Show us your welding projects

[Old Man Roger]

Waiting for the Beerhippie pontoon boat.

 

[Beerhippie]

The friend who had me weld up the outhouse throne bought 44 dented kegs from the brewery to make a pontoon boat. That project doesn't seem to have gotten off the ground, or on the water.

But it still could happen! Fairing out the hulls between the kegs... and making reasonable bows... there's the rub. I've had some boat-building experience.

 

[Old Man Roger]

The friend who had me weld up the outhouse throne bought 44 dented kegs from the brewery to make a pontoon boat. That project doesn't seem to have gotten off the ground, or on the water.

But it still could happen! Fairing out the hulls between the kegs... and making reasonable bows... there's the rub. I've had some boat-building experience.

Well at least a floating dock then?

 

[Beerhippie]

Well at least a floating dock then?

Much easier and more practical. Problem is, all the dock spaces on our local lake are taken. A beer-keg party-raft... just a beautiful idea that needs to be realized!

 

[logixjock]

Much easier and more practical. Problem is, all the dock spaces on our local lake are taken. A beer-keg party-raft... just a beautiful idea that needs to be realized!

Umm, we WILL require pictures...

 

[LXCam]

The friend who had me weld up the outhouse throne bought 44 dented kegs from the brewery to make a pontoon boat. That project doesn't seem to have gotten off the ground, or on the water.

But it still could happen! Fairing out the hulls between the kegs... and making reasonable bows... there's the rub. I've had some boat-building experience.

A keg boat, you guys are way over thinking this welding gig.

A few of these

Several dozen rolls of

A box of these
A couple hours with a screw gun




And you’re styling bro

 

[Beerhippie]

We have plenty of those 35 gal plastic drums, too, but where's the welding connection? I have TIG and MIG, but no plastic welders.

Besides, you still need to do some fairing between the drums or kegs and make some kind of half-way hydro-dynamic bows--that are also symmetrical--to have decent boat.

 

[kaymccampbell]

We have plenty of those 35 gal plastic drums, too, but where's the welding connection? I have TIG and MIG, but no plastic welders.

Besides, you still need to do some fairing between the drums or kegs and make some kind of half-way hydro-dynamic bows--that are also symmetrical--to have decent boat.

In the homemade pontoon world those are considered nice-to-haves.

 

[txvwnut]

I wish I had pics but about 30 years ago at the day job one of the guys started collecting empty freon tanks. When we asked him what he was planning on doing with them he said, I'm going to make a boat. We all wanted to see this so we made sure he got tanks that weren't compromised. When he got done with it it looked quite impressive, even took an old Evinrude lower unit that the engine was trashed and mounted a Briggs and Stratton 5hp to it.

 

[mv213]

Snowplow took out our mailbox... again. What would be an appropriate mailbox for a brewpub

We actually got approval from our Postmaster to use it! I built and installed it in '17, so it seems the snowplow drivers give it some respect.

Enough for now....

Cool projects! Enterprise/Joseph/Wallowa Lake are some of my favorite parts of Oregon.

 

[FTG-05]

A keg boat, you guys are way over thinking this welding gig.

A few of these

Several dozen rolls of

A box of these
A couple hours with a screw gun




And you’re styling bro

Luke of YTs Outdoor Boys fame made one of those several years ago. IRC, he used plastic containers as the floats. He even built a little cabin on top for overnight camping with his three boys.

Here you go:

 

[Old Man Roger]

Much easier and more practical. Problem is, all the dock spaces on our local lake are taken. A beer-keg party-raft... just a beautiful idea that needs to be realized!

Yup, add a trolling motor and you’re off to the races..lol

A keg boat, you guys are way over thinking this welding gig.

A few of these

Several dozen rolls of

A box of these
A couple hours with a screw gun




And you’re styling bro

In the homemade pontoon world those are considered nice-to-haves.

See, we’re on the same page here.lol

And by the way, I find it comically ironic that the guy named beer hippie is rightly pointing out that you should always build a boat properly and safely, and Kay is on the side of beer cans and drywall screws..lol

I think we all know if Kay built a boat it would look like this. And it would probably fly too. Yes, that would make Kay a steampunk flying pirate ship captain.

I can see it.

 

[kaymccampbell]

Yup, add a trolling motor and you’re off to the races..lol



See, we’re on the same page here.lol

And by the way, I find it comically ironic that the guy named beer hippie is rightly pointing out that you should always build a boat properly and safely, and Kay is on the side of beer cans and drywall screws..lol

I think we all know if Kay built a boat it would look like this. And it would probably fly too. Yes, that would make Kay a steampunk flying pirate ship captain.

