Stuff you have made today

[tom2207]

I just tried out my cold wire feeder for the first time. I was looking for a way to free up some needed worktop space that’s currently occupied by a pile of tape, twine, etc., and @tom2207 had a good suggestion for a tape storage rack design that I could install under my existing ceiling-hung shelves.

I figured that making the mounting brackets for the rack would be a good way to start experimenting with the wire feeder. This is the torch that I used.

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I'll experiment with the other torch that I'm setting up (a gas-lens torch) later on, after I've gotten the hang of using the wire feeder with standard cups and collets.

After messing about with a few practice scraps...and producing some messy-looking welds...I finally came up with some settings that worked fairly well as a starting point for mild steel 1/8" butt joints. I used pieces of 2” x 1/8” bar and 1-1/2” x 1-1/2” x 1/8” angle to make the mounting brackets for the tape rack. I cleaned the metal a bit, clamped the pieces together, and tacked the joint in a couple of places on each side.

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I'll admit that I cheated a little by clamping a length of angle on the workbench to serve as a guide that I could slide my torch hand along to help maintain a straight line. Even using the guide, I still had to toss out a few less-than-acceptable (read 'ugly') welds, until I found a comfortable position for holding the torch with both hands and drawing it steadily along the guide. Using both hands really helped steady the torch. After welding, I trimmed off a couple of pieces of excess metal at the ends to check the penetration of the welds, and I was pleased to see that they had full penetration (see green arrow below). Note that I didn't put much of a bevel on the edges before welding. If I had made a deeper bevel, I probably could have used somewhat less current (I used 135A) and a little faster wire feed rate, which I think could have reduced the HAZ width The pieces below are my best efforts, which I think came out pretty well.

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I welded a short piece of ¾” square tube (rotated 10 degrees) onto each of the mounting brackets to insert in the ends of the long 1” square tube that the rod-holder sleeves will slide on. Then I slapped together the rod-holder sleeves, which are pieces of 1-1/4” square tube with nuts welded onto them. The rods are 3/8” x 8" bolts with the heads trimmed off. If desired, the bolts can double as set screws to secure the positions of the rod-holder sleeves on the long tube.

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After reconsidering the mounting position under the shelf, I ended up slicing 1-1/2” off each of the mounting brackets, which gave me a chance to check more spots for weld penetration along the butt joints (green arrows below), which was still excellent.

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Here's the finished rack, mounted under one of my ceiling-hung shelves. As you can see, I can slide the rod-mount sleeves back and forth to accommodate rolls of tape and other items with different diameters.

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Now I need to wade through dozens of rolls of tape, twine, etc., and toss out any expired or otherwise unusable stuff before stocking my new tape rack.

thats exactly as I imagined it ,,,

 

[Blue Chips]

Really nice work. What feeder are you using?

Thanks! The feeder is a CK WF-3. Here's my post about acquiring it: https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/today-i-acquired.50192/post-2391402

thats exactly as I imagined it ,,,

You had a good idea, and I think it should work well. I'll probably start loading it up today.

 

[Hood]

Couple of slates.
First is the boat I worked on many years ago just after I made an aluminium roof for the wheelhouse.

This one is owned by the son of the skipper of the above boat hence same number as he managed to get that.

 

[Sergei Slovenija]

Yes, I did it. Damn it.

 

[Bki26]

I made a mess! Well only a little leak around the bypass channel due to me making the wall a little too thin to properly seal on the gasket but what engine doesn't leak!

Steady 50psi when cold and fully blocked which should be plenty, really impressed with the viaircorp compressor motor runs bang on 23a...does exactly what it says on the tin

https://imgur.com/DDlqAEU

 

[Kram]

Where are the flames?

 

[Sergei Slovenija]

Where are the flames?

First the smoke

 

[Bki26]

Where are the flames?

Now I know the turbo won't self-destruct due to oil starvation and IED me I'm waiting on some high voltage modules aka eBay tasers and 20 KV diode to arrive to fix the ignition system then it's off to buy some kerosene so a week or two

 

[Memmeddu]

IED

Improvised Explosive Device

 

[selectedgrub]

Not today

 

[nickk]

A pair of staircases I finished late last year but only recently had the energy to photograph,they were testing,awkward single track lanes for a few miles,difficult access gateway and barns,first time to manipulate 50/25 solid half round,with some very tight bend returns/helixes,so took the gas and anvil with me,the treads on each are continuous folded on my trusty Morgan geared folder,discussed here previously,in 3mm plate and welded on site,at least on the helical stairs,so took the Migatronic 300 with me for the duration,another operation in itself with the digger controlling the descending tool trailer down the slope and over trenches.
All very rewarding ultimately.

 

[bletchmonster]

Wow @nickk , that helical stringer is mighty impressive!!!!

 

[nickk]

Wow @nickk , that helical stringer is mighty impressive!!!!

Cheers.

 

[Mick Annick]

A pair of staircases I finished late last year but only recently had the energy to photograph,they were testing,awkward single track lanes for a few miles,difficult access gateway and barns,first time to manipulate 50/25 solid half round,with some very tight bend returns/helixes,so took the gas and anvil with me,the treads on each are continuous folded on my trusty Morgan geared folder,discussed here previously,in 3mm plate and welded on site,at least on the helical stairs,so took the Migatronic 300 with me for the duration,another operation in itself with the digger controlling the descending tool trailer down the slope and over trenches.
All very rewarding ultimately.View attachment 439590View attachment 439591View attachment 439592View attachment 439593View attachment 439594

Blimey Nick I’m getting the shakes just thinking about bending that!

 

[oldbikedavey]

Mostly, a reasonable amount of swarf, producing an aluminium bronze exhaust valve guide for a moderately hot BSA B.33.
Grafting in effective valve springs for the Gold Star scrambles cams is going to be fun, and will involve making valve stem collets tomorrow.....

 

[Tupers]

Paint the sills, weld the sills, repeat.

 

[Bki26]

Cut off the first flare and used the second one which matched better, used the cutoff piece as a spacer to fill out the vband clamp, would have preferred to weld up a nicer exhaust but couldn't find any 5" vband flanges without spending £40+. It'll do for testing anyway.

Running in a week is the plan.

 

[MetalMonkey]

No master fabrication content, but perhaps a handy tip for skinflints.

I have some NOS Norgren 73 series filter regulators, picked up cheap some time ago that I've just got around to fitting in the workshop.
Turns out the official bracket is about double what I paid for the regulator.
They do a simple L bracket which is still expensive and the nut appears to be 1 7/8" x 12 tpi, not a super common or cheap size to acquire.

So I knocked up a few simple L brackets with a grinder and a file, with the relevant tabs to stop them rotating.
Ideally could have been a bit thicker, but that's what I had laying in the scrap pile.

1 1/2" BSP is very close in size, albeit with only 11 tpi.
But being such a slim nut and a fairly loose tolerance turns out a toilet cistern backnut works a treat and at £1 each is substantially cheaper than the gold plated affair from Norgren.

Nothing ground-breaking, but job done and might save somebody in the same situation a few quid.

 

[Bki26]

Shiny is definitely better lol. Filled in the internal lip/gap left from manufactureing for better flow and welded egt thermocouple connection, looks the part now.

 

[Hitch]

Knocking up a few cones this week, all marked out and plasma cut by hand. Step bent to get down to 50mm outlet.

Need welding up an polishing out, then off to have a knuckle spun on the big end.

950 down to 50mm