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Puget Dude’s creations and fabrications (Random project thread.)

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PugetDude

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Picked up six pallets of cultured stone veneer today. Don't own a forklift, but I do have the rolling bridge crane I built last year. It was just barely wide enough to straddle the bed on my Ram pickup and my mason's dump trailer. We used a couple of lifting straps under the pallets, the ratchet hoist and rolling crane made quick work of getting the pallets off loaded and staged next to the driveway. IMG_20241106_140827653.jpg
Stone should start going up tomorrow. We're redoing our front courtyard, hopefully the last major remodel project on this place for a while.😉
 
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PugetDude

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Here's a other example of how my mind works sometime 🤣

We finished up our big backyard remodel in April, just before our annual trek to the high country for the summer. Had quite a few pavers left over, some of them are going to be re-used on the front courtyard this winter. Most of the cut and broken pavers ended up in one pile, masonry contractor is going to haul them off when he's finished with them.IMG_20241111_111918059.jpg

Where most (seemingly normal!) people would see a pile of leftover pavers that really need to go away, I saw something else. And down another rabbit hole I went. 🙄
These are all cut or broken pavers I dragged out of the pile, didn't re-cut or trim any of them. Stuck them together with tiger hair bondo, strategically pinned with 1/4 round bar. A few of the pavers had holes in them from an old pool fence, so those made it into the mix.

Not really sure why I made these,🤔 but here they are...


IMG_20241111_071150377.jpgIMG_20241111_071121925.jpgIMG_20241111_071053508.jpg
 
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Mr.zippy

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PugetDude said:
Here's a other example of how my mind works sometime 🤣

We finished up our big backyard remodel in April, just before our annual trek to the high country for the summer. Had quite a few pavers left over, some of them are going to be re-used on the front courtyard this winter. Most of the cut and broken pavers ended up in one pile, masonry contractor is going to haul them off when he's finished with them.IMG_20241111_111918059.jpg

Where most (seemingly normal!) people would see a pile of leftover pavers that really need to go away, I saw something else. And down another rabbit hole I went. 🙄
These are all cut or broken pavers I dragged out of the pile, didn't re-cut or trim any of them. Stuck them together with tiger hair bondo, strategically pinned with 1/4 round bar. A few of the pavers had holes in them from an old pool fence, so those made it into the mix.

Not really sure why I made these,🤔 but here they are...


IMG_20241111_071150377.jpgIMG_20241111_071121925.jpgIMG_20241111_071053508.jpg
Click to expand...

Now you know which corner of the yard to pee at!
 
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PugetDude

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Well, I took my "overly large truck with a ridiculously short bed" ( I learned that terminology here right on the GJ...😉) to downtown Phoenix and picked up 720' of steel square tube for an ornamental iron project I am starting for our front courtyard.
I know, I know , should have bought a 1-ton 4x4 long bed dually and a 24' flatbed trailer for this, but I beg the collective forgiveness of the GJ for my transgression. 17317028918686460568195708570997.jpgIMG_20241115_132816567.jpg
 