I can see it.

I dream of that boat. I can afford this.

 

[Jswain]

Luke of YTs Outdoor Boys fame made one of those several years ago. IRC, he used plastic containers as the floats. He even built a little cabin on top for overnight camping with his three boys.

Here you go:

What a legend, that thing is sweet

 

[WoodsTruck]

Pontoons aren't only for liquid water.

 

[Old Man Roger]

Pontoons aren't only for liquid water.

For ice fishing? Would it float if the ice broke?

 

[WoodsTruck]

No, it was designed as a remote warming shelter for our snowmobile club. The groomer could tow it to our determined ride destination, play area, and then a fire built. The stove is not installed for the picture obviously. Cooler curtains were to be installed once on the hill to retain heat.

 

[Old Man Roger]

Thats a scary picture..lol

 

[jar944]

I dislike that torch, but my foot pedal cord was sliced somehow and that torch has a switch so.

 

[Beerhippie]

Just in case anyone else is thinking of building a beer keg wood stove, here's the "secret sauce":



The two vents pointing up and out serve to add air to the vaporized fuels above the wood--kind of an after-burner effect. Before I added them, the stove would pulse badly as those vapors combusted--like one of those pulse-jets--to the point of shooting flames out of the intake.

A lot of people were skeptical about the keg surviving the heat. It's 316L stainless steel, not, as many think, aluminum. On my first test firing after the mods above, I melted a beer bottle atop the stove. It's still running at the ski hill fifteen years later.

 

[LXCam]

Yup, add a trolling motor and you’re off to the races..lol



See, we’re on the same page here.lol

And by the way, I find it comically ironic that the guy named beer hippie is rightly pointing out that you should always build a boat properly and safely, and Kay is on the side of beer cans and drywall screws..lol

I think we all know if Kay built a boat it would look like this. And it would probably fly too. Yes, that would make Kay a steampunk flying pirate ship captain.

I can see it.

I dream of that boat. I can afford this.

Kay, all you really need to do is pay @royce a visit. I have no doubt he’s got enough scrape laying around to build OMR’s vision .

 

[jwith68]

And you’re styling bro

Have to appreciate the use of sawmill slabs - no worries about whether your cordless drill is quiet enough to dismantle your neighbor's deck at 3AM without waking him up. And, even though silver plastic tarps hold up better, this matches your barrels, and you can't help it the guy down the road would only spring for a blue one to cover up his firewood pile. Heck, by the time the sun destroys this one, maybe the guy up by the state road will have a silver one on that seventy-something El Camino back of his shed!

 

[ObnoxiousFumes]

Have to appreciate the use of sawmill slabs - no worries about whether your cordless drill is quiet enough to dismantle your neighbor's deck at 3AM without waking him up. And, even though silver plastic tarps hold up better, this matches your barrels, and you can't help it the guy down the road would only spring for a blue one to cover up his firewood pile. Heck, by the time the sun destroys this one, maybe the guy up by the state road will have a silver one on that seventy-something El Camino back of his shed!

That's the spirit!
Modern-day Huck Finn vibes there

 

[sqznby]

After seeing all these kegs
Turned a few kegs into kettles. Should've taken more pictures, they were fun to make for a local home brewhaha guy.

 

[Beerhippie]

After seeing all these kegs
Turned a few kegs into kettles. Should've taken more pictures, they were fun to make for a local home brewhaha guy.

Couldn't find room for any more TC ports?

I work in a regional brewery, and we probably don't have that many TC ports in our entire fermenter hall!

 

[sqznby]

Couldn't find room for any more TC ports?

I work in a regional brewery, and we probably don't have that many TC ports in our entire fermenter hall!

I'm sure he could've haha.
He laid everything out and wanted me to stickem on. Not sure the method to his madness but, I did about 8 in total for him

 

[sqznby]

Couldn't find room for any more TC ports?

I work in a regional brewery, and we probably don't have that many TC ports in our entire fermenter hall!

Here's another one to humor yah

 

[Beerhippie]

Here's another one to humor yah

Beautiful welds!

Are those actually blind ports?

Maybe some kind of brewpunk thing? Or he just has lots of time on his hands for cleaning all those ports?

 

[sqznby]

Beautiful welds!

Are those actually blind ports?

Maybe some kind of brewpunk thing? Or he just has lots of time on his hands for cleaning all those ports?

Thank You, I appreciate it

Honestly, I have no idea.

I'm going to go with a brewpunk thingy.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

my boy

 

[Firstram]

my boy

I had to double check the web site when I saw these 2 pictures!

 

[GaryM909]

I dislike that torch, but my foot pedal cord was sliced somehow and that torch has a switch so.

