimp to the other programs at school.

 

[Balor]

I like it fordkid.

 

[lis2323]

Just found this. Subscribed! Thank you, fordkid. [emoji106]

 

[fordkid88]

Thanks guys! Im really trying to turn class projects into something practical.

 

[Monza Harry]

Great undertaking there Fordkid!
Signed [Chevrolet] Monza Harry [ no "Poke" emoji]

 

[fordkid88]

Whipped up something for the mrs fordkid. Made a couple of hearts in cad and burnt them out on the plasma table. You put dents in the larger hearts and fusion weld them together so the dents form a pocket. Right before its fully sealed you fill it with water and then finish the weld. Once its sealed you hits with a torch and let the water vaporize and expand and then your done.

 

[fordkid88]

Super heavy duty fixture square. I had designed it with 3/16 in mind but it snowed so much last night i didnt want to risk getting the forklift stuck because we have to go in and out of 2 garage doors to get and shear material so i used 1/4 material that we had in the rack.

I didnt want a lot of heat into it so i just fusion welded every tab. Except for the one tab that i missed lol.

 

[fordkid88]

Finished up a couple of smaller squares. Cnc cut some flower petals and rolled them to start a flower windmill to raise money for skills usa. Also knocked out my fire pit. No pics on that yet.

 

[matt_i]

Great stuff there! How do you not blow up the big heart when you heat it? Leave a pinhole somewhere?

 

[fordkid88]

It has to be completely sealed. You slowly and evenly heat it.

 

[bobabuee]

very nice stuff

 

[fordkid88]

Butterfly flower stand, i have to finish the seat portion. Flower windmill and a pumpkin stand.



upload images

 

[lis2323]

NICE WORK!![emoji481]

 

[fordkid88]

I have to plasma out the bridges in my name and some tweaking on the ring shape and then i need a warmer night and a case of beer to test it.

I have started the plasma table build. Ive formed the legs and im planning on starting the frame.