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PugetDude

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Since we need to cut the 720' of steel into hundreds of smaller pieces I thought it might be a good idea to get my Evolution cold saw up off the ground and add a proper cutoff stop.
My neighbor was throwing away a cheap Chinese table saw a few years ago and asked me if I wanted the stand.( Does the Pope **** in the woods?) So I dragged it out and assembled it. Pretty light duty but perfect for what I had in mind.
I had some 6x2 14 gage building purlins I need to get rid of, so they made an appearance here, used them to build a chip chute to catch the chips that go under the saw. They were also the right size to put the saw at a comfortable overall height. IMG_20241115_134848422_HDR.jpgIMG_20241115_135030909_HDR.jpg
Next up was to build a catch chute for the chips flying off the back of the blade. It had to get as close to the spinning blade as possible, clear the swinging guard and be easily removable without tools for blade changes. This took a little trial and error, but it works well. Two 1/4" studs friction fit into holes in the saw base, allows a bit of movement to follow the blade guard without hanging it up on the return stroke. IMG_20241115_135349302_HDR.jpg
This saw throws chips everywhere and they eventually become embedded in shoes, clothes, etc. Probably never be able catch them all, but if I can reduce the scatter by 90% I will be way ahead.
My original thought was that the chute would direct the hot chips into a bucket, but they tended to bounce out when they hit the ramp and plastic bucket.
After using it for a while I saw that I need more containment of the chip stream, so I upgraded to a removable steel catch container, with 3" galvanized exhaust elbow directing the stream into the container.
Funny story on the elbow...had my plumber install a new tankless gas water heater a few weeks ago, knowing that I was a bit of a scrap junkie, he handed me the whole scrap 3" exhaust assembly and said " here, you can probably figure out something to make out of this. He was just yanking my chain, but it got me thinking...🤔
After he left I tossed it in the big shop trash can.... Until I realized the elbows were the perfect size for extending the chip chute. Out it came...🤣IMG_20241115_141137622.jpg
long
The adjustable stop is really simple, just a piece of 14" long 1" square tube inside a 14" piece of of 1-1/4" square tube. it locks in position, has a movable end plate , and swings and locks away when I am not using it. Scribed lines on it for 16-24" lengths. I need ~240 pieces @ 19" long. This is going to speed things up, in fact my bride has now volunteered to cut them for me. We'll see how that goes when the stray chips start flying... :oops:
IMG_20241115_135821648_HDR.jpg
IMG_20241115_145412318_HDR.jpg

Hosed it down with spray paint to match the Evolution saw color scheme. Full disclosure, I have a love/hate relationship with spray paint, (but without the love... ) But at least it's done. And the runs do add a bit of character. 😉

Now it's time to get to work...
 
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PugetDude

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fartymarty said:
ahhh..hellooooo-wa, It's tomorrow now.
Click to expand...
Been working on this roller bender ( on and off, in between other projects) for a while, finally got it finished up this weekend.

Built it to try to roll some square tubing for a big ornamental iron project I need to get busy on.

It's really heavy duty, shafts are 1" Cold rolled steel shafting.Frame is 2 x2 x 1/4" square tube, built it with a removable top in the event I need to roll a complete circle in between the uprights.
IMG_20241117_135025491_HDR.jpg
Put a set of 4" diameter cast iron pulleys on the outboard end of the shafts for rolling round stock.
IMG_20241117_135037917.jpg
I machined the drive end of the 1" shaft to 3/4" square to accept a fabricated drive wheel, 3/4" wrench, or 7/8" 12 point socket. Cut shallow flats at 90° on the other end to lock the driven pulley to the shaft. The lower idler rolls are just 1" ID ball bearings I ordered on Amazon. 9 on each shaft with split collar retainers, gives me a little over 4" width capacity. The drive roll is made up of 2 pieces of S40 pipe, tight drive fit, with 3/8 thick end caps. Its locked to the shaft with shaft collars welded to the end caps. Crude but effective.
Slide assembly is made up of 2x3 rectangular tube bearing blocks with 3/16" retainer plates to keep it centered between the uprights.

I had some 1" x 1-1/4" bar stock on hand, so that's what I used for the removable top frame and the slide crossbar.

Tried to make this as compact as possible, and fought with clearances a bit during assembly. In hindsight I should have made it a bit larger.

Time for a trial run... 5/8" rectangular tube rolled smoothly down
to 16" diameter.
IMG_20241117_140647863.jpg
 
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TimeWarpF100

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PugetDude said:
Well, I took my "overly large truck with a ridiculously short bed" ( I learned that terminology here right on the GJ...😉) to downtown Phoenix and picked up 720' of steel square tube for an ornamental iron project I am starting for our front courtyard.
I know, I know , should have bought a 1-ton 4x4 long bed dually and a 24' flatbed trailer for this, but I beg the collective forgiveness of the GJ for my transgression. 17317028918686460568195708570997.jpgIMG_20241115_132816567.jpg
Click to expand...
That looks really close to place we bought wife's Lincoln from.
 
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PugetDude

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First project was the ubiquitous drive wheel, the 7/8 DBE wrench was a good temporary handle, but not a good permanent drive solution. The wrench is 12" long, so I elected to put a 30" diameter wheel (15" radius) on it. The large diameter wheel will make it a lot easier to roll back and forth than the wrench.