I spent a couple weeks building flex hoses similar to that about 20 years ago. Some had flanges or *******. A few had open ends like yours in the picture. Longest one was about 10'. 1/2" - 6" in diameter. All were custom made mostly for industrial service for oil/gas. Ranked right up there with the most boring job in the world.

 

[Jswain]

#neverwinterdriven

 

[Beerhippie]

Here's a project from a few years ago. This one is actual work, not for fun.

I had to add eight inches of height to this nearly-new piece of equipment:



That's a beer bottle depalletizer (depal). You load it up with a pallet of bottles and it automatically feeds them, one layer at a time, onto the conveyor leading into the bottling line. In theory. If you hold your mouth just right.

Problem was (this time), the guy who ordered the machine screwed up. He ordered it to fit some custom pallets we had for a while that were one layer shorter than the normal glass pallet. Instead of just ordering one for a normal pallet, he had them custom-build this one for those odd-size pallets (he also ordered it set up for 480V 3-phase--we have 240V 3-phase so re-wiring the whole machine was my first project). Well,, that deal went away after a few years and now we have to adapt to the real world-size pallets. TIMM! Just add another layer of height to the depal, OK?

I fabbed up some extensions for the legs from 1/8" wall 1 1/2" square tubing:



And welded them on:






Added some extensions to the four rails the lift of the depal runs on:



Some lateral bracing might be over-kill, but sure can't hurt:



A few coats of Rustoleum Safety Red and it's looking OK--but....

All the safety guards also have to be extended.







Just a little more fab work on the outfeed to the conveyor so it matches the new height:



We're back in business.

Any job that starts with the word "Just".... Ten days, start to finish--it didn't help that the canning line was still in operation so we had to keep shuffling the bottle depal around the warehouse while working on it. It was October, so outside wasn't a good option for most of the time.

 

[Beerhippie]

Here's a project from a few years ago. This one is actual work, not for fun.

I had to add eight inches of height to this nearly-new piece of equipment:



That's a beer bottle depalletizer (depal). You load it up with a pallet of bottles and it automatically feeds them, one layer at a time, onto the conveyor leading into the bottling line. In theory. If you hold your mouth just right.

Problem was (this time), the guy who ordered the machine screwed up. He ordered it to fit some custom pallets we had for a while that were one layer shorter than the normal glass pallet. Instead of just ordering one for a normal pallet, he had them custom-build this one for those odd-size pallets (he also ordered it set up for 480V 3-phase--we have 240V 3-phase so re-wiring the whole machine was my first project). Well,, that deal went away after a few years and now we have to adapt to the real world-size pallets. TIMM! Just add another layer of height to the depal, OK?

I fabbed up some extensions for the legs from 1/8" wall 1 1/2" square tubing:



And welded them on:






Added some extensions to the four rails the lift of the depal runs on:



Some lateral bracing might be over-kill, but sure can't hurt:



A few coats of Rustoleum Safety Red and it's looking OK--but....

All the safety guards also have to be extended.







Just a little more fab work on the outfeed to the conveyor so it matches the new height:



We're back in business.

Any job that starts with the word "Just".... Ten days, start to finish--it didn't help that the canning line was still in operation so we had to keep shuffling the bottle depal around the warehouse while working on it. It was October, so outside wasn't a good option for most of the time.

This is an example of what happens when someone lets the marketing guy order production machinery.

 

[danielbuck]

a jig I made probably 10-12 years ago, I still use it alot today to drill holes in tubing.

 

[shortykorte]

a jig I made probably 10-12 years ago, I still use it alot today to drill holes in tubing.

Do you have issues with the bit wondering with the quarter size hole in the jig?
I like the idea of the small trash can under the DP.

 

[danielbuck]

Do you have issues with the bit wondering with the quarter size hole in the jig?
I like the idea of the small trash can under the DP.

the bit does wander a little bit, especially if the tube isn't centered well with the bit. For times when I need it to be perfect, I'll start with a short center drill, and then use a regular drill (or sometimes just use a stepped drill bit if I only need to go through 1 side of the tube).

But for these holes, they were simply holes in the tube to rosette weld a smaller tube that slips inside of them, so I really didn't are if they were perfectly centered or not.

I do find that using the dewalt "pilot point" drill bits works nicely for this. I don't use that style drill bit very often (mostly because I don't have any way to sharpen them!) but for drilling into tubes they work nicely.

The metal trash can under the drill press table has been fantastic, I got the idea a long time ago from Bob Ross, he kept a bucket under his paint easel to clean off his brushes, so I think of him every time I clean off my chip brush