After a successful test run using scrap, I fed the bender a 10' stick of 5/8" rectangular tubing. Had to push my welding table outside to roll it, the garage door wasn't high enough underneath. IMG_20241117_143630038_HDR.jpg

No problem getting down to 29 " inside diameter with no visible deformation on the 5/8 square tubing. Hoping I can get similar results with 1" tubing (albeit on a much larger diameter)

IMG_20241117_144316362_HDR.jpg

Tested the fit against my CAD pattern, then trimmed and welded the ring together. It was really concentric right out of the roller, less than a 1/16th off on the diameter anywhere I measured it. Fixed that with a bar clamp when I welded the 14" long rebar spokes in place. Hub is a 1" x1/8 " wall square tube drive collar.
IMG_20241117_145509413_HDR.jpg

IMG_20241117_161947862_HDR.jpg

Only issue I see so far is there is too much clearance between the bottom of the crossbar and the lift collar, it allows to much end to end racking across the drive roll. I used a shaft collar and an e-clip; they lasted just long enough to finish the drive wheel. ( If you look closely you can see the clip on the welding table and the shaft collar that slipped down)I have a couple of thoughts on how to fix that. Worst case is I might have to make a new elevation screw. It's just 3/4" all thread with a reduced diameter where it goes through the crossbar so it's not a big deal to turn a new one. I welded 3/8" plate reinforcements on both sides of the crossbar in anticipation of needing additional thickness in the event the through shaft needed to be larger. Looks like it might need to be. I'll post the modification(s) later. I'll try to incorporate some diamond plate somewhere on this thing before it's all finished...🤣
 
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TimeWarpF100

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PugetDude said:
That's the Flatiron, our favorite view of the Superstition Mountains. When we moved back to AZ in 2019 , that was my wife's only requirement.
Click to expand...
From that pic was able to find which place you are in! Makes mine look like a tin shed . . LOL

The view looked so similar out the guys back door.
 
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larry4406

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Wow that roller looks stout!

For your 30" diameter drive wheel, its circumference is around 7.85' and you started with a 10' stick (2.14' waste).

When you roll this, does it coil upon itself looping back thru the roller? How do you trim it? How do you get the hoop out of the roller as the upper portion of the roller would seem to be captive?
 
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PugetDude

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larry4406 said:
Wow that roller looks stout!

For your 30" diameter drive wheel, its circumference is around 7.85' and you started with a 10' stick (2.14' waste).

When you roll this, does it coil upon itself looping back thru the roller? How do you trim it? How do you get the hoop out of the roller as the upper portion of the roller would seem to be captive?
Click to expand...

The ends are always a waste, unless you pre-bend them somehow. I deliberately made this as compact as possible to minimize end waste- I only lose the distance between the drive and idler roll centerlines on each end; in this case about 4". I have seen commercial rollers where the idlers are 2' apart, you would lose at least a foot on each end. They do this to reduce the bending stresses required to allow a lighter (less material is cheaper ) frame structure. They also won't bend as small a diameter as the rolls are further apart. I elected to go much heavier on my design with the rolls closer together. Harder to turn, but I am not using this everyday for commercial work. I'll hang it from the gantry crane and get a weight when I get a chance.
On this 5/8" hoop, when it looped back on itself I just nudged one end over to clear the frame, then continued to roll it out.

The top works is removable with (4) 7/16" bolts in the event I roll a heavy flat bar hoop that I can't wrestle out of the frame.
Trimmed the excess material on each end with my M12 cordless cutoff tool after verifying fit with high precision CAD (cardboard aided design) radius gauges and a full-size templates. In this case I could have used the excess rolled material for curved spokes, but I used 1/2 rebar instead... Gotta use a bit of rebar or diamond plate somewhere on my welding projects...😉 Who knows where the test pieces and ends will show up? Probably have to start a new scrap bucket just for bent pieces.🤣
 
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PugetDude

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TimeWarpF100 said:
From that pic was able to find which place you are in! Makes mine look like a tin shed . . LOL

The view looked so similar out the guys back door.
Click to expand...

🔎Thanks for keeping your detective skills to yourself. 😉

PM me for the gate code if you're out this way again. I believe Uncle Mel is just around the corner.
 